Parents
The Case for Distraction . . . or Ritalin?
"It is the attempted standardization of a human being and of a notion of achievement that is limiting, prescriptive and bullying." Read more
Ten To-Do's for Young People to Consider
#1 - Build a "Personal Board of Directors" Read more
Is Math Art? Dream or Nightmare?
"A Mathematician's Lament"Every parent & educator should check out this book excerpt Read more
New Literacies? Why?
"Relevancy is not an option." Read more
A Connected Teacher: Priceless
Foreign Language Learning: What a Global Classroom Looks Like Read more
What Makes Kids Creative? A Box or a Spaceship?
Just tell me what to do. I want to be right. Read more
Is Science "Just So Darn Hard?" Or, do we make it so?
Why so many college students are dropping STEM & what to do about it Read more
21st Century Skills: A "thorny problem" in the classroom
. . . .most high schools' science "experiments" are really "demonstrations," because they are "rigged" for the right answer, thereby disqualifying them as true experiments where outcomes are unknown. Read more
What Color is My World? by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
African-American Inventors & Innovators: MSNBC Morning Joe video Read more
7 Ways to Spark Engagement
Moving from on-task to learning: "Have you noticed that 'on-task' does not always mean engaged?" Read more
How the Flipped Classroom Is Radically Transforming Learning
. . .AND how it changes the way teachers talk with parents - - - Read more
The Cost of College: The Pushback
Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, is having a busy week on the heels of President Obama's State of the Union address Read more
A Complex Web: Teacher-Student Relationships
"Like most of us, they (teachers) had complex personalities that meshed with some people and conflicted with others." Read more
The Parent-School Relationship: The Importance of Listening
"....I have been part of schools that have constantly told me what to do but never listened to what I had to say.' " Read more
21 Things That Will Become Obsolete in Education by 2020
Desks, Language Labs, Computers, Homework, Standardized Tests in College Admissions . . . . Read more
Does our educational system put the brakes on the entrepreneurial spirit in America?
"Parents could turn the system on its head if they weren't so caught up in outmoded mentalities about education forged in the stable economy of the 1950s (but profoundly misguided in today's chaotic, entrepreneurial economy)." Read more
Two Families. Two different paths to "academic excellence." And, the winner is . . .
But the two families - one Chinese, one Mexican/Jewish - have made strikingly different decisions about how to pursue academic excellence. One relies on a parent-driven focus on tutoring, advanced classes and testing drills, while the other allows . . . Read more
What Students (Really) Need to Know
"A good rule of thumb for many things in life holds that things take longer to happen than you think they will, and then happen faster than you thought they could." - Lawrence Summers Read more
"No one tests you on empathy"
Lots of very smart people lack empathy. They're able to test their way through life and get A's. How about empathy, adaptability, initiative and responsibility? Read more
Great minds don't "do desk" alike. Surprise.
The series is called "Desktop Diaries" - with three videos that are such an indulgent insight into their working minds, as expressed by their organization - pack rat version, the streamlined version Read more
This is your child's brain on homework. Or, is it?
Homework: Too much, too little, or the wrong kind? Read more
The Best Book about Education for Everyone?
The Global Achievement Gap: Why even our best schools don't teach the survival skills our children need - and what we can do about it Read more
The learning and achievement "gap" in every family
Testing, One, Two, Three . . . Read more
The Kindergarten Marshmallow Test
Will Your Child Be Successful? Read more
Understanding Dyslexia: Watch Documentary Video Trailer
"By conservative estimates, one in five people are dyslexic.' James Redford, director, of "D for Dyslexia" premiering at the Sundance Film Festival this month. Read more
Technology: Enabling a "Golden Age" for Introverts?
"Rather than riding the texture of a live conversation to figure out how to give and receive information, people are now used to simply pushing their thoughts out into the world, to be responded to at some undetermined future point." Read more
Visions of Mathematics: What Content Should We Teach?
Ben Daley of High Tech High Outlines a Revolutionary Approach to Math Read more
Don't be a bully. LOSER.
New Video Release Read more
"An Amazing Time For Math In This Country"
High School Math Teacher Dan Meyer, gig At Google, riffs about Math - photo NOT Meyer(!) TED talk Read more
A Holiday Dinner Conversation: Why didn't I learn this in school?
Now, here were college grads looking for jobs, and not recognizing that showing curiosity and asking engaging questions could show MORE about WHO they were than reciting some resume paragraph to interviewers in a random interview. -C.J. Westerberg Read more
Legendary Quincy Jones riffs about technology, music, math, creativity, and . . . parenting
" . . .We'd go to executive conferences with Bill Gates and he'd say, 'Alan will you please take over?' . . . " - Quincy Jones Read more
"Here are some of the powerful misconceptions about learning and teaching . . ."
Howard Gardner, Harvard Graduate School of Education: "If I were trying to select a school system for my children or grandchildren, I'd beware of . . . ." Read more
Bill & Melinda's Field Trips
What Parents Can Do to Promote Learning. We know that children who are exposed to more real-life outside- the-class-wall activities guided by parents and schools, usually having to do with level of income in their household, tend to do better in school and in life. Read more
Boy Role-Modeling: The "Man Box"
New TEDWomen Video: Tony Porter Makes a Call to Men Everywhere Read more
Why Other Countries Do Better in Math
Should Parents "Race to the Tutor"? It's not what you think. Guest post. Read more
Why Can't a Boy Be More Like a Girl?
Why Boys are Tuning Out. "Indirectly, that's what she (the teacher) tells them (boys): 'Be a Girl' " Read more
The 3 Myths about Competition: How it affects student motivation
"When 85% of school is built around competition . . " Read more
Would You Hire Your Own Kids? 7 Skills Schools Should Be Teaching Them
Tony Wagner, Former HS teacher, Principal & Co-Director At Harvard School Of Education Posts. "The Ability To Ask The Right Questions Is The Single Most Important Skill." Read more
Are Girls Really Alright?
"The Morale of this Story? Embarrass Your Daughters"- Rachel Simmons Read more
Mike Huckabee: Kids leave school not because they are dumb, but because they are BORED
Who Woulda Thunk? Chats with Sir Ken Robinson Read more
What is the "right" kind of parent?
"It is sad to me when I hear parents feeling bad that they aren't doing "x", or feeling bad or embarrassed that they are doing "y"or doing too much of "x", or reluctant to ask questions and convey their concerns." Read more
The Parent Trapped
"While educators beat the drum about the importance of parental involvement in their child's education, many really mean parental compliance." Guest Post. Read more
Math Tutors to the Rescue?
Why So Many Students Aren't Mastering Basic Math Facts Read more
How to Create Nonreaders
Alfie Kohn Delivers a Powerful Essay About Motivation, Learning &Sharing Power in the Classroom Read more
Singapore Math Demystified!
Guest Post By Scarsdale NY Teacher Bill JacksonThe Daily Riff EXCLUSIVE
Can It Help Solve Our Country's Math-phobia? Read more
Teachers: Don't Leave Out the Parents
"I think we should start assuming that parents are truly on our side and not someone who is out to get us." Read more
Why I Would Fail Third Grade Math
Guest post from a physics college professor with a Ph.D who shadowed his own daughter's 3rd grade class Read more
When Was the Last Time You Shadowed Students for a Day?
"It is a grim experience." - Grant Wiggins responds to a John Merrow post about the Saving Our Schools Rally Read more
"Why Can't Playgrounds Look More Like This?"
"Because a playground doesn't have to cost a million bucks and come in a box. In fact, it's better if it doesn't." Read more
Thugs In The Locker Room: Listen To The "Culture Of Silence"
" . . . sports columnist Sally Jenkins wrote about the swagger of young male athletes and the culture of silence that protects their thuggish locker-room behavior." Read more
What Adults Can Learn From Kids: "Don't Underestimate Our Ability"
12 Year Old Literacy Advocate Sets Us StraightAre Teachers & Parents Actually Making Kids "Shrink To Fit?"
TED Video - Eight Minutes of Adora Svitak Read more
Why Our Kids Don't Get Math
Three surprising reasons why and how it may change our idea of "rigor". Guest Post. Read more
"I'm her mom, not the nanny!"
" 'I don't think we know anybody Hispanic who isn't a baby sitter,' he said." Read more
"My screwed, coddled, self-absorbed, mocked, surprisingly resilient generation."
" . . we had a PC education - people tried to hide from us as long as possible that not everyone is equal we were told we all have a fair chance of making it that's just not so and we're starting to realize that . . ." Read more
Parents: Are we sabotaging our own kids' math "ability"?
Many parents in the United States assume that (math ability) is just some kind of aptitude - some kids have it, some kids don't . . . The result is most of our kids (in the U.S.) don't do really well in Math . . ." Read more
"Let's Raise Our Kids To Be Entrepreneurs"
"We're Giving Them Ritalin & Saying To Them: Don't Be An Entrepreneur Type, Fit Into This Other System And Become A Student". Video Read more
Schools and Parents: A Kabuki Dance?
We asked then, why do some schools still play a kabuki dance when it comes to parental/family engagement? Read more
Conversations that happen in the middle
"We (parents and teachers) really don't get into a conversation . . ." Read more
A 13-year old shows us how the Fibonacci sequence relates to trees: got that?
Museum of Natural History Award Read more
How I Spent My Summer: Being Edgy
"Colleges have moved people from thinking they should be exceptionally well rounded to using the vocabulary that 'well rounded' means 'no edge,' " Read more
High School: Are the Kids Alright?
"Long ago my son determined exactly how not to let the institution of school get in the way of his learning, and had explicit plans for choosing courses carefully so that he had ample time to attend local university lectures and participate in arts events." Read more
Are our kids sitting too much? (Are we?)
"What's particularly interesting about recent research is the revelation that sitting for extended periods of time does significant damage to human health that cannot be undone by exercising." Read more
An Awards Day Poem: by a Mom whose son didn't receive one
It's that time of year again, and for many parents, Award Ceremonies at school are like walking an emotional trapeze highwire . . . Read more
How about a Family Awards Ceremony?
The key here is that by encouraging our children to strive for these awards, and defeat the other, they will achieve more and be pushed toward a more successful career in the real world. Read more
The Unintended Parent-Child Disconnect
"The real value of college isn't in teaching what is known; it is in preparing students for the unknown." Read more
7 Lessons From My Father
Chris Wejr is school principal at Kent Elementary School in British Columbia. He has spent his career working with students as a high school physical education, math, and science teacher, an intermediate teacher, an elementary vice-principal, as well as a... Read more
Ten Lessons For My Daughters
"Take Trips, Girls. Take Chances. Take Off." - Bruce Feiler - The Council Of Dads Read more
Seven Reasons to Say 'No College' to Your Kids:
"But in my view, the entire college degree industry is a scam, a self-perpetuating Ponzi scheme that needs to stop right now." - David Altucher Read more
Are Chinese Moms Better than American Moms?
The parents reading this article in the Wall Street Journal are more likely to be the ones having their their children tutored, equally-scheduled, and possibly kinda cheating, and/or privately schooled, and legacy-guaranteed to some marquee-name university, so they can agree with Chua's so called superior- parenting techniques . . . ." C.J. Westerberg Read more
"How to Turn Your Child Into a Bully"
How do you solve family conflicts? How are bullies born? The issue has been the subject of intense study . . . . in a much needed look at the possible origins of bullying behavior: the home. Read more
Kindergarten Test-Prep Nightmare
Are You Tipping Off Your Child's Test Monitor? A Jaw-Drop View of How To Prepare Your Kindergartner To "Win" Private School Entry Read more
Dealing with Parents of a Cyber-bully
Parents who present the other parents with a printout of their child's most repugnant moments should be prepared for minimization, even denial. Why schools must be involved. Read more
Bullying & the Brain: Tips for Parents
As parents, "our emotional brain wants to fix" the situation and often times we are counter-productive by not being calm in this very chaotic situation. The three steps to remember Read more
Eyes Wide Open: Parental Advice About Teens
How To Distinguish Between Typical Teen Behavior & Serious Problems Read more
Dear Millennials: Your Parents Lied To You
"You're wonderful, sweetie. Just keep working hard and you can be anything you want to be. Great job!" (soccer mom, 1992) Read more
"Math Survivor" Game: Created By Two Moms
A Big Hit: Based on the "Survivor" Reality Show, Kindergarten Through Grade 5 Kids Had The Chance For Their Own Adventure, Complete with Math Challenges, Flags, Tribe Council & Worm Eating Read moreThe true test of intelligence is not how much we know how to do, but how we behave when we don't know what to do.John Holt, How Children Fail, 1964
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