Give Me a Lever Long Enough: Links I've shared with faculty recently

Welcome!

Welcome to the blog of Zaq Roberts, Associate Head of School at The Berkeley School in Berkeley, CA. I blog about a wide variety of topics, from classroom moments I witness, to administrative events and conversations, to the educational blogs, videos, and books I am reading and watching, and how they are influencing my thinking. I hope this eclectic approach will give you insight into the many ways that I am engaging in advancing the school and strengthening our program, and I welcome your thoughts and comments!

This blog takes its name from a quotation by Archimedes that reads "Give me a lever long enough, and I can move the world." The TBS mission speaks directly to the need to engage a changing world, while many of the experiences in our program focus on the development of students' agency and authority. TBS is the lever by which we all - administration, faculty, students, and parents - can together move the world to be more humane, compassionate, and responsive. To borrow an important Montessori phrase, it is our way to remake the world.

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Links I've shared with faculty recently

I'm often passing articles and websites on to faculty. Sometimes it's in direct response to a request from a faculty member for help in researching a topic or finding resources; other times it's related to a piece of work I've observed in the classroom; and occasionally it's simply something I think they will find interesting, for an assortment of reasons. Here's a collection of six sites I've sent around in the last week that cohere around the latter category.

K-5 service learning:

http://www.freethechildren.org

K-8 literacy:

Just got this link to the first chapter of a new book about how reading instruction pitched towards standardized tests is destroying students' actual love of reading, and thought I'd share it.

http://www.stenhouse.com/emags/0780-1/pageflip.html

I was especially interested in the idea of separated, simulated, and integrated curriculum discussed in the final pages of the chapter - an interesting lens through which to look at our practices of instruction.

4-6 math:

http://games.cs.washington.edu/refraction/

4-8 math:

http://mindshift.kqed.org/2011/11/some-help-with-solving-the-rubix-cube/

6-8 science:

http://mindshift.kqed.org/2011/11/what-do-wii-remotes-have-to-do-with-science-ask-sixth-graders

6-8 advisory:

http://beaconnews.suntimes.com/news/8615373-418/aurora-teens-learn-social-media-can-backfire.html