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Archive for 2013

Get to know your child’s teacher(s)

October 2, 2013 | Posted in: Early Learners, Elementary, High School, Middle Years

When our children are preschoolers, we tend to have easier access to their teachers. We see them at drop-off or pickup, and there may be field trips or other activities at which parents are welcome. We can get a sense of who their teachers are and make a connection. As our children move through elementary […]

Why I want my children to fail

October 2, 2013 | Posted in: Early Learners, Elementary, High School, Middle Years

My instinct as a mom is to shield my children from disappointment. I’d like to be able to guarantee them lives free from worry and stress. That, of course, is unrealistic. Disappointment is inevitable: Things do not go the way we would like all the time. So, I’ve decided on this approach: I want my […]

Delivering classroom-based paradigms with synergistic effects … (Huh?)

October 2, 2013 | Posted in: Early Learners, Elementary, High School, Middle Years

If you work in the medical field, or legal, or auto mechanics, or retail, or wherever, you likely have your own unique vocabulary, a lexicon that means something to you but flies right over an outsider’s head. It’s the same with education. Everyone on the inside eventually slips – sometimes unconsciously – into educational jargon, […]

Pre-test a college’s vibe at the local college fair

October 1, 2013 | Posted in: High School

First impressions count – a concept that has been particularly relevant as we’ve worked our way around the Northeast looking at colleges with our high school senior. Creating a list of college possibilities started with a visit to CollegeBoard.com, where my daughter whittled down options based on her interests, grades and test scores (SAT, ACT), […]

Constitution Day is perfect time for historic reflection

September 16, 2013 | Posted in: Early Learners, Elementary, High School, Middle Years

“A free government is a complicated piece of machinery, the nice and exact adjustment of whose springs, wheels, and weights, is not yet well comprehended by the artists of the age, and still less by the people.” — John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, May 19, 1821 You know Independence Day, Labor Day, Memorial Day, Veterans […]

APPR – What does it mean for your child?

September 16, 2013 | Posted in: Early Learners, Elementary, High School, Middle Years

New York’s new teacher evaluation system has gotten a great deal of press and caused much anxiety for public school educators in the state, and emotions are likely to ratchet up another notch as parents are able to view their child’s teacher’s scores sometime this fall. The Annual Professional Performance Review – or APPR – […]

Safety first in shifting social media scene

September 16, 2013 | Posted in: Early Learners, Elementary, High School, Middle Years

Police in the upstate New York town of Gloversville last week arrested a man who they say harassed and made threats to a high school girl through the social media site Snapchat. The man allegedly sent indecent photos of himself to the girl and threatened to “go Columbine” – a reference to the 1999 mass […]

Solving the healthy lunch conundrum

September 16, 2013 | Posted in: Early Learners, Elementary, High School, Middle Years

My 11-year-old nephew loves salmon, relishes broccoli, devours salad and would gladly dig into strip steak for dinner. His favorite meal is pasta with clams. My soon-to-be-9-year-old son, on the other hand, has a very limited repertoire. To say he is picky is an understatement. When my brother and his family visited this summer, I […]

Making fitness fun is just a click away

August 23, 2013 | Posted in: Early Learners, Elementary, High School, Middle Years

When my daughters first acquired their cell phones several years ago, their thumbs got so much “exercise,” I envisioned them winning thumb-wrestling contests. Thankfully, their activity levels even then surpassed the physical demands of texting. But as technology has evolved – and their interest in fitness has increased – they have found ways to use […]

Preparing for the first day of school is about more than buying supplies

August 23, 2013 | Posted in: Early Learners, Elementary, High School, Middle Years

The first day of school is less than two weeks away, and we are not ready. We have not yet bought our pencils, notebooks, erasers, markers and box of tissues. We haven’t even thought about the first day of school outfit (which seems to be less of an issue for my fourth grade son than […]