tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-73227341453735468862024-03-13T20:33:14.594-07:00Coming of Age in the MiddleOn the nature, art, and science of great teaching. Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12503110737663642101noreply@blogger.comBlogger189125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7322734145373546886.post-23406966332742035902014-10-24T10:28:00.004-07:002014-10-24T10:30:11.841-07:00A New Home!
I've moved!
I've migrated over to a new, grown-up website, one that can evolve and expand as the release date for The Gift of Failure approaches (August 11, 2015). You can always find me at www.jessicalahey.com, the permanent URL for whatever I do, wherever I go.
I will be adding some really fun features at the new site, including video, my speaking and appearance schedule, links to Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12503110737663642101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7322734145373546886.post-39381645441311153632014-10-22T05:48:00.003-07:002014-10-22T05:49:11.198-07:00This is ElevenWelcome to the first in our series, This is Adolescence. "Eleven" comes from Lindsey Mead, who writes at A Design So Vast, "One woman's journey to right here." Follow her on Twitter at @lemead.
Enjoy!
Eleven
In the last week of each summer, we traditionally spend a day at a beach north of Boston. Lately, these outings have felt like encounters with the tide. Last year we stood Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12503110737663642101noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7322734145373546886.post-77401259791646093072014-10-21T14:38:00.003-07:002014-10-21T14:39:53.702-07:00This is Adolescence
A year or so ago, a fantastic series of essays called This is Childhood was published in book form and at the Brain, Child website. I adored these essays, so was thrilled when Allison Slater Tate and Lindsey Mead asked me to be a part of a new series called, appropriately, This is Adolescence.
The first installment, "Eleven," by Lindsey Mead, will go live on Wednesday, October 22, Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12503110737663642101noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7322734145373546886.post-58565617314856658782014-10-07T18:32:00.001-07:002014-10-07T18:40:36.694-07:00Remainders: The Rest of My Interview with Steven Strogatz
Response to the Atlantic article, "Teaching Math to People Who Think They Hate It," a look into Steve Strogatz's adventures teaching math to liberal arts majors at Cornell, has been lovely. I've received a couple of emails asking for more information about Discovering the Art of Mathematics, Julian Fleron and his team at Westfield State, so Steve and I thought it might be fun to post Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12503110737663642101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7322734145373546886.post-87326630253165036962014-09-25T09:19:00.000-07:002014-09-26T14:23:28.608-07:00It's Not Rocket Science
What an amazing week I've had.
I secured a last-second invitation to the Clinton Global Initiative annual meeting (as press) and scrambled to cobble together childcare (thanks, Mom!) and a substitute teacher to cover my class (thanks, Mark!) so I could attend, and cover a great education story that was embargoed until the last day of the conference. My plan was to show up, shut up, listen, Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12503110737663642101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7322734145373546886.post-64082439296222593052014-09-12T05:19:00.002-07:002014-09-13T19:01:26.936-07:00I Was Burned but I Called it a Lesson Learned
I do a lot of speaking, I never take that honor and responsibility for granted. I get to do what I love because people regularly pay me to stand at the front of a room and teach them things. That's still amazing to me.
Yesterday, I got to stand before an audience of a couple of hundred people who had taken two hours out of their busy lives to learn more about education in this country, and Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12503110737663642101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7322734145373546886.post-18386016850059542952014-08-29T05:08:00.003-07:002014-08-29T05:08:44.849-07:00A Side Trip to WashingtonHuge thanks to the lovely Adrienne Wichard-Edds for a really fun interview about THE GIFT OF FAILURE and ways to help your kids have a great school year for the On Parenting blog at the Washington Post. You can read the article here and you can follow Adrienne on Twitter at @WichardEdds!
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12503110737663642101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7322734145373546886.post-32271592219877319592014-08-09T08:24:00.001-07:002014-08-09T08:25:16.961-07:00Small Moments Define Good Teaching
Much has been written about Elizabeth Green’s new book, Building a Better Teacher: How Teaching Works (and How to Teach It to Everyone), most of it about why Americans stink at math. (Spoiler: it’s because we also stink at teaching
math). Green’s book is worth a read, and not just because she provides some great
suggestions for ways we could improve the way we teach math and train the next
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12503110737663642101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7322734145373546886.post-16686963695343827522014-08-04T06:04:00.002-07:002014-08-05T05:15:53.239-07:00Yes, You Can Step into the Same River Twice
This is a cross-post. The audio version of this post, aired Monday, August 4, 2014, is available here, at Vermont Public Radio.
A couple of years ago, I faced a teacher milestone. One of my students died, someone I'd visited and emailed and laughed with in the weeks and days before his death, and I was at a loss as to how to deal with the odd, not quite parental, not quite Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12503110737663642101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7322734145373546886.post-60811489277641171112014-07-07T10:10:00.004-07:002014-07-07T10:27:51.470-07:00A Mother's Prerogative
A very young Ben, reading one of my favorite books.
Forgive me, this once, for a gratuitous display of my maternal pride.
I promise it won't happen very often.
The gratuitous display, anyway.
The pride is a constant.
I wrote for a long, long time before receiving any money in exchange for my words. I wrote for my high school newspaper, my law school paper, plenty of Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12503110737663642101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7322734145373546886.post-86823558957316394152014-05-28T07:19:00.002-07:002014-05-29T08:32:53.784-07:00The More You Know<!--[if gte mso 9]>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12503110737663642101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7322734145373546886.post-32814005546940771542014-05-08T09:24:00.002-07:002014-05-08T09:24:17.257-07:00Parenting: It's All a Big TestThis week, in the Parent-Teacher Conference, I answer the question of what it really means when a school asks to have a child tested. This is a wild and wooly topic, with lots of tangents and caveats, but I did my best to get the details down in 1000 words or less.
I even got to use one of my new action figures for the piece, and you can read it here.
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12503110737663642101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7322734145373546886.post-18910200313982882432014-04-28T05:23:00.002-07:002014-04-28T05:25:29.611-07:00I Think I'll Be Big Enough Next YearSummer is coming, which means Finnegan's year of anxiety about summer camp is quickly approaching its climax. A year ago, when he was nine, we decided that it was time for him to head off to overnight camp, and as Ben will be celebrating his final year at this camp this year, it would be Finn's last opportunity to go to camp with a guardian sibling.
For the first few months, we were not allowed Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12503110737663642101noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7322734145373546886.post-66440148468795079902014-04-23T08:29:00.003-07:002014-04-23T08:37:09.652-07:00Life is What Happens...I'm back in New York this week, hanging out with my friend Dr. Jennifer Hartstein, and this time, we're talking about making the conscious decision not to be busy on the Kathie Lee and Hoda show. Thanks to Brigid Schulte for providing the inspiration in the form of her book Overwhelmed: Work, Love, and Play When No One Has the Time, and to Jacoba Urist for the piece she wrote for Today.com.
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12503110737663642101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7322734145373546886.post-31843598932332891392014-04-18T14:16:00.000-07:002014-04-18T14:17:27.677-07:00Pimping the Pantheon
My vestigial teacher calendar notified me that it's National Mythology Exam season, so I though I'd re-share my favorite study too. I present, "Pimping the Pantheon." Enjoy!
The National Mythology Exam is coming up in two weeks, and my Latin classes are knee-deep in Roman and Greek gods. We've been reviewing the stories, symbols, family trees, and domains, so today, it was time to test Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12503110737663642101noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7322734145373546886.post-28392225209500272112014-04-12T07:50:00.001-07:002014-04-12T07:57:47.676-07:00Never Let Schooling Interfere With Your Education*
I had a lovely day in Tarrytown, NY yesterday. I was the keynote at a fundraiser put on by the Hackley School Parent's Association at the Tappan Hill Mansion, formerly owned by Mark Twain. He bought what was formerly known as the Hillcrest mansion for his daughter and lived there for two years at the end of his life. As I looked out over his view of the Hudson River, wishing I had thought to Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12503110737663642101noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7322734145373546886.post-50731290852549763192014-04-08T05:54:00.000-07:002014-04-08T05:54:35.594-07:00Why Children Want - and NEED - Risky Play
Peter Gray, Boston College professor and author of Free to Learn (a book that is well worth your time) is out there, day in and day out, lobbying for the freedom to play. To climb trees, leap from great heights, and yes, maybe even get hurt. To introduce you to Peter's work, here's a recent article of his, "Risky Play: Why Children Love It and Need It," a great piece that goes into the Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12503110737663642101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7322734145373546886.post-42923477779208785432014-03-31T08:37:00.000-07:002014-04-02T02:59:08.998-07:00Talking About Books on the Today Show
I got to spend the morning on the Today Show set talking about some of my favorite picks for books that transcend gender. Embed code is not working for some reason, so here's the link to the segment.
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12503110737663642101noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7322734145373546886.post-89640105973695778712014-03-12T16:12:00.002-07:002014-03-13T09:57:06.416-07:00The Logical ConclusionI heard today that my brilliant, lovely, and generous editor, Eleanor Barkhorn, is leaving The Atlantic for Vox.com. I'm absolutely bummed but thrilled for her, as she's going to be fantastic wherever she goes. We'd been working on a piece together, something we'd been discussing for a long time, and it seems fitting that it went live today, on the day she made her announcement.
Thank you, Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12503110737663642101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7322734145373546886.post-70039473852058817032014-03-03T18:19:00.002-08:002014-03-03T18:43:01.069-08:00Those That Understand
How do we know great teaching when we see it? If students can be sure of it in ten silent seconds of video, as Malcolm Gladwell described in Blink, what do they see? What is that thing, that spark that resides at the heart of great teaching? Is it apparent the moment a teacher first enters the classroom or does it take a lifetime to achieve? Can great teaching be taught, or is it Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12503110737663642101noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7322734145373546886.post-32465096801655014782014-02-28T08:19:00.004-08:002014-02-28T08:32:22.859-08:00Uniquely Portable Magic
I got so many nice responses to the bibliography I put up for reference after a keynote I gave in Chicago, lots of sentiments such as "I love knowing what other people are reading!" so I thought I'd extend the thread. Now that I can read again (no concussion symptoms for a MONTH!) I'm going in big. Here's what I'm reading this week, starting at the top:
1. Dan Ariely's Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12503110737663642101noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7322734145373546886.post-31569723694958591422014-02-27T07:33:00.001-08:002014-02-27T07:36:46.686-08:00At the Core of Things
This week's offering at "The Parent Teacher Conference" is a post I've been thinking about for a while. Parents often whisper questions about the Common Core, usually under their breath, as if they are ashamed that they never really paid attention when their kid's principal explained the details of the CC. I wrote this little primer to fill in knowledge gaps, and help parents understand what Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12503110737663642101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7322734145373546886.post-16873083586316450312014-02-22T15:47:00.001-08:002014-02-23T06:00:27.761-08:00Hangin' with Maria Montessori in the Windy City
Thanks so much to the Association of Illinois Montessori Schools and Near North Montessori for hosting me at such a fantastic conference. I knew going into this weekend that I would be preaching to a thoroughly converted choir, that Montessori teachers are advocates for their students' autonomy and the power of intrinsic motivation. However, I had no idea I'd meet such a smart and dedicated Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12503110737663642101noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7322734145373546886.post-53945213997265202232014-02-16T19:00:00.001-08:002014-02-16T19:00:39.884-08:00Get Thee a Husband
I get to be the proud wife today, as Tim Lahey has made his New York Times debut (in digital AND Monday's print edition!), on the ethics of videotaping patients in hospitals. You can read the article here.
If you are interested in medical ethics or his ramblings on everything from medicine to poetry, read his blog, Murmurs.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12503110737663642101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7322734145373546886.post-89681081532562222892014-02-13T07:03:00.002-08:002014-02-13T07:03:36.516-08:00Be the ChangeOkay, so don't actually know what Gandhi would have said about recess, but I do want to be the change he spoke of with this one.
Earlier this year, the American Academy of Pediatrics issued a policy statement asking schools to stop benching kids during recess for academic or disciplinary transgressions. The reasons are simple: the kids who get benched are the kids who need recess the most.
It Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12503110737663642101noreply@blogger.com1