Unique Solutions for Unique Learners
In honor of National Poetry Month, I have decided to contribute some ideas on how to introduce poetry writing that is fun and accessible. I require all my students to write poetry and have enjoyed experimenting with alternative styles that are accessible to the reluctant writer. Before my first unit on writing poetry, I ask read more…
Having struggled through out high school in math classes, I often wondered when would the quadratic equation ever matter in real life? Outside of balancing my checkbook and building a budget—two things I still am not disciplined enough to do on a regular basis—math has not been my friend. I’ve focused my career on teaching read more…
Now is the time that many high school students begin searching for opportunities to gain hands-on work experience, hoping for a glimpse into a career they might one day pursue. But why wait until summer to get started? True, summer is a great time for students to get concentrated experience without the pressure of schoolwork; read more…
A recent article in a New York Times’ special section on museums “From Show And Look To Show And Teach” by Carol Vogel focuses on leading art museums that are reaching visitors in new, interactive ways on site as well as online. It features the Whitney Museum of American Art’s temporary education center, constructed out read more…
Operating without a permanent exhibition space until the re-design of its 5th Avenue home is complete in 2013, the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum has applied an innovative and creative solution to introduce the design process to students in classrooms across the city. “Target Design in the Classroom” is an education program that teaches students read more…
“We need someone on cowbell,” says teaching artist David Cutler as he reviews the drum part for Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy” with his combined middle/high school jazz ensemble at the Urban Assembly Bronx Studio School for Artists and Writers. This is how I made my cowbell debut and first appearance in a school band since playing read more…
“Go to Page 6 if you decide to join the aliens. Go to Page 7 if you decide to fight the aliens.” These are the lines students dictate to the volunteer typists during a “Choosing Your Own Adventure” Field Trip at 826 NYC in Brooklyn’s Park Slope. For anyone who remembers being faced with equally read more…
A recent article in the New York Times titled “Split by Race and Wealth, but Discovering Similarities as They Study Steinbeck” by Winnie Hu describes an experiment between middle schools aimed to help two eighth grade classes read between the lines in their parallel study on Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck’s famous story about read more…
