Read This Before Our Next Meeting: Brainstorming Tips

Brainstorming Tips

Through the BzzAgent program, I’ve been getting free Kindle copies of publications by The Domino Project.  Most recently, I received Read This Before Our Next Meeting: The modern meeting standard for successful organizations by Al Pittampalli.  (Anyone can download the digital edition for free until Tuesday, August 9.) The gist of the book is that meetings often hinder rather than help; Pittampalli describes … Read more

How to Observe and Adapt, Inspired by Reggio Emilia

Oprah's Documentary Club

I recently attended the open house of a DC-area playgroup based on the Reggio Emilia method, an educational approach for young children that developed in Italy after World War II. At the open house, the playgroup’s founder emphasized the importance of a child’s “third teacher,” his or her environment.  (The first and second teachers are parents … Read more

The Benefits of Being Alone

Benefits of Being Alone

In How to Tutor Your Own Child, I emphasize the educational value of simplicity, silence, and boredom.  Along those same lines, I was struck by this quote about the benefits of aloneness from “The Writer as Psychotic,” an article by author Philip Yancey: Brain scans reveal that aloneness is central to the creative impulse; sensory deprivation allows the synaptic loops … Read more

Don’t Google Too Soon

Don't Google Too Soon

In How to Tutor Your Own Child, I discuss the role that the Internet plays in students’ intellectual development.  Though search engines may be an effective tool, I’m concerned about how the Web makes us so quick to Google for answers.  Think about the process of discovery that’s lost in Googling. Here’s a non-academic example: Can you … Read more

How Much Help Is Too Much Help?

How Much Help Is Too Much Help?

How do you know if you’re having the appropriate level of involvement when helping your child with schoolwork?  I recommend keeping the following points in mind: Don’t do anything for a student that he could be doing himself. Your goal is to build the student’s skill set.  He or she should come away from your interactions with … Read more