Noted New York-based artist, writer and lecturer, Swati Khurana ‘93, a PDS alumna will be the featured speaker at Poughkeepsie Day School’s Class of 2015 Commencement on Wednesday, June 10. Head of school Josie Holford and Amanda Thornton, president of the school’s board of trustees, will award diplomas to 38 seniors, who hail from Dutchess, Ulster and Orange counties and…
Tech director Davis Held sent us all a great directory of free online resources for making stuff. So how could I resist? Danger! Education down the Drain is my first effort. Turn up your volume and watch this brief video. Please let me know what you think.
Starting with the Welcome Week in September, and right on through to Nicky the Navigator in June, PDS relies on the time and talents of its parent volunteers. The wonderful Parents Association has done so much this year and we are so grateful to Dierdre Sepp for stepping up to the leadership role. Thanks for the fun meetings. I always…
We’ve had a wonderful spring season in Athletics this year with all three sports going into post-season. All the teams and coaches have played their hearts out and it’s been wonderful to see their efforts and teamwork pay off with such success. Congratulations to all. The ball field – now it its second season – really feels like a home…
We live in a whirled world of change: we’re overloaded, stressed out, with limited resources and endless possibilities. We’re already working as hard as we can. We are bombarded with an abundance of options and new ideas. We need nimble thinking, creativity, and innovation to break from the routines of the status quo, make the right choices and fuel the…
Some days are like that – busy. Last Friday for example which – in addition to all the usual activity – also included a middle school science symposium, a high school Art Show, a Poetry Reading and a play. In fact – the whole week was like that – delightfully packed with events, performances, games, productions, performances, presentations, field trips,…
Great student made video. Thanks Ava!
I learned a great deal about eels from Graham Swift’s remarkable 1983 novel Waterland set in the watery fens of eastern England. The history of the scientific understanding of the eel – Aristotle posited that they sprang from the mud – and the mystery of their epic migration to spawn in the Sargasso sea feature in the story of a…
I don’t know what started it but I found myself launching into manifesto mode! And this is what it led to – a kind of 9 Pillars of Education. I know I’ve left so much out. Feel free to critique these and add what’s missing. Change is inevitable. We need to help children to lean into the unknown with courage and…
A simple Sunday night tweet from a PDS English teacher is enough to fire up the engine on the magic carpet of the mind. “The Waking” is apparently one of Theodore Roethke’s best known poems but it was new to me. Read it below and let it take you on a journey into consciousness. I wake to sleep, and take…
The high school Enviro Club reports that the new recycling facility has been rolled out and is ready to use in Gilkeson! Faculty advisor Brent Boscarino reports: I’m super proud of everyone who contributed to it- Li and her students are really to thank for the design of the central “cool bin”- it is truly cool and major props to…
Video well worth watching:
I’ve been pondering Seth Godin’s recent column What if you stopped? and applying it to PDS. What if Poughkeepsie Day School went away? Would anyone miss it? Would it matter? Would anyone care? I’ve adapted his questions here. What would happen if we shut the doors tomorrow? (I know what would happen to those of us who work at PDS but that’s not the…
Science teacher Jonathan Heiles sent a link to all of us about the international public campaign to name the surface features of Pluto and Charon. NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft will fly past Pluto in July and that far off world and its moons for the first time. Together with the International Astronomical Union (IAU), the New Horizons team will assign names…