Presentation to Elementary School Parents

At the end of February, I had the great pleasure to participate in a panel hosted by our Lower School (elementary school) Parent Association. The title of the evening was “Fitness, Food, and Friending” and focused on educate parents on the new programs that we are developing in physical education., science, and through our technology programs to provide a foundation for our students which will hopefully provide for a balanced life-style. I really love presenting to this age-group’s parents, since these are the formative years of development, where healthy guidelines and norms can be established before the students reach adolescence. […]

A Successful Podcasting Project

One of the aspects of my responsibilities at North Shore that I enjoy the most is rethinking curriculum units or projects. Sometimes that they fall somewhat flat, but usually the projects are successful and push students into new modes of thinking. In my mind, the success of these projects is centered around the asking of an open-ended question that challenges students to become active learners. Four years ago, our History Department Chair and United States History teacher, Kevin Randolph, and I began to reconstruct his United States History curriculum to incorporate more elements of visual literacy into the curriculum. Students […]

Learning Outside the Schedule – Sharing a New Voice

As a Director of Academic Technology, I have always celebrated the learning our students do outside of daily schedule that happens on the fields and in our performance spaces. The benefits to our students is that they develop the capacity of leadership, the need to work in an ensemble or team, and most importantly, with our school’s requirements, pushes students to participate into either new areas or areas of discomfort. The tongue-tied star athlete is required to perform on stage. Likewise, the theater geek is required to push themselves athletically. Eloquently pointing this out is a new voice in the […]

Setting My Head on Fire

Here is my current recipe for making me rethink who I am and what I stand for: Miix equal portions of Evil Plans: Having Fun on the Road to World Domination by Hugh MacLeod Poke in the Box, by Seth Godin The Art of Choosing by Sheena Ivengar A New Culture of Learning: Cultivating the Imagination for a World of Constant Change by Douglas Thomas and John Seely Brown Let ideas perculate for several days. Watch new ideas gel and form. Let stand. Remix. Boy, I could really use a reading/thinking day to be able to fulling articulate the new […]