Launch your ideas into the future. This is the Million Futures site where you see a blue sky, fluffy clouds and circling paper planes. Each plane contains an answer to one of the questions representing people’s views on the future of education and the skills that will matter. Read a few, launch your own. It is part of a joint…
… you gotta have fun and you’ve got to love the kids.”
What’s your favorite word and is it in this dictionary yet? If not, then consider making a personal contribution. Meanwhile – take a look, see and listen to the contributions so far in Wordia And don’t worry – there are lots more words to go. The Second Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary contains full entries for 171,476 words in…
So many things to be thankful for. PDS gave traditional Thanksgiving thanks at the all-school celebration on Tuesday. Groups gathered to eat, hear a story and re-connect. Older students from the high school led the way – served the food, read the story and then brought everyone together in the JEJ theater a for a poem by Langston Hughes and…
A high school parent writes: I think we knew this already (“study shows teens’ use of digital media show that America’s youth are developing important social and technical skills online – often in ways adults do not understand or value”) but it’s nice (especially as a parent) to be reassured. The study in question can be found here in versions…
Work hard at what you are passionate about. Read lots of books. There was more, but that was how Mr. Feiffer opened his talk last Thursday. What a treat to hear him talk about his creative process and answer questions – mostly from children- about his life and work. How did he get started? Well – by telling bedtime stories…
I’ve posted about leadersheep before and now I have heard from an Icelandic shepherd with more information. “Flannelberry” – who started a blog Flannelberry Farm (Small-scale farming, self sufficiency and all things considered…) – writes: I am a shepherd with an Icelandic flock and came across your blog while googling “leadersheep”. There are indeed leadersheep – a specific line within the…
A parent sent me a link to this clip from Ulrike Reinhard‘s blog and specifically her story “Intrinsic motivation will play a major role…” Thank you for introducing me to the ideas and work of Chief of Confusion: Richard Seely Brown. Brown is a visiting scholar at USC and the independent co-chairman of the Deloitte Center for Edge Innovation.…
First and foremost, I look for someone who asks good questions…We can teach them the technical stuff, but we can’t teach them how to ask good questions—how to think. Clay Parker, president of the Chemical Management Division of BOC Edwards. What’s your answer to the question: What skills do we need to be teaching in the 21st century? To get…
Ninety years since the end of the First World War. Passengers at Paddington station on Armistice Day, 11 November 1919. stopped for two minutes silence to remember those who never returned. Most of the men have taken their hats off out of respect. Over 25,000 Great Western Railway workers were killed in the war. Railway companies commemorated the end of…
The PDS cross-country team enjoyed their last race of the season at the Hudson Valley Championships held at the Forman School in Connecticut on Wednesday, October 29th. Each of the runners achieved his and her personal best in terms of time and place results on a tough 3.1 mile course, which included a challenging woods run, an impressively steep hill,…
I had the pleasure today of hearing Shawn Achor speak on the topic of happiness and the science of positive psychology and school success. Just as there is learned helplessness there can also be learned optimism. It’s all to do with mirror neurons and other good brain stuff. Happiness can be a choice – a bracing antidote to doom and…
Thank you for bringing John Palfrey to the school last night. He was fabulous, and he spoke directly to issues facing my family and our children – PDS parent. It was election eve for the parents and community discussion. And an election day workshop for PDS teachers and colleagues from other New York independent schools. The pictures above are of…
Click for a better view Wordle is no longer a novelty but here is a PDS high school curriculum Wordle word cloud. If you haven’t tried Wordle yet it’s a great tool to play with. Just enter any text or url and up comes a word cloud that you can alter and adjust in all kinds of ways. Tech tip:…
All-school activity groups carved their pumpkin and dressed their senior monster for the all school annual traditional Halloween pumpkin lighting and senior monster fashion parade.. And a lower school Halloween assembly