The older I get, the more I reflect on how important it is for children and adults to feel appreciated. Give recognition to others whenever possible. 
If you have children or teach children (including adolescents) you must read The Parents We Mean to Be by Richard Weissbourd.
If you did not read the funny, short New Yorker piece "Dear Mountain Room Parents," take two minutes to do so. Whether you are a teacher or parent, you will appreciate how emailing can get complicated fast. 
Click back to my November 24, 2010 post to review my first post "Conversations with Middle Schoolers"
I grew up with Looney Tunes characters Porky Pig, Tweety Bird, Sylvester the Cat, Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, the Tasmanian Devil, and any other voice Mel Blanc produced. Cartoons, and now full length movies, continue to entertain kids and adults. Here is a cute NPR "Weekend Edition Sunday" 3-minute interview with Mel Blanc's son, Noel Blanc, talking about his father.
This enlightening article in The Economist, "When should you teach children, and when should you let them explore" is a must-read for all teachers and parents. The article is about a study completed by Elizabeth Bonawitz and Patrick Shafto that looked at 85 four- and five-year olds. Here is a link to the complete study published in "Cognition."
Teaching students — and adults for that matter — about Internet security should start with the password. Listening to American Public Media's "Marketplace Morning Report" recently, I wasn't surprised to find out the least secure passwords of 2011 are "1234567," "abc123," "sunshine," and "iloveyou" but THE password with the most security holes is, yup, you got it — "password."
I am a big fan of authors Dan and Chip Heath. Their book Switch is the best for understanding change.
Here is a neat TED Talk of Thomas Suarez talking about his experience learning and developing aps for the Apple Store. In true Google fashion, for now, Thomas is looking to help others with his new-found talent.
While experiencing the sights, sounds, and smells of Zuccotti Park, I bumped into a vendor selling a T-shirt with a prophetic message. Here is what it said: 
I don't often reprise a post, but on February 14, 2011, I posted "'1' Not Such a Lonely Number." On this special day, I thought I would repost it in celebration of November 11, 2011, you know, 11/11/11. And this post was posted at 11:11 a.m.
Another instance where "guide-on-the-side" trumps "sage-on-the-stage."
If you want to experience professional development at its best, hope that you take part in The Music Paradigm. Maestro Roger Nierenburg uses a chamber ensemble—one he has never conducted before—to demonstrate leadership. Along with 150 heads of school from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, we sat among the musicians and witnessed the power of the conductor as leader. We were swept away by Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings and the brilliance of Nierenburg.
A better way to describe school programs is presented by Pat Bassett, President of the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS). In a recent listserve message, he passed on the 5 Cs + 1 for 21st Century schools:
When you think of the word "rigor" and how it applies to our schools, what comes to mind? Good? Bad? Certainly not neutral. In a recent meeting here at school, the word "rigor" surfaced, and I could feel my skin crawl. It has no place in schools. I came across this blog post "Stop Saying 'Rigor'" that shed another person's light on the word.
Gary D. Schmidt's newest young adult book, Okay For Now, is the sequel to his highly successful Wednesday Wars. It follows Doug Swieteck and Joe Pepitone from Long Island to upstate New York. This could be a Newbery contender. I highly recommend it.
The other day I began connecting the dots on how important it is to be a positive leader; what it means to the people around you when you are positive; and how exhilarating it is to work in a positive environment. Let me take you through the sequence of how I arrived at this epiphany. 
While listening to Scott Simon on Weekend Edition, I was astonished to hear about the Whimbral, a bird that will fly from Virginia to Alaska nonstop. Listen to this four-minute clip, "A Bird Flies Into a Hurricane. Does It Fly Out?," to hear how this is done—the tracking and flight. You might want to share this with your class.
Author M. T. Anderson's book, Feed, is of the Brave New World genre—scary but highly prophetic. Feed is a book that every educator and parent must read. Here is a link to the movie trailer, but be careful; you should really read the book first!
I am a big fan of William Zinsser. His book, On Writing Well, is the quintessential (He would cringe if he knew that I used that big Latin word) book on writing. His address to Columbia Graduate School of Journalism students can be found in "Writing English as a Second Language," published in The American Scholar. I love his closing comments to them:
. . . here is a short but powerful article, "Teaching Secrets: After the Honeymoon," that all teachers should read. What I love is its therapeutic advice. Here are the main bullet points:
How DO we measure whether one fails or succeeds? 
I have always thought of good classrooms as safe places to fail—students and adults. I expressed this back in the fall of 2008 when I wrote "Rethinking the 'F' Word."
Having spent 11 years teaching in junior boarding schools, I fell in love with the book Spud. It is a delightful young adult book filled with laugh-out-loud humor. Author John van de Ruit tells of 14-year old Spud's struggle into adolescence. The setting is a boys' boarding school, which is located in South Africa during its 1990 break from apartheid. Also, if you enjoy the music from the play Oliver, Spud plays the lead in his school play, and you can follow the challenges he faces along with the wonderful Dickens characters.
I loved the front page NYTimes article "In Classroom of Future, Stagnant Scores." Here is the sentence that caught my attention: 
I was first introduced to the concept of brain plasticity when I read JoAnn Deak's Your Fantastic Elastic Brain. And the work of Carol Dweck and her book, Mindset, talk about the idea that intelligence can grow. For me, both authors helped to dispel the myth that the brain is "hard-wired" and unchangeable.
Independent Teacher is an excellent resource for teachers.
Want to get an idea of what it is like to teach for 50 years? Read this Highline Times article about Jim Glennon: "Retired Teacher Did Anything to Get Students Engaged." 
Here is a great resource for three middle school books. "Middle School Mischief" by A. J. Jacobs recently appeared in the NYTimes Book Review. Here are the books that were reviewed in the article:
Have you ever seen a YouTube video that you would love to share at a faculty meeting but will be in a location without Internet connection? Here are two sites that allow you to download videos to your hard drive so you can share them anywhere from your computer:
Childcare attitudes, availability, and use have changed dramatically over the past two generations, so much so, I felt that my ancient baby boomer viewpoint was out of touch with today’s generation’s practices. An event in my life changed that viewpoint, and I wanted to pass on my updated perspective to the parents at my toddler-through-eighth-grade school to support their use of childcare for their children. To do this, I wrote "I Needed the Relief or the Value of Childcare" and sent it to them early this month. My instincts were confirmed when I received an immediate response from a parent that said,
I was walking in Union Square recently, and I decided to have lunch at Danny Meyer's Union Square Café. It was four years ago when I read his seminal book Setting the Table, a book that emphasizes service to the customer. Meyer has built a restaurant empire based on good service to customers. You may have heard of a few of his other eating establishments: Tabla, Gramercy Tavern, Eleven Madison Park, and Blue Smoke.
A close colleague wrote a beautiful piece for Lisa Belkin's NYTimes Motherlode blog. You should read "Who Needs Summer Homework?" now that many parents are in the home stretch of cajoling, bribing, and—some might say—torturing their children to finish assigned summer work. I think you'll like it . . . the piece that is.
Every once in a while you hear or read something that sticks in your head. This summer, when I was teaching a class to heads of school on working with parents and boards of trustees, I referenced a quote that remains stuck in my head. Here is what I shared with my colleagues: 
I picked up this well written post from Harvard Business Review blogger Andrew McAfee. He reflects on his Montessori school experience. The post, "Montessori Builds Innovators," has lots of good links embedded within it.
One of the special treats about living in New York City is the availability of performing arts for students and teachers. I had the occasion to see "No Child . . ." at the Barrow Street Theater in the Village; it is a one-woman show about teaching Bronx high school students drama. I was awe struck by Nilaja Sun the sole performer. Like Sarah Jones's (TED Talk) "Bridge and Tunnel" and Anna Deavere Smith's "Let Me Down Easy," one actor portraying many different characters on stage is amazing. 
For all of us: parents, educators, and students, email has gotten out of hand. Step back or plow through?
I had the good fortune to spend two days with author Darla Ferris Miller at a Board of Directors retreat. She let me know that the 7th Edition of her textbook, Positive Child Guidance, will be out in October.
An editor of a national publication asked me if I read the piece "The Best School $75 Million Can Buy" in the Sunday NYTimes and what I thought of Whittle's The Avenues: The World School concept. I responded by saying, for me, it sounds very much like Whittle's '92 Edison Project all over again. He had heavy hitters working with him then—Chubb, Schmidt, Finn, and Alexander. It did not work. It is important to point out that it is tough enough for public schools having to deal with tight budgets and unions, but to also have to deal with profit-making was too much to ask. Can you blame the public schools?
Recently, I had the good fortune to spend three days with 20 other educators just outside of Albany, working in a think tank. Our job was to look at professional learning and collaboration for the member schools of the New York State Association of Independent Schools (NYSAIS). Our inspiration was the book What Would Google Do by Jeff Jarvis.
How often have you thought about working? Enjoyment, too many hours, not enough pay, satisfaction, no rewards for the investment, fulfillment, etc. I gave this much thought, sat down, and wrote reflections on work.
The National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) has long encouraged private education with a public purpose. Horizons National fits that to a tee. Look at this 3-minute NBC Nightly News clip to see what it is all about, then Call Lorna Smith, CEO of Horizons, to learn more about this fabulous program.Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
"First, I have to say that, like many of you, I love the feel of a hardback edition of a book in my hands, and the look of it on my bookshelf, even years after I’ve read it. And all my bookshelves at home and at the office are filled to overflowing with hardback books I love and won’t give up. In fact, the overflow was getting to be a hazard, so I donated hundreds of my hardback books to the local public library the last time we moved, a couple of years ago. But now, I have to admit (and I know the purists out there will cringe), I'm buying more e-books than hardcover books, and downloading them to my laptop, iPad, and iPhone. Here’s why:" 
How sad that the New York City school system has found yet one more nefarious use of standardized testing. Read "Tests for Pupils, but the Grades Go to Teachers" NYTimes article to see how "more than a dozen new standardized tests" — inspired by Race to the Top — will be administered to students beginning as early as next school year. As the article title suggests, the grades will be used to help measure teacher performance. 
