Blog
Going Analog in a Digital World
Have you noticed how some filters on your Instagram snaps make your photos look “old-school” or “lo-fi” with a vintage feel? Using these filters, our photos go through a digital process of wear and tear in order to give it more uniqueness, depth and personality. In this era of bits, bytes, ones and zeros, there has been a renewed interest in going low-tech that is being seen in the fashion, publishing, music, art and technology world. Sales of vinyl records hit a 28 year high and mainstream stores such as Barnes & Noble and Whole Foods carry albums released by today’s top grossing artists such as Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber. Nokia recently re-released their iconic 3310 model that has been reimagined with smart features but brings back the simplicity of a flip phone. Following this trend, I took the opportunity to reintroduce my students to the golden age of photography with a project which had them constructing pinhole cameras from a kit made out of cardboard. This...read more
What is Personalized Learning and Why Can’t All Schools Offer It?
More schools are using the term personalized learning on their promotional materials so, naturally, this trending buzzword in education has piqued parents’ interest. What is personalized learning? And, if it’s such a good thing, why can’t all schools offer it? Personalized learning schools are places where there are a variety of approaches to learning subject matter. Academic support is available that can address the specific needs of a diverse student body, and individual students can receive the educational experience that best suits his/her distinct requirements. By definition, that would explain why every school can’t offer a truly personalized education. Most programs have a structure that doesn’t support the many aspects of a program geared to diverse teaching styles for a wide variety of learners. Often, larger schools with larger classrooms are less flexible. There are schools that, by design, have created programs to include the many approaches to learning that can be...read more
Discovering History through Biography
As Marian Wright Edeleman said, “If you don’t like the way the world is, you change it. You have an obligation to change it. You just do it one step at a time.” History has been shaped and molded by many figures from the past and present. Some of these people are controversial and their impact has not always been seen as positive, however, their actions have left a deep mark on history. To learn more about these figures, you can read the autobiographies and biographies suggested below. Abigail Adams was advisor to and wife of John Adams, the second President of the United States. The Letters of Abigail and John Adams by Abigail and John Adams Muhammad Ali was an American political activist and professional boxer. The Greatest: My Own Story by Muhammad Ali and Richard Durham Winston Churchill was Prime Minister of Great Britain during World War II and had a great influence on the outcome of the War. Churchill: We Shall Never Surrender | The Life and...read more
How Do Educators Create Individualized Learning Plans?
The term Individual Learning Plan might be confused with an Individual Educational Plan, otherwise known as an IEP. This is a document created through the public school system for a student with a diagnosed learning disability. It describes how a student learns best and what accommodations should be made in order for that student to achieve specific objectives and academic goals. A neuropsychological evaluation, often referred to as a neuropsych, is more common in the private school community, and tend to be a more detailed outline of a student’s learning profile and offers strategies to address specific points. Regardless of who does the testing, both documents help lay the foundation for a school to develop a plan that best suits the learning style of your child. A series of test results will be included in your report. While you may want to review this data, the most important information will be toward the end of the report. Look to see what the conclusions and...read more
Extra College
The following is an excerpt from English teacher James Vescovi's book "Eat Now; Talk Later": My father was the first person in the family to go to college; I was the first to go to graduate school. While my grandparents were proud of my father’s achievement, they were totally baffled by mine. Tony and Desolina Vescovi, Italians who’d immigrated to New York in 1930, had had to quit school after fourth grade to work on their farms. They’d always thought that college was as high as a human could go. Desolina, said, “You mean you went to college for four years and now you can go higher?” “That’s right,” I replied. “What more can you learn after four years?” she asked, eyeing me skeptically. What was I going to tell her? That I was going to deconstruct Shakespeare’s plays? “Desolina, what’s the matter with you?!” my grandfather shouted from the couch, where he’d just awoken...read more
Why You Might Need To Restart the High School Admissions Process Now
It’s that time of year when public and private high schools will soon be informing applicants of their enrollment decisions. Among all the top schools, seats are limited and stiff competition is an unpleasant reality. What happens when that letter arrives and it isn’t giving you the news you wanted to read? It means it’s time to sit down and do some homework. There are a lot of schools that will continue to have openings and you need to spend time researching the best ones for your specific needs. Private high school admissions can be a year-round endeavor for a number of schools. Just as New York City has a constant influx of people, those people also have children that need to be placed in school and finding a seat may not be as difficult as you think. Yes, NYC high school admissions to the best schools in the public school system probably won’t be an option, but with some Internet investigating on your home computer, you should be able to identify a suitable private school...read more
Notable Student Success Stories: Kate Bendrick
American students are plagued with the belief that math is a talent. In one study comparing American students with Japanese students, American kids gave up on a problem after 30 seconds. The Japanese students, by contrast, struggled for an hour to solve a problem. That’s 120 times as long! “Sit on a stone for three years to accomplish anything.” This Japanese proverb might have something to do with this enormous difference. The proverb means that with patience and perseverance, anything can be accomplished. The outsider’s pessimistic interpretation might be twofold: sitting doesn’t accomplish anything. Sitting doing nothing is boring. And indeed, perseverance happens when the glamor of novelty has worn off. There is no glamor in my students’ successes. There is no lightbulb moment in which suddenly ignorance is replaced by vast understanding. It’s a process of slow realization, that patience and perseverance does in fact work. My student came to me at the beginning of the year in...read more
Homeschooling: Think Outside the Home
For many homeschool parents, high school is the most difficult time to meet the educational needs of their children. There are certain subjects that will seem easy to handle; many people are fairly conversant in topics related to English and history, but I’ve spoken with a number of parents who tell me they can’t help their teen with his math homework. What do you do when you’re supposed to be the person who teaches that math? Homeschool enrichment classes might be the solution. In a growing number of communities (and most notably, in larger cities), retired teachers, freelance tutors, and other homeschool parents offer classes that are open to families in the homeschool community, from screenwriting to the French language to Calculus. Not only is this an opportunity for homeschool students to follow their passions or discover new interests, it’s also a chance to meet other homeschool students (which is one of the biggest challenges of homeschooling—there’s no built-in social...read more
How to Inspire Creativity
I am teaching Digital Illustration again at Beekman. Surprisingly, it is one of my more challenging courses. Too many students are taken aback by the amount of effort Adobe Illustrator is to use when weighed against their desire to create. It’s ironic that my 3D students have no problem learning and using Autodesk Maya, a far more complex program (by an order of magnitude or two), to create objects and construct scenes (that final render or 3D printed object makes the work worth it). I stumbled upon one device that helps to improve that effort-reward ratio: flippancy. One student swore he could not design: he could come up with nothing and the final assignment was just too hard. (Mind you, this student also complained about my teaching method--that in his home country everything is rote: tasks practiced over and and over.) How many times did he need to practice taking the cursor and selecting an object (which was the problem at hand)? When he said he couldn’t come up with an idea...read more
How to Fight "Brain Drain" and Still Enjoy Your Summer
We’ve written in the past about how to make sure that summer school won’t ruin your summer or how to make summer courses help you in meeting your educational goals. However, if you are like most people, you don’t want to think about anything school-related during the summer! How can you enjoy your summer vacation while not giving in to the “summer slide?” Summer school tutoring may be your answer. Unlike taking a full-blown summer school course, engaging the services of a summer school tutor means that you can cover the topics you want on a schedule that works for you. Are you worried that you’ll forget all of that Spanish vocabulary while you’re not in school? Arrange for a Spanish tutor to work with you once a week reviewing your grammar and maintaining your vocabulary. Are you going away to soccer camp in July but need to work on your essay-writing skills? Work with a tutor before you leave and after you return to focus those analytical techniques. Do you have a summer job...read more