If you were a parent whose child asked to wear jeans to school on “Jeans Day,” what would you say? No problem, right? What if that child had a disability that meant he could not put jeans on independently or use the bathroom while wearing jeans? What then? How do you tell a child he … Continue reading
I make no claim that this is an unbiased review: One of my friends, Mylisa Larsen, just wrote a wonderful picture book: How to Put Your Parents to Bed. But you don’t have to believe me—The New York Times loved it, too. Here’s a preview, just to give you a smile. As you can tell, … Continue reading
Again, today, I’m thinking about motivation, specifically, motivation to learn. Needless to say, teachers hope students will be motivated to learn the content they’ve prepared. There are few things more frustrating than facing a class with a carefully crafted lesson only to be met with indifference. Thinking about what motivates students to learn—and how it … Continue reading
Brian Grazer, producer of such movies as Apollo 13, A Beautiful Mind, and Friday Night Lights, is on mission. He wants to promote curiosity. He is passionate about it. And from that passion comes a book, A Curious Mind: The Secret to a Bigger Life. In the introduction he says: Curiosity is what gives energy … Continue reading
If you are looking for a practical resource for adding some “sparks” of creativity to your curriculum planning, ASCD has a resource that may help. Patti Drapeau’s Sparking Student Creativity is subtitled “Practical Ways to Promote Innovative Thinking and Problem Solving,” and it delivers on that promise. The book is organized around four “roads,” one … Continue reading
They say that medical students spend much of their early training examining themselves for symptoms of every disease they study, no matter how obscure. The more they think about something, the more they find evidence of it in their lives. I’m finding something similar (although less frightening) happening to me this semester as I’ve taken … Continue reading
You know how easy it is to get lost in online searches for something interesting—one thing leads to another and before you know it, it’s time for dinner—or bed. While writing the last post on integrating math and art, I discovered the beauty of the Vizzie Awards. The Vizzies, sponsored by the National Science Foundation … Continue reading
Theater and dance for teaching math? Math for teaching art? Arts integration is not only a great idea, but a great idea in the news. A recent story in the Education section of the Washington Post describes students from kindergarten through middle school learning mathematical concepts through the arts. You can find a description of … Continue reading
I know young children are fascinated by dinosaurs. But I’m willing to bet that slightly older students—especially those who want to write well—will be equally excited about Alison Wilcox’s Descriptosaurus. Wilcox describes Descriptosaurus as a “thematic expansion of a dictionary and thesaurus.” It is a resource designed to help students aged 8-14 expand their descriptive … Continue reading
It doesn’t take long watching any type of media to be reminded that we change as we get older. There is no shortage of products claiming to help us preserve our youth–dyes for our hair, creams for our wrinkles, and any number of prescriptions about which we are charged to “ask our doctors.” But perhaps … Continue reading
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