We have a lot to learn from the movies. Even Ghostbusters. When Egon tells Venkman, “Don’t cross the streams”, he was more right than he knew. Only he wasn’t just right in the context of proton packs and ectomorphic apparitions. There are some things that just need to be kept separate, or bad things happen. […]
Read more "“Don’t Cross the Streams..!”"“These are not simply abstract numbers or statistics. It is some one’s father or grandfather, a mother or grandmother, a partner. They are people. And we are a community in which every life and every person matters (and) this is what an epidemic shows us: how vulnerable we all are, how dependent (we are) on […]
Read more "Looking After Each Other"As a former English teacher, I was delighted to read a glowing newspaper endorsement of some students for their writing as young journalists: The Panther Press has been running at my school for generations, as a vehicle for students to make sense about the world. You probably had something similar when you were at school? […]
Read more "In Celebration of Student Voice…"I write this on the eve of the second semester. Tomorrow my school will welcome our returning families after the vacation, as well as welcome around 80 new students who are joining our community. I recently wrote a few words to the community as a way of framing some thoughts ahead of the resumption of […]
Read more "A Few Thoughts About Choosing Hope…"In the November edition of Phi Delta Kappan, Dr. Emma K. Adam (Edwina S. Tarry Professor of Human Development & Social Policy at Northwestern), offers a wake-up call to parents, students and teachers on the subject of stress. She highlights the powerful connection between the hormone cortisol, stress, and sleep. She identifies a vicious cycle […]
Read more "“To Sleep, Perchance to Learn..?”"In July 2019, Sir Tim Berners Lee published the first draft of the Contract for the Web: nine founding principles to save the internet from imploding under the collective weight of global misuse coupled with online developments that are fast becoming unacceptable risks to the future of global society. Just over a week ago, the […]
Read more "A Contract to Save Us from Ourselves…"Not nearly enough people outside of the United States have heard of Sojourner Truth, the pioneering 19th century anti-slavery and women’s rights activist. Some might say not nearly enough people inside the United States know enough about her either. Born a slave in Swartekill, New York in 1797, she led a life of hardship in the relentlessly […]
Read more "Why Sojourner Truth Still Matters"I don’t usually re-publish entire blog posts, but this one from Craig Meister is well worth sharing. I have made some minor edits (apologies Craig) but hopefully none that change the intent of his powerful and direct advice on how to get into Ivy League schools – ethically: So much of what you read, watch, […]
Read more "How to get into the Ivy League – Ethically"When Will Richardson visited Finland he saw something that surprised him: “… the most surprising thing I heard in talking to teachers there is that they do not get evaluated. As in never. As in, no personal improvement goals, no alignment to test scores, no unannounced “visits” to monitor what’s happening in the classroom.” If you come […]
Read more "“Teacher ‘Evaluation’ is soooo 1990s…”"One of our High School students built a table. At least, he thought he had built a table… His table was the outcome of something called the Eagle Scout Project. It requires the kind of skills that you take with you through life: planning, developing, leading others, and demonstrating leadership in the service of the […]
Read more "Sometimes a table is more than just a table…"Earlier today I was reading an interview with Dani Alves in which he reflects on his career, his time in Europe, his recent return to Brazil – as well as his determination to remain at the peak of his sport until the next football World Cup at the age of 39. I was struck by his thoughts […]
Read more "“If you win without effort, you triumph with no glory at all”"A standardized test is a set of tasks that schools give to students to tell them where a student is in their learning, how they are doing in comparison to thousands of others, and where they are most likely headed according to statistical probability. There is certainly something very seductive about the promise of standardized […]
Read more "How ‘Standard’ is Your Child?"