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…
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…
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…
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.…
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…
Seeing red, going green, in a purple haze , once in a blue moon. Pictures from the first and second grade.
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.
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…
One impulse from a vernal wood May teach you more of man, Of moral evil and of good, Than all the sages can. William Wordsworth makes this assertion in his 1798 poem “The Tables Turned”. In the poem he is continuing a dialogue with a fictional friend who has urged him to study more, read more and spend less time…
Photo courtesy of Mimika Hyman It’s never too late to post a great photo of the cast of the middle school 5th/6th grade production of Arabian Nights seen on the stage of the JEJ Theater this spring. Congratulations everyone!.
Fantasy Castle in the Sky This show had it all. A cast of thousands. A three-ring circus with gorillas, clowns, trapeze artists, acrobats, strongmen, sword swallowers, a lion, a lion tamer and miniature ponies. A trip to the zoo, with a tiger, ducks, monkeys, penguins, elephants, rabbits, deer and snakes. And lots of food. But where are the zebras? The…
Read Peter Gow’s Education Week article The New Progressivism is Here. Commenting on the 2008 NAIS annual conference held in New York City last winter Gow identifies independent schools as being at the forefront of contemporary thinking about education. The elements he identifies in particular include: Assessment against high standards Professional development Real-world connections Multiculturalism as a process, not a…
The pH rises and the bubbles stream out; pop, From the misty stream. The water running and the fish swimming wildly from the broken dam A single river peacefully and calmly Over the rock’s rage Bubbling test tubes Images of science class A beautiful sight! Elements make up Things around the universe They are what makes us ! Water is…
Some came from New York City and much further – including Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and Denmark. Other came from closer to school but all were welcome at the annual Grandparents and Special Friends Day. We gathered in the dining room for breakfast and after brief remarks of welcome our visitors went to classes and then to a command performance…
The Complex Workings of the Human Brain Medical and cognitive sciences, new technologies, and pedagogic research are helping us appreciate how the brain works. The human brain is the most complex living organism on Earth. Coveney and Highfield (1995) call it the “Cathedral of Complexity.” Although it weighs only about three pounds, it contains billions of cells (neurons). The total length…