RattleBag and Rhubarb

The Transit Of Venus

Your one and only chance to see Venus transit the face of the sun. Stay tuned for what’s happening at PDS. It won’t happen again until December 2117. On June 5th, 2012, Venus will transit the face of the sun in an event of both historical and observational importance. The best places to watch are in the south Pacific, but…

Continue Reading

Education, RattleBag and Rhubarb

Learning to Live (then going home for tea)

“So the children of a democracy learn to take their place in the world of tomorrow.” The British Council has made its film collection public. What a wonderful gift. Take for example Learning to Live.  Made in 1941 it presents: A typical school day for the three children of the Brown family at Nursery, Junior, and Senior Schools, and the…

Continue Reading

RattleBag and Rhubarb

Design for Learning and Living

Take a look at the plans for the Athletic fields and for the creation of the Middle School Learning Community For those unable to attend the presentation on Thursday – here are the slides and a short clip from the video. Presentation April 12th 2012

MSLC Floor Plan
Education, RattleBag and Rhubarb

Learning and Design: “The classroom is obsolete”

The classroom is obsolete: it’s time for something new – said Prakash Nair in Education Week. last July. And that’s not just his opinion he says.  “It’s established science.” The classroom is a relic, left over from the Industrial Revolution, which required a large workforce with very basic skills. …As the primary place for student learning, the classroom does not…

Continue Reading

RattleBag and Rhubarb

Middle School Imagination Day

Middle School Imagination Day 2012: Everything from Arabic to origami – thirty middle school students sharing their expertise and teaching their peers. For more on Imagination Day check out Shirley’s post from last year: Let the kids rule the school…We just did that.

RattleBag and Rhubarb

Canstruction

Canstruction:  Art, design, architecture, engineering, construction, philanthropy. It’s a great idea and a wonderful project. We made our first foray for Fall Festival Reimagined 2011 with this fireplace. Made out of donated food cans it was built by a group consisting parents, faculty and students. It was dismantled last month and the food donated to the Queens Galley In Kingston.…

Continue Reading

RattleBag and Rhubarb

What if…? Part two.

This is second half of  the #Educon inspired What if?  conversations recording the jotted notes of  faculty and staff sharing and learning from last Friday. The first question and our responses are here. The second question was: 2). What if students were able to choose what demonstrations of learning they shared with the public and/or their parents? And the responses: Own choice…

Continue Reading

RattleBag and Rhubarb

What if…?

We had seven Poughkeepsie Day School attendees at #Educon 2012 in January and they brought back a wealth of ideas. Thank you  David, David,  Dorothy, Jake, Joe, Kaitlin and Trace. On Friday they shared some of their learning and conversation with the entire faculty and staff.  One focus was eportfolios – what they are and how might they help transform…

Continue Reading

Art, Film, Photography, Education, RattleBag and Rhubarb

“Not where the light is”: Schools and Creativity

There’s a really useful article in  Education Week that reviews, summarizes and connects the basic thinking and research out there on what helps promote creativity and helps children incubate the curiosity that leads to innovation, discovery and invention. There’s little here that is new and indeed I have written on all of these topics many times but it is encouraging…

Continue Reading