More about our assembly later but here is a screenshot from the NYTimes website. The middle school Photo Journalism class previewed some of the pictures on the site. One student sent a picture. When the class noticed that it got published it sent another one. Picturing the Inauguration: The Readers’ Album PDS MAKES THE NY TIMES WEBSITE Photo of Dan…
Tag: 2009
Nice photographs
There’s a rather nice set of photographs by Karl Rabe on- line at the Poughkeepsie Journal. This one shows the gym with it’s new maple hardwood sports floor, reinforced walls and retractable hoops. There’s also a gym divider to enable flexibility of use. It was taken last week during a boy’s varsity basketball game. The occasion for the visit was…
Winter Festival Delayed
The weather played havoc with the Winter Festival and instead of an all-school event it was presented in segments. We managed to celebrate with some beautiful music and dance nevertheless. Here are a few pictures from two events.
In the microscope
PDS has new science laboratories. Time for a poem from the Czech poet-scientist Miroslav Holub. In the Microscope Here too are the dreaming landscapes, lunar, derelict. Here too are the masses, tillers of the soil. And cells, fighters who lay down their lives for a song. Here too are cemeteries, fame and snow. And I hear the murmuring, the revolt…
A Children’s Manifesto for Creativity
Question: What do you need to be creative and succeed in the future? Point number one: We want less formality in schools and more creativity in the classroom Here’s an interesting story from the UK: students from schools all over the country met at the Tate Modern to plan and design a manifesto for creativity. The kick-off for this 18…
The World is Not Flat: The New Economics
In a new book, The Venturesome Economy Amar Bhidé challenges The World is Flat notion proposed by Thomas Friedman in his book of that name. Bhidé concludes that: a.) the world is not flat and b.) that the people he calls the “techno-nationalists”— have got it wrong. (At the very least we could agree that the world is spiky) Read…
High School Helping Hands
Santa had his elves and Liz had her cadre of helpers too. They spent last weekend getting the transformed Kenyon ready for everyone to return on Monday. And they did a great job. Here is the thoughtful message they left on the board in Bernadette’s new room on the first floor. PDS has had gnomes before but this time they …
What? Wow! And Amazing!
Just a sample of some of the reactions from the high school when they returned to school today. Kenyon House is transformed and restored. Yes – this is a high school. Flowers included. Take a look at these pictures and come to Founders Day on January 15th for a tour of the real thing. In Gilkeson the new science labs…
Grading and Upgrading
Take Paul Barnwell’s “test” in this article from NEA Today. How do your answers compare? Did he miss any questions? What’s in an ‘A’? Take this test and compare your answers with mine. By Paul Barnwell Fill in the blank: 1. Grades are a great way to ___ (a) provide meaningful feedback; (b) sort students by ability; (c) get…
It takes a teacher … to make a difference
… I was always interested in trying to communicate, to have a feeling from someone to make me feel that I was worthwhile. So when my teacher, Mrs. Bishop — I will never forget her, beautiful, brown-skinned lady at P.S. 136 in Harlem — she gave me a poem because she realized I was having a problem with myself. And…
“The Class” – a film to look for
Teachers often take a jaundiced eye to films that claim to depict the classroom experience. It’s akin to being skeptical about the newspapers because every time they present a story with which you have actual familiarity they rarely seem to get it right. I saw two excellent films last week. One was Entre les Murs – renamed The Class in…