21st Century Kids

Share September 10, 2009 marked the launch of the TEDx Toronto talk, the extension of the remarkable TED talk series. If you have not visited the TED site and viewed one of the talks available you are missing a great source of information and inspiration. Recently, the TED organization has allowed extensions of its series [...]

The Slow Movement

Share I was browsing through the TED talks the other day and came upon a very interesting talk by Carl Honore praising ‘slowness.’ (If you have not visited the TED talk site you should; there are over 400 twenty minute talks by famous and enormously talented people available on the site.) This blog post is [...]

No Child Left Inside

Share As summer approaches, it is time to contemplate what we might do with (or for) our kids. How about “kicking them out?” “No Child Left Inside” is a takeoff on the infamous “No Child Left Behind” Act in the U.S., the Act that has led to an enormous rise in the importance of “high [...]

"Real" Work

Share Early on in my teaching career I thought I might like to leave teaching to pursue work that was more tangible. By tangible, I mean work that involved a definite beginning and end with a visible product at the end. Say, being a carpenter – start with a pile of lumber – end up [...]

Time for Slow Schools

Share The Sunday New York Times Magazine of May 3/09 featured an excellent article by Peggy Orenstein titled “Kindergarten Cram.” The article reinforces some earlier posts on the Chalkboard that discuss the importance of play for children. Not only does play provide much-needed ‘down-time’ for busy kids but it also serves to support the achievement [...]

Messing Around

Share I believe that I grew up in a kinder, gentler time, in a small town in Northern Ontario, where my friends and I had free run of the town and the bush beyond.  I spent a lot of time outdoors with my friends just generally ‘messing around.’  No organized sports, music lessons or after [...]

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