Alternate approaches to teaching
WEEK 1 — Book 1 No. 5 D Major Prelude BWV850 Perpetual Motion! Flight of the Bumble Bee is perpetual motion. This D major Prelude, is a light lilting loving conversation between the hands –between two –Cinderella and her prince at a ball, or kids playing in a field, hiding behind trees […]
Read MoreIntegration yes, but at what cost? That is the question. In the late 1980’s, I moved to Atlanta Georgia to work as an administrator with Fulton County Schools. A suburb of greater Atlanta, Fulton County is bisected by Interstate 20, into North and South Fulton. The student population in South Fulton Schools are predominantly black, and in […]
Read MoreForty-four million people have now read the impact statement from the young woman that rapist Brock Turner assaulted. I am one of the 44 million. The story has blown up in the news around the nation and across the world, and it isn’t going away. I’m asking myself why. I’ve read that the crime of […]
Read MoreIn a quiet sunlit corner of the yard in Upstate New York, far away from the madding crowd, I sit and watch the leaves slowly and aimlessly float to the ground. It is lovely crisp Fall morning and everything around is bathed in sunlight and an orange hue. On the other side of the Atlantic Ocean in the tropics where […]
Read MoreWhy do we hoard stuff until long long after the “sell by” date or their expiration dates? I cleaned out the refrigerator today, and decided to check the dates on every bottle and packet. Vitamins expired 2009, grated cheese never opened and lost at the back of a shelf dated April 2010, almost 8 months […]
Read MoreOn alternate Fridays, the Reading and Math Buddies stayed in the classroom to be general all-round helpers — teacher Buddies of sorts. They also got to observe and support their four tutees in their classrooms. On the other days of the week, the Big Buddies tutored their kids one-on-one for 30 minutes, in a quiet […]
Read MoreOur life, exempt from public haunt, Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, Sermons in stones [sic knotted threads], and good in everything. (ShakespeareAs You Like It, Act II, scene i) It’s Christmas Eve and I’m sewing a ballerina doll for a precious little two and a half year old who loves to do […]
Read MoreA classroom of kids, a symphony orchestra of musicians, and a flock of birds in flight. What do these three have in common? Groups of individual actions in organized activity each with a leader directing, controlling, cajoling, motivating, supporting and directing the individual as well as the collective operations of the group into a cohesive […]
Read MoreWhen we say, “I don’t want to!”, what is it that we are really saying? What is it that we mean when we at some time or other say, “I don’t want to” to? Usually the “I don’t want to” response is in connection with something that we need to do, something that is challenging in […]
Read MoreSteve Jobs died yesterday. They say he was a “Visionary Leader”. He was! But could he have been a visionary leader if he had been a classroom teacher, or a principal of a school with struggling learners? Could the title “Visionary Leader” be applied to an educator? Apple fired Jobs because he was a problem […]
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