It was part of a math number and counting project and then both kindergarten classes brought in their personal collections to share. Glass beads, shells, coins, cards, model cars, photos of India, quarters and stamps. And the stamps included this one honoring the teachers of America issued on July 1st 1957. I had this one in my childhood collection too.…
Too Busy to Eat, Students Get a New Required Course: Lunch Did you read this article from today’s New York Times? It’s about high school students and their overpacked schedules? What were your reactions? Worth keeping in mind when you get a chance to review the new high school schedule for PDS students. Time is the coin of the realm…
Read Peter Gow’s Education Week article The New Progressivism is Here. Commenting on the 2008 NAIS annual conference held in New York City last winter Gow identifies independent schools as being at the forefront of contemporary thinking about education. The elements he identifies in particular include: Assessment against high standards Professional development Real-world connections Multiculturalism as a process, not a…
Out with the old, in with the new. Well – not quite so fast. While change and forward momentum are to be welcomed, not everything old needs replacing and not everything new is improved. Take – for example – this vintage wooden potato masher. It stomped its way through the mounds of spuds and root vegetables of my vegetarian childhood…
“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…
Ten Trends: educating children for tomorrow’s world An article in the Journal of School Improvement a while back examined ten major trends and looked at the challenges they present for schools. The author, Gary Marx, begins with this ringing statement: The status quo is a ticket to obsolescence. Why? Because the world around us is in motion, changing at dizzying…
Within the past 50 years, we’ve seen our country move from an industrial economy to an information-based economy. Now, early in the 21st century, it appears we are shifting to an innovation-based economy, one that requires what the psychologist Robert J. Sternberg calls “successful intelligence,” a three-point foundation of analytical, practical, and creative skills. In other words, the measure of…
Technology is always disruptive. Think of the introduction of the printing press, or the combine harvester, or the mechanical looms that destroyed a way of life for cottage industry weavers. Some of them took to frame breaking and gave us the unfairly derisive term of “Luddite” for those who resist technological change. Technology as disruption came to me early in…
Technology is always disruptive. Think of the introduction of the printing press, or the combine harvester, or the mechanical looms that destroyed a way of life for cottage industry weavers. Some of them took to frame breaking and gave us the unfairly derisive term of “Luddite” for those who resist technological change. Technology as disruption came to me early in…
Gary Stager came to Poughkeepsie Day School at the end of March and he began with a lively Vassar College/ PDS presentation Ten Things to do with a Laptop. His title is a deliberate nod to a groundbreaking 1971 article by Seymour Papert and Cynthia Solomon “Twenty Things to Do with a Computer.” They had twenty on their list but…
Take a look at this fascinating video about web 2.0 from Michael Wesch, Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Kansas State University. The machine is us. The machine is using us. The machine will not stop. According to Professor Wesch we’ll need to rethink a few things including: copyright authorship identity ethics aesthetics rhetorics governance privacy commerce love family ourselves.…
“It is easier to change the course of history than to change a history course”. “Proposals for change in schools are often met with a thousand points of no“ Liz, Julie and I are at the NAIS annual conference in Denver. We were joined by Trace who gave a great presentation yesterday. (On that, more later). The theme of the…
The Climate for Learning A follow-up to Passionate Learning Part 1 and Part 2 Stained Glass Dr. Robert L. Fried is a leading American educator and teacher of teachers. He is an advocate for passionate learning and passionate teaching. Rob spent the day working with PDS faculty last week. In Rob’s view the climate for learning is changing here in…
The one thing about which all educators are in agreement is that yesterday’s education no longer suffices for today. The rate of technological change and the development of new information is so great that educators scarcely know what to make of it all, let alone how to get it taught; next week’s scientific discovery can make last week’s textbook obsolete.…
They say that a rising tide gathers no moss. Or is that the rolling stone? Anyway – if that rising tide keeps rising, what happens to boats firmly moored and anchored to the harbor bed?