I recently watched the Academy Award nominated short documentary The ABCs of Book Banning, in which director Sheila Nevins, turns the camera on children between the ages of 8 and 16 who attend schools impacted by the wave of school book banning that has taken place in parts of th … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; It was a pleasant day so we had our doors open. When whether permits, we like to connect our indoors with the outdoors. The fresh, moving air, the bird song and insect buzz, the scent of plants, of dirt, of moisture. When I … | Continue reading
It was a pleasant day so we had our doors open. When whether permits, we like to connect our indoors with the outdoors. The fresh, moving air, the bird song and insect buzz, the scent of plants, of dirt, of moisture. When I step onto the patio for an al fresco lunch, the food, un … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; I've never written about the day I became a father. I think about that day and often tell parts of the story, but so far I've not found all of the words to do so, if words are even adequate. What I need to say is too complex … | Continue reading
I've never written about the day I became a father. I think about that day and often tell parts of the story, but so far I've not found all of the words to do so, if words are even adequate. What I need to say is too complex to express in my normal way. Maybe it requires a novel. … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; When we're little, people tell us we can be whatever we want to be so we imagine ourselves to be princesses and superheroes. We don't aspire to become these things, we embody them. Then we're taught we're just pretending so … | Continue reading
When we're little, people tell us we can be whatever we want to be so we imagine ourselves to be princesses and superheroes. We don't aspire to become these things, we embody them. Then we're taught we're just pretending so we start to aspire. We believe that we can one day be ba … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; As I entered first grade, the buzz amongst the kids was that Mrs. Dunn was mean. We all hoped for Miss McCutcheon as our homeroom teacher, who was rumored to be the nice one. I celebrated when I learned I was to be in "good" … | Continue reading
As I entered first grade, the buzz amongst the kids was that Mrs. Dunn was mean. We all hoped for Miss McCutcheon as our homeroom teacher, who was rumored to be the nice one. I celebrated when I learned I was to be in "good" teacher's class. Two years later, my brother was assign … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; "I'm painting out of my mouth"In the world of play-based learning, when we think about young children making art, we generally say "process over product." Like a mantra.In fact, for many of us, this statement – process over … | Continue reading
"I'm painting out of my mouth" In the world of play-based learning, when we think about young children making art, we generally say "process over product." Like a mantra. In fact, for many of us, this statement – process over product – is the gateway through which we enter play-b … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; When I was a boy the word "please" was said to be the magic word, and I suppose it was when we were performing for adults in order to get something we wanted, but "let's" is the word with real magic in it. "Let's" is, of cou … | Continue reading
When I was a boy the word "please" was said to be the magic word, and I suppose it was when we were performing for adults in order to get something we wanted, but "let's" is the word with real magic in it. "Let's" is, of course, really two words that we speak as one, meaning "let … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; Let’s take a moment to think about our own childhoods.I want you to recall a beautiful moment. A time when you were young. Go back as far as you can. Most people, they tell us, don’t have many memories from before they were … | Continue reading
Let’s take a moment to think about our own childhoods. I want you to recall a beautiful moment. A time when you were young. Go back as far as you can. Most people, they tell us, don’t have many memories from before they were six-years-old, but maybe you’re one of the lucky ones. … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; I didn’t start out my adult life as a teacher. I have a degree in journalism with a minor in English. I’ve been a junior business executive, a freelance writer, and a baseball coach. It wasn’t until I was close to 40-years-o … | Continue reading
I didn’t start out my adult life as a teacher. I have a degree in journalism with a minor in English. I’ve been a junior business executive, a freelance writer, and a baseball coach. It wasn’t until I was close to 40-years-old that I found myself with my own preschool classroom f … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; As a boy, even as young as 4, mom would say, “Tom, you're driving me crazy. Go outside.” And then she would close the door behind me, not expecting to see me again until she rang the dinner bell – and she had a literal dinne … | Continue reading
As a boy, even as young as 4, mom would say, “Tom, you're driving me crazy. Go outside.” And then she would close the door behind me, not expecting to see me again until she rang the dinner bell – and she had a literal dinner bell as did all the other moms in the neighborhood. Mo … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; Hi. I'm Teacher Tom. And welcome to Teacher Tom's Podcast . . .That's right, the first three episodes of my brand new podcast have dropped! You can find them at the Mirasee FM Podcast Network page, on Apple Podcasts, and on … | Continue reading
Hi. I'm Teacher Tom. And welcome to Teacher Tom's Podcast . . . That's right, the first three episodes of my brand new podcast have dropped! You can find them at the Mirasee FM Podcast Network page, on Apple Podcasts, and on Spotify. The tagline for the podcast is "Taking Play Se … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; The two-year-old said to me, "If you eat this food you can have ice cream." She placed a plate in front of me on which she had positioned a glob of purple play dough. I said, "What is it?""It's healthy food.""What kind of he … | Continue reading
The two-year-old said to me, "If you eat this food you can have ice cream." She placed a plate in front of me on which she had positioned a glob of purple play dough. I said, "What is it?" "It's healthy food." "What kind of healthy food." "You just have to eat it." "I'll need a f … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; Some years ago, an older relative got remarried. Her first marriage, a stormy one by all accounts, had lasted decades, producing two children. The divorce had seemed inevitable to her loved ones and her second marriage to a … | Continue reading
Some years ago, an older relative got remarried. Her first marriage, a stormy one by all accounts, had lasted decades, producing two children. The divorce had seemed inevitable to her loved ones and her second marriage to a more even-keeled man seemed a good idea. One evening ove … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; This is a fascinating experiment that you can try at home. Ask someone to sit across from you and say words, any words, with the only condition being that they leave time, say three seconds, between each word for you to writ … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; As a very young child, I knew my way around our house like I do the back of my hand. To this day, a half century later, I can still recall the nooks and crannies of that house. I looked it up on Google Earth awhile back. It' … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; It was born as a wicker picnic basket complete with plates, cups and cutlery, but was converted more than a decade ago into the container in which we stored a collection of dolls along with their wardrobe. They weren't parti … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; "We figured out (two millennia ago) that the Earth is spherical," writes physicist Carlo Rovelli, "and (a half a millennium ago) that it moves. At first glance these are absurd ideas, since the Earth appears to us to be flat … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; He has spent his life best who has enjoyed it most; God will take care that we do not enjoy it any more than is good for us. ~Samuel ButlerI find that more and more of my peers are retired. They tell me that their plans are … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; Time has passed over me," she thought, trying to collect herself; "this is the oncome of middle age. How strange it is! Nothing is any longer one thing. I take up a handbag and I think of an old bumboat woman frozen in the i … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; The poet Jack London wrote, "(T)he most beautiful thing in the world . . . is conflicting interests when both are good."Many of us have learned to be conflict averse. We find is unsavory, ugly, anxiety producing, or just pla … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; Marcus was working on a cardboard block tower. Lilyanna was helping.They built it as high as they could, arriving at a point when they struggled to reach the top. It was really quite beautiful, these 2-year-olds spontaneousl … | Continue reading
Marcus was working on a cardboard block tower. Lilyanna was helping. They built it as high as they could, arriving at a point when they struggled to reach the top. It was really quite beautiful, these 2-year-olds spontaneously coming together in common cause like this, not talkin … | Continue reading
I never pretend to know what kids will learn on any given day and, honestly, any teacher who does is either deluded or blowing smoke. No one can possibly know what another person is going to learn. You can hope. You can plan. You can lecture yourself blue. You can even, if you're … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; I never pretend to know what kids will learn on any given day and, honestly, any teacher who does is either deluded or blowing smoke. No one can possibly know what another person is going to learn. You can hope. You can plan … | Continue reading
The long-term effects of the things we do to children in schools is a notoriously difficult thing to capture in research. Generally speaking, however, we as a society have concluded, based on our collective behavior and with little evidence, that more academic training at earlier … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; The long-term effects of the things we do to children in schools is a notoriously difficult thing to capture in research.Generally speaking, however, we as a society have concluded, based on our collective behavior and with … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself. ~John DeweyPeople tend to have one of two responses when I tell them I'm a teacher. Either they say something like, "Good for you . . . Such important work," o … | Continue reading
Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself. ~John Dewey People tend to have one of two responses when I tell them I'm a teacher. Either they say something like, "Good for you . . . Such important work," or they roll their eyes and puff out their cheeks in com … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; The opposite of play isn't work, it's rote. ~Edward HollowellThis might sound like an odd thing for a teacher to write, but I sometimes get the idea that knowing stuff is the enemy of education. There is little gratificatio … | Continue reading
The opposite of play isn't work, it's rote. ~Edward Hollowell This might sound like an odd thing for a teacher to write, but I sometimes get the idea that knowing stuff is the enemy of education. There is little gratification in it for me when I've envisioned how children will do … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the World Economic Forum, and Unicef (and according to the dubious measurement of standardized test scores) Finland has the best schools in the world. T … | Continue reading
According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the World Economic Forum, and Unicef (and according to the dubious measurement of standardized test scores) Finland has the best schools in the world. They have achieved this status by building their educatio … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; As we open enrollment for the 2024 cohort of my 6-week course, Teacher Tom's Play-Based Learning, I'm reminded once again how radical our ideas are about young children. I forget that not everyone trusts children even if mos … | Continue reading
As we open enrollment for the 2024 cohort of my 6-week course, Teacher Tom's Play-Based Learning, I'm reminded once again how radical our ideas are about young children. I forget that not everyone trusts children even if most people say they do. I forget that most adults are conv … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; I started this blog in 2009 simply because I'd written a couple articles for Seattle's Child magazine that I thought were pretty good and felt they deserved a life beyond the recycling bin. That was the entirety of my ambiti … | Continue reading
I started this blog in 2009 simply because I'd written a couple articles for Seattle's Child magazine that I thought were pretty good and felt they deserved a life beyond the recycling bin. That was the entirety of my ambition. This blog would provide an online home for these two … | Continue reading