JosieHolford 
The Art History class took off for Italy last week. It’s well over 4,000 miles from Poughkeepsie to Zurich and on to Florence but here’s the extra mile: Wayne created these books – in Florentine red – one for every student. It’s for notes,sketches and reference on the trip. The sleeve at the back has … Read more
It was Dean Kamen – the inventor of the Segway and a version of the artificial heart – who established F.I.R.S.T.* His vision was: “To transform our culture by creating a world where science and technology are celebrated and where young people dream of becoming science and technology heroes.” Last year we introduced lego robotics … Read more
By now you have probably been sent a link to, or have even read, Playing to Learn – Susan Engel’s oped in the NYTimes last week. In addition to the fluttering in my twittersphere, I received notice from a teacher, an alumna, and an administrator at PDS as well as the head of a neighboring … Read more
Teacher of the Year Anthony Mullen has another excellent Road Diary post today. At Kent State University, Ohio, he walks down a grassy slope looking back at the spot where, almost forty years ago, the National Guard stood in line to confront student war protesters. And then the fatal 13 seconds that left four students … Read more
Well – yes – I suppose I am, and I always have been. As I child I haunted the school library and, while I didn’t quite read every book, I was certainly familiar with every shelf. I had a town library card at five and usually reached the limit of two fiction and one nonfiction … Read more
Advanced Pressure – Video Library – The New York Times video.nytimes.com The problem with Advanced Placement classes and how they are destroying the lives of high school students. This video features students and educators from the film Race To Nowhere – a film that takes a look at education, childhood and the unintended consequences of … Read more
Inspired by Teach Paperless. Made using Make Beliefs Comix
A good quotation is like the perfect tweet – short, pithy, memorable, wise and wonderful. The the tip of an iceberg of meaning it captures something much bigger than itself with a few well chosen words in the right order. No wonder then we have all become addicted to the quotation as token of our … Read more
“George, can we have a bake sale?” That was Wednesday last week, in the hallway, right at the start of school. And this afternoon we wired a check for $1124 to the Red Cross. It’s over a week now since we first heard the news of the catastrophic consequences of the earthquake in Haiti. That … Read more
Some sanity on data excess from the always interesting Seth Godin: Too much data leads to not enough belief. Business plans with too much detail, books with too much proof, politicians with too much granularity… it seems as though more data is a good thing, because data proves the case He’s not dissing data but … Read more
A second grader needed a place to hang out and my office was available. The conversation went somewhat like this: “Make yourself at home. I’ve not got much for you to do but there are a few toys and books if you want.” “Do you have a spare laptop?” “No sorry, I don’t. But what … Read more
With google now declared the word of the decade, tweet the word of the year and unfriend now officially in the OED, the English language is clearly still on the move. When it comes to brand name eponyms some make it, some don’t. In the UK at least hoover is a familiar verb but here … Read more
Could it be that some of the harping on 21st century skills and the need for 21st century schools is partly a political pretext for the ignorant and arrogant to bash and trash teachers and schools? Just a thought in response to Teacher of the Year Anthony Mullen’s Road Diaries in Teacher Magazine. “Teachers should … Read more
Many years ago I wrote an article with the title The Carrot and the Cattleprod. It’s so long ago that although I wrote it on a word processor I no longer have an electronic copy. It’s buried and yellowing deep in a file cabinet somewhere in the basement. So I don’t know where it is … Read more
On the last day of the year, time to show an affirming flame as another low dishonest decade ends. I’ll leave all the best and worst and top ten lists to others, but merely remark – that for all the base mendacity in the real world, life in school remains a place of joy and … Read more