Preparing your children for the future
My childhood unfolded in the last few years BC (Before Computers). However, my own children and my students have lived their entire lives with bleeps and buzzes and signals from multiple channels of information. Parents and teachers alike worry about the impact that constant multitasking is having on children’s developing brains. Kids—digital natives—swim comfortably in the floods of information and…
The connection between soft-rock and empathy.
Benefiting from the pauses in life
How do we strike the right balance between protecting and overprotecting our kids?
Must all learning be difficult, a series of miserably rote chores performed by schoolchildren trapped at their desks? Or can mastering multiplication, reading, science, and writing be a romp through the playgrounds of the mind? While most students would prefer that school be as easy as possible, the truth is that the deepest human understanding—the stuff that sticks with us…
By day, I’m a calm, mild-mannered middle school teacher who would do just about anything to motivate my students to do their best work and fall in love with learning. I praise their achievements and efforts, not just their high scores, and then watch those scores improve. When they stumble, I help them see how to pick themselves back up…
As a middle school teacher, I try to be aware of the big picture—the curriculum—as well as the tiny shifting reactions of my students. I have to be conscious of how each child grows and changes over time so I can help all of them stay motivated and engaged. By the end of most days, my mind is tired yet…
