Blogs

Should Kids Fight Back Against Bullies?

By David Cutler posted 08-30-2013
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Should Kids Fight Back Against Bullies? Posted by David Cutler × April 17, 2013 at 9:12 pm How involved should adults get in bullying incidents? I begin to wonder as much after reading Emily Bazelon’s brilliant new book, Sticks and Stones: Defeating the Culture of Bullying and Rediscovering the Power of Character and Empathy , which reminds me of a traumatic childhood memory. I’m nine years old and at sleep-away camp, located in scenic Maine. With gorgeous playing fields, state-of-the-art recreation facilities and a beautiful lake, this is an ideal location for a Hollywood movie. Inside my bunk, however, things aren’t as nice. ...
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2016 AC Day 2: With Gripping Life Stories, Bryan Stevenson Inspires Us to Change the World

By Ari Pinkus posted 02-29-2016
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Bryan Stevenson, a lawyer and social justice activist, gave one of the most heartrending, inspiring speeches I have ever heard. Period. Everyone I spoke to afterward felt exactly the same way. Here’s why. “I don’t want to put the bar too low. I want to talk about what we need to do to change the world,” said Bryan Stevenson as he kicked off Day 2 of the Annual Conference, known as Teacher Day. Bryan is the author of Just Mercy, the founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, and a professor at New York University. The Justice System’s Sobering Statistics Bryan began by painting a bleak picture of the judicial landscape. In 1972, the U.S. had 370,000 ...
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Are You a Giver, Taker, or Matcher? Find Out.

By Ari Pinkus posted 12-16-2013
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As we’re wrapped up in the excitement of the giving season, it’s worthwhile to pause for a moment and reflect on just what giving looks like – and can look like – in our day-to-day lives year-round. This fall, I published a Q & A with Adam Grant, a popular organizational psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania, who wrote a book on the topic. In his bestseller, Give and Take: A Revolutionary Approach to Success , Adam divides us into three categories: givers, takers, and matchers. The gist: Givers look for ways to share their time, connections, and resources with others. Matchers are motivated by quid pro quo. Takers seek out what benefits them ...
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Do schools kill creativity?

By Victor Llanque Zonta posted 02-02-2014
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Do schools kill creativity? Since Ken Robinson asked this question at a TED conference in California in 2006, more than 17 million (and counting) people have viewed his TED talk . But as popular as his message was, it hit me recently that Robinson relies entirely on anecdotal evidence to support his point. Do schools actually have a negative effect on people’s creative capacities? I set out to find out the answer to that in one of my classes. On the whole, Robinson was right. Individuals’ creative thinking skills decline as they spend more time in schools, and the average performance in creative thinking tests has declined in the United ...
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Day 2 of PoCC: Mahzarin Banaji Shows Us How to Spot and Correct Our Blindspots

By Ari Pinkus posted 12-01-2015
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I’m Ari Pinkus, digital editor and producer at NAIS, and I’ll be blogging at the People of Color Conference in Tampa this week. You can follow me here and on Twitter @ajp112 The Tampa Prep Chamber Chorus kicked off the second day of PoCC with the song “I need your love.” -- Mahzarin Banaji Shows Us How to Spot and Correct Our Blindspots Dr. Mahzarin Banaji, author of Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People, led the audience through a provocative and, at times, uproarious talk about how implicit bias shows up in our everyday lives . Most of the time our brains working on automatic, ...
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In Silicon Valley, A Closer Look at Innovation Within and Beyond Independent Schools

By Ari Pinkus posted 07-11-2016
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MENLO PARK and PORTOLA VALLEY, CALIF. – Innovation is a learning journey — one we’re constantly co-creating and recreating to meet the needs of a world in flux. NAIS’s Innovation Task Force is at the forefront of the journey’s unfoldment in independent schools. In late June, I joined members of the task force — 10 independent school leaders, NAIS Vice President of Education Technology and Learning Services Kawai Lai, and NAIS Senior Vice President of Advocacy and Education Innovation Jefferson Burnett — in Silicon Valley for a capstone experience marking the group’s progress. Day 1: We Gather Examples of Innovation in the Field On the first ...
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12 Life Lessons from Improv 101

By Ari Pinkus posted 04-25-2016
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Inspired by Shonda Rhimes’s book Year of Yes , I decided to do something radical to celebrate my birthday this year: I signed up to learn improv at DC IMPROV in downtown Washington. Yes, theater — because it isn’t how I typically put myself out there. I was intrigued to try improv after reading Yes, And: How Improvisation Reverses "No, But" Thinking and Improves Creativity and Collaboration, Lessons from The Second City . Authors Kelly Leonard and Tom Yorton, executives at The Second City comedy theater in Chicago, describe how they have used improv principles to tap into employees’ creativity and collaborative spirit — and helped businesses ...
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A Response to "Why School?" by Will Richardson (2012) and “Progressive Education: Why It’s Hard to Beat, But Also Hard to Find,” by Alfie Kohn (2008)

By Carter Latendresse posted 09-11-2013
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The 2012 NAIS visiting accreditation team last year charged my school with defining what we mean by “progressive” so that we might become a more progressive school. To this end, the Chair of our math department assembled a Progressive Education group that began meeting to discuss these issues. The group read several writers, including pieces by Will Richardson (2012) and Alfie Kohn (2008), who both embrace progressive ideas such as the following: project-based learning (rather than textbook learning) answering questions and solving problems (rather than only covering skills) decision-making involves students at every level (rather than ...
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The Rhythms of Learning at SXSWedu

By Ari Pinkus posted 03-17-2017
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“Much like the best in any field, the best learners and teachers stress-test assumptions. The profound often hides with absurd, even heretical, experiments.” — Tim Ferriss AUSTIN, TEXAS — Ever since childhood, my need to learn has been unquenchable. Then, a few years ago, I discovered that “learner” is one of my top five strengths, per the Gallup StrengthsFinder talent assessment tool . This means I exhibit “a great desire to learn and want to continuously improve. In particular, the process of learning, rather than the outcome, excites” me. In my third visit to the SXSWedu Conference & Festival in early March, I sought to leverage this strength ...
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2016 AC Day 2: Kindra Hall On Why Storytelling Matters – And How We Can Tell Compelling Stories

By Ari Pinkus posted 02-27-2016
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Kindra Hall’s love of storytelling began in the fifth grade. She wasn’t having a particularly pleasant year while her best friend was super popular. Then, her teacher assigned her class to choose a story and tell it to classmates. From the time she shared her chosen story, Good Giants Big Toe , she got hooked on storytelling — and her world started opening up. During her school days, Kindra continued to grab and keep people’s attention with her stories. She kept telling stories beyond childhood. In her graduate school program in organizational socialization, she would start long research reports with a story, provide a ton of information, and wrap in ...
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Final Day of PoCC: Michel Martin Exhorts: Keep the Conversation Going - And Here's How

By Ari Pinkus posted 12-04-2013
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I’m Ari Pinkus, associate editor at NAIS, and I will be blogging at the 26th NAIS People of Color Conference this week in National Harbor, Md., outside Washington, D.C. At PoCC Close, Michel Martin Exhorts: Keep the Conversation Going – And Here's How In its final day, the conference crystallized by looking back and looking ahead. The Francis Parker School (California) choir sang songs about tomorrow, and then an exquisite photo montage of Nelson Mandela flashed on the screen overhead. Michel Martin, host of NPR's "Tell Me More," ran with the full-circle theme: "Nelson Mandela became a moral and political leader of his own people ... ...
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Shift Happens: Karl Fisch On Education

By David Cutler posted 12-30-2013
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EDITORS PICKS , FEATURED , SPIN EDUCATION LIVE , TRENDING Shift Happens: Karl Fisch On Education Posted by David Cutler × With over 5.5 million YouTube hits since its Feb. 7, 2008 debut, Karl Fisch’s “Shift Happens” video raises serious questions about America’s faltering education system. Fisch has been teaching for over 25 years; he now serves as Director of Technology at Arapahoe High School in Centennial, Colorado. He also runs an education blog, The Fischbowl . As I chat with Fisch, it becomes clear that we share many of the same views on where education is today and where it needs to be headed. I tell him that ...
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2016 AC Day 2: Google’s Chief Education Evangelist Outlines Our Calling to Reimagine Education

By Ari Pinkus posted 02-28-2016
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Google’s Chief Education Evangelist Jaime Casap pushed educators to throw out the old norms and models of education and embrace the new digital, iterative normal. Today’s technology is a catalyst for creating real student-centric education that’s grounded in 100+ years of research about how we learn best. How the Pace of Technological Change Has Changed Our Expectations Technology has advanced at warp speed and expectations have changed as a result. Jaime reflected on buying his first iPhone in San Francisco nine years ago, and asked us to consider how we managed with older technology. For instance, remember when we had to call the Internet at home, and ...
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2016 AC: Seeking 21st Century Talent: How to Disrupt the Campus Visit Experience

By Ari Pinkus posted 02-24-2016
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I'm Ari Pinkus, digital editor and producer at NAIS, and I'll be blogging during the 2016 NAIS Annual Conference in San Francisco. These days, how to recruit and hire teaching talent is top of mind for school leaders. In this "design thinking inspired" three-hour workshop, presenters Matt Glendinning of Moses Brown School (Rhode Island) and Carla Silver of Leadership + Design set attendees on a course to reimagine the campus visit for job candidates. Most of those in the room were stewards of their school’s hiring process. Assuming Much in the Campus Visit Right away, we gathered at round tables in teams of five. The first step was to consider ...
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Proud to Support John Chubb, New NAIS President

By David Cutler posted 08-09-2013
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EDITORS PICKS , FEATURED , SPIN EDUCATION LIVE , TEACHING , TRENDING Proud to Support John Chubb, New NAIS President Posted by David Cutler × August 10, 2013 at 2:58 am × Edit NAIS President John Chubb (left) poses with SpinEdu founder David Cutler (right) at the Teachers of the Future conference at Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Virginia. I am thoroughly impressed with John Chubb, the new President of the National Association of Independent Schools. He brings a diverse array of experience to the position, and I have no doubt that he will bring our community to new and even greater heights. More than anything, ...
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NAIS and the Only Responsible Stance on Anthropogenic Climate Change

By Carter Latendresse posted 11-25-2016
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Carter Latendresse 8 December 2016 NAIS and the Only Responsible Stance on Anthropogenic Climate Change In our commitment to inclusivity, bipartisanship, and debate regarding climate change, the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) has paradoxically abdicated its leadership responsibility and already betrayed two generations of students. We have known since the first Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessment report in 1990 that anthropogenic climate change is a real and pressing danger. We have today in NAIS a third generation of students who have lived with the known effects of anthropogenic climate change since 1990, and ...
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Approaching Trump in the Classroom

By David Cutler posted 04-04-2016
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As a high school American History and Government teacher, I take seriously my obligation to refrain from giving any inclination of my party affiliation. More than anything else, I don’t want my views to influence unduly what my students believe, nor do I want any of them to suspect me of grading based on my own political leanings—which I would never do. I couldn’t care less what party my students support, so long as each of them leaves my classroom with a better understanding of why they support it. During presidential election seasons, I’m especially careful to avoid sharing my personal views about any candidate. But we have never had a frontrunner ...
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2016 AC Day 1: Randi Zuckerberg Shares Her Career Highlights, Key Tech Trends, and Why They’re So Dot Complicated

By Ari Pinkus posted 02-26-2016
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Randi Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Zuckerberg Media, gave an electrifying presentation about her background in the tech sector. She highlighted several key tech trends and the complications that ensue from their prevalence. Randi’s Credentials Randi is a multifaceted media professional with a bunch of credits to her name: author of the children’s book Dot and the book Dot Complicated: Untangling Our Wired Lives , host of the radio show “Dot Complicated” on SiriusXM, and past performer in Rock of Ages on Broadway. Randi, who is sister to Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, said she will have failed in this presentation “if you leave thinking ...
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Transition Town PDX Blog

By Carter Latendresse posted 12-15-2013
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Please check out my students' online blog at http://transitiontownpdx.blogspot.com/ . Rob Hopkins, author of The Transition Handbook , just tweeted it this morning. Please encourage your students to visit and leave comments. Our students would love to connect around issues of sustainability. This blog is the culminating project of a six-week unit that I taught in my sixth grade English class at Catlin Gabel School in Portland, Oregon, between October and December, 2013. We have been studying how to read nonfiction and solve environmental problems, focusing on a host of interrelated environmental issues such as global warming, farming, hunger, topsoil ...
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Election Season: A (Hypothetical) Letter to Students

By Kent Lenci posted 04-05-2016
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Many thanks to David Cutler, whose recent post on teaching Trump released me from self-imposed silence. Kudos to David, too, for the wise council on how to approach this tricky subject. I have been tying myself in knots for weeks as I puzzle over how to guide kids through this particular election season. Bursting from the pressure of trying to maintain neutrality in the face of what I consider to be pretty naughty behavior, I finally wrote a letter to my students. Never mind that I knew I would not show it to them; I include it here in the hopes of inviting conversation. Especially, I wonder how we find ways to help students live the mission of their ...
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