Dear PDS Families: A few lines (with minor edits) from division in-boxes and my twitter feed: Student: I just wanted to say how I’ve never been so productive or so academically aware on a Snow day. I’ve been working all day today and yesterday making up work for the D day and other classes. I feel home schooled. I miss school. 🙁 Faculty: Just…
Children: How will they ever know who they are? The question is the last line of “The Things we Steal from Children” by Dr. John Edwards. You can read the whole below. I found it via Leading and Learning – a blog and website from New Zealand that I have long found valuable. In a different time and context William …
In contrast to Hobbes’ view in Leviathan that we are destined to lives that are “… solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short”, Dr. Dacher Keltner of the UC Berkeley Greater Good Science Center presents the case that we are – in the words of the title of his recent book – “born to be good”. The Evolutionary Benefits of Altruism…
Wisdom and inspiration from Emily Dickinson: The gleam of an heroic Act Such strange illumination The Possible’s slow fuse is lit By the Imagination
PDS student reports are not just a list of untethered numbers and letters but rather in-depth narratives that convey detailed and helpful information about emerging strengths, accomplishments, challenges, growth and progress. They are part of the on-going conversation between school and home with the student as participant, contributor, planner and goal-setter. Nevertheless – here is some helpful advice for how…
Seth Godin wrote about the culture of testing, Netflix and what is untestable. You can read it here. I have rewritten it. I hope he doesn’t mind. A Culture of Testing Many schools test everything. They’re very proud that they put out the sign that the next four days are test days and they are proud of their grades, GPA’s,…
A snow day is a gift of time for play, independent work and keeping connected in the ways that make sense for the work you want to do. When there’s a chance of a snow day everyone gets excited. And for all kinds of reasons. For many it is the potential for some good play time – a chance to…
School is closed tomorrow – Wednesday – because of the impending storm. In anticipation, middle school director George Swain spoke to the students at lunch about how to make best use of the day. (It included plenty of time for play and being outdoors if that is possible.) And this is from the letter he wrote to parents: Dear Middle…
Just before the break there was a message on the head’s listserve from Myra McGovern of NAIS. NPR journalist Tovia Smith was working on a story about what schools are doing to relieve the growing pressures and stresses on students and was looking for input. This happens to be a topic close to my heart. Growing up, being a teenager,…
Are we having a snow day tomorrow? Is school going to be closed because of the snow? What are the chances of no school tomorrow? When snow is forecast the day is punctuated with the buzz of questions like these. I love the assumption that, as head of school, I can somehow predict the future and control the weather. While…
Here’s the follow-up video to Dan Pink’s question from last new year: What’s Your Sentence?: The Video from Daniel Pink on Vimeo.
A new year, a new project in global awareness and world citizenship:an anonymous donation to the school has helped us launch the PDS Kiva project. Read about KIVA here. Our first loans are on their way to people around the world. Read about our loans and join the team! From PBS Frontline: And “A Fistful of Dollars: the Story of…
Sometimes you are awed by the company you keep. Poughkeepsie Day School is honored and inspired by its partnerships with two remarkable local organizations – The Queens Galley and Heart Street , both in Kingston. In Stone Soup and a New Partnership in November 2007 I wrote Becoming a global citizen has to begin close to home. For students it…
Two of my favorite education videos in 2010 have to do with motivation. In this first one, Stanley schools Dwight in “The Office” with commentary from Alfie Kohn. And in this one, those wonderful animators at the RSA deliver the message from Daniel Pink’s Drive: the Surprising Truth about what Motivates Us. And now Laura Graceffa has suggested a book…
Drowning in data overload? Drenched from drinking from the fire-hose of information? Help is at hand: the Guardian now has a new Data Blog for data journalism and visualization. And mapping every city, every town block by block here is a searchable census analysis via the NYTimes. Check out your neighborhood. And just take a look at this graphic of…