Blog
Princess/Teacher/Citizen Scientist
When I was young and adults asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, my simple response due to my love of Christa McAuliffe, Princess Diana, and the aunt I still look up to today was: princess/astronaut/teacher. In 1986, my elementary teacher rolled a TV into the Science Corner and my classmates and I tearfully watched Christa McAuliffe, the first teacher trained to go into space, die in the Challenger Space Shuttle explosion. Due to the early development of a strong case of self-preservation, I narrowed my future career choices to just princess/teacher. In 2011 Prince William got married to Kate and I really wasn’t that in to Harry, so here I am, 20 years in to my teaching career. I love teaching. Let me clarify, I love teaching science. It’s such an exciting topic. However, if I had become a princess, I think I’d take up the cause of encouraging more students to enter careers in science. I’d probably spend the hours I was not parading around in a tiara on websites like...read more
Memoirs for the Summer
Summer reading does not have to be a compensatory list of books that students dread reading and save for the last possible second. Summer can (and should be!) the perfect time to explore new genres or to revel in old favorite genres. Some of my favorite genres to read are memoirs, biographies, and autobiographies. I particularly love reading about people who have left a lasting impact on the world. Sometimes, like Darwin, these figures are well known, but I also love to read about lesser known people like Irena Sendler and Bryan Stevenson. I have compiled a list of a few memoirs, autobiographies, and biographies that I thought you might enjoy reading over the summer. The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (there is a version that is adapted for young adults) by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Meale This biography is the story of a boy who figured out how to bring electricity and running water to his drought ravaged village in Malawi. It is a riveting story of a boy who used innovative methods to...read more
Meditation
Over the years while teaching at The Beekman School, I’ve come across a common misconception my students have about meditation. They see it merely as a passive act of relaxing and letting go of all thought. While those may be aspects of the end result of the practice, historically there is nothing intentionally passive about meditation. The etymology of the word itself is “to think” and has always been understood that the process is a very active engagement with the mind. Meditation comes in many forms which intend to achieve seemingly various goals. Traditionally, though, the goals of these practices were towards some transcendent experience of a communion or an absorption in the divine - an unchanging noumenal reality. The process to achieve that is by learning to control and focus the mind. Often students who misunderstand what meditation practice is will complain about experiencing sleepiness when they meditate. Barring exhaustion, if practiced correctly (as traditionally...read more
Game of Thrones: Anticipating the End
“Did you watch it?” Several students greeted me with some variation of these words on Monday. The “it” referred to the new episode of the eighth and final season of Game of Thrones. No explanation was necessary, as my students and I clearly knew that there was only one topic that might warrant such interest on a Monday morning. I had indeed watched “it,” and was eager to exchange thoughts and predictions based on those 50-odd minutes the night before. I’m teaching an elective on “The Real Game of Thrones” this semester, so it makes sense the students would talk to me about it, but we certainly weren’t unique. Audiences worldwide are debating political machinations in Westeros and wondering who will be the last man and/or woman standing and thus win the Iron Throne. Game of Thrones reminds us of a distinct thrill that is lost in the process of discussing shows as a fait accompli after “binge-watching” them over a long weekend. Listening to students dissect complex plot points and the...read more
Lifelong Love of Learning
The Beekman Science Department attended a professional development workshop at Rockefeller University this week. The gorgeous East Side campus boasts 82 research labs and 200 graduate students. It is also home to the RockEdu Science Outreach program. In addition to providing a wealth of science information and activities on their website, the RockEdu program hosts teacher professional development, lab experiences for students during the school year, weekend and summer months and a Science Cafe on the third Friday of every month where attending students can hear a scientist present their latest findings, ask questions, and network with other science enthusiasts. The workshop we attended was titled “The Biochemistry of an Egg Sandwich.” The goal of the workshop was to learn new ways to teach tough concepts like biochemistry by relating the information to the macromolecules you’d find in an egg sandwich. Proteins found in eggs and cheese, lipids found in mayo and avocado, and...read more
Doing it Write
Most students I’ve encountered in my teaching career have profound anxieties about writing. As a teacher of English, I have wondered about how to crack this problem. Over the summer, I had a transformative experience with the New York City Writing Project, a for-teachers, by-teachers organization that has writing at its center. Working with the Project caused me to question many things about my own teaching and beliefs about writing. One of the biggest takeaways from my experience was the realization that most of the writing we ask our students to do is for performance. If every time they write something they can expect to be assessed, no wonder writing is fraught with so much anxiety. I decided to decouple writing from performance. I decreased the number of formal writing assignments I collected and graded, but I increased the overall amount of writing my students did. Students spend a lot of time in my classroom writing, but this writing is often the prelude to discussions or part...read more
Can Studying Spanish Increase Your Empathy?
We feel more empathy towards people with whom we have something in common, and what more could you have in common with someone than a shared language? Could learning a foreign language increase our empathy towards speakers of that language? It’s certainly possible. But I want to focus on a different question about language learning and empathy. Can learning to use the indirect object—an important grammar structure in Spanish—increase our sensitivity to how our actions may affect others, thereby making us more empathetic? The indirect object is used frequently and expansively in Spanish. It is rare in English, where it is employed merely to state who receives an object. For example, consider English sentences (1) and (2) below: (1) I gave him the ball. (2) I made him a sandwich. Here, the boldface word “him” is an indirect object pronoun in English. “Him” tells you who received the ball or the sandwich. The relation expressed by the indirect object with respect to...read more
R-E-S-P-E-C-T
I’ve been thinking a lot about respect lately. In a survey of long-lasting life partners, it came up as crucial to maintaining a relationship. Communication was important too, but respect was moreso: “My husband and I have been together 15 years this winter. I’ve thought a lot about what seems to be keeping us together, while marriages around us crumble (seriously, it’s everywhere… we seem to be at that age). The one word that I keep coming back to is “respect”. Of course, this means showing respect, but that is too superficial. Just showing it isn’t enough. You have to feel it deep within you. I deeply and genuinely respect him for his work ethic, his patience, his creativity, his intelligence, and his core values. From this respect comes everything else – trust, patience, perseverance (because sometimes life is really hard and you both just have to persevere). I want to hear what he has to say (even if I don’t agree with him) because I respect his opinion. I want to enable him to...read more
What Is The Beekman School?
The Beekman School is a coed, college preparatory high school that opened in 1925. We offer small classes averaging 6 students with one-to-one classes and distance learning available so that students with a myriad of specific requests are able to create an academic program. Our dedicated faculty returns year after year to encourage and support teenagers on their individual paths toward achieving personal goals. In addition, we are pleased to offer financial aid, prorated tuition, payment plans, and merit scholarships. For close to a century, we have successfully prepared students to continue their education after high school; others try to copy our program, but none can duplicate it. read more
Tips for Completing Your Private High School Application
Applications for private high school admissions may vary slightly from school to school, but there are several components that will remain constant regardless of where you apply. Making a personal statement is one of those basics, so my first advice is - don’t cheat. People in an admissions office read a lot of essays. Even though it’s easy to use examples of essays that you find on the Internet, that’s not going to be your best approach. Your essay is going to read like many other essays and you want yours to stand out. You need to focus on what makes you unique. Do you have a particular interest that will set you apart from other students? Have you had a life experience that has helped you develop a special point of view that others may find interesting? These are the personal statements that will make a better impression with an admissions committee. Don’t have a parent or teacher get too involved in writing your essay. Yes, you’ll want some feedback, a second opinion, and...read more