At the Ron Clark Academy, a twisty blue slide starts on the second story and spits riders onto the main floor lobby.  A large wheel "sorts" (inspired by the Hogwarts sorting hat) new students into four academic houses, as the entire school cheers.  Educators from across the globe attend RCA's teacher training sessions and can observe classes in session in a school where teaching is definitely a performance art.

Clark is the author of The Essential 55: An Award-Winning Educator's Rules for Discovering the Successful Student in Every Child (2003), The Excellent 11: Qualities Teachers and Parents Use to Motivate, Inspire, and Educate Children (2004), and, now, The End of Molasses Classes: Getting Our Kids Unstuck--101 Extraordinary Solutions for Parents and Teachers (2011).

Having just finished The End of Molasses Classes, I can say that it's an inspiring read for all educators, parents included.  And if you don't know something, don't worry:

Whenever I am talking with my students an they ask me a question I don't know the answer to, I will say, "Oooh, let's look that up!"  I act genuinely giddy at the prospect of finding out information that I don't know.

As parents and teachers, that level of interest and curiosity is important to show our children.

I admire Clark's passion and his emphasis on a student's holistic well-being.  He's clearly interested, above all, in helping students feel empowered and competent, with a "constant thirst for knowledge" and an appreciation for high standards, both academically and ethically.

Highly recommended.

I also used Audible.com to listen to these plays, most of which I'd recommend, though generally for teens and adults:

• Anna in the Tropics by Nilo Cruz
• Dinner with Friends by Donald Margulies
• Great Men of Genius by Mike Daisey
• Molly Sweeney by Brian Friel
• Sight Unseen by Donald Margulies
• Speed the Plow by David Mamet
• The Tale of the Allergist's Wife by Charles Busch
• A View from the Bridge by Arthur Miller

Now, I wish I could go back and augment the section about Facebook--since the book's publication, I've become much more familiar with Facebook accounts worth following.  While I can't amend the book, I can share information via this blog.  So here, in no particular order, are some of my favorite Facebookers.  For the most part, I'm letting their sites' descriptions speak for themselves:

1. How to Tutor Your Own Child -- Obviously this recommendation is a bit biased, but I do try to provide information that will benefit parent-tutors, from book recommendations (e.g., Cheaper by the Dozen) to educational conversation starters ("The 45 Most Powerful Images of 2011") to video resources (YouTube's education channel).  I have 200+ fans and would love more!

2. Children's Book-a-Day Almanac -- "Daily children’s book recommendations and events from Anita Silvey."

3. Play at Home Mom -- "We are a group of moms who have a firm belief in positive parenting and play based learning. We hope to inspire, educate, uplift, and empower you all to be the best moms (and dads) you can be. "

4. Read Aloud Dad -- "Read Aloud Dad is all about children's book reviews, read aloud tips and advice for all those who are involved with reading to and with children!"

5. Tinkerlab -- "TinkerLab aims to help parents tap into a child’s natural curiosities through creative experiments that support independent thinking, enthusiasm for the wonders of the world, problem posing and solving, and the imagination. The projects and ideas shared here are child-centered and value the processes of exploration, experimentation, and curiosity."

6. Grammar Girl -- I did mention Grammar Girl's podcast in the book, but not her Facebook page.  "Grammar Girl provides short, friendly tips to improve your writing. Covering the grammar rules and word choice guidelines that can confound even the best writers, Grammar Girl makes complex grammar questions simple with memory tricks to help you recall and apply those troublesome grammar rules."

7. I Can Teach My Child! -- "Helping you be your child's first teacher--Activities and resources for parents of children birth to 5 years."

8. Our Montessori Home -- Advice and resources from a Montessori family.

9. teachmama.com -- "My goal is to sneak in a little bit of learning for my kiddos--disguised as fun--every day."

Thanks to all of these Facebookers for their contributions to families everywhere!

Readers, what sites provide you with inspiration?  Do you use any of the same resources that I do, or do you have other recommendations?  Use the comment section (below) to share your favorite Facebook groups.

It was frustrating to see the show try to generalize about multiple educational philosophies over the course of only one hour (minus the time spent on commercials), especially given the small sample size.  It was hard for Ling to provide a balanced view of the four approaches in such a limited time.

Ultimately, all four parenting methods seemed to raise one question: What are you willing to have your children sacrifice to ensure their well-being?

• The tiger parents gave up their children's freedom and free time for the sake of their "success" in graduate school and beyond.

• The unschoolers gave up their adherence to mainstream educational expectations to allow their children immediate happiness and, they hoped, the ability to maintain their passion for learning long-term.

• The NFL father mandated a path for his son in the hopes that the discipline would allow his child to beat the odds and make it farther in life than he (the father) did.

• The pageant mother took liberties with her children's happiness (they resisted the pageant preparation) and health (she used candy as a drug to energize and control them) to prepare them for a world where beauty queens get ahead.

While I bristled at some of what the tiger parents did, I felt that their methods could still lead to children with basically sound values.  But I found the pageant family's approach very troubling.  It saddened me to see them putting a spray tan on a crying toddler and popping what looked like Sweet Tarts into their daughter's mouth to help her stay "wild" enough to attract the judges' attention.  The parent of a slightly older (elementary school-age) pageant participant seemed to be pouring an energy drink between her painted lips.  It was heartening to see a commercial that indicated there will be follow-up with the pageant family next week and that the mother may be giving up the entire endeavor.

I don't think there's just one right approach to parenting or to education, but I do think that every family can strive for the same outcome, which is to have children who approach their family's educational philosophy feeling enthusiastic, engaged, and appreciative--and who feel that it's leading them toward a desirable outcome, whatever that may be.  Based on the show's brief exploration of these four families, my impression was that the unschoolers and the footballer were the children who best met these criteria.  Again, that doesn't necessarily mean these families are following the ideal system for their own children or anyone else's--just that they must be somewhat in tune with their own children's needs, which is a valuable goal.

Q: How do I encourage a distractable student to stay on task when I'm out of the room?

A: Ask your child how long a particular task should take.  Then set a timer and challenge your child to see whether he can finish by the time it goes off.  You can set your own alarm and check back at intervals (and at the end of the time) to see if the time pressure has helped your child stay focused.  This can also help your child develop time management skills and a more accurate sense of how long particular tasks take.

Q: My child works too quickly.  How do I teach him/her to slow down and check his/her work?

A:  If your child consistently rushes--for example, when working on math problems--ask him to talk you through the process of completing a problem.  As you do it, model the pace that you think is appropriate.  Then ask him to teach you how to check your work.  Do so slowly and deliberately, doing the process while speaking the language that you want your child to be using in his head while reviewing.  It can be hard to TELL a child how to slow down, but he may change his speed if you SHOW him how you'd do it.

Q: When my child reads a book that I haven't read, what's a productive way to engage him/her in conversation about it?

A: You can certainly try, "Tell me about your book," but if you want to get more specific with your questions, allowing your child to think about the reading in a new way, you can attempt these as well: "Would you recommend this book to me?  To students of a certain age or interest?  Why?"  "Who's the main character and what does he/she want?"  "Is there something that's standing in that character's way?"  "Did you think this author has a particular way of writing?" OR "Do you think you could identify this author by his/her writing?  Is there something unique about it?"  Asking more directed questions will allow your child to create focused responses, which will be a useful skill to have when responding to writing prompts or just trying to make a concise point in conversation.

I ran out of time at the event, so I didn't get to recommend two other ideas for reading matter.  One is the book I recently raved about, Guerrilla Learning.  The other is The Teacher's Calendar, an annual publication that lists each day's historical, literary, and cultural anniversaries.  It's a good resource for parents and children, providing fodder for interesting, timely, and educational conversations.  Enjoy!

APPS

Leafsnap, an electronic field guide (free)

My First Classical Music App ($4.99)

BLOG ARTICLES, OTHER PEOPLE'S

Chalkboard contact paper

Felt rolls and flannel boards

"Five Favorite Museums to Visit with Kids"

Geoboards

Geocaching

Light panels

List of "Top 25 Picture Books"

List of "Top 25 Teacher Mom Blogs"

"Pumpkins and Place Value"

Sensory boards

Window writing

BLOG ARTICLES, THIS BLOG'S

"Q&As from Parents at St. Patrick's in DC"
 

BOOKS

Caldecott Medal Winner, 1938 - Present

Newbery Medal Winners, 1922 - Present

About Encyclopedia Brown

About Guerrilla Learning

Material World: A Global Family Portrait

Math for Grownups, by Laura Laing

COLLEGE

College application tips

"DC parents choosing to home-school their children" (includes names of support organizations)

Don't write lesson objectives on the board.

Franz Liszt as first rock star

"A home-schooler goes to college"

NYT: Waldorf education in California: "A Silicon Valley School That Doesn't Compute"

STUDIES

"Video game playing tied to creativity"

VIDEOS

How to "Prepare for the Science Fair"

"To Remember Better, Build a Mansion in Your Mind"

YouTube's educational videos

WRITING RESOURCES

Calendar of writing prompts

"Crafting a Thesis Statement"

Jokes from McSweeney's to use as lead-ins to grammar/punctuation review

I don't even know where to start.  I think I highlighted most of the book.  I just tried to go back through my Kindle to figure out what parts of the book I should write about, and it seems I marked 265 passages, some of which are multiple pages long.

Basically, Llewellyn and Silver make the point that, even if your children are enrolled in school, you can go a long way toward improving their educational experience with  your own positive influence and support.  (Yes, I partly like their book because it reminds me so much of my own.)  After laying out their thoughts on what doesn't work about the traditional school system and why you should stop stressing about "high-stakes" testing and other fabricated perils of mainstream "education," they go through each school subject area (science, math, history...) and provide suggestions for how to naturally and dynamically engage your child in that subject.  Their resource lists provide an incredible collection of books that you might want to read next.

This book is applicable for anyone with children, no matter what types of school they do or don't attend.

Llewellyn is renowned for her pioneering work in the homeschooling and unschooling worlds.  She's the mastermind behind the Not Back to School Camp, for unschooled teenagers, and the author of The Teenage Liberation Handbook: How to Quit School and Get a Real Life and Education and Real Lives: Eleven Teenagers Who Don't Go to School Tell Their Own Stories.

Radical unschooling, which expands unschooling philosophy to parenting, means you extend that same trust to other areas of your child's life, like foods, media, television, video games--allowing them to eat, play, or watch whatever they want when they want.

This method requires the parent to trust that a child who is allowed to pursue his or her own passions (and, in many cases, his or her own schedule) will naturally focus on activities that have educational value.  The educational value of an activity may not be immediately obvious, but the idea is that children innately know what they need, so bouts of television viewing or video game playing that might trouble a non-unschooler are instead looked on as beneficial and natural.

There were some parts of Martin's book that made me hesitate--she's a proponent of the Law of Attraction--but others appealed to me.  Namely, Martin's description of a good unschooler was remarkably similar to my vision of a good parent-tutor:

My job is to expose them to as much of the world as possible from as many resources as possible, so they can realize and pursue their interests.

Martin then provides a list of resources, all of which would also be used by a creative parent-tutor: "internet, television, books, video games, day trips, vacations, community resources, and apprenticeships."

Does tutoring differ from unschooling?  I suppose it does in that a parent-tutor may be providing support for a school subject that a child does not particularly want to study.  But both the parent-tutor and unschooling parent are striving to help their children learn how to learn.  More than that, they're helping their children how to LOVE learning how to learn.

Here's my current understanding:

When we talk about homeschoolers, we're talking about the broad category of students who learn outside of the full-time American school system.  

Unschoolers are a particular type of homeschoolers.  Similar to other homeschoolers, they may choose to follow an official curriculum, participate in group or individual lessons, and enjoy a personalized education.

What defines unschoolers as a separate group is that its students are never required to pursue topics or activities that do not interest them.  A homeschooling family might tell its children that they must study multiplication because the parents feel it's important; an unschooling family would not force an area of study on a resistant student.  Unschoolers learn voluntarily, as their passions direct.

(Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, homeschoolers and unschoolers, or to add any distinctions that I may have overlooked.)

Next I'll be reading Radical Unschooling: A Revolution Has Begun, by Dayna Martin.

A strong thesis statement...

• ...makes an argument.  Ask yourself: Can I support my argument with evidence--as opposed to personal opinion?  Also, could someone make a rational counterargument?  If your statement is indisputable, meaning that someone could not reasonably argue against it, you probably don't have a thesis-worthy argument.

• ...is specific.  "Animals deserve rights" may be an argumentative thesis statement, but it's way too broad for a reader to know where you're going with your argument.  "Zoo-bound animals deserve rights" is a step in the correct direction.  "Zoo-bound animals deserve the right to privacy" is even better.

• ...hints at the structure of your paper.  Often, a strong thesis statement gives a reader some idea of how you'll prove your argument.  Perhaps you've provided a list of factors A, B, and C, so readers suspect you'll write about those elements in order.  Or you might provide a cause-and-effect relationship in the thesis statement, which would also give readers a sense of what's to come.

• ...includes a how/why element.  Sure, "All bears should be given T-shirts" is an argumentative statement, but it doesn't tell me why all bears should be given T-shirts.  Instead, try "All bears should be given T-shirts to provide support for the animal fashion movement."  Now I know where this paper is headed.

Once you've written a thesis statement, you want to make sure that your topic sentences support it.  I recommend writing your thesis statement and topic sentences before you tackle the rest of your paper.  You might need to sort evidence/quotes into the paragraphs where they'll eventually go, but don't write out your entire paper until you're sure that the structure is strong and logical.

To read more about creating effective thesis statements:

Read "Creating a Strong Thesis" from the University of Texas at Austin.

Check out Virgil, an online writing tutorial from the UT Undergraduate Writing Center.  They walk you through any topic, prompting you with questions to provide more accurate assistance.  Here's part of the thesis segment.  The UWC also has helpful handouts.

Try "Tips and Examples for Writing Thesis Statements," from the Purdue Online Writing Lab.

The event's main speaker was Doris Davis, an educational consultant who formerly worked as part of the admissions teams at Cornell and Barnard.  As an admissions insider, she provided valuable thoughts for the college students and parents in attendance.  Among them:

• Consider the intangible.  A student's strongest quality might be compassion.  Think about how that could be turned into an application-worthy activity.  For example, by volunteering with people or animals in need.
• Be honest in your college applications.  Doris told of a student whose acceptance to Cornell was revoked when he indicated that he was a member of a racially underrepresented group but was not.  On a recent Yale application, students had to answer a question about what they would do if they had an entirely free afternoon.  The student who said "Sleep" curried favor with the judges, who admired the student's honesty.  (That student did go on to explain why sleep was significant and beautiful; it wasn't a one-word essay.)
• Interpret essay questions creatively.  One application asked students what historical moment they'd like to have witnessed.  Many students took "historical" to mean textbook-worthy material, but one applicant wrote a beautiful essay about how she wished she could have seen her mother's reaction to her (the student's) birth.  Why?  The student was born in China under the one-child policy, in an atmosphere that strongly favored males.  She wanted to see how her mother reacted to the news that she'd delivered a girl.

This Saturday, I'll be speaking at CSO's bookfair at the Bethesda, MD, Barnes & Noble.

The timing:

2:05 - 2:45: "Gain an Edge in Planning for College" -- Doris Davis, educational consultant and former Associate Provost for Admission and Enrollment at Cornell University

2:45 - 3:05: "Take a Do-It-Yourself Approach to Your Child's Education" -- me

The bookfair runs all day, so please come by even if you're not free for the talks.  'I'll be around throughout the afternoon, so come say hello!

Given some mild pillow talk and other PG content, parents might find this film most appropriate for middle and high school students.  And while the film doesn't openly endorse use of Second Life, do consider whether knowing about Second Life might inspire your child to want to check it out and how you feel about that possibility.  (Users of Second Life must be at least age 13, though their avatars can be younger.)  

Here are a few questions that can get you talking before/during/after the film:

1. An adult male whose avatar is an 11-year-old girl says, "I call Second Life the best and worst thing that has ever happened to me."  Before you watch the film, consider what this might mean.  In what ways could a virtual world both help and hurt its users?  After watching, can you identify the pros and cons of Second Life for each of the people you saw?

 

2. What makes Amy and Steven's relationship different in real life than in Second Life?  What struggles might a couple face when trying to continue a virtual relationship in the real world?

 

3. Asri makes a living designing homes and clothing for Second Life clientele.  The film introduces the idea that there's no lesser significance to a job based in Second Life.  In fact, Asri's brother says that he's jealous of Asri's ability to work from home.  What do you think?  Does it matter that Asri designs virtual homes rather than "real" homes?  Does it matter if someone's job is based in Second Life rather than in his or her "first life"?

 

4. One of Second Life's developers sees it as a perk that interacting in a virtual world means a person is safe from physical harm.  While this may be true, what are the trade-offs that the individual must make?  Are they worth it, and, if so, in what cases?

 

5. How much computer time is too much?  Does it depend on who you are?  Consider the screen time that's appropriate for a teenager.  What about an adult?  Does it matter whether the adult is in a relationship?  Replace "computer time" with "screen time," "Second Life time," or "electronics time" and think about how your answers change.

 

The film doesn't address whether Second Life can be used for educational purposes.  Can it?  If you know of any, I'd be interested in hearing about them.

Previous OWN documentaries:

June -- Sons of Perdition, about Mormon young men who have run away from or been kicked out of their polygamist communities

July -- Serving Life, about inmates in the Louisiana State Penitentiary who volunteer in the prison hospice

Upcoming OWN documentaries listed here.