Misinterpreted Marshmallows
I was fascinated by this write up in The Atlantic of a recently released update of the infamous "Marshmallow Test" study. The new study, conducted byTyler Watts from New York University and Greg Duncan and Hoanan Quan from University of California Irvine, "finds...
read moreReflections on the Kennedy Center 2018 Arts Summit
Last month, I had the honor and privilege of participating in the Kennedy Center Arts Summit. The goal of the day was to “activate citizen artists, explore John F. Kennedy’s ideas and to shape our collective future.” The central focus was to envision the “future state...
read moreDeeper Learning: The Conference and the Connections that Followed
At the end of March, I attended the Deeper Learning conference, which took place at High Tech High’s campus in San Diego. This was my first time at Deeper Learning, and I got a good sense of why this is an important gathering for progressive educators throughout the...
read moreWhy I Want to Speak on College Campuses
I wrote When Grit Isn’t Enough for lots of reasons. As I got into the writing and research, I began to realize that one of the main reasons I was writing was to help influence the way college financial aid and student success offices do their business and work with...
read moreReflections from Chile
In the south of Chile, there’s a small town, Frutillar, named for the abundance of wild strawberries that grew there years ago. The town was originally settled in the 1900s by German cattle and sheep farmers (the Chilean government wanted to increase the population in...
read moreBrought Together Through Music and Lang Lang
Lang Lang walked into the room, dressed in a snappy red t-shirt with a black front pocket and black border trim, and a black jacket, high-fiving the wide-eyed students who had been waiting for him. His entrance was rock star-like—not the way I think of a classical...
read moreBack at School Again
After two years in full-time academia, I am back in a school. It feels right. Labor Day and the ritual of children returning to school are, once again, part of my daily world. I am the newly appointed Executive Director of the Center for Artistry and Scholarship (The...
read moreDesign Comes Alive
During the last week of the school year, thanks to the support of the National Science Foundation (NSF) and TERC, we were able to select three artist-engineers to work with our 9th grade Engineering classes for "Design Comes Alive." The projects culminated in...
read moreCelebration of Fernadina Chan
On Saturday, June 23, we celebrated a remarkable woman and educator as she retired from BAA: Fernadina Chan. I have the privilege of working with some of the most amazing teachers at Boston Arts Academy, and it was an honor to celebrate Fern at The Boston Conservatory...
read moreIntervention into Personalization
One of the ten common principles of the Coalition of Essential Schools is personalization. This is explained as: “Teaching and learning should be personalized to the maximum feasible extent… the goal is that no teacher has direct responsibility for more than 80...
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