I had the pleasure today of hearing Shawn Achor speak on the topic of happiness and the science of positive psychology and school success. Just as there is learned helplessness there can also be learned optimism. It’s all to do with mirror neurons and other good brain stuff. Happiness can be a choice – a … Read more
Thank you for bringing John Palfrey to the school last night. He was fabulous, and he spoke directly to issues facing my family and our children – PDS parent. It was election eve for the parents and community discussion. And an election day workshop for PDS teachers and colleagues from other New York independent schools. … Read more
Click for a better view Wordle is no longer a novelty but here is a PDS high school curriculum Wordle word cloud. If you haven’t tried Wordle yet it’s a great tool to play with. Just enter any text or url and up comes a word cloud that you can alter and adjust in all … Read more
All-school activity groups carved their pumpkin and dressed their senior monster for the all school annual traditional Halloween pumpkin lighting and senior monster fashion parade.. And a lower school Halloween assembly
Click for a better view Pictures of some of the work behind the magnificent display in the lobby. The Day of the Dead by the 5th and 6th grades.
Among the many excellent things about working at Poughkeepsie Day School and living in the mid-Hudson Valley is that you are never far from so many places of great natural beauty. It’s fall and the trees are ablaze with color. Here is the view east from the top of the fire tower on Stissing mountain … Read more
From UniversityAffairs in Canada comes this technology tale of mayhem, menace, mischief and malice: The Wild Web. There’s even a really scary picture to go with the now fairly familiar story of social networking sites and web 2.0 users run amok. It’s important to think about these things because they are not going away. The … Read more
A golden afternoon, a chilly wind and a great game of soccer with Storm King. Both teams played well. Click on the collage for a bigger view.
Some colleges are paying members of the freshman class to retake the SAT’s. Administrators claimed that they were merely giving admitted students a chance to burnish their records and win so-called merit scholarships. But it seems more likely that Baylor’s marketing team was trying to drive up the school’s test scores — and move it … Read more
Paul Hoppe I was very taken by this strip in the Styles section of the NYTimes Megan at the Mall. It was a wonderful captured moment about peer pressure, teen angst, social cruelty and about saving face. And the great desire not to say, do or wear anything foolish plus the general inability of parents … Read more
It’s the 21st century. So what happens when we shut children down and disconnect them from wonder, creativity, curiosity and natural love of learning? The disengagement that is epidemic in high school starts much earlier. And if we actually believe in that cliche about the importance of lifetime learning then it must take joyful root … Read more
Digital kids in a digital world. What’s to worry about? Here is a short interview with John Palfrey author of Born Digital. Hear him in person at PDS on November 3rd. (NYSAIS on Tuesday November 4th.)
