RattleBag and Rhubarb

Ready or not, here they come

After more than a year of preparation we’re as ready as we’re going to be.  This Sunday a team of experienced educators arrive on campus to begin an intensive three-day evaluation of our school. Poughkeepsie Day School is proud to be a member of NYSAIS (New York State Association of Independent Schools).  It’s a great organization of 180 schools across enrolling 78,000…

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MSLC Floor Plan
RattleBag and Rhubarb

Middle School Learning Community

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!

RattleBag and Rhubarb

The Web of Respect

Cross posted from Josie’s Blog It was the spider started it. A noiseless, patient, useful spider had spun a tremendous web right there in the playground, across the chains of the swing. It was Sue Parise’s class that noticed it and made the sign that said: “This swing is closed because of BIG spider!” Lynn Fordin took the photo and…

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Four Reasons Why Poughkeepsie Day School is Not the Real World

Poughkeepsie Day School – it’s just not the real world. Of course it’s not.  And – thank goodness for that. And here’s why. 1. The Future: Schools work with children and young people whose lives are ahead of them. We need to be ahead of the curve and working to make things better not reflecting the status quo. Real world?…

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Education, RattleBag and Rhubarb

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…

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The Transit Of Venus

Your one and only chance to see Venus transit the face of the sun. Stay tuned for what’s happening at PDS. It won’t happen again until December 2117. On June 5th, 2012, Venus will transit the face of the sun in an event of both historical and observational importance. The best places to watch are in the south Pacific, but…

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Design for Learning and Living

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

MSLC Floor Plan
Education, RattleBag and Rhubarb

Learning and Design: “The classroom is obsolete”

The classroom is obsolete: it’s time for something new – said Prakash Nair in Education Week. last July. And that’s not just his opinion he says.  “It’s established science.” The classroom is a relic, left over from the Industrial Revolution, which required a large workforce with very basic skills. …As the primary place for student learning, the classroom does not…

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Middle School Imagination Day

Middle School Imagination Day 2012: Everything from Arabic to origami – thirty middle school students sharing their expertise and teaching their peers. For more on Imagination Day check out Shirley’s post from last year: Let the kids rule the school…We just did that.

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Canstruction

Canstruction:  Art, design, architecture, engineering, construction, philanthropy. It’s a great idea and a wonderful project. We made our first foray for Fall Festival Reimagined 2011 with this fireplace. Made out of donated food cans it was built by a group consisting parents, faculty and students. It was dismantled last month and the food donated to the Queens Galley In Kingston.…

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What if…? Part two.

This is second half of  the #Educon inspired What if?  conversations recording the jotted notes of  faculty and staff sharing and learning from last Friday. The first question and our responses are here. The second question was: 2). What if students were able to choose what demonstrations of learning they shared with the public and/or their parents? And the responses: Own choice…

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What if…?

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…

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