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education 13 Facts About Halloween: Giving Students Some Protein with Their Candy Here are 13 facts you may not have known about Halloween! continue reading October 30, 2019
education 2019 HIGHLIGHTS: Five Historically Impactful Moments of the Year Today is the last day of the year! How does that happen? Here are a handful of highlights from the last twelve months, a review of a preview of history. Of course, this is highly subjective—and limited by a handful. If you have any burning items that we somehow did not include, please send them along and we’ll do a follow up on everything we missed. continue reading December 27, 2019
Alternative Education Foundation American Hero Finds Sweet Spot in Florida Congratulations to the students and teachers at AEF (Alternative Education Foundation). This Fort Lauderdale K-12 private school, focused on developing cognitive skills, is so excited about starting American Hero for their eighth grade students that they’re introducing it at the end of this school term, not waiting for the fall. continue reading May 1, 2019
authors An Adulterated Education, Part 1: Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.: “No kid ever learned anything from Sesame Street.” A bit back in my personal timeline, I had an opportunity to spend the better part of an afternoon with one of my favorite writers/human beings, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. When I was in college, having read Slaughterhouse Five, Cat’s Cradle, Breakfast of Champions, Hocus Pocus, God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, et. al, I considered him a prophet, if not a deity. Still do. We ate orange slices that he peeled as we sat in the expansive kitchen of his Manhattan townhouse watching the sun dapple through the leaves of his backyard and cast prismatic rainbows onto the wooden table through the stained glass ornaments in the windows. (From time to time, I’ll mine the many interviews I’ve done with accomplished people to bring you their views on education, reading, and writing.) continue reading January 7, 2020
authors An Adulterated Education, Part 2: Ray Bradbury: “We’ll be reading Huckleberry Finn on Mars.” A hero of mine, as well as a favorite writer, Ray Bradbury wrote some of the greatest, most imaginative works in our culture, including, “The Sound of Thunder,” “I Sing the Body Electric,” The Illustrated Man, Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles, Something Wicked This Way Comes, and the screenplay for John Houston’s version of Moby-Dick, a classic in its own right. It was my good fortune to spend a lively morning with him in his Pasadena office, so chock full of science fiction chachkas it was like attending a ComicCon convention for two, me and Ray. (From time to time, I’ll mine the many interviews I’ve done with accomplished people to bring you their views on education, reading, and writing.) continue reading January 8, 2020
education Back to School: Five Quick Tips for Your Teacher’s Toolbox Welcome Back to School! Here are a few highlights from our growing library of blogs, shortcuts to some helpful hints to make this a successful, fun, and effective school year. continue reading August 23, 2019
education Calling All Student Detectives: What are the greatest historical mysteries? Midgard’s recently published book, Mysteries That Changed History: Hot Takes on Cold Cases presents six crimes that became hinge points in the history of civilization. Packaged as detective case files, each chapter brings the reader to the scene of the crime. Detective notebook entries contain all the relevant details, forensic reports describe the damage to the bodies, depositions from witnesses give background and motivation, and primary source evidence reveals more clues. Each chapter in the book provides guided questions to give students a chance to investigate the circumstances around these events. After the facts are in, the students become lawyers and prosecute or defend a variety of suspects. continue reading October 22, 2019
education Chicago, Our Kind of Town There is an education crisis in the entire country, and Chicago is at the epicenter of it. The third largest school district, Chicago has 644 public K-12 schools and 361,000 students—few of them getting the education they need. continue reading June 30, 2019
Christmas Christmas is Cool: Why Christmas Goes Beyond Religion School’s out today, but a big lesson is in front of us everywhere we turn. It’s not the Christmas trees or Hanukah menorahs or Kwanza candles or any of the pagan ceremonial rituals that punctuate our culture at the end of the year with a big exclamation mark! They are all beautiful, meaningful, and we wish you and yours the happiest and the merriest (and the safest and the most convivial) of holiday cheer. But Christmas is more than that. continue reading December 24, 2019
civics Civics Education is a Necessity Now! In a recent essay in The Atlantic, George Packer, a prominent political writer, reviewed the difficulties his family faced as his children went through New York City’s notoriously inefficient public and private school systems. What struck him as egregious was the complete lack of civics education—especially in this time when the civic intersectionality of our lives is so contentious. continue reading September 30, 2019
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