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Ahead in the Cloud
It’s not about a product … it’s about an approach. The ideal professional development, even for specific training on a particular piece of hardware or software, expands the conversation to consider the culture of the school itself. In professional development that goes beyond the tradtional expectations, teachers do more than implement a new tool; they grow their interactions with their students, their peers and the world itself. Creating this situation like this can be challenging; the offering must provide...
Paragraph Six - Pelicans
I’m asking myself two questions in this last blog of the school year. How many students are celebrating the ideas that have inspired them throughout the year, along with the skills they’ve developed? Conversely, how many are feeling the sting or the exhilaration (or, worse, the indifference) of their standardized test scores?
I suspect the latter number is far higher. John Dewey, who I mentioned in an earlier post for his concern about...
Paragraph Six - On Buying Hyenas and the Limits of Perfection
I meant to break away from the topic of freewriting this week, but I came across a new one that I can’t ignore.
I was facilitating a Curriculum Design Team workshop for the New York City Department of Education District 25 and 28 Magnet School Program. We always open our workshops with a freewrite. After the two minute silent writing session, teachers were sharing their ...
Paragraph Six - Let Us Now Continue to Praise Freewriting
Last week I was politely interrupted by my word monitor Gina while giving evidence for the benefits of freewriting. I promised to move beyond the dry research to hear the more liquid anecdotes this week. And so I will deliver.
First a spanking fresh one, from a workshop last week. I had planned a session to introduce the International Baccalaureate’s Primary Years Programme to the staff of PS 201 in Queens. My task was to promote questioning, inquiry, connections – all hallmarks of the...
Paragraph Six - Let Us Now Praise Freewriting
Pardon me while I pause to praise freewriting.
The topic has come up several times in past posts: as a way to respond to essential questions, as a phenomenon that liberated a middle schooler named José when he wrote, “Seeing is not believing,” as a vehicle for the unique poetry of her ninth grade mind when Jasmine wrote, “…a quiet, spacious room, reaching and stretching and acting….” It was Jasmine who went on to...
Paragraph Six - On Making First the Scholar Speak
Here’s a quote on our recent theme of seeing, which I stumbled on since my last blog post: “The day is coming when a single carrot, freshly observed, will set off a revolution.” It was uttered by impressionist impresario Paul Cezanne. One of his methods was to look with both eyes, as it were. Instead of painting objects as resolved by the brain into one picture, he superimposed the two slightly varying perspectives of each eye, thus kicking off his own carotene revolution. Picasso and Matisse agreed with his innovator’s stature when they...
Reading In Many Languages
The International Reading Association Convention 2010 started off true to its theme of ‘Reading In Many Languages’ through the first of an impressive array of guest Keynote Speakers - Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan. The mother of four, activist, UNICEF advocate for children, member of the World Economic Forum, author and a gorgeous 39 year old beauty started off proceedings after a...
Elmore in the Bronx
“The best indicator of how strong a new teacher will be in 5 years is determined by what the other teachers in the building” said Dr. Elmore, when stressing how important professionalism, consistency and collaboration are to school culture and quality teachers. On May 20th, over 60 principals and assistant principals gathered at Manhattan College to see Richard Elmore speak on school improvement and his...
