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Paul Hoppe I was very taken by this strip in the Styles section of the NYTimes Megan at the Mall. It was a wonderful captured moment about peer pressure, teen angst, social cruelty and about saving face. And the great desire not to say, do or wear anything foolish plus the general inability of parents to stop using common sense.…
It’s the 21st century. So what happens when we shut children down and disconnect them from wonder, creativity, curiosity and natural love of learning? The disengagement that is epidemic in high school starts much earlier. And if we actually believe in that cliche about the importance of lifetime learning then it must take joyful root in school. And when it…
Digital kids in a digital world. What’s to worry about? Here is a short interview with John Palfrey author of Born Digital. Hear him in person at PDS on November 3rd. (NYSAIS on Tuesday November 4th.)
There’s research that suggests strongly that real-world bullying strongly predicts cyberbullying and the parallels in behavior both suggest that cyberbullying may not actually be a distinct phenomenon. “These findings further underscore the continuity between adolescents’ social worlds in school and online,” they conclude. And then some good advice for all of us from the Squidoo blog People online are real…
Cyril E. Power The Exam Room Study of Standardized Admissions Tests Is Big Draw at College Conference – article in Monday’s NYTimes and College panel calls for less focus on SAT’s I’m looking forward to hearing more from the PDS college guidance team who were at the conference in Seattle last week.
William Woodruff died this week. He was a professor of world history best known perhaps for his autobiographical works. He discovered a love of learning as a young adult and found his way to Oxford and a life in academia on three continents. His autobiographical The Road to Nab End was published in 1993 and portrays a long gone past of growing up…
Good introduction to Carol Tomlinson’s work on differentiated teaching – the theory that teachers can work to accommodate, support and build on students’ diverse learning needs – in this issue of Teacher magazine. Differentiated instruction is a term that is interpreted in a lot of different ways. How do you define it, and why is it important for teachers today?…
There’s a slow food movement so why not a slow mind movement? Some years ago Guy Claxton wrote Hare Brain, Tortoise Mind: How Intelligence Increases When You Think Less. It made a compelling argument that the mind works best when we trust the unconscious – our “undermind” tortoise mind. The hare brain is the deliberative, logical, conscious thinking we all…
In a time of crisis and turmoil it is sometimes valuable to turn to the past for reassurance. So: – worse things happen at sea – we’re in it together – nobody died – we all have to do our bit – if it’s got your number on it – keep smiling through – and – that great bromide and…
Take a look at this fantastic tool. How many of these skills do you have at your mousetip? Since 1996 I’ve worked in schools where laptops are ubiquitous for older students. Back in that day we had lots of conversations about visual literacy. I think we may have had in mind an illustration here, a graph there and lots of…
It was International Day of Peace last Sunday and today the middle school assembled on the soccer pitch and formed a human peace symbol The idea for this event came from a 5th grader who wanted to send a symbolic message about the school’s support for International Peace Day. After assembling as a peace symbol, students and their teachers enjoyed…
From the colorful and personalized counting books of the pre-k to the calculations of trigonometry via an intriguing problem on the SmartBoard in the 5th grade classroom. (There’s more than one answer.)
When you write a blog for the world to see you can never be sure who reads it nor what they think. Keeping site statistics is one thing. Stats tell me how often, and how long and where from but not whether it mattered. Comments are always appreciated and thank-you to everyone who has taken the time to write. This…