RattleBag and Rhubarb

The Digital Deluge

Do you suffer from email apnea? Are your hunter-gatherer instincts affecting your attention span and productivity? Help – or at least serious recognition of the problem – may be at hand. See today’s NYTimes Lost in E-M ail,Tech Firms Face Self-Made Beast. Photo: Jeremy Bishop

RattleBag and Rhubarb

Farewell

The end of the school year and an express train filled with events, final exams, feasts, pageants, displays, presentations, performances, ceremonies, farewells and of course graduation commencement. Read more about graduation from The Poughkeepsie Journal I took this unofficial picture of the graduating class at the outdoor adventure trip last September.

RattleBag and Rhubarb

School goes wild

Graduation was on Wednesday and all the students were gone by the end of the day. And then the rains came and the leaks in Gilkeson began. An investigation of the roof indicated raccoon damage –  teeth and claw marks. All fixed now. These pictures are of a raccoon on the Kenyon House roof this spring. Steve Mallet to the…

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RattleBag and Rhubarb

Summer Drama: Powerhouse Apprentices

Nice article about two PDS students in the Poughkeepsie Journal Students to study theater at Powerhouse Hannah and Wiley, rising seniors, have been selected to participate in the Powerhouse apprentice training program at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie this summer. Read more Wylie and Hannah were seen recently in American Life in the James Earl Jones Theater at PDS For information,…

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Education, RattleBag and Rhubarb

Why Teach Science?

…you don’t have to be a scientist for science to be transformative… Some years ago I had the pleasure of hearing Brian Greene explain string theory to a group at an NAIS national conference in Boston. His audience comprised a majority of non scientists and he made his work in theoretical physics both fascinating and accessible. Here he is on…

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RattleBag and Rhubarb

Our Hudson River

This was the culmination of a year long study, investigation and exploration of the life and history of the Hudson River. This first and second grade presented their work with a puppet show that had it all – river creatures great and small, river people famous and unknown – birds, fish, ice-boats, the lighthouse, tugs, PCBs, pirates and singing with…

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Education, RattleBag and Rhubarb

Testing: There are Better Ways to Identify Gifted and Talented Students

It’s testing season and here’s a timely reminder that traditional testing for ability is not the last word in thinking about what makes for success. This is from a May edition of Education Week Robert J. Sternberg often writes about a lecture-style psychology course he took as a college freshman in which he got a C. “There is a famous…

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Education, RattleBag and Rhubarb

The Effort Effect Part Two: What do we tell the kids?

Part One: The Audacity of High Hopes Part Two: What to do If praising kids for being smart saps motivation what are we to do? Here’s the sidebar to the article and Dweck’s advice on what to do.  What do we tell the kids? You have a bright child, and you want her to succeed. You should tell her how…

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Education, RattleBag and Rhubarb

Blocked: Did Kindergarten Invent Modernism?

The maple wood blocks . . . are in my fingers to this day. – Frank Lloyd Wright I have recently rekindled my interest in the work of Friedrich Froebel – the educational pioneer often recognized as the inventor/ creator of the kindergarten. One aspect of this story is the connection between the toys, blocks and shapes that were commonly…

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Kindergarten Collectors

It was part of a math number and counting project and then both kindergarten classes brought in their personal collections to share. Glass beads, shells, coins, cards, model cars, photos of India, quarters and stamps. And the stamps included this one honoring the teachers of America issued on July 1st 1957. I had this one in my childhood collection too.…

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Education, RattleBag and Rhubarb

The Effort Effect: The Audacity of High Hopes

The effort effect on display at Buttercup Farm Nature Reserve, near Poughkeepsie. See below for a photo of the dam. Intelligence is not fixed. It is it is learnable and teachable. It can be changed. The way we approach learning and thinking makes all the difference. It is our ‘mindset” that keeps us back. If we believe, and if we…

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American Life

The final project for the eleventh grade drama class was the stage presentation- directed by Laura Hicks – of American Life – scenes from the plays of David Auburn, Eugene O’Neill, Jane Martin and Wendy Wasserstein.

Education, RattleBag and Rhubarb

High School Madness

Too Busy to Eat, Students Get a New Required Course: Lunch Did you read this article from today’s New York Times? It’s about high school students and their overpacked schedules? What were your reactions? Worth keeping in mind when you get a chance to review the new high school schedule for PDS students. Time is the coin of the realm…

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