Dream Team

Angela Maiers, an educator/consultant/writer whom I greatly admire, has mentioned on her blog the idea of having a “Dream Team” – a group of people who you would like to emulate.  In her book, The New Habitudes, she also mentions this, and offers a free reproducible here for conjuring up your personal Dream Team members. … Read more

What to Do With This Gifted Kid

This article, by Julie Lyons, in DFW Child, has a wonderful quote, “ ‘As everything moves toward standardization and accountability testing and No Child Left Behind,’ Hickerson says, ‘sometimes that means that no child can get ahead either.’ ” This is the hard reality in many schools, unfortunately, but the article gives good advice on finding … Read more

Rules of Storytelling

I recently saw this article on Boing Boing that shares a tweet from Emma Coates, Pixar’s Story Artist, in which she relates the 22 Rules of Storytelling.  I am regularly trying to encourage my students to do #12:  “Discount the 1st thing that comes to mind. And the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th – get the … Read more

Mandela’s Eight Lessons of Leadership

Nelson Mandela, unfortunately, may not be in good health right now.  However, this great man, who has made such a positive impact on our world, will be immortal through the re-telling of his words and actions. Recently, I found an article from 2008 by Richard Stengel in which he lists and explains the lessons of … Read more

Whose Words Inspire You?

  In honor of International Women’s Day on March 8th, CNN posted a site where you could choose an inspirational quote by a famous woman, select a background from three choices, and share it via Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, or Tumblr.  I spent quite a bit of time reading the words of Eleanor Roosevelt, Marie Curie, … Read more

The Passion Project

Sometimes I start reading a blog post and my jaw drops. I am constantly amazed by the work of educators around the globe, and Sonya Terborg is one person I deeply admire.  From her blog, I learned about The Passion Project, and I am absolutely convinced that I must somehow find a way to include … Read more