Is there a nightmare in the toy box? When I was a kid, none of my toys talked. If you had enough money, you could buy a Chatty Kathy doll, pull a string, and the doll would say something. Since Chatty Kathy with accessories would have cost .4% of my father’s annual salary ($19 then and something like $275 now based on the income from a similar job), there were no talking toys at my house. Was t...
Read More »Reflections From A Conference In Bogotá, Colombia Last April, I received an invitation from Patricia León, Ma. Ximena Barrera and Adriana Salazar, members of a recognized educational research group in Colombia, called Fundacíes, who have been leaders in our country in organizing national / international conferences, workshops and on going professional trainings since 1994, to be one of the keynote...
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The benefits last a lifetime Most of my career has been spent at National Primate Centers. Although I was an administrator and didn’t work with animals or in research, the idea that primate health and colony stability was based on the strength of the relationships within the colony was key to my work even as an administrator. Anything that broke down those relationships could result in harm to t...
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Nature does it, so why shouldn’t we? Research has provided great insight into how important human relationships are to learning and health. This is important, because while technology is enabling research to highlight the primacy of relationship, technology is also supplanting the primacy of relationship. In this series of articles, we will take a look at why relationships are primary, how to en...
Read More »“Atticus was right! One time he said you never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them. Just standing on the Radley porch was enough.” Scout Finch, To Kill a Mockingbird “Walk in a mile in another man’s moccasins before you criticize him.” Native American Proverb #1 Introduction Did you know the more stressed-out we feel, the less empathy we might show toward other...
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Orange post-it note, #2 pencil and first grade spelling: “thank you for coming”, followed by 2 sketched balloons and a heart. She handed it to me as I was lining up the 19 students in a classroom where I had been the substitute teacher for the day. Such a genuine act of hospitality from someone I had just met, and not very old either. 4 words that made me feel noticed, appreciated and valuable....
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Intaglio (/ɪnˈtæli.oʊ/ in-TAL-ee-oh; Italian: [inˈtaʎʎo]) is the family of printing and printmaking techniques in which the image is incised into a surface and the incised line or sunken area holds the ink. It is the direct opposite of a relief print. Our twins like money, so recently we toured the Bureau of Engraving and Printing in Ft. Worth, Texas, which is one of two places in the US where US ...
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You can hardly read an education blog, a newsletter, or a mainstream publication today without hearing talk of topics like grit, growth mindset, perseverance, and resiliency. Do a quick internet search and you’ll find slogans like “Grit, don’t quit” and some creative folks have developed an acronym for Grit: Guts, Resilience, Initiative, and Tenacity. So, what’s all the fuss about? Is there reas...
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Reprinted from ASCD When it works well, America’s public school system is designed to help students achieve at least one year of academic growth per school year. The problem? For students living in poverty, that’s not enough. In US public schools, 51% of students in public schools come from low-income families. Decades of research show that children from low-income homes start kindergarten trailin...
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3 Strategies to Try with Your Students Tomorrow Let’s admit it – as educators it can be tremendously frustrating when kids quickly forget the content we teach them. In fact, besides dealing with challenging student behaviors, this may be the most common concern I hear from teachers, “My kids just forget the information so quickly. I teach them the information they need to know and the next day i...
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