The Footprint and the Digital Dossier

“Reputation, reputation, reputation! O, I have lost my reputation! I have lost the immortal part of myself, and what remains is bestial. My reputation, Iago, my reputation!” (Othello Act II.iii.262-265). Cassio only had his own foolishness and the treachery of Iago to deal with. He didn’t have to contend with social media and the digital … Read more

Learning in a Networked World with Will Richardson

Will Richardson was our keynote speaker at Friday’s Embracing Innovation Conference at PDS. Click the pic to see the slides of his presentation. “Now I get it!” Conference participant. “You can’t bubble in the answers to life’s great questions.” PDS senior. Other EIC11 links (more posted soon): Opening Remarks ***   TodaysMeet Conference Back Channel … Read more

One Teacher’s Learning Journey with 2.0

Technology, Passion and Learning: That was the title of Shirley Rinaldi’s Prezi at Friday’s Embracing Innovation Conference ( Twitter hashtag: #eic11). Shirley teaches 6th grade humanities and she’s worked at PDS since 1993. She writes a blog Talking the Tech Walk with another middle school teacher and you can follow their story there. This year … Read more

Designing OPuS: A Walkthrough with Fred Bartels

Embracing Innovation Conference Presentation Another learning Odyssey about the design development of OPuS (Online Progressive unSchool)  posted by Fred Bartels These are the slides to the talk he gave at Embracing Innovation 11 at PDS last Friday. You can follow the learning journey and see some of the influences, sharing, collaboration and thinking along the way. … Read more

Box? What box? Breaking the mind-forged manacles.

Probably the only two responses to constant change are to ignore it (shrink back, retrench, go off the grid, become irrelevant, turn inwards, stay put, get run over, and so on) or keep on keeping on with the learning life. But what happens if the mantra of: Keep moving, just try it, have a go, … Read more

Change and the Rear View Mirror

A home decorating project revealed this message from the former owner underneath the kitchen wallpaper. I quite liked the pattern actually but it was time to move on. Change in education is not as simple as stripping a wall but there are always messages from the past. The pendulum swings back and forth while we … Read more

The little bit of ivory and the traditional virtue of the exquisite tweet

How long does this have to be? Should we teach to the text (message)? Forget about the five paragraph essay, what about the five (abbreviated) word text and the exquisite tweet? Lots of commentary about a recent article with follow-up  here in the NYTimes about the importance of concise writing.  Without a doubt it is … Read more

Embracing Innovation in a Time of Disruptive Change

The Independent Curriculum Group and Poughkeepsie Day School Present Embracing Innovation in a Time of Disruptive Change Poughkeepsie Day School Friday, April 15, 2011 9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Poughkeepsie Day School and the Independent Curriculum Group cordially invite you to Embracing Innovation in a Time of Disruptive Change on Friday, April 1 from 9:00 a.m. to … Read more

Outcomes and results matter: But what’s with all the testing?

In a recent post at Raining Acorns, a Pennsylvania parent records what happens in March school testing season. She outlines the impact on the school schedule and the disruption to learning. Is it all worth it? Why all this time on test? Yong Zhao argues that this imposition of high stakes testing is more than … Read more

Let the kids rule the school…We just did that

Written by Shirley Rinaldi. Cross-posted from Talking the Tech Walk This week I realized that sometimes things just seem to fall into place and are meant to happen. This was the case with a new project that we tried in middle school this week, called Imagination Day.  The first thoughts of something new began to … Read more

The Graphic Advice of Wendy Mogel

I loved the addition of graphic artists at this year’s NAIS Annual Conference. It was a marvel to watch them work and then see the finished product – huge poster board representations of the words of the main speakers. Here are some examples drawn for Wendy Mogel’s talk. She is the clinical  psychologist author of … Read more