"Teaching"

Photo Essay: Greenwood School Gettysburg Address

This small photo essay accompanies the post about Greenwood’s Gettysburg Address recitation right of passage. Learn more about the Ken Burns Greenwood School Documentary.

Read More

Million Dollar Lesson Plans

Not directly a boarding school story, but certainly appealing to any teacher, or teacher’s family member, who knows the routine of working on the next day’s lesson at home that evening.

Read More

What is the International Baccalaureate (IB)?

Stoneleigh-Burnham School English teacher, Alex Bogel explains the foundation that underlies the International Baccalaureate (IB).

Read More

“Room for Debate” Adds Voices to the Single Gender School Question

For the second time in a little over a week, we find a topic resonating, among the boarding/private school community as the topic of discussion in The New York Times “Room for Debate” series. Recently “Room for Debate” covered ADHD; last week the experts with perspectives examine single gender schools. We penned a post on [...]

Read More

An MD Responds to New ADHD Guidelines

Discussion around the release of revised ADHD guidelines has been robust. The educators of our part of the world have lots of questions. Interestingly, I’ve come across a pediatrician, Claudia M. Gold, MD, with questions (Diagnosing ADHD Under Age 6: A mistaken Idea). As usual (confessing a personal bias), I like the complexity and nuance [...]

Read More

New ADHD Guidelines Include Children as Young as 4, As Old As 18

Released this past Sunday, the American Academy of Pediatrics “has expanded the age range for the diagnosis and treatment of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) to children as young as 4 and as old as 18.”(HD) “…’ADHD is a chronic condition. We can provide symptomatic treatment, but it doesn’t cure the condition. Treatment has to be [...]

Read More

Be Mindful and Thankful for the People and the Food That You Receive Every Day

For 2011 Blog Action Day, I’ve got license to muse on food in boarding schools. Food is a funny thing in a boarding school; like other parts of the boarding school experience- academics, athletics, study hall, it’s part of the routine. And, in many ways, the regular schedule, balancing demands, finding time, fitting something in- [...]

Read More

The Experts Debate ADHD

If you’re unfamilar with The New York Times “Room for Debate” series, the paper floats a question to a panel of experts around a topic. Then, each expert addresses the question based on their research, position & perspective in the field. “Are Americans More Prone to A.D.H.D.?” is a recent “Room for Debate” question. ADHD [...]

Read More

A Boarding School with a Top Tier Mountaineering Program

Asheville School’s mountaineering program has earned a five year accreditation from Association of Experiential Education (AEE) making Asheville one of only 11 secondary schools worldwide to carry such distinction. Ed Maggart, Asheville’s director of mountaineering expressed his belief in the program: “We have always had an outstanding Mountaineering Program at Asheville School and now we are [...]

Read More

Learning from Failure: A Key to Future Success

Nancy van Arkel, Westtown School Middle School Principal knows, lives, and practices Paul Tough’s New York Times Magazine article “What if the Secret to Success Is Failure?” Like Tough, van Arkel sees failure- more specifically learning from failure- as key to future success for her students. van Arkel rhetorically asks: “How many of us learn life’s [...]

Read More

Miss Porter’s School Head Challenges “The Pseudoscience of Single Sex Schooling”

I didn’t think we’d have to have to wait too long for the professional reply to  “The Pseudoscience of Single Sex Schooling” (see our response). We didn’t even have to wait a full weekend. Miss Porter’s head Katherine Windsor posted her professional response to the paper over the weekend, “Dr. Windsor: The Truth About Single-Sex Schools.” With research at [...]

Read More

Single Gender Schools Don’t Work?

Wow, we’re suffering from whiplash and waiting for the fireworks. On Friday we wrote (Understanding Boys’ Friendships) about Niobe Way’s Deep Secrets: Boys’ Friendships and the Crisis of Connection. Today, we write about the non-profit group American Council for CoEducational Schooling. They may be non-profit but, boy, do they seem to have an ax to [...]

Read More

Understanding Boys’ Friendships

Niobe Way’s Deep Secrets: Boys’ Friendships and the Crisis of Connection has been out a few months and, I admit, I let it slip down the priorities list. Really, it got buried. Thanks to New York Times writer Jan Hoffman for prompting me- through yesterday’s article, “Allowing Teenage Boys to Love Their Friends“- to pull [...]

Read More

Classroom Technology: where are the results?

New York Times reporter Matt Richtel turns a critical eye on this conundrum in his article from this past Saturday, “In Classroom of Future, Stagnant Scores.” This piece is ‘must’ reading for anyone involved classroom technology adoption. The problem with education- more specifically- classroom technology is that the purveyors, the public, students, their parents, and [...]

Read More

An Assistant Head Ruminates on Educational Directions and Policy

Delphian School Assistant Headmaster Mark Siegel keeps an interesting blog (Thinking About Education) where he shares articles, comments, and musings on the changing state of education. It’s a light policy manifesto for eduction reform. Siegel finds interesting articles, and angles, covering any, and all, topics on education- from parental control, to testing, to student/childhood development, [...]

Read More