JosieHolford 
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 … Read more
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 … Read more
Looking forward to reading Yong Zhao’s new book due out soon: World Class Learners: Educating Creative and Entrepreneurial Students The focus is preparing global, creative, and entrepreneurial talents. “College and career readiness” is the mantra in the global education reform circle. Uniform curriculum, common standards and assessments, globally benchmarked practices, data-driven instruction, and high-stakes testing-based … Read more
I’ve been playing with Skitch. Here is one of the first efforts: A heart-felt thanks for the volunteer advocates for the Annual Fund. Source: flickr.com via Poughkeepsie Day School on Pinterest
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 … Read more
“So the children of a democracy learn to take their place in the world of tomorrow.” The British Council has made its film collection public. What a wonderful gift. Take for example Learning to Live. Made in 1941 it presents: A typical school day for the three children of the Brown family at Nursery, Junior, … Read more
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
The classroom is obsolete: it’s time for something new – said Prakash Nair in Education Week.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 … Read more
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.
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 … Read more
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? … Read more
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 … Read more
Students create and lead school Spring Festival assembly and all-school activity to celebrate the Chinese New Year.
A decade of NCLB has made an impact. From: BestMastersInEducation.com Photo: Cesar Quintero
