In March 2017, I was attempting to determine what a first grader with autism needed as he was incoherently perseverating on an event. My prompts to have him slow down or to redirect his obsession failed.
Read More
This summer I had the privilege of participating in a seminar for teachers funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The seminar, Re-Enchanting Nature: Humanities Perspectives, brought together 16 educators from across the country to spend three weeks in Montana and Wyoming, exploring how religious, cultural, literary, fine arts, and cinematic perspectives influence our connection to the environment.
Read More
Earlier this year, we shared the news that Angeline UyHam is the Center's first design fellow. As we continue our partnership with Angie's newly launched organization, the Cambridge Educators Design Lab, we have two updates.
Read More
August 1st's edition of the The New York Times featured "Where All the School’s a Stage, and the List of Success Stories Is Long," a spotlight on arts-focused high schools from across the country. Through aggregated data and individual students' stories, author Lizette Alvarez makes the case for arts schools as a critical avenue for success for students captivated by the arts
Read More
We’re pleased to share our Request for Proposals for the Innovative School Design Incubator, which the Center for Artistry and Scholarship (CAS) is launching to support up to four school designers to integrate educational, artistic, and community-based strategies to transform the lives of youth and families from diverse backgrounds.
Read More
We are pleased to announce that we've finished our first collaborative publication as an organization! I've worked with Josue Gonzalez, the Director of El Sistema at Conservatory Lab Charter School, to write a document about the implementation and best practices of Conservatory Lab's El Sistema-inspired music program, and how similar music programs can be initiated in other schools
Read More
More than 50 years of an oppressive US blockade of Cuba have never deterred the people of Cienfuegos and its hamlet of Pepito Tey. They continue to welcome and embrace American visitors. After a third visit to this island nation I feel more than ever that people, not politics, will pave the way to lasting change.
Read More
At the end of any school year there is a total whirlwind of activity: state testing, grades to wrap up, concerts, staffing decisions, etc. All of this happens while teachers and administrators have to strategize and plan ahead for what is to come in the fall and the subsequent school year(s).
Read More
'What is Expeditionary Learning?' People always ask me this question. Expeditionary learning, now officially known as EL Education, was founded in 1991 by the Harvard Graduate School of Education and Outward Bound.
Read More
From August to June, this year's PSI cohort has been working hard on their capstone projects. Each participant must create a program or project that solves a problem in their home organization by establishing or strengthening a partnership.
Read More
Between now and May 15 (the deadline to apply for next year's class at the Perrone-Sizer Institute) we'll be highlighting some of our fabulous PSI graduates and partners! Next up is Megan Bird, the Regional Executive Director of Citizen Schools in Boston, which is a partner of PSI. Keep reading to find out how PSI has contributed to the development of Megan's program staff.
Read More
We’re honored to announce our first design fellow, Angeline UyHam. After 20 years in education and having recently completed an MBA in entrepreneurship, Angie founded the Cambridge Educators Design Lab.
Read More
At a time when teachers are challenged to accelerate gains and eliminate gaps in student achievement, schools and districts need to move more proactively to provide meaningful, high quality professional development opportunities for teachers (Wei, Darling Hammond & Adamson, 2010).
Read More
A few weeks ago we finished up our second of two major arts-integrated projects in my 7th grade science class. In the first project, students worked as a class to create a comic book to chronicle the life cycle of a computer, from the sourcing of raw materials to disposal of obsolete machines.
Read More
I was trying to explain what Pre-text is to a colleague. I began by trying to explain the different activities that we took part in, and then I started to talk about the tangent line. I started to explain the debrief process, and then I realized that I was rambling and making something so simple seem very difficult. So I quickly followed up in saying, “It’s magic; pre-text is magic!”
Read More
Michelle is an educator of more than 10 years with a passion for aiding in the growth of individuals through the power of education. Her professional expertise includes tutoring for students, diversity work in schools, and strategic planning advice to community organizations.
Read More
How does one transport a school model across international contexts? What components of the school model are transferable, what components are not? How does one discover the appropriate balance between fidelity and flexibility in the original model so as to properly adapt the model to a new context with respect for the local community’s needs?
Read More
Bows click wildly as 5th graders bustle hurriedly around chairs and stands. Students shuffle around one another, following winding paths that tend steadily towards their assigned seats. The first of the day's two music classes begins amidst math, science, and ELA classes in neighboring rooms.
Read More
Do you remember that time when you heard about an idea and thought about how you could apply it to another setting in your life? That feeling when you couldn’t wait to tell someone about your wild, innovative idea?
Read More
if an architect designed a sidewalk that is only three feet wide, it will not allow two people to walk side by side – hence making it difficult for conversations. If instead, the path were twenty feet wide, activities such as jogging, biking, gardening, and sitting begin occurring. Finally, at a width of sixty feet, the sidewalk becomes a boulevard that incubates the life one would find in a shopping mall – dining, socializing, performances, resting, vendors, etc…
Read More