Learning by Doing: Think*Make*Improve

I’ve been playing with a new graphics tool – easel.ly – and this is my first effort. I took the slogan Think*Make*Improve from Sylvia Libow Martinez and Gary S. Stager’s invaluable new book Invent To Learn: Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom. The result is a bit of a pig’s breakfast and probably runs counter to every principle of good … Read more

The New Progressivism

Read Peter Gow’s Education Week article The New Progressivism is Here. Commenting on the 2008 NAIS annual conference held in New York City last winter Gow identifies independent schools as being at the forefront of contemporary thinking about education. The elements he identifies in particular include: Assessment against high standards Professional development Real-world connections Multiculturalism … Read more

Write a Novel, Change the World: Use your Laptop as a brick

Gary Stager came to Poughkeepsie Day School at the end of March and he began with a lively Vassar College/ PDS presentation Ten Things to do with a Laptop. His title is a deliberate nod to a groundbreaking 1971 article by Seymour Papert and Cynthia Solomon “Twenty Things to Do with a Computer.” They had … Read more