RattleBag and Rhubarb

Everyone is cranky

A school in May is like a two year old deprived of a nap.  That’s how my colleague Liz describes it. Everyone is stressed out, too busy and cranky. The weather is unpredictable with storms and frost one moment and sunshine and blossoms the next. The calendar is stuffed with culminating events, showcases, performances, final assessments, report writing deadlines and…

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Education, RattleBag and Rhubarb

Digital literacy across the curriculum

It’s not about the tools and the testing, it’s about the learning and the thinking. Digital literacy is an important entitlement for all young people in an increasingly digital culture. Every school should have an organized policy for language across the curriculum… Two documents, two eras. The first from FutureLab (UK) – a wonderful introduction to, and handbook for, digital…

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RattleBag and Rhubarb

Scoundrels alive! High school play streamed to the world

April 23rd 2010 – Shakespeare’s birthday and Poughkeepsie Day School begins live streaming Diary of a Scoundrel – Alexander Ostrovsky’s cynical play about hypocrisy and the trouble with literacy! You can see it here. Thank you David Held- for the live streaming and the videography. David assures me that it only takes half an hour or so to learn how…

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Education, RattleBag and Rhubarb

The fire within

“To succeed…it’s the fire within that must be lit.” Purpose, mastery, autonomy (mission not money as motivation.) Watch the video and then think of the implications for school. What do we reward students for doing?

RattleBag and Rhubarb

The wild front ear

If blogging is supposed to have an element of timeliness then  I have given up on that ideal.  After all – I am still writing about stuff from the NAIS annual conference  in February. Fess Parker died in March and while my mind went instantly to the Davy Crockett craze of my childhood, it’s only now that I have found…

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Education, RattleBag and Rhubarb

Failing is essential

The ratio between success and failure remains pretty constant. To succeed means we must fail. And the more often we fail the more we succeed. The key is to fail frequently and fail fast. Then move on and try something else. That was the message of Tina Seelig who works at the entrepreneurship center at Stanford. The focus of her…

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Education, RattleBag and Rhubarb

Childhood has Changed: Playtime is Over

Here’s an article to read by David Elkind in the NYTimes Playtime is Over It’s an important topic. It’s an interesting article. And it’s one well worth reading and talking about. There is one piece though, that I have to comment on right away: For children in past eras, participating in the culture of childhood was a socializing process. They…

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Education, RattleBag and Rhubarb

“The death of education as we know it may be the birth of learning as we need it”

I’m more than a bit late with my NAIS annual conference round up but then …excuses, excuses…what with returning to Poughkeepsie with a rotten cold,  the remaining effects of a  mega storm that closed school for three days (ably dealt with by Steve Mallet and the division heads) and then all the catching up…. So – a few random and…

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Education, RattleBag and Rhubarb

Here they come…National Standards

National Standards kindergarten through 12th grade are on their way. At PDS we are looking forward to taking a good look at all the standards  and at where we converge, and diverge, in the choices we make. And also, at where we exceed and expand  national (and international) expectations. As an accredited independent school we have the ability to think…

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Education, RattleBag and Rhubarb

“If a school fulfills its mission there must be constant evolution…”

It is quite possible that the assigning of grades to school children and college students as a kind of reward or punishment is useless or worse… I’ve discovered an absolute treasure trove of fascinating material: Popular Science has put its entire 137 year archive on line. The quotation above is from Examinations, Grades and Credits by Professor J.McKeen Cattell of…

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Education, RattleBag and Rhubarb

Transformation: Diane Ravitch and School Reform

“School reform today is like a freight train, and I’m out on the tracks saying, ‘You’re going the wrong way!’ ” I’ve always respected Diane Ravitch even as I have often disagreed with her.  And her on-line and ongoing exchanges with Deborah Meier Bridging Differences have been a model of intelligent debate conducted with an informed  civility conspicuously absent from most…

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RattleBag and Rhubarb

The Ruben’s Tube: Dancing Fire

Click for an UPDATED version of this experiment and with a great new video. It’s always great when a student or a teacher sends along a report, picture or a video of something cool going on in the classroom. Or, as in this case, a cool experiment during vacation. This is a first attempt at creating a Ruben’s standing wave…

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