“The Great Disruption: Technology and the Future of Schools” The latest issue of Independent School magazine is out and it’s a good one. Among many good articles there is this from retiring NAIS president Pat Bassett: The Third Great American Revolution. It’s a stirring call for action, almost a manifesto – for educators to rise to the challenge of our…
Come to the Edge We might fall. Come to the edge. It’s too high! COME TO THE EDGE! And they came And he pushed And they flew. Christopher Logue “Come to the Edge” frequently misattributed to Guillaume Apollinaire Sail in a new direction Simply by sailing in a new direction You could enlarge the world Allen Curnow ‘Landfall in…
The world is moving at a tremendous rate; no one knows where. We must prepare our children not for the world of the past, not for our world, but for their world. The world of the future. – John Dewey I met Grant Lichtman when he was on his education journey – a road trip with an itinerary that took him…
Cross-posted from Josie’s Blog Did you know that Poughkeepsie Day School now has a Fab Lab? It’s short for fabrication laboratory – a place where people tinker, design, code, create, re-purpose, mess about, invent, make and play with stuff. It’s right off the Chapman Room. It’s in the pilot and prototype stage but we are already seeing results. Do you…
We are at the beginning of a period of focused strategic thinking at school and the Board of Trustees has convened a planning group to lead the process. One of the ways I have been preparing for this has been to compile resources that I think might be helpful in framing the discussion and a shortlist of thought leaders who…
How we took four classrooms and a corridor and created a contemporary learning space for the middle school in the summer of 2012. Watch the short video. And then look for the pics of the new space with the sliding glass doors now in place!
On my recent visit to England I came across a small trove of Child Education magazines (published by Evans Brothers Ltd. of Russell Square, London) from the early 1960’s. They had belonged to my mother – a regular subscriber – who looked forward to reading each edition. Although she was by then near the end of a long career as…
Take a look at the plans for the Athletic fields and for the creation of the Middle School Learning Community For those unable to attend the presentation on Thursday – here are the slides and a short clip from the video. Presentation April 12th 2012
We had seven Poughkeepsie Day School attendees at #Educon 2012 in January and they brought back a wealth of ideas. Thank you David, David, Dorothy, Jake, Joe, Kaitlin and Trace. On Friday they shared some of their learning and conversation with the entire faculty and staff. One focus was eportfolios – what they are and how might they help transform…
For adults like me who work in schools September means being confronted with a world of change. There are new faces of course, and names to learn. There are new courses, fresh paint on the walls and sometimes new structures and renovations to get used to. And the familiar is unfamiliar too. Children have grown taller, and they return to…
We have a new lobby in one of our buildings – the Elizabeth C. Gilkeson Center – and as you can see from these two pictures it’s quite stunning. This is the first place most visitors see and it’s where almost everyone passes through at least once a day and usually more often. It’s where visitors are received, students wait…
Taking control of our learning and our work isn’t really a revolution. It’s more like a reset to the proper default position for the conceptual age. Harold Jarche Resetting Learning and Work I’m lucky enough to be a member of the NYSAIS Think Tank convened this week to consider professional development and next steps and directions for NYSAIS to continue…
If you’ve ever been confronted by a dose of TTWWHADI (that’s the way we have always done it) or been reproached with the saying “That’s not the way we do things here,” “That’s not our way”… If you have ever thought that the barbarians are at the door threatening the purity and essence of your beloved institution with their new-fangled,…
This video from the MacArthur Foundation shows a variety of key and influential people discussing some of the new possibilities in learning, school design and the new opportunities for informal learning. It opens with John Seeley Brown “The most important thing for kids today is the love of embracing change.” “We find when we talk about 21st century skills, people…