RattleBag and Rhubarb

Four Reasons Why Poughkeepsie Day School is Not the Real World

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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

The Farm that Kindergarten Built

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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

World Class Learners Do More Than Bubble It In

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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

The Transit Of Venus

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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

Learning to Live (then going home for tea)

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“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

Learning and Design: “The classroom is obsolete”

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MSLC Floor Plan

The classroom is obsolete: it’s time for something new – said Prakash Nair in Education Week.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

Canstruction

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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

What if…? Part two.

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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

What if…?

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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