November 2008
3 posts
a tribute to my dad, plus soup…http://tinyurl.com/5o2ybs
Can I go help somebody measure some drapes or something? Oh, that’s right, I have to go to work.
I just voted for Obama in #TwitVote — http://twitvote.twitmarks.com/
September 2008
5 posts
…think about the possibility of 11 to 14 hours at your school, and then another 3 or 4 at home at night.
I can’t even talk about the “being a high school principal” part of my life except to say if you’re considering it…
In the meantime, does anyone have any advice or recommendations or good recipes for red kuri squash?
is frantically trying to have a life on new work schedule. Apparently H.S. principals work 12-hour days on site, then several more at home.
& of course they didn’t tell me that when I was offered the job. Should I have suspected when they made the offer right in the interview?
August 2008
5 posts
How do you twitter an enormous life/work change in so few characters? Maybe it’s an advantage to use less to say more? Um yes, I have one.
G’s b-day: last nite best Thai food in NYC: peanut dumplings, chicken satay, pad see ew, crispy duck…at Thai Terminal, East Village
G’s b-day, Part II: Home cooking…baby back ribs, collards & mustard greens, fresh corn, apple spice cake with creamy vanilla frosting
Up at 8:17 a.m: ginormous crash outside our window, as if the car accident had happened IN our bedroom. Horn blared for ages. Good morning.
Hello out there... →
July 2008
18 posts
Tomorrow, out to friends’ beach house. 3 days of lounging/R & R, much needed.
Yeah, okay, jam update. 17 half-pints of a raspberry-red currant preserve so good that upon 1 taste you would immediately start begging…
15 jars of tart Montmorency cherry preserve, cooling on the kitchen table & making that plinking sound as the tops vacuum-seal themselves.
plus 2 quarts of pitted cherries in the freezer. I really don’t want to see any more cherries for a while.
Tumbling Toward Curriculum Reform →
Thinking about curriculum reform, and the...
Rutgers University Libraries: Libraries:... →
This project was originally based in the idea of curriculum reform. But I became so interested in the Ferrer Modern School movement that it has morphed, somewhat — although I think getting back to the ideals of this radical educational movement from the turn of the 20th century would (in light of the questionable goals of our current general curriculum), represent curriculum reform indeed. ...
“No individual has either the time or the ability to be really interested in many...”
– KELLY, Harry “The Modern Stelton, New Jersey School Association of North America”, R.A.FORUM
An Imagined Chat about Learning, Testing and...
Julie: So, we're sitting down today to talk with Principal Nickleby (errr, NCLB) and the reknowned education writer/thinking/reformer Deborah -----, about the general education curriculum, and whether or not it's really serving the interests of our learners. What do kids need to know? What's practical knowledge? What will make them able to keep learning and working and playing well together within the larger world as they become adults?
Principal Nickleby: Ms. Conason, you're forever going on about curriculum reform. Why do you blather on about this when we just need to get on with the program and test the hell out of these kids?
Deborah: Principal Nickleby, I'm so glad to meet you. It's interesting that your name is the same as the nickname for the NCLB or "no child left behind" legislation.
Principal Nickleby: Yes, interesting coincidence, isn't it.
Julie (muttering under her breath): there are no coincidences...
Deborah (diplomatically) Well, it's a joy to be able to converse with forward-thinking, cutting-edge educators like yourself, and of course Ms. Conason, who uses such a wide range of innovative modalities and teaching/learning strategies in her classroom.
Principal Nickleby: Yes, yes, she's got all the bells and whistles and fancy-dancy-schmancy stuff going on. But are the kids learning? And much more important than whether or not they're learning, WILL THE TEST SCORES GO UP?
Julie (timidly): I'm not sure that learning and test scores are the same thing...
Principal Nickleby: Of course they're the same thing! One is the indicator of the other!
Deborah: Well, Principal Nickleby -- let me ask you a question -- or rather, let me ask you to tell us a story. Think about a time when you learned something -- something valuable, meaningful, that has stood you in good stead your whole life long.
Principal Nickleby: You mean like the periodic table of the elements?
Deborah: Ummm, maybe. Do you know them all? Do you use the periodic table of the elements? Can you tell us all the elements, what they're part of, where we find them, things like that?
Principal Nickleby: Of course not! I don't remember all that scientific crap! But I learned them.
Deborah: Okay. Let me put this another way. Think about something you know how to do really, really well -- something that's a passion of yours, maybe. When did you first learn how to do it, and from whom?
Principal Nickleby: Oh, I getcha. Well, fly-fishing. See, my dad taught me, and it was almost like that movie, A River Runs Through It -- the fly-fishing parts I mean. Not the bad parts with the family members trying to kill each other and all.
Deborah: Fly-fishing. Wonderful. What about you, Julie?
Julie: Oh, whenever I think of that question, I think about cooking with my mother, and how beautiful and natural it felt to learn by watching, by doing, from someone I loved.
Principal Nickleby: "Whenever you think of that question"? You mean you've done this before? Not fair, NOT FAIR! She had an advantage! She knew what the question was going to be before it was asked!
Deborah (soothingly): You did very well, Principal Principal. Don't worry, this wasn't a test. That's why I like to play along , too. Here, let me tell you mine. I think about swimming, and how I learned to swim from my Uncle Albert, right in the Atlantic Ocean. The ocean was so big and scary, but I felt so protected and safe in my uncle's arms. It was easy to learn when I felt safe, and loved.
Principal Nickleby: This is all very heartwarming, but what does it have to do with education?
Julie: Ummm, well, that maybe the things we remember -- in other words, what we actually learn -- are the things we learn because we have a desire to know them, because they're being taught to us by people we love...
Principal Nickleby (sarcastically): I'm deeply touched and all, but this, after all, is SCHOOL. I thought you wanted to talk about your little pet topic, *curriculum reform*.
Curriculum Reform or pondering the possibility of...
How do we reform the current (read: antiquated) general curriculum so that students actually can make choices for themselves? What should be kept as mandatory, necessary? What could actually be thrown out or placed in the “optional” or “electives” box? WHO is going to get to make these decisions? A lot of questions, I know. It would answer a lot for me, and change a lot for me, if school was...
WAAAAAY too tired to make cookie dough NOW - it’s not going to have the special quality of dough that rests for hours overnight. Oh well.
MUST make choc chip cookies from Wed’s Times http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/09/dining/091crex.html
Final class potluck Thurs, good excuse…
Zen Mind, Beginners' Mind →
Of 13 jars of delicious low-sugar organic raspberry jam I made, only 1 jar left. Gave it all away, ready to make sour cherry preserves next
Breadth vs. Depth →
Playing 20 questions
Questions about self:
1. How can I continue to increase my father’s quality of life for the time he has left?
2. I just censored a question because I realized that I didn’t want people outside this group reading it. But it’s a really good question. What do I do about that?
3. How do I help facilitate but also participate in a meeting about my husband’s business?
4. ...
June 2008
2 posts
What I wish I could say
When I entitled this blog “paved with good intentions” I was thinking about Paul’s and my planning process for our summer institute, and that was what the first post was about, really. But if I substitute the “we” for “I” the whole entry somehow sounds and becomes much more universal, something about the process of entropy and how all things and processes...
Planning for planning to plan to actually do...
I think that we keep thinking that if we have a couple of hours, we’re going to get the whole thing nailed down. But what happens is that we keep throwing out ideas, one on top of the other, and sometimes it gets top-heavy and starts to crush down with its own weight…and other times good things start to spring up. But by that time we usually have to go, so we end up planning to plan...