Global connections for Kindergarten

I had to share this blog link. To tweet or not to tweet? Tweeting with K makes wonderful sense!  What a wonderful way to expand the kindergarten circle.  And they are loving reading with worldwide friends.  Read more:

http://missnightmutters.blogspot.com/2011/02/to-tweet-or-not-to-tweet.html

Don't push, just support

Early reading skills are a moving target!  Within a range of a couple of years, pretty much all children will develop the ability to read and write.  Researchers have found that early reading is not correlated to later school success or higher intelligence.  Late bloomers can be some of the most passionate readers and writers!

Supporting readers where they are on their path seems to be the best technique.  Responsive to all of our developing readers at Parker, Pre K and K-1 teachers use about 1,000 (my highly scientific guesstimate) strategies.  I remember a former Parker student, Kumi, who read the phone book every day in Pre K 3!  He loved picking out the alphabet letters.

New York Times article, Reading At Some Private Schools is Delayed, gives an interesting view about the pressures in New York City schools.  When parents get worried that their emerging readers aren't being advanced quickly enough, they sometimes panic.

When early readers and writers have support and encouragement - they thrive.  And those who take a little longer (and their parents) can take heart.  As a kindergartner told a visitor yesterday, "We can read some of these Valentine hearts, and some we can't.  We're just learning."

Drumming and dancing on Friday

Parenting is a relationship

Susan Engel's book just came out today: Red Flags or Red Herrings, Predicting Who Your Child Will Become.   Susan's positive message is that children are pretty much who they are.  Parents can have an influence in guiding them, but can't make their child into someone they're not.   Here she is on Good Morning America. "Parenting is not a job.  It's a relationship!" 

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/doctor-differs-tiger-mom-parenting-technique-12892864

Susan will be at Parker on March 23 as part of our Panel Discussion, Educating for 21st Century Success.

I have read her book and I think every parent can take something useful and reassuring from it.

A full week

A full week at Parker!

Developing mastery

How do kids get really good at something?  Why do they choose to engage and persist with challenging work? Kathleen Cushman went right to the source and asked students for her book Fires in the Mind. 

Today, Parker kids worked hard to master walking in deep snow.  Why?  Because it was totally fun!

What did Punxsatawney Phil see?

Punxsutawney Phil, Seer of Seers, Sage of Sages, Prognosticator of Prognosticators and Weather Prophet Extraordinary, the famous groundhog predicts...

http://www.groundhog.org/

Boom whackers

4-5's performed their version of "It's a New Year" at assembly.

Shaping our destiny

 Finally warm enough to head outside!

 Jen '08 and Imani, Zali, and Peter '10 all visited today.

President Obama promoted study of STEM topics (science, technology, engineering, math) in his State of the Union last night.

We have made the investment in science at Parker  - and in STEM.  It really starts in Pre K:  exploring materials and states of matter, building with a huge variety of materials, collections of outdoors treasures... Inquiry and experimentation - asking questions - are the main focus.  Having a science teacher in the elementary years as we do is unusual in schools.

We have 4 alumni visiting today.  Peter has done so well in biology as a freshman that his teacher gave him the labs to perform independently and he took the Regent Exam this week.  These students are motivated questioners.  Just what the president ordered.

"We are the first nation to be founded for the sake of an idea—the idea that each of us deserves the chance to shape our own destiny. That's why centuries of pioneers and immigrants have risked everything to come here. It's why our students don't just memorize equations, but answer questions like 'What do you think of that idea? What would you change about the world?' "

Education Week talks about it further.

The redemptive process of collaboration

Trying, failing, a community working together, collaboration.  Here is what David Brooks had to say about our gratitude for this process:

...every sensible person in public life also feels redeemed by others. You may write a mediocre column or make a mediocre speech or propose a mediocre piece of legislation, but others argue with you, correct you and introduce elements you never thought of. Each of these efforts may also be flawed, but together, if the system is working well, they move things gradually forward.

Each individual step may be imbalanced, but in succession they make the social organism better.

As a result, every sensible person feels a sense of gratitude for this process. We all get to live lives better than we deserve because our individual shortcomings are transmuted into communal improvement. We find meaning — and can only find meaning — in the role we play in that larger social enterprise. 

More about this article from Quantum Progress