Colleges are still on winter break. Nathan, Luke and Matt dropped by to say hello.
Category: RattleBag and Rhubarb
The Passionate Learner: Part Two
“What have you planned for professional development day?” The starting point was this question from Andrea Archer – head of school at Duchess Day School. The outcome was Robert Fried who came to PDS yesterday and worked with the faculty from the two schools. Am I in a room with Passionate Teachers? That was how Rob began his presentation yesterday.…
The Welsh have a word for it: Dysgeidliaeth
The Welsh have one word for it: dysgeidliaeth. It means teaching and it means learning. And of course that is what good teaching is: learning. But how to pronounce it? Any speakers of Welsh out there who can help out?
The Lone Starfish
Over on the other side of the world at Leading and Learning in New Zealand, Bruce Hammonds has posted this picture of a starfish on the beach for his end of year post. It refers to the story of the person who made a difference by throwing a single starfish from among many back into the ocean – a small…
Macbeth
Earlier this month I saw a remarkable production staged in the James Earl Jones Theater at PDS: the Shakespeare Central Study Elective performance of Macbeth. The players from grades 7-12 had chosen this from a variety of electives and spent a part of each week in the fall delving into the text and preparing their production. This is an annual…
Boxes: Part 1
Why do I stand here? I stand on my desk to remind myself that we must constantly force ourselves to look at things differently The world looks different from up here. If you don’t believe it, stand up here and try it! All of you. Take turns. – Dead Poets Society It’s everywhere – the cliché – the admonition –…
Education delivery system – 17th century style
Packages and parcels get delivered, learning does not. Consider the two Time magazine covers in the previous post. The one from 1965 shows a funnel through which all manner of things are being poured into the school. Much like the notion of the education that sees the child as the empty vessel into which must be poured the knowledge. Learning…
Plus ça change, c’est la même chose – only faster
The one thing about which all educators are in agreement is that yesterday’s education no longer suffices for today. The rate of technological change and the development of new information is so great that educators scarcely know what to make of it all, let alone how to get it taught; next week’s scientific discovery can make last week’s textbook obsolete.…
Leadership or Leadersheep?
Who is the leader? Is it the driver in the car held up by the flock? The shepherd with his stick? The border collies with their sharp teeth? Somewhere, just out of sight, are the lead sheep – heading for higher ground and pastures new. I took this on vacation in the Yorkshire Dales. I like to show it when…
Picasso the Brand
Last weekend I visited the Guggenheim for the exhibit Spanish Painting from El Greco to Picasso: Time, Truth, and History. As the paintings were arranged thematically, rather than chronologically, is was possible to see connections and influences in a more direct way. It was in front of the juxtaposition of these two paintings by Goya and Picasso that I heard a guide,…
A Rising Tide
They say that a rising tide gathers no moss. Or is that the rolling stone? Anyway – if that rising tide keeps rising, what happens to boats firmly moored and anchored to the harbor bed?
Spam and the Middle Ages
Several recent news stories have bemoaned what every email user already knows – spam is on the march and filling up the inbox. There is a spam arms race going on and the spammers are currently winning. “It will only end when people stop buying diet pills, herbal highs and sexual performance enhancers,” said Dave Rand, of Internet security firm…
“All others bring data”
I am old enough to remain in awe of the connectivity of the internet. It reminds me of the excitement I felt as a child – tuning into the world on the family wireless shortwave band – music from North Africa, news from Radio Moscow, and pop, rock and the novelty of radio commercials from Radio Luxembourg. I can still…
The hole in the wall
I learnt to use paint, calculator, see various places through the Internet, solve puzzles, play games, listen interesting sounds and songs. (T.R. Ravi, age 12, Kalludevanahalli kiosk, Karnataka, India) Back at the dawn of time (well, 1993) Seymour Papert* named the computer the “children’s machine”. India’s “hole in the wall” experiment goes a long way toward showing just how easily…
Creativity: Part Two “I’m drawing God”
A child was working diligently on a drawing in art class. The teacher asked what the drawing was. The girl replied, “I’m drawing God.” The teacher paused and said, “But no one knows what God looks like.” Without missing a beat, or looking up from her drawing, the girl replied, “They will in a minute.” This is just one of…