Blog | The Compass Point

April 24, 2010

Scoundrels alive! High school play streamed to the world

April 23rd 2010 – Shakespeare’s birthday and Poughkeepsie Day School begins live streaming Diary of a Scoundrel – Alexander Ostrovsky’s cynical play about hypocrisy and the trouble with literacy! You can see it here.

Thank you David Held- for the live streaming and the videography. David assures me that it only takes half an hour or so to learn how to do it. (We’ll see about that.) But it does raise exciting possibilities for broadcasting PDS to the community.

How cool – for example – to be able to watch the kindergarten shadow puppet play live at the office. Or invite the far distant grandparents to watch the Eagle Society, the basketball game or any one of the innumerable performances and events at school.

Nothing beats being there in person, but when you just can’t make it …

Of course, with so much going on all the time, bandwidth could be an issue during the school day. We’ll just have to see.

21st century schools, Drama, High School, One World, PDS Events, PDS People, School 2.0, Technology

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April 19, 2010

The fire within

“To succeed…it’s the fire within that must be lit.”
Purpose, mastery, autonomy (mission not money as motivation.)

Change, Creativity, Education, Learning, Many minds, Mission Vision Values, Motivation

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April 19, 2010

Math Curriculum Makeover: Be less helpful

Math makes sense of the world: Here’s math teacher Dan Meyer speaking at the TEDxNYED conference in March.

Assessment, Change, Critical thinking, Curriculum, High School, Mathematics, Professional Development

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April 10, 2010

The wild front ear

If blogging is supposed to have an element of timeliness then I have given up on that ideal. After all – I am still writing about stuff from the NAIS annual conference in February.

Fess Parker died in March and while my mind went instantly to the Davy Crockett craze of my childhood, it’s only now that I have found the time to write about it. Maybe I can argue that reflection is a good thing and immediacy overrated – like fast food versus slow blogging.

I’m not sure I saw the film – released in the UK in 1956 – but I do remember the loud lines of children waiting to get into the Gaumont in Regent Circus, Swindon. They went around the corner in one direction and down the alley in the other.

The Walt Disney advance publicity team had done their job well. Children across the UK were in the thrall of the commercial craze for everything from ‘coon skin hats with the requisite tail down the back (my brother made mordant comments about the disappearance of cats) to Davy Crockett charms, bracelets, transfers and nougat bars.

It was a merchandising miracle.

The Ballad of Davy Crockett opened with

Born on a mountaintop in Tennessee

Greenest state in the land of the free

and went to the top of the hit parade. But in a flash, in that other miracle – the instant viral transmission of children’s lore – other versions dominated the playground and brought the hero of the Alamo down a peg or two.

Born on a tabletop in Joe’s cafe

The dirtiest place in the USA

Polished off his father when he was only three

Killed off his mother with the DDT.

Davy, Davy Crockett

King of the wild frontier.

There were other more scurrilous versions.

And then there were the jokes and riddles. And the one I still find funny went like this:

“How many ears did Davy Crockett have?

“I dunno. Two?

“No. Three. He had a left, a right and wild, front ear.”

Humor, Play

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April 9, 2010

Failing is essential

The ratio between success and failure remains pretty constant. To succeed means we must fail. And the more often we fail the more we succeed. The key is to fail frequently and fail fast. Then move on and try something else.

That was the message of Tina Seelig who works at the entrepreneurship center at Stanford. The focus of her NAIS talk was “Innovation as an Extreme Sport”.

She began by describing how extremely accomplished and bright students arrive at college with quivers full of AP’s and perfect grades but completely burned out. These kids with perfect scores are intellectually locked up and incapable of creative and fluid thinking. The mindset of these high achievers is “How do I get an “A’ on this test, in this course”.

“Why should we teach innovation?”
“Because our students know everything else.”

Her aim is to develop T-shaped people with a broad spread of knowledge who know how to make things happen and move between disciplines. And then the deep knowledge of at least one discipline.

Turning problems into opportunities is the heart of innovation: How to leverage limited resources to make things happen to solve problems and create something new. Big problems – big opportunities.

In Seelig’s program students have to unlearn so much of what they have had drummed into them in school.

Instead, they have to learn that cheating (aka sharing ideas, team work and collaboration) is essential; learning is active and creative; taking risks is required and failing is inevitable. And therein lies the heart of success.

Because the ratio of success to failure is pretty constant, we can measure success by how often we fail.

So how does that fit with our model of education where one “F” is enough to ruin your GPA? Where students are taught that what we expect is the perfect score? And success means rising to predetermined levels excellence?

This raises the questions:

Is it the grading system that makes no sense?
Is it the nature of the tasks we ask of students, especially in high school?
Or is it both?

Here is Seelig describing her work in creativity and entrepreneurship with examples from her classroom:

21st century schools, Assessment, College, Creativity, Critical thinking, Education, Learning, Progressive Education

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March 27, 2010

Childhood has Changed: Playtime is Over

Here’s an article to read by David Elkind in the NYTimes Playtime is Over

It’s an important topic. It’s an interesting article. And it’s one well worth reading and talking about.

There is one piece though, that I have to comment on right away:

For children in past eras, participating in the culture of childhood was a socializing process. They learned to settle their own quarrels, to make and break their own rules, and to respect the rights of others. They learned that friends could be mean as well as kind, and that life was not always fair.

Now that most children no longer participate in this free-form experience — play dates arranged by parents are no substitute — their peer socialization has suffered. One tangible result of this lack of socialization is the increase in bullying, teasing and discrimination that we see in all too many of our schools.

From the perspective of this child from that long-lost golden era of free play – wonderful though it was – bullying, teasing and discrimination were a daily torment. In a time when an apple was a precious commodity, and sweets the coin of the realm, the interactions could be sudden and violent.

It was a time of tribes of stone throwing children defending their turf, of arcane rules of a social hierarchy cruelly upheld, of vicious taunts and name calling, and teachers who felt free to rap your knuckles with a ruler for failure to answer “Seven times nine” quickly enough.

And god forbid you had a speech defect, wore funny clothes or swerved from the rigidly upheld norms of social expectations and unspoken code of conduct. The school playground was a minefield.

A golden age of sweetness and light it was not.

It was good, though, to see the reference to the work of the British folklorists Peter and Iona Opie in the 1950s.

The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren cataloged the songs, riddles, jokes, jibes and incantations that were passed on by oral tradition. I had just pulled my dog-eared copy from the basement this week to remind myself of the Davy Crocket craze.

It’s a treasure trove of information about the lost culture of childhood. And – always worth checking at this time of year: It used to be absolutely forbidden to pull an April Fool’s joke after midday.

Every child knew that!

Change, Play

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March 14, 2010

“The death of education as we know it may be the birth of learning as we need it”

I’m more than a bit late with my NAIS annual conference round up but then …excuses, excuses…what with returning to Poughkeepsie with a rotten cold, the remaining effects of a mega storm that closed school for three days (ably dealt with by Steve Mallet and the division heads) and then all the catching up…. So – a few random and incomplete notes and reflections.

First – a frustration. When you start to take free wifi for granted it’s annoying to be confined to a hotel lobby for a connection and beyond the lobby feels like being nickle and gouged for internet access. And then find yourself only intermittently able to be on line during the conference itself and always in danger of battery outage. Why is that?

Now to the conference – bottom line: Great. Congratulations and thanks to all concerned and for Pat Bassett’s leadership, his avatar Captain Independent notwithstanding. Actually that was entertaining. (I leave aside the Wonder Woman misstep and I hope she got paid well to wear the costume. She assured me it was fun.)

But the key issue was the theme and content which flowed well from last year and allowed for a little celebration at having weathered all the storm metaphors.

And the theme was clearly transformation, adaptation, renewal, evolution. Call it what you will – the game of change is clearly afoot and this conference was charged with ideas, examples and tactics.

Disruptive Change is here now and it’s more than time to pay attention. Disruption is the new normal and the challenge for educators is to keep figuring out what that means when it comes to educating children for the world they will inherit. It was amusing then, to hear one of the high powered panelists with Pat Bassett in “The Power of Transformation: Disrupting your Institution to make it Relevant” trot out a canned and cloth-eared reference to Toyota.

It was in that workshop that Pat came out with the zinger that became “The tweet heard around the world” – apparently the most tweeted line from the conference. I heard it as: “The death of education as we know it may be the birth of learning as we need it”.

As Bruce Hammond pointed out, it’s interesting to note that five of the articles in the spring edition of Independent School Magazine are written by members of the Independent Curriculum Group. (ICG, Bruce is the executive director). PDS is now a member and that means a seat on the board. As a school that has always structured time for high school interdisciplinary courses, and has never taught to the test (even as our students have taken them), it is good to be in such great and growing company.

Those articles go a long way to correct misperceptions of independent schools as uniformly bastions of tradition and conservatism. Indeed, so many schools across the country are doing innovative work and taking up the challenge of what it means to be a school for 2010 and the future. There are times when it feels like everyone is now catching on to what PDS has always championed. Just because we can sometimes sit back and say – “done that”, “do that” at PDS – does not mean we cannot learn and grow. Indeed, we must.

So, what did I choose to attend and what did I learn? Shut out of the session I wanted on Wednesday (“Leading toward a sustainable future”) I wandered the halls and dropped in on “Be like Google” led by Presbyterian Day School in Memphis. (Known as PDS – how annoying is that?) Lots of interesting ideas on display as the presenters told the story of how they used and applied Google’s Nine Principles of Innovation at their school.

Later that day, it was good to catch up with some of the New Heads Institute ’06 cohort and trade stories.

Mimi Ito is a Stanford based international expert on how people use mobile technologies and new digital media in their everyday lives. In her presentation she asked some very pertinent questions about our assumptions. “Why do we assume kids only learn in school?” And “Why do we assume that children online are not learning?”

Children growing up in a radically different media environment that keeps them connected 24hours a day present new challenges for educators who must grapple with the divide between home and school and seek proactive ways to bridge the gap.

With examples of new behaviors and opportunities for passionate and interest-centered learning she urged us to look at new media environments as a place of promise and potential. The complex narratives of Pokémon for example – and how children flock to participate with contagious media that is playful and interactive.

In this highly personalized and informal play, skills and literacy are a by-product not the focus of the engagement.

She had some good examples of community standards and how they are learned, developed and maintained in online environments.

Next up: Tina Seelig and Innovation as an Extreme Sport.

Meanwhile the conversation and community continue online at: NAIS Annual Conference

I had forgotten how many people seem to live on the streets of San Francisco. This man was reading in the drizzle by the light of a street advertisement.

21st century schools, Assessment, Books, Change, Choice, College, Curriculum, Education, Future, High School, Learning, Technology

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March 10, 2010

Here they come…National Standards

National Standards kindergarten through 12th grade are on their way.

At PDS we are looking forward to taking a good look at all the standards and at where we converge, and diverge, in the choices we make. And also, at where we exceed and expand national (and international) expectations.

As an accredited independent school we have the ability to think broadly and deeply about the choices and decisions we make. Our thinking is always guided by our mission and vision, our experience and by a review of the best thinking and research about what it means to educate children to thrive and succeed in this rapidly changing world.

As always, we welcome your ideas.

Here is the direct link to the Core Standards website.

21st century schools, Change, Mission Vision Values, Progressive Education

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March 7, 2010

“If a school fulfills its mission there must be constant evolution…”

It is quite possible that the assigning of grades to school children and college students as a kind of reward or punishment is useless or worse…

I’ve discovered an absolute treasure trove of fascinating material: Popular Science has put its entire 137 year archive on line.

The quotation above is from Examinations, Grades and Credits by Professor J.McKeen Cattell of Columbia University. And the date? March 1905.

In this same edition there’s a piece on how immigrants are inspected at Ellis Island, cacti, Galileo and an argument in favor of adopting the metric system.

Several decades later – November 1957 – there’s another great education piece offering a test to parents to grade how schools are teaching science. It has some interesting suggestions for improving physics teaching.

How well does your youngster’s school teach science?

The future of your child demands solid training in the sciences. Is he (sic) getting it? Here’s how to tell.

Of course – the Soviet Union had launched Sputnik the month before and the nation was in a frenzy about staying competitive and fearful of falling behind in the arms and space race.

Also in 1905 there is the first President Roosevelt’s address to the National Education Association. Mostly it’s an admonition to teachers to avoid stirring up class enmity and envy of the rich. He champions the virtues of being poorly paid while declaring:

You teachers make the whole world your debtors….If you – you teachers – did not do your work well this republic would not endure beyond the span of the generation.

And then – because it is our 75th year at PDS – I had to look up 1934. Just look at the range of topics in this one copy- – only 15cents and NRA – we do our part on the cover!

The articles and advertisements are a window to different era. There’s the sheer range of topics and then the advice on do-it-yourself home improvements and plenty of the wonder of scientific discovery.

And don’t miss those ads – everything from 1930′s social anxiety about being too skinny and body odor to how to calm your jangling nerves with a Camel.

And all the tools and plans for building things at home and all the wonder gadgets, modern marvels and the purely bizarre: Girl Fights Octopus for Underwater Movie.

There’s even a radio kit ad ad that touts progressive education methods – learning by doing.

Together with all the reports of amazing discoveries, new inventions and build-it-yourself advice that span the decades there are quaint and curious articles about education dating to the 19th century full of earnest pleas for moral education and modern methods.

You can track the long history of anxiety about science and math teaching in school with a simple search. And there are pieces on coeducation, kindergarten and the “proven” uselessness of freehand drawing. Art in school is a total waste of time and money it seems when compared with the value of mechanical drawing. From November 1897:

But some things, it seems, never change: See for example Determining Educational Values from October 1914. Change the language a little for a contemporary reader and you have a ready made article on current teaching and learning controversy. Look at this from the last paragraph:

If a school fulfills its mission there must be constant evolution…

Now that’s statement that could have been the centerpiece tagline for the NAIS Annual Conference in San Francisco last month.

On that subject, more anon.

21st century schools, Art, Assessment, Change, Education, Future, Intelligence, Mission Vision Values, Progressive Education, Science

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March 3, 2010

Transformation

“School reform today is like a freight train, and I’m out on the tracks saying, ‘You’re going the wrong way!’ ”

I’ve always respected Diane Ravitch even as I have often disagreed with her. And her on-line and ongoing exchanges with Deborah Meier Bridging Differences have been a model of intelligent debate conducted with an informed civility conspicuously absent from most public discourse.

And now she has written a book that is causing quite the stir. Time to get a copy.

You can read about the controversy in today’s NYTimes: Scholar’s School Reform U-Turn Shakes Up Debate

21st century schools, Books, Education, Progressive Education

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February 21, 2010

The Ruben’s Tube: Dancing Fire

It’s always great when a student or a teacher sends along a report, picture or a video of something cool going on in the classroom.

Or, as in this case, a cool experiment during vacation.

This is a first attempt at creating a Ruben’s standing wave flame tube showing the relationship between sound waves and air pressure. It looks quite hazardous and not to be tried at home without guidance, permission and precaution.

Wikipedia explains it this way – or you could just ask Jake or Preston or another physics student.

Learning, PDS People, Science

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February 14, 2010

The Extra Mile

The Art History class took off for Italy last week.

It’s well over 4,000 miles from Poughkeepsie to Zurich and on to Florence but here’s the extra mile: Wayne created these books – in Florentine red – one for every student. It’s for notes,sketches and reference on the trip.

The sleeve at the back has a map of the city with their hotel marked. On the very European squared paper is a brief guide to the city’s art and architecture.

The group left on Thursday. By Saturday Bernadette had posted pictures of the first day. And, as you can see, the notebooks are being put to work.