Category: Forum

Critical exploration for geometry

So, this morning was the first day back in school after the inspirational conference this past weekend.  I arrived to find that my classes were all less than half full due to the scheduled AP Environmental Science test (our most …

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Category: Forum

A Drawing by the Author of the Will Churn/Marshall Strode Letters

Hi, Steve and I had this drawing ready for the session on looking closely at student work, and if we had had time after talking about the letters, we would have considered it together.  It is also from the Industrial …

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Category: Forum

Moonrise video

I saw this on my alma mater’s blog. It’s a link to an article about a film called “life in a day.” The first clip is a video of the moonrise. Though it was neat and wanted to share! Article …

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Category: Forum

The Moon Project by Sallie Wolf

Since November 30, 1994 I have been watching for the moon, charting it in my journals using symbols I devised myself, and then compiling my data, using my training in art to help me organize the information and frame the …

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Category: Forum

Galinsky’s Seven Essential Life Skills and Duckworth’s Virtues of Not Knowing

How do Galinsky’s life skills connect with Eleanor Duckworth’s The Virtues of not Knowing? [chpt 5 The Having of Wonderful Ideas, 2nd Edition]  Mind in the Making: The Seven Essential Life Skills Every Child Needs.      – Ellen Galinsky  …

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Category: Forum

Grading as Social Control

Pat Carini (2001) wrote about taking “humanness, and the valuing of humanness, as starting place and center for education” and resisting “the oversystematization and depersonalization of school.” She also wrote about how in schools, “children are mostly looked at through …

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Category: Forum

Critical Explorers Launch Party

Just a brief follow-up to a small group discussion at the Launch Party, (comparing two paintings from the Slavery and Reconstruction curriculum.) One person was very excited and said she could use the same technique of observing, asking “What do …

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Category: Forum

New research that supports the value of critical exploration

In the article below Alison Gopnik captures a truth that reflects well on Critical Exploration.  My question for Gopnik and the researchers she cites would be, if the research reflects this truth for preschoolers and their curriculum, why would the same …

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Category: Forum

Meier shoutout to The Having of Wonderful Ideas

“The heart of being an educated person lies precisely in the nuances that separate our choices. Let’s be cautious about aligning everything into a seamless garment” (Deb Meier,  2011). In this week’s Bridging Differences, Deborah Meier wrote briefly of Eleanor’s …

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Category: Forum

Resources for Younger Learners

I’m always on the hunt for beautiful, open-ended materials for my classroom, both for free play and for CE. I teach older toddlers (two years turning three) in a full-time children’s center. What have you stumbled across lately that really caught …

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