I’ve already written about sibling rivalry, but I was recently reminded of another aspect of some sibling relationships. Parents and teachers serve as models for children, but so can older siblings. A younger sibling – even one who complains all the time about an older sibling – may also see that sibling as a model….
A teacher named Jill or Jim is headed back to her/his second grade classroom after having gone to the office to take a phone call. He/she has spoken with his/her class about what should happen when no adult is in the room, and most of the children know what’s supposed to happen. Even most of…
Teachable moments don’t always happen according to the schedules in teachers’ lesson plans. Learning is going on all the time, and good teachers have been known to teach great lessons that were never planned. They listen to children, and respond to what they hear by saying or doing things that guide children toward important concepts….
If teachers and everyone else involved in planning children’s education were perfect, every moment each child spent in school would result in the best learning imaginable. Maybe there would still be some worksheets, but they would be so much better than some of the worksheets you and I have come in contact with. A lot…
A field trip is supposed to be a way to enhance curriculum. It can also be a way to give children and teachers a break from routine. And it can do both, and often does. Children benefit by learning from direct experiences, and schools have to rely heavily on vicarious experiences; they can’t really bring…
There was one special day each year when some students in my high school were inducted into the National Honor Society. Parents of those who were going to be inducted were notified in advance, so that they could plan to attend the induction ceremony. But they weren’t supposed to tell us they’d been notified. So…
I rarely liked gym class as a child or adolescent. I remember dodge ball games, where I was supposed to try not to get hit with the ball. If (when) I did get hit, I usually got knocked over. I remember the trampoline, where I was supposed to rely on my sense of balance and…
Now, as I write article #300, I’m remembering an experiment that was introduced to schools. Early in my teaching career, there was something called “new math.” It wasn’t really so new, but it was new in the elementary curriculum. The basic premise, I think, was that children shouldn’t learn to be stuck in base ten….
I once saw a crowd of children around two tables that had been pushed together. Two of the children had ping pong paddles, and they were playing ping pong. The rest of the children were watching. I think most of them were hoping to get a chance to play. But it was all happening during…
When I was five or six years old, there was a boy named Stewart whose life didn’t seem to be having a good start. I don’t remember much about him; in fact, I only remember one incident. But if that incident was typical for him, he couldn’t have been having much fun. I hope it…