I did not attend the NAIS Annual Conference this year – first time for many years – so I don’t have any takeaways to report like Grant Lichtman. But I was in Baltimore for an ICG (Independent Curriculum Group) board meeting and I was at the conference center to pick up a set of attractive little enamel badges (see below)…
Tag: curriculum
The future happens very slowly and then all at once
My title line is from Kevin Kelly whose new book The Inevitable is about the deep trends in the next 20 years that will shape our lives. And a little reflection helps us understand that truth. The future happens very slowly and then all at once. First it seems outlandish, strange, unusual and possibly impossible. Then it looms over us and then…
Teaching the Election: Clinton v. Trump: What are the Plans at Your School?
As we head into Back-To-School season, what are your school’s plans for teaching the 2016 presidential election? Seems to me that the some tried-and-true routines of the past are not going to work in any valuable and instructive way this season. One approach would be to ignore it all together. More peaceful that way for sure. But what a lost…
What Skills Will We Need in the Future Economy?
Five years from now, over one-third of skills (35%) that are considered important in today’s workforce will have changed. That’s according to a new Forum report, The Future of Jobs,that looks at the employment, skills and workforce strategy for the future. How will these skills be developed? What are the implications for what happens in schools now? Not just what…
“Let’s Make It”: Education Comes Full Circle
Unless the mass of workers are to be blind cogs and pinions in the apparatus they employ, they must have some understanding of the physical and social facts behind and ahead of the material and appliances with which they are dealing. – Schools of Tomorrow John Dewey; Evelyn Dewey 1915 Children today need to understand, just as fully as did previous…
Citizen Science
I learned a great deal about eels from Graham Swift’s remarkable 1983 novel Waterland set in the watery fens of eastern England. The history of the scientific understanding of the eel – Aristotle posited that they sprang from the mud – and the mystery of their epic migration to spawn in the Sargasso sea feature in the story of a…
The Finns Are At It Again: Redesigning Education
Not content with sweeping the international testing stakes Finland is setting about radical school design and reform – again. And given some rather gloomy economic outlooks maybe not a moment too soon. Maybe they know that topping the PISA (Program for International Student Assessment) test pile is not the holy grail and that these scores don’t tell us anything very useful …
Confronting Stereotypes
“Messy, raucous, democratic India is growing fast, and now may partner up with the world’s richest democracy—America.” – Fareed Zakaria Newsweek (March 6, 2006) I have never been to India but I have an active imagination and a mental map fueled by literature, film, personal friendships, and an appreciation of Indian food and music. However narrow this perspective these connections…
The Farm that Kindergarten Built
An early morning visit to the kindergarten on Friday was a chance for a guided tour of the farm. It’s a magnificent project now complete – a capstone to a year of exploration, research, discovery and creation. And the children are proud to show their work and point out their individual contributions. And a grand farm it is too with…
The Race to the Bottom: What can schools do now?
The future is based on impromptu innovation, inspiration and connections – that’s a paraphrase from Seth Godin’s blog today and I urge you to read it: The forever recession (and the coming revolution). And when you have ask this question: If Seth Godin is even close to right: What kind of schools, classrooms, programs – what kind of education- do…
Embracing Innovation in a Time of Disruptive Change
The Independent Curriculum Group and Poughkeepsie Day School Present Embracing Innovation in a Time of Disruptive Change Poughkeepsie Day School Friday, April 15, 2011 9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Poughkeepsie Day School and the Independent Curriculum Group cordially invite you to Embracing Innovation in a Time of Disruptive Change on Friday, April 1 from 9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. As we re-imagine…
Childhood Is Another Country: Children Are Not Miniature Adults
Childhood is another country: they do things differently there.* Great researchers and thinkers about education (think Froebel, Piaget, Vygotsky and so many others) have always known that children are not miniature adults. Their work demonstrates basic truths about childhood development: While growth can be encouraged, supported and enriched, the essential developmental milestones and timetable for growth remain fairly constant. What’s…
Finland and Education Success
A video from BBC News about the world’s latest favorite education destination: Finland
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…
Math Curriculum Makeover: Be less helpful
Math makes sense of the world: Here’s math teacher Dan Meyer speaking at the TEDxNYED conference in March.