In the News
1 week 2 days ago
from Peter Brunn
I was on Facebook today and ran across a post by an old friend. I knew once I read it that I needed to share it here. Finnie is somone I have known since we were young soldiers together. He is now a professor at the University of New Mexico, and someone whose thinking I hold in the deepest regard. In his post Finnie writes as a parent who is struggling with what his very young children are taught...
(0)
13 weeks 4 days ago
from Jackie Jacobs
In this New York Times article, Shannon Doyne and Holly Epstein Ojalvo present a writing lesson inspired by the writing we do in social media.
I think this is really interesting. I like the discussion that follows the activity and I think that it would be beneficial and thought-provoking for the students. To me, the six-word story activity they use is more like poetry in that there is a lot...
(0)
14 weeks 1 day ago
from Isabel McLean
The other day, a colleague sent me an article from the New Yorker to read on the power of coaching. It is a great piece, written by a surgeon who felt as if he had peaked in his career and needed some coaching to improve his practice. My colleague wanted me to read the piece thinking it might be something I’d like to blog about. However, as I read more deeply into the article, the writer...
(2)
14 weeks 2 days ago
from Kenni Smith
"Delay Kindergarten at Your Child's Peril," a recent opinion piece in the New York Times, provides an interesting perspective on transitional kindergarten.
I tend to agree with it. Children within a grade will fall along a continuum of development and ability no matter where you set the cut-off date. Shifting it, well, just shifts it. My younger son's birthday is...
(1)
16 weeks 2 days ago
from Lisa Borah-Geller
I recently found out that my son, who will turn five years old in November 2012, will be eligible for California’s new transitional kindergarten program. I had planned to hold him back and keep him in preschool another year. As an educator and parent, I have witnessed firsthand how many kindergarteners with fall birthdays are not ready academically or socially for the requirements of today...
(4)
16 weeks 3 days ago
from Paul Houston
I have been in education for over 40 years and have always been struck by the idea that educators don’t feel they should be political. Certainly, it is not appropriate for teachers to drag their own political views into the classroom to indoctrinate their students, but when you look at the broader picture, it is impossible for educators to avoid politics, nor should they try.
I have written...
(1)
17 weeks 4 days ago
from Jackie Jacobs
Do you hang out, mess around, or geek out? Digital media is changing the definition of what it means to be “literate” in today’s society. This Chicago library is providing teens with the opportunity to expand their digital literacy. Perhaps we’ll see more of this happening in the near future. Read the artice here.
Jackie Jacobs is a curriculum developer at Developmental...
(0)
18 weeks 3 days ago
from Peter Brunn
Bullying is back in the news. The Internet seems covered with reports of schools' challenges with bullying. My issue with all of this attention is that it paints a murky picture of the problem. We only hear about the extreme examples. Newspapers call our attention to it when a middle school student commits suicide or when an elementary school student commits an obscenely violent act. As...
(2)
20 weeks 1 day ago
from Peter Brunn
Two weeks ago I wrote a blog titled “The Importance of Failure.” In it I shared my experience with my daughter to illustrate how important it is for kids to be able to get things wrong so that they eventually learn how to get things right. Starting this past Sunday, the New York Times continued this conversation with four interesting pieces which I have shared on Facebook and Twitter...
(1)
29 weeks 3 days ago
from Isabel McLean
“Michelle Obama did not put a scale in front of White House; she planted a garden.” Doug Reeves shared this analogy in Denver several weeks ago at the Leadership and Learning Conference on the Common Core when urging us as educators not to focus on effects or test scores but on instructional causes.
Michelle didn’t line up children in front of a scale and weigh them and then...
(5)
Stay connected with us:
