BBC’s Radio 4 first tweet for 2014 was a thrush with a bright blue sky background and a quotation from The Darkling Thrush – a poem that Thomas Hardy dated December 31st, 1900. It’s all rather grim and gloomy. The poem records the desolation of winter, the dregs of the day and the end of the century. This is no…
Check out this terrific film made by Erica Enriquez created in 2013 while in her sophomore year in high at Poughkeepsie Day School. It’s about New York state’s standardized testing system, in comparison to Piaget’s theories regarding the cognitive development of young children. Thinking Outside the Bubble from Erica Enriquez on Vimeo.
Behind the scenes at the museum. This is magical. Watch it.
How many designers does it take to change a light bulb? Answer: Does it have to be a light bulb? All those “why” questions to get at the root of the need or the problem are at the heart of systems/ design thinking. They can feel very annoying but they are essential to the process. The problem is not always what it…
What can you tell about a school in one visit when the kids are still on vacation? Well – quite a lot as it turns out. I had the opportunity this week to visit the Robert C. Parker School which is a wonderful progressive pre-k through 8th grade school up in the Albany area. I was there to conduct a…
The latest Program for International Assessment (Pisa) results are out and that means another round of handwringing, lamentation, self-flagellation, finger pointing and all that other good stuff. Basic summary: Shanghai tops the overall ranking with Singapore and Hong Kong coming in at second and third place. Since 2000, the OECD has benn trying to evaluate the skills and knowledge of…
I’ve recently discovered Haiku Deck – a new way to create slide presentations. It’s an interesting tool for finding images that are in the public domain and matched with the words you enter. You can also upload your own images. The PDS strategic plan has nine learning commitments. These are the nine beliefs about learning that underpin the school’s commitment…
“The necessary supply of heroes must be maintained at all costs.” (Siegfried Sassoon 24 February. 1917, quoting Sir Edward Carson in a speech in Dublin. I have been unable to confirm the details of that speech.) Each night at 8 pm the traffic is stopped at the Menin Gate and The Last Post is sounded. This is the gate over…
How to be Creative David Kelley: How to Build your Creative Confidence
by Charley-Chartwell. Always useful to have some Shakespearean insults on hand. From – Visually.
So easy to toot your own horn these days. The harder thing is to cut through the cacophony and have others hear the tuneful joyful noise! I’m enjoying the new Inspiration Lab from NAIS designed to allow member schools to highlight their work. We sent in our first contribution yesterday. It was a screenshot of Global Read Aloud book discussion that…
I like the work of the RSA very much and enjoy their articles, posts and animations. But their continued use of the noun “creatives” is becoming wearing. Here’s the latest: Street based business training for young creatives When I hear or read the word creative as a noun it’s often in the plural – as above – as in statements like;…
A recent Twitter chat included the following exchange with Mark Crotty, head of school at St John’s Episcopal in Dallas. Mark blogs at To Keep Things Whole and I am a frequent visitor. He used it in a post entitled: Failure of Promoting Failure that you can read at the link. He alerted me to the post in a tweet.…
Yesterday PDS faculty received an email from a colleague outlining a plan for the use, care and maintenance of one of our new makerspaces. She is one of two teachers who have a created a whole scheme to ensure the room works effectively and is accessible to all classes. It’s a detailed plan with well-considered thinking about key elements of…