We have not finished exploring the new Illinois Early Learning and Development Standards even though it feels like we have been looking at them for a long time. It gives you a sense of how complex these kinds of documents are and how difficult it is for most practitioners to remember all of the minute […]
Paul Tough explores the notion of SLANT in his book How Children Succeed– a technique that teachers at the KIPP (Knowledge in Power Programs) schools use to teach code-switching behaviors that indicate professional and education engagement. As an adult educator, I too, look for these behaviors to indicate that my students are interested in the […]
When you are married to a landscaper (or contractor, or builder) there are always tape measures lying around. My boys loved playing with tape measures, but I could never take my eyes off of them for a second, because a real tape measure releases really quickly and can snap back on small hands, fingers, or […]
This Monday is April Fool’s Day- the day when playing practical jokes is not only acceptable but expected. There are several accepted origins to this day-from references to Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales to the Roman holiday of Hilaria. In Europe, a traditional practical joke that is played amongst school children, families and colleagues in the workplace […]
This week brought my very good friend Stephanie and her two boys, Jack and Will, out to Chicago for a spring break visit. Her oldest is starting to look at colleges, and so they planned this trip to the Windy City to take a look around. Do you have people in your life who are […]
Not only do children like to make music (think drums and rhythm sticks) they also like to listen to music. They like it performed live or recorded. They like to listen to the same songs over and over and they like to hear new and novel music. For my family, the car was always the […]
A colleague of mine just sent me this document the Comparison of the IELS and the IELDS. Here you can see the old Illinois Early Learning Standards side-by-side with the new Illinois Early Learning and Development Standards. It is really interesting to look at how they’ve changed. Can you imagine the conversations that were required […]
Do you think some people are good at solving puzzles and others are not? Is puzzle-solving a skill you are born with or can everyone eventually learn how to solve puzzles? Are you a puzzle solver? Howard Gardner of Harvard University argues that we all have various intelligences that manifest themselves in varying amounts and […]
Tempo is the speed of music. Here, it is really easy to see the mathematical connections. Fastness and slowness are mathematical ideas that we can explore fully with children through music. Consider the song “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes”. First we sing it slowly.. Head, shoulders, knees and toes Knees and toes. Head, shoulders, knees […]
This morning, my husband Larry told me the back story of how his father came up with his “one cuts, one chooses” system of justice. He said that he has vivid memories of his father cutting paper plates in half, one after the other, trying to explain to his sister Caren, the notion that there […]