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…
“You don’t make a hog fatter by weighing it.” Everyone went to school and that makes everyone an expert on education. And of course, truth is, education must be everyone’s business. Our future depends on it. And apparently the hot education topic on the hustings is the future of the No Child Left Behind Act. The quotation above is from…
There’s a good article in the local paper on the inexact science of school weather closing. Our recent spell of sleet, snow, patchy fog, freezing drizzle, rain, freezing rain, rain mixed with sleet, wind, sunny intervals and ice pellets has been a challenge that we can only anticipate will continue. That phrase “wintry mix” brings to my mind colorful mega…
When the night winds whistle through the trees and blow the crisp brown leaves a-crackling down, When the autumn moon is big and yellow-orange and round, When old Jack Frost is sparkling on the ground, It’s Thanksgiving Time! – from Thanksgiving Time by Langston Hughes I hope your holiday is wonderful.
Becoming a global citizen has to begin close to home. For students it begins with how they treat each other and with their classroom. As they grow the circles become wider. Here is Diane Reeder at last week’s lower school assembly that was also attended by a cross section of older students. Diane is the executive director of Queens Galley…
There’s a great new exhibit of student work on the walls. It emphasizes the role of accident in design. It made me think of the serendipity in scientific discovery: X-rays, silly putty, penicillin, smallpox vaccination and rayon come to mind. Serendipity or accident played a role in the discovery of all of them. Of course this kind of “accident” is…
“We used to fool ourselves…We used to think our content was perfect just exactly as it was. We expected our business would remain blissfully unaffected even as the world of interactivity, constant connection and file sharing was exploding. And of course we were wrong. How were we wrong? By standing still or moving at a glacial pace, we inadvertently went…
Year two of the lower school Take One Picture project* and the picture is (drumroll please): Fantasy Castle with Men on Zebras by Squire Vickers. Vickers was the Chief Designing Architect of the New York subway system from 1906 to 1942 and an avid painter. Engineering fascinated him and he saw the massive structures of modern cities as feats of…
Here’s an interesting (but not surprising) twist on the ubiquitous social networking and web 2.0. Students in the UK are telling universities to leave them alone and keep out of sites like MySpace and Facebook. Stay out of MySpace. Seems like they are objecting to social networking being co-opted for academic content and communication. “Students really do want to keep…
NAIS is working on a PGP (Principles of Good Practice) for Global Citizenship. Here is a draft. They are seeking feedback, questions and responses as they work toward a final version to be added to their other PGPs. Twenty-first century independent schools shape student experiences in ways that encourage global awareness and instill a compassionate, respectful understanding of other peoples…
“It’s the teachers….” I refrain from adding the usual last word to that phrase because it seems unnecessarily rude but, surprise, surprise: Top quality teachers are the key factor in making a difference to quality education and top performing schools worldwide. This is according to this recent and extensive report (pdf) on education systems worldwide and the factors that make…
Halloween and time for some fun. It’s one thing to talk about the importance of school community and quite another to devote time and resources to making that talk walk. The ASA – all school activities, a cross divisional group – planned this afternoon’s event. It brought together all ages from kindergarten to the twelfth grade. They worked in groups…
There’s a good article in the latest Educational Leadership: “The Perils and Promise of Praise”. It’s by Carol Dweck. The wrong kind of praise creates self-defeating behavior. The right kind motivates students to learn. We often hear these days that we’ve produced a generation of young people who can’t get through the day without an award. They expect success because…
We had a well-attended college information evening for ninth and tenth grade families last week. Ninth and tenth grade is not time to focus on college but it is time to be assured that “It’s not time to worry yet”. The early years of high school are about focusing on getting involved with academics and all the other aspects of…
Who’s zooming whom? New kids on the block received a warm welcome last week. Daisy and Clover – five months old – were the center of attention. Even the middle school Japanese theater class could not resist a visit.