Director’s Educational Links
On the Theme of Peace
As part of our studies of peace this year, the pre-K–12 community of students, faculty, administrators and staff will reflect on what the Quaker peace testimony says and what it calls us to do personally, locally and globally. In order to learn a bit about the history and meaning of the peace testimony, check out the links below to Wikipedia and the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting pamphlet, Quaker Peace Testimony. For ideas about what each of us can do for personal peacemaking, visit the Friends Journal link to read “21 Tips for Personal Peacemaking.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_Testimony
http://www.pym.org/publish/pamphlets/peace.htm
http://www.friendsjournal.org/personal-peacemaking
How We Praise Our Kids Matters
In the Feb. 12, 2007 issue of New York Magazine, Po Bronson writes about the power of praise on children. While praise clearly can be a positive motivator, what we say to our children when praising seems to matter. Building on the research of Stanford University professor of psychology Carol S. Dweck and others, the author investigates how praise impacts student motivation, persistence and mindset. Go to: http://nymag.com/news/features/27840/
Tracking a Student’s Daily Performance
Often parents ask me when PC is going to go to one of those online programs that allow parents to check their child’s daily performance in school, including grades on assessments, homework and attendance. In my belief, these types of online programs could radically change the way teachers, students and parents communicate. And before we jump into a program like this, I believe we need to think a lot about how the school might provide parents with the regular performance feedback that students receive daily from teachers. While parents may be eager to know how their child is doing in school, students need to develop their own monitoring and self-advocacy skills so that they can become independent learners. This New York Times article, “I Know What You Did Last Math Class,” may help to inform out thinking. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/04/fashion/04edline.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=i%20know%20what%20you%20did%20last%20math%20class&st=cse&oref=slogin
Reading Online
In “Literacy Debate: Online, R U Really Reading?” author Motoko Rich explores how reading has changed in the digital age. While the decline in children reading for pleasure is well documented, we also know that many kids spend hours online searching for information, reading, and even writing instead of watching television or playing video games. Read this article and have a conversation with your child about it.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/27/books/27reading.html?scp=1&sq=Literacy%20debate:online&st=cse