After five years, the Alternative Education Resource Organization (AERO) is finally bringing their annual conference back to the US West Cost at Portland, Oregon, August 3-7, 2016. Sign up right away if interested. There is not much time left. As one who attended the conference the last time it came to Portland, I can attest […]
Jun 26 2016
Highly Recommended: Alternative Education Conference in Portland, Oregon
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Jan 09 2016
Fractions Made Visible – and Fun
Image courtesy of Wikipedia Commons The aptly named website, “Visual Fractions,” shows fraction concepts and operations the way I teach them – from a visual basis. Although it is standard for math curricula to introduce fractions visually, most of them drop the visualization too early. Worse, when many children are just starting to grasp these […]
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Sep 17 2015
New Osmo Game
Osmo®, the educational game platform that incorporates actual, hands-on pieces while giving software-based feedback and enhancements, has a new game for teaching basic math concepts and operations, called “Numbers.” As I mentioned in a previous post, Osmo uses the camera on an iPad to “see” which game pieces the player(s) have put in front of […]
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Jun 06 2015
Too Much Thought? Here’s What to Do:
Go to school for 13 or more years. I don’t mean just any school, but most schools. Most of the political and ideological interests struggling for control of American education share some basic assumptions about the meaning and purpose of schooling in modern society. They assume that schools exist to transmit a certain body of […]
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May 12 2015
New Story for Young Children Supports Nature as Natural
To counteract "Nature-Deficit Disorder," a new release from Barefoot Books, Outdoor Opposites, plays with words for opposites while portraying children enjoying the natural world. Macy Koch has written a nice description of the book (for ages 3-7) here. It is good to see a book that reminds children and parents how much fun playing outside […]
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Mar 04 2015
Schooling and Interest
When students study what interests them, their work develops a natural, invigorating flow. They engage creatively with their topic, ask their own questions and pursue answers to their own satisfaction. They remember what matters. When someone else chooses their work, students may not find much of personal relevance. The learning becomes a chore, the students’ […]
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Nov 28 2014
Children Need to Direct Themselves
Here is evidence that too many children’s lives are over-scripted at the expense not only of their free time, but also of their cognitive development. Psychologists at the University of Colorado in Boulder, CO (USA) and the University of Denver in Denver, CO published their research in the June 17, 2014 Frontiers in Psychology journal […]
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Oct 22 2014
What is Student-Directed Learning and How Far do we Go?
I ran across this interview of a little boy by his mother, who asks him various questions about his experiences at his new school. This is not your typical school. It is the Sudbury Valley School in Massachussets, where children decide for themselves what to do all day. Having taught Kindergarten myself, I can attest […]
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May 25 2012
Nature and Children
When I was a child, I roamed the woods and played outdoor games with my friends. Few children today seem to be so lucky. Below are recent articles that point to the lack of outdoor experience among children and why that matters. “Kids These Days: Why Is America’s Youth Staying Indoors?” (Nature Conservancy website) “Only […]
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Apr 27 2012
Learning without Perks or Punishments
As humans, we are intrinsically motivated to learn. (Animals are, too, but their interests and priorities tend to be vastly different.) I am not saying that people necessarily want to learn what other people want to teach them but rather what they themselves find interesting or valuable. If you have ever been interested in dance […]
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