Think of all of the well-known people earning honorary degrees- making graduation speeches all over the place right now. These speakers are toiling over keeping kids’ attention, imparting advice in a succinct manner, choosing their most pivotal moments to share. In this marvelous age, we can travel all over to see and hear their carefully…
Yep, “rebuttal” is just a fun word to say. Teaching kids rudimentary debate format and skills is another really fun way to think, learn, and process a year’s learning as we all stretch through late May and into June. I usually just teach “argument”, “rebuttal”, and “conclusion”. Simple structure: Preparation Details: Go on, argue and…
Everyone is spent. And, everyone is ready. Take advantage of that second one: everyone is ready. You have spent the whole year instilling the most beautiful lessons of problem-solving, intrinsic motivation, care for each other. Now, it’s time to give them space to show you. I loved telling my students that if I had done…
Another of my favorite parents pointed out that we even make choices for how kids will play on a playground. Think of the playgrounds we so often see- bright colors, labeled for age groups, signs to go down slides only. Some have bridges, some don’t. But they all have the two types of swings, monkey…
During college, I had a summer stint as a preschool teacher. I loved it. The small school was run by some sweet older women, and it took me some time before I understood their salient intentionality. During our preschool day, we had structured time and a good deal of planned unstructured time. During structured time,…