Education, RattleBag and Rhubarb

The Top 100 Tools for Learning 2009: Twitter up. Powerpoint down.

For those who enjoy lists:  The top 100 tools for learning. This is the 3rd year learning professionals from all over the world have been invited to share their top 10 online tools for learning to help build the Top 100 list. Check out the emerging list and compare rankings. Here is Jane Hart’s SlideShare report: Twitter is now number…

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Education, RattleBag and Rhubarb

Setting your socks on fire

Looking through old PDS school photos  – pictures of children working with tools, wading waist deep in muddy ponds and handling a plank on a cabin roof –  started me thinking about risk. Taking risks is an essential part of children’s play and overcoming fears and obstacles is how we all grow and learn. Here’s a PDS picture that was…

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Education, RattleBag and Rhubarb

Music and Arts lag. Can poetry be far behind?

This week in the NYTimes – news of a rather discouraging report about music and arts education across the US. And even the test sample was smaller. In the test, formally known as the National Assessment of Educational Progress in Arts, administrators at 260 public and private schools were asked how much time they devoted to art and music instruction,…

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Education, RattleBag and Rhubarb

Good news for wool gatherers

A wandering mind heads toward insight WSJ article  reports on findings that suggest: …our brain may be most actively engaged when our mind is wandering and we’ve actually lost track of our thoughts, a new brain-scanning study suggests. “Solving a problem with insight is fundamentally different from solving a problem analytically,” … “There really are different brain mechanisms involved.” So…

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RattleBag and Rhubarb

Are you phobic?

How many words are there in the English language? Estimates vary but most agree there are quite a few.  And how many do you know, or own and  have a personal relationship with? Meet Wordia – a visual dictionary where people famous and otherwise upload their personal definitions. Brigham tried it out in the high school this year. Check out…

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RattleBag and Rhubarb

Butterfly Waystation

The sixth grade began planning this in science class in the fall when the monarchs stop by PDS on their migration south. They located at area on campus that was already wild, got permission and then planned how to add plant diversity to attract and support butterflies on their journey. Here they are planting milkweed and asters and other late…

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RattleBag and Rhubarb

Science Symposium 2009

The sixth annual Science Symposium meant  7th and 8th graders ready to share their work with the school community. As always – an impressive display of investigation, collaborative work and erudition. These students know their work and why it matters.  And they are more than happy to share their research. In a new departure this year, the 5th and 6th…

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RattleBag and Rhubarb

Early One Morning

A bird  the color of a stop sign. High on a tree at the Buttercup Farm Sanctuary.  A scarlet tanager. My first sighting.  A black-winged red bird. Tree swallows swooping, the insistent chipping of an elusive flycatcher and the headwaters of Wappingers Creek swirling down to the river. What a great place for a Sunday breakfast.

RattleBag and Rhubarb

What a Concert!

Last fall Gabe (’11) made a  Intensive Studies project proposal to Liz. It involved composing music, delving into theory,  harmony, transcription and improvisation. With the full support of the school and his music teachers, Gabe took the project on and devised an authentic assessment –  an end of study concert with exceptional musicians and performers professional and student. It  was…

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RattleBag and Rhubarb

Thicker than water

I was sorry to miss this event but Lynn sent me pictures.This was a lesson in viscosity. They started with water and added oil. They placed three separate dry ingredients into the water/oil, one at a time:  sugar, salt and baking soda. They counted the number of bubbles that rose up, observed their size and frequency and made comparisons. They…

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RattleBag and Rhubarb

The Pirates of Penzance

A hearing mistake  means a boy indentured to a pirate not a ship’s pilot. Pirate or pilot, orphan or  often — the problem’s in the pronunciation. And so the bumbling misadventures begin – musical muddles that only the name of Queen Victoria can quell. The fifth and sixth grade did Gilbert and Sullivan proud.  Double casting meant that every student…

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RattleBag and Rhubarb

Brain Surgery

Can you tell the anterior cortex, amygdala, and  parietal lobe from  the optic chiasma and  the corpus collosum? If not then you could benefit from Tanya’s Cognitive Science course. I visited this week. I was not up to speed on the science, but I did learn that the students in this  elective are incredible well-informed. The task was the dissection…

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RattleBag and Rhubarb

Then and Now

Steve found this photograph in the basement. Along the bottom it says: Kindergarten Thru Ninth Grade Established 1934. And on the back it says: You can see the original  by Tricia’s desk in the lower school office.

RattleBag and Rhubarb

Winter Recital

Great Winter Recital on Thursday with music from J.S. Bach to James Taylor via Debussy and Charlie Parker along with some original compositions. Wonderful performances from students of all ages in all three divisions. Thank-you musicians for an outstanding evening of music and song. More pictures on Flickr. Photo: Marcin Nowak