With the chance of a snow day looming and with the news of snow across much of Alabama my mind went to Jem and Scout and children’s priorities: Next morning I awoke, looked out the window and nearly died of fright. My screams brought Atticus from his bathroom half-shaven. “The world’s endin’, Atticus! Please do something-!” I dragged him to…
Interested in education? Like a good debate? Then Bridging Differences is for you. It’s an ongoing debate between two of the most interesting minds in education – Deborah Meier and Diane Ravitch. They have been disagreeing for years but they both believe deeply in the importance of education and share a passion for improving schools.
Can design help children learn? That’s the cover story of in the February Metropolis Magazine lent to me last week by parent-trustee Stan Lichens. It’s worth a look. And the magazine also includes design firm IDEO’s 10 Tips for Creating a 21st Century Classroom Experience. It’s a quick must-read. This is thinking to guide designers and architects when it comes…
At a recent conference a speaker suggested that choosing a school was akin to choosing a cell phone* – as soon as you’ve made the decision another brand seems to offer appealing options and you worry: Did I make the right choice? So – to cut through the confusion when it comes to school it’s helpful to ask: What matters…
A wave of the future: College lectures available online for free. Academic Earth: Free access to thousands of world class academic video lectures. Search for a favorite topic and learn something new.
The American Flashlight, Game Boards, Quiz Shows, a Climbing Tree, Cop Car, Electric Robot and more. All at the Electricity Trade Show in the 3rd and 4th grade yesterday. Here are a few pictures. More on Flickr
Here are just a few pictures from the display of dioramas of markets from around the world. I will add others to Flickr. These mini-markets were made by first and second graders as part of their Market Street project.
We are experimenting with an additional way to help people keep in touch with what’s going on at PDS. If you twitter (twitter.com) consider following @PoughkeepsieDay. We are linking it to our Facebook account as another way to keep up with what’s happening. Let us know what you think. And of course we appreciate your follows retweets and tagging (we…
Seth Godin is a marketeer and prolific generator of ideas. His blog often has interesting nuggets about education. The purpose of school is to….here’s his first ten of 27 answers. Any you would like to add? Remove? (My personal favorite is number 23 – sandwiched in between the sublimely lofty and the tongue-in-cheek – Minimize public spelling mistakes So, here’s …
School recess improves behavior – from the NYTimes. Anyone surprised?
It’s day one of the second semester in the high school. That means the start of new high school courses. Here we are at the first meeting of Physics of Motion. The first experimental challenge: Find the relationship between the distance a ball runs down an incline and the time it takes to roll. Students are looking for patterns by…
There’s another of those scary science stories in today’s NYTimes: Split Outcome in Texas Battle in Teaching Evolution. The real scary part is such ignorance is still alive and kicking, and not just in Texas. And when it comes to textbooks – as Texas goes, there goes the nation. Meanwhile next month we celebrate the bicentenary of Charles Darwin’s birth.…
Last year I bought some of those ice grippers you can velcro onto your boots. This year I put them to use on walks at Canopus Lake, along the Hudson here at Mills Norrie and clearing the ice from the driveway. This year I’ve added snow shoes to the equipment.
As if on cue, the moving truck with the new furniture or Kenyon House arrived right as the Peacemakers Assembly ended. A willing crew of high school students soon had it inside and assembled.
PDS marked the inauguration at its Peacemakers Assembly on Tuesday. Entitled “Stony the road we trod” the event began with the singing of James Weldon Johnson’s Lift Every Voice and Sing. In the collage you can see pictures of the participants from high school to lower school. Ater lunch everyone returned to the JEJ theater to watch the inauguration.