Teaching
Vermont Academy Featured for its Green Initiatives
The blog, Green Is Sexy, highlights Vermont Academy environmental initiatives and policies as part of their CFL Spotlight series. Of course it took me a second to get the CFL reference.
VA is on top of their eco-concious practices and policies with a Bottled Water Initiative, composting, recycling, organic and local source movements.
Most interesting about [...]
Ohio State’s Jim Tressel Would Make a Great Boarding School Teacher
In a quiet, but very public first (unconfirmed), Ohio State football coach Jim Tressel addresses- in a thoughtful, human, and understanding way- what is, essentially, the ‘third rail’ in college athletics- gay athletes.
I’ve seen Tressel’s interview with Outlook Columbus noted at Yahoo Sports and at ESPN.com.
Writing for Yahoo Sports, Dan Wetzel captures this issue [...]
National Association Director Marks onBoarding School’s 500th Post
Editor’s Note: For our 500th blog post, we invited friend and Independent Educational Consultants Association, Executive Director, Mark Sklarow to comment and reflect on onBoarding Schools’ contributions to families and the larger boarding school community.
Many thanks, Mark, for the kind words.
For those who live, eat and breathe boarding schools on a regular basis, [...]
Fountain Valley School Builds Global Perspectives into Curriculum
Fountain Valley School recently affirmed and expanded the school’s commitment to diversity and global experiences through the creation of the Global Scholar Diploma Program (GSD).
Program Chair, Dr. Susan Carrese describes the program this way:
“Globalization is a 21st century reality…At FVS we believe it is essential to embrace the world beyond our campus, our borders and [...]
Benefitting from Understanding Fundamental Principles: Midland School Ninth Graders Build Pinhole Cameras
It’s easy to send photo students into the field, digital cameras in hand, to begin their photography studies. It’s quick and easy; go take some pictures.
But the quick and easy assignment skips over some fundamental understandings and history.
In this classically hands-on exercise of progressive education, Midland School 9th graders build pinhole cameras and process their [...]
Plagiarism + Mixing + the “New Paradigm Defense” = Teachable Moment
“Author, 17, Says It’s Mixing, Not Plagiarism,” (New York Times) presents a nice opportunity to talk about plagiarism and misappropriation with students.
The article chronicles the rise and issues of 17 year old author Helene Hegemann whose first novel, “Axolotl Roadkill,” received the kind of overly enthusiastic reviews in Germany that sometimes greets young authors who seemingly provide [...]
Getting to Know Oldfields School
Parnell Hagerman, Associate Head, Oldfields School explores the practices & perspectives that help Oldfields reach every student in “very significant ways.”
Faculty dedication provides the foundation for the success and achievement for every Oldfields girl. They live their commitment to students through extra time and effort they make each day all the way through to their [...]
Landmark Students Recognized: 2010 Boston Globe Scholastic Art Awards
Landmark School students received 23 Gold and Silver Keys and Honorable Mentions in this year’s competition which included 6,500 individual and 500 portfolio submissions.
Beth Jamieson, Head of Landmark School’s Art Department said in a school release:
“It is very exciting and affirming for our students to have been recognized by the Boston Globe Scholastic Art & [...]
Hyde School: Focus on Fundamentals
NBC Connecticut reporter Brad Drazen published a piece titled “A School to Shape Character as Well as Mind.”
While we’ve covered Hyde School quite a bit, one part of Drazens’ article stands out. It provides a succinct, presentation of Hyde’s fundamental belief and teaching that attitude, work ethic, and character provide the foundation from which [...]
Afternoons at Proctor Academy: Many Talents, Many Perspectives
Editor’s note: we’ve covered the benefits & importance of afternoon athletics and activities in several posts. Physical recreation, drama productions, and club meetings provide outlets adding richness and breadth of experience to boarding school students. Kim Hurlbutt of Proctor Academy’s development office contributes this piece presenting Proctor’s thinking on the broadening of afternoon and activities [...]
Read MoreGetting to Know Vermont Academy
Sean Brennan, Vermont Academy’s Head of School talks about the strengths and underlying values of VA that he has come to understand during his first year as head.
Relationships knit VA into a tight community. VA students benefit from healthy relationships with involved adults. Everyone helps; kids help; adults help. Paraphrasing Brennan- Everyone working [...]
Green Cup Challenge Highlighted on Emagazine.com
Emagazine.com, the online edition of E- The Environmental Magazine recently highlighted the Green Cup Challenge competition.
Competing to reduce electrical consumption and emissions, Green Cup Challenge Schools have begun recording their energy consumption each school working and hoping to reduce consumption the most.
The Green Cup Challenge has grown beyond its northeast boarding school roots and now [...]
Students Share their Perspectives on a Hyde School Education
Four Hyde School-Woodstock students share their perspectives and experiences about Hyde’s contributions to their personal and academic growth.
Ranging from a new ninth grade student to seniors preparing college applications, the students share the ways their Hyde lessons affect their daily lives and decisions and how they will carry these lessons to college and beyond.
A Vignette For Frustrated Parents
When I wore the dean of students hat at a boarding school in NH, I spent a good chunk of my time talking to parents about how their kids were doing and feeling.
From parents, the communication was often concern that their students weren’t listening, growing, and or assuming responsibilities as fast, or to as large an [...]
Steven Strogratz: “what math is all about and why it’s so enthralling to those who get it.”
Share this with math teachers.
“English In Real Life” was a fixture of my classroom. It wasn’t a set lesson. It was a few minutes at the opening of the period where students could share and show that they’d connected something that we’d covered in class to the larger world.
Their connections ranged from reading/finding [...]
