c'è montessori

Back to school comics - Calvin and Mafalda

2011-08-24T07:13:00.001-07:00

Sad but true - how the other half live, the bigger half unfortunately!

Great computer games - Ayiti: The Cost of Life

2011-08-19T08:38:00.000-07:00

Not an incredibly intricate or information heavy game designed by the Global Kids Playing 4 Keeps Program right here in Brooklyn. The strength of the game is that it introduces children to the horrible situation in Haiti and very simply drives home the message that in some unfortunate circumstances, hard work and education are sadly not enough. Some people are in situations where help is direly needed and - for at least a while, until they can get back on their feet - international help and attention is the only way to return a family to normalcy.

Play Ayiti here and let me know what you think!

"The reality for most people living in Haiti (especially true after the earthquake) is that it is extremely hard to survive in Haiti. I don't think they want to be completely fatalistic, but this is teaching a very important message; hard work does not automatically translate into success in Haiti. My students clearly learned this from the game." Educator Cliff Lee on Educators Using Ayiti

L'equip petit - Playing for fun

2011-08-17T09:55:00.000-07:00

Makes me think of my days as MS Soccer coach at Charlotte Prep. First season we went 0-10! These guys really get it, it takes a lot of great people around you to create this, and I'm happy for them. Thanks Greg at World Soccer Project for sharing the link with me. Enjoy the big team!

l'equip petit from el cangrejo on Vimeo.

11 Teachers who made history

2011-08-16T10:36:00.000-07:00

Great list of 10 incredibly influential teachers throughout history from mastersinteaching.com.

Love the list, but would obviously have to say that on a true top ten teacher list - c'è Maria Montessori!

Charged with improving the learning situation for 60 needy students in the Roman slums, Montessori created a transformational methodology that continues to improve the education of children worldwide. What she learned and shared through simple child observation is being proven again and again in research studies and classrooms today. A true genius and educator of students and teachers, Montessori taught us all to respect and empower the child. Her advice "One test of the correctness of educational procedure is the happiness of the child." could help ed-reformers get back on the right track today.

Yinhatil Nab'en Conference

2011-08-15T08:32:00.000-07:00

Just returned from a two-week trip to San Mateo, Ixtatan, in the northwest Guatemalan highlands. Visited the Yinhatil Nab'en (Seeds of Wisdom) School as part of the Ixtatan Foundation.

I was there for a conference about turning the project into a world-class school that can transform the community in positive ways. This is the school today.

Its tough to summarize the issues that have high potential for growth at the school. Most of the issues are those typically involved in education development in rural and indigenous settings. As the school grows over the next 5 years and finds its way in the mountains, its definitely worth noting and applauding that the project, founded by Beth Neville-Evans, has transformed secondary education in San Mateo and the at-large Chuj community. By building this school and association from nothing, the Ixtatán Foundation has changed the lives of this, and every new generation of Mateanos. The creation of opportunity and choice that comes with the school and its projects is truly transformational.

The Yinhatil Nab'en School is a great school that has weathered even greater storms. The people that are involved, both in the US (the Ixtatan Foundation is based in Charlottesville) and in San Mateo are talented and working incredibly hard to take the school and the foundation forward. The fact that the potential for growth is being identified and that the conference brought together such an impressive slew of educators (ahem, even I was there) points to the school and project's imminent growth.

For c'è montessori, aside from continuing to support the School and students that I worked with while I was in San Mateo in 2007, plans for a Primary Montessori 3-5 classroom are underway! In the next couple years, c'è montessori ixtatán will begin to serve a community that has never experienced pre-k school. It will transform primary education and allow young moms (there are many in San Mateo) to finish school while their children are being educated and cared for. The development of the program will be available for all to see on this blog, our youtube channel and elsewhere soon!

Montessori Moment Day 2 - Surfer

2011-07-31T11:10:00.000-07:00

Yesterday at Rockaway Beach in Brooklyn. This persistent first-time surfer watched and listened as his dad taught him how he rides a wave. The next four hours, he figured he'd learn how to ride some of his own. I didn't catch his best surf - he was really good, but I did catch him riding one of his first waves. No better prepared environment than this! His dad was a great guide, showing him twice and then letting him go.

Montessori Moment Day 1 - The Pianist

2011-07-29T06:41:00.000-07:00

The combination of the decor at the back of the Manhattan Inn and the music by the pianist make for a great launch to the 30 day challenge. My friend Chaz launching a new mobile technology last night called 'brouha' tied for the win, just didn't remember to take the video of his launch speech.

30 Days of Montessori Moments

2011-07-28T11:55:00.000-07:00

Matt Cutts suggests at TED 2011 to try something new for 30 days a la Morgan Spurlock AKA Supersize Me McDonald's guy. Well, not exactly a la Morgan Spurlock, hopefully something that will bring some positive growth along with it. This is his TED talk:

http://www.ted.com/talks/matt_cutts_try_something_new_for_30_days.html

Next 30 days mine is :
Photo/Video + caption of most Montessori (independent + creative + innovative in this case) moment of day posted on this blog. Chance of success - 65%

Let me explain - it should be somebody doing something to solve a problem they're having or accomplish some kind of goal independently without following specific instructions or examples. You'll see a great example of this tomorrow (hopefully).

Send me Montessori Moments/Pictures if you capture them! Or any other good ideas? I'm also going to see what our students come up with for their 30 days and share...

10-step Montessori Workplan

2011-07-27T11:35:00.000-07:00

1. The Monday morning meeting begins, children excitedly joining their tables and advisory groups coming together to discuss the past weekend and coming week. Today, the meeting begins and one of the students has a movie review to share, she went to see Mr. Popper's Penguins on Saturday.

2. The advisor shares announcements and schedule changes, forewarns of events in the coming week that will have a bearing on how the students will be able to schedule their time. She also reminds students of longer or less-structured commitments, understanding that for students new to managing their work this aspect will be the most challenging.

3. During the past week, students and teachers have written short notes of thanks or toodles about specific behavior from their classmates that affected them or the environment in a positive way. Some students like their toodles read aloud, some prefer the private note to read themselves.

4. The workplan is handed out to those students that have chosen that their obligations be weekly. The workplan has room for lessons and projects and already includes commitments that are ongoing and repeat weekly such as Aleks math practice, keeping up with daily news, reading comprehension SRA, Rosetta Stone, etc.

5. There were take-home commitments from three of the seven students this week, so the advisor collects the promised work. The work done at home is acknowledged, but recopied into the coming week's workplan, it is not finished until its quality is ensured by the appropriate teacher.

6. The advisor and student leaders of the group have kept close tabs of work and ideas from all the members. Ongoing discussions have transformed those ideas into long term individual projects they are each working on. Interesting advances regarding those are discussed and the projects are re-entered into the new workplan.

7. The lessons for the week are mapped out and penciled into the workplan. The advisor lets the group know when the lesson will be delivered or how to access the lesson if it is material-based or digital. Follow-up obligations engendered from the lessons are also made clear and included in the workplan.

8. Student workplan adaptations now take place, transforming their workplans into a schedule that makes sense for them. These include color-coding by priority, including date and time they would like to complete a lesson, writing who they would like to finish the lesson with, prioritizing 1st to last, and many others. Student adaptations can also include students asking to be included in lessons scheduled for classmates, this can happen at the Monday meeting or any time during the week.

9. The advisor and student leaders confer shortly with all the members of the group, ensuring that everyone understands their obligations. Because follow-up assignments from lessons are created to judge mastery, there are often myriad options that cannot be fully discussed at the Monday advisory meetings and will need to be made clear during that particular lesson.

10. The Monday meeting breaks, the students eager to begin tackling their favorite assignments during the morning work time. There will be a student run advisory meeting on Wednesday to check on everyone's progress and make sure all members complete their workplan by the end of the week.

Monday Meeting

1. Student share

2. Announcements and schedule changes

3. Toodles

4. Weekly repeating commitments

5. Take-home commitments collected

6. Long-term individual projects

7. Lessons and follow-ups

8. Student adaptations

9. Review and close

10. Student meeting Wednesday

IB - Montessori part 2 - Peace

2011-07-25T09:55:00.000-07:00

"Averting war is the work of politicians; establishing peace is the work of education." Maria Montessori

People that follow the work and life of Maria Montessori and the evolution of Montessori education closely have little need for a reminder of the strong connection between her work in schools and her ideal of peace. Montessori's life and work on 'Peace Education' was engendered by two world wars, work in the slums of Rome, her exile from Italy by Mussolini, the Spanish Civil War and her work at UNESCO and as a UN ambassador.

At Waterfront Montessori our Primary and Lower Elementary programs set a strong foundation for an understanding of the world and its peoples. The Lower Elementary student knows peace and the world through mapwork, studying fundamental human needs, and an emphasis on human togetherness.

The Middle School IB curriculum gives us an opportunity to abstract peace and human relations and cement the concept of peace. As our students develop into abstract thinkers and continue to challenge subtleties and disconnections between what we say and do, questions invariably arise.

Why do we fight?

Why does inequality exist?

Why are people sometimes cruel to each other?

What can we do about it?

Even an average IB curriculum is a strong peace education ally because of its focus on internationality and plurality of thought. By focusing on economics, political geography in context and especially on understanding the mind and motivation of the other, our IB Middle School program asks all the right questions to develop that Early School Montessori foundation.

Open-mindedness is one of the IB learner profiles that we aim to develop in our understanding of peace and human relations. In our curriculum, we explore iterations of a key question that informs the relationships we have with our classmates, peers and neighbors:

How do our experiences help determine our opinions and who we become?

We can extrapolate that question into the realm of international affairs and peace among nations and peoples. The most important lesson however, is that the different experiences we've had yesterday will inform our actions and opinions today. That we are not fundamentally different but have lived different circumstances and that what brings us together is much more powerful than what separates us.

Our Montessori-IB students develop that question and answer every day. The strong peace connection of the philosophies make them experts in the field and leaders of Peace Education.

IB - Montessori part I - Questions

2011-07-20T08:33:00.000-07:00

We know from experience and Montessori's work that the driving force in our classrooms are not the adults standing in front of them, but the questions that develop in the child's mind. The role of the teacher in the Montessori classroom is that of a guide, and that of a storyteller. Through the five great lessons and countless stories we set the stage for a universe of human reality and wonder for the child to begin exploring. Their questions will ultimately create their understanding of those lessons and of our universe, as well as provide their focus going forward.

The Montessori classroom is able to create an environment that prolongs the interactions that infants and toddlers have naturally with their parents, friends and surroundings. Interactions where the toddlers are innately curious and voracious in their exploration.

What is this?
What does this do?
Why is this here?
Where does this come from?
Why are we going there?

The child's curiosity is insatiable. Not only verbal, but also - as any parent will eagerly chime in - completely sensorial. The child touches everything, tastes everything, listens to everything, smells everything and attempts to transform everything in this exploration. By taking advantage of this instead of suppressing it, the Primary and Elementary Montessori curriculum is second to none.

We chose to create an International Baccalaureate Middle School because the program is founded on asking powerful questions. The difference in the two philosophies is that in the Montessori tradition our questions are not explicit or necessarily shared. Taking advantage of our MS students moving into a decidedly more social plane of development, we understand that discovery and exploration is not only private and self-driven but has also become a shared peer experience. In our Middle School curriculum we share questions and ideas, we still let the child drive his learning by asking questions, but we now make their questions explicit and available to their classmates. We tell stories and expand on the great lessons and use student curiosity to develop our curriculum.

We are driven by questions instead of content:

What is order? What is chaos? Instead of Ancient Greece.
What is a number? Instead of base ten number systems.
What is an ideal community? Instead of The Giver.
When is it good to be wrong? Instead of the Scientific Method.

Montessori and the International Baccalaureate

2011-07-14T13:01:00.000-07:00

A match made in heaven! And explored in our Montessori - IB Middle School as well as countless others. The connection - Look at the center!

Part 1 of this magical relationship next!

Prove it! - Dr. Stephen Hughes Part 1

2011-06-24T12:48:00.000-07:00

There is so much to say about this Professor of Pediatrics and Neurology turned mega Montessori advocate that I needed to make it a multi-part series. Although it comes as no surprise after years in a Montessori classroom that a pediatric neuropsychologist has become a champion of the Montessori method, it certainly is reassuring to have Dr. Stephen Hughes on board. His website is a fantastic resource (it's about Montessori kids and it's called 'goodatdoingthings'!) and his talks are required listening for Montessorians.

In this first introduction I wanted to highlight his insistence on making the value behind a Montessori education more evident to education scholars and parents. For far too long, Montessori education has held on to a sort of niche status and niche audience and it is time for the offer to become more widespread. Dr. Hughes calls upon Montessori schools to prove it in a variety of ways. Keeping alumni records is crucially important (the Montessori Mafia after all, is no fluke), portfolios are key (we use studentjotter.com), and some kind of standardized testing that does not involve preparing the students for the actual test can be helpful in making worthwhile comparisons.

Montessori philosophy and curriculum often focuses on the internal and implicit. We know that the drive to learn, explore and achieve is inside every one of our students. Dr. Stephen Hughes highlights that this classroom (teacher) habit has to change when communicating with the outside world about Montessori education. Our schools need to work at making our incredible achievements explicit, obvious and statistically significant.

Montessori Records Express (MRX)

2011-06-22T09:26:00.000-07:00

Just talked to Dave Rabkin of Montessori Records Express (MRX). Hundreds of Montessori classrooms all over the country make their curricula available to the Montessori community in this collaborative project to be able to accurately plan and report the amazing things that happen within the Montessori classroom. Sequences for every area of study are documented, tracked for every student, and available to parents, administrators and teachers within seconds. It truly decreases teacher workload by about 50% almost immediately and is a much more accurate and up to date way to keep track of our kids' progress.

An amazing planning tool for teachers (I can instantly check which one of my students needs a lesson and which ones have mastered a concept and are ready to give the lessons). We love MRX because it gives the curriculum a little more formality and continuity. It makes end of year meetings about where particular students are in particular areas run much more smoothly. And it lets us share the work we've done with schools around the country. Much like blogging, MRX is an incredible way to share with fellow progressive educators and Montessorians.

World Peace - Our Humanities curriculum

2011-06-21T07:47:00.000-07:00

Just discovered this idea worth spreading from great friend and Ixtatan foundation director Beth Neville. Super Teacher John Hunter in Virginia has developed an application to the 'World Game' or World Peace Game that allows kids to take control of four completely distinct fictional nations as well as international institutions that broker deals between them. In true Montessori style, he turned the reins of his 4th grade classroom over to the kids and was rightfully blown away by the results. In the game, students must bring peace and welfare to the world by solving 50 interwoven, real and complex issues. Global warming, extreme poverty, child soldiers, disease outbreak, you name it, they're solving it. His TED talk is definitely worth a listen. You can tell by the passion in his voice that on top of being an innovator and entrepreneur John is a fantastic teacher.

Now the World Game idea itself was developed 50 years ago by Buckminster Fuller in 1961. He writes in the preamble to his Planning Document:

All those who have attained high scholarly capability assure us that real education is self-education. They also say that this self-disciplining is most often inspired by great teachers who make it seem apparent that it will be excitingly worthwhile to take the trouble to bring one self to apprehend and then comprehend variously pertinent data, phenomena and derived principles. The intimate manuscript records of many great self-educated individuals show that they discern intuitively when and what it is that they want to learn.

The truth is that 4th grade kids could probably solve a lot more problems than traditional schools usually give them credit for. We are definitely playing the World Peace game in our Upper Elementary classroom next year.

A movie has also been made about the John and the game.

Montessori Mafia - Continued

2011-06-20T07:38:00.000-07:00

The Post Oak school close to Houston, TX has an amazing school website to explore. Check it out as you refine your own and explore different concepts in Montessori education.

Among the coolest features is this interactive image of some of the outstanding members of the WSJ coined 'Montessori Mafia'. Click the image to go to Post Oak's website and learn about what each of these great people have to say about the impact of Montessori education on their careers and legacy.

Running = Memory

2011-05-25T14:33:00.000-07:00

There was another research study today in a New York Times blog showing the specific connection between physical exercise and brain memory. The article focuses somewhat on the 'aging' brain, but the findings are good news for our young brains as well. When our kids work out and play active, physical games in the morning, they are uniquely ready for the academic day. Learning after we work out, and staying physically active in general does wonders for our brain development and retention.

For Upper Elementary and Middle School aged students, its fundamental. The changes we've observed after adding physical exercise routines to our mornings this year have been wonderful. Our students are more focused, less antsy and happier overall. The Spark program we love so much goes a step further in their approach to Physical Education and changes it from goals scored to heart rate achieved.

The Montessori Mafia

2011-05-23T08:27:00.000-07:00

Surely you've read the article and seen these mafiosi around. The Wall Street Journal article summarizes what we in the Montessori community have already taken as commonplace. Our kids are more creative because we don't school the creative right out of them! Nothing magical happens in the classroom itself, the only thing that makes the environment and philosophy seem wonderful and magic is the child itself. Unleashing his own potential and creativity by exploring his passions.

The comments section of the article is especially interesting, please go comment yourself. I will just include one comment and his link on this blogpost today. I include this one because we believe so strongly that Montessori education is and should always be for everyone.

Daniel C. Petter-Lipstein wrote:

Peter,
Nice article.
To those who think Montessori is an educational method for the “affluent”, I strongly reject that notion. There are over 400 public Montessori schools in the US and more are coming. One is opening in the South Bronx in September and another one is trying to get approved in Oakland, C. Their charter was recently denied not because of its educational approach, which was praised, but for other community reason that were somewhat vague.

See my article, “Superwoman Was Already Here”

Daniel

Elaine Ng Friis: How to Find a Good Montessori Kindergarten?

2011-05-21T15:09:00.000-07:00

Elaine Ng Friis: How to Find a Good Montessori Kindergarten?: "This post writes specifically on how to find a good Montessori kindergarten, but it can be applied to finding a good non-Montessori kindergarten as well..."

Our physics curriculum - modeling

2011-05-19T07:30:00.000-07:00

I could list the myriad advantages of a Modeling-based Physics class over a traditional one, but one central advantage is enough for me: kids look forward to watching experiments and love experimenting on their own!

The link above takes you to a list of resources on modeling - here's the basic gist.

The Model Experiment

1. You begin the lab with a pre-lab discussion. You show the students the basic components of the experiment and they hypothesize what will happen and what will effect the outcome of the experiment. It is important to note and incorporate every idea that is suggested since these will be the best tools the kids have to imagine new experiments.

2. Run the actual experiment. Document, analyze, combine, synthesize - carry out whatever the experiment demands.

3. Discussion - What did we learn from the experiment, what ideas from our pre-lab discussion proved true, what ideas proved to be false and what ideas should we continue to explore?

________________________________________________________________________________

The Student Experiment

1. Form groups that will ultimately explore the same issue which the model experiment explores. Have students brainstorm and come up with some experiments of their own, focusing on what concepts they are testing in each experiment. The teacher's role at this stage is to constantly question the assumptions of the students to increase the scope of the experiment. The idea is for the teacher to act as a guide to content and concepts that the students could be exploring - and make that available to them - without telling them what to think or what specifically to explore.

2. The students run their own experiments. The experiments should explore something conceptually similar to the model experiment in different ways that the students imagine could be interesting. The students will share their experiments and results with the rest of the class in a discussion on what has been learned during this unit.

3. The students can then be asked to solve real world problems using the concepts and content that they've explored during the modeled experiment and their own. This ensures both that they've learned the material and that they could apply the material to something useful to them going forward.

Lab reports and memorization of the periodic table haven't gotten us very far as recent testing by the AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science) has shown.

Modeling actually works. Its better at helping students retain concepts, it creates a faster pace and dynamic lab classroom, and...our kids are excited about physics!

The power of being wrong - Laufenberg

2011-05-12T08:32:00.000-07:00

More hints and encouragement on how to fail excitedly, successfully and constructively! This TED talk by Diana Laufenberg is truly amazing and inspirational. Our traditional schools have stunted our kids' creative growth for so long by focusing on the correct methods and answers to questions that many young students have forgotten how to think and explore. Showing incredible foresight, observation and keen child development analysis (as always) Maria Montessori made sure to define the role of the teacher as unobtrusive guide for students to use during their path towards discovery.

Teachers... put down your red pens...slowly step away from your students...

ps. More on infographics (the other topic of her talk) later... We love them!

Zero-Tuition-College

2011-05-11T09:57:00.000-07:00

For you homeschooling families out there and progressive education enthusiasts that are disenchanted by the often empty pomp and circumstance of an Ivy League degree. Zero Tuition College offers an interesting alternative to taking out huge loans and throwing down piles of cash for something you're not entirely convinced of.

Don't get me wrong, I disagree with the author of the article that states that higher education is the next big bubble to burst. Worldwide, we have not even begin to feel the economic impact of increased access to secondary and tertiary education. I do think, however, that some college options are not real options at all, and some college degrees are not worth the paper they're printed on. Zero Tuition College is an alternative that follows the theoretical/technological path of the Khan Academy and the self-driven/independence path paved by Maria Montessori (among others).

Great computer games - iCivics

2011-05-10T15:10:00.000-07:00

Middle School students love to play computer games
+ we love it when they learn enthusiastically about government and civic responsibility
= playing icivics.org.

Playing good games is an incredible way to learn. Great games are leveled, sequenced, users can control their learning and they can usually play at their own pace. The score part is somewhat disagreeable but on the whole they can be amazing learning experiences.

Check out iCivics and their Democracy Lab as you plan your study of American Government and civic responsibility! They have really engaging games that both explain the three branches of American Government and show young users how they can participate in their communities.

More game recommendations to follow...

Spark a Difference

2011-05-09T06:58:00.000-07:00

It has been proven time and time again that exercise at school is a key ingredient to happy, healthy, smart students. Including exercise and playtime in our curriculum models a healthy, active lifestyle that will be an incredible asset for kids their whole lives. Also, there is volumes of research that link the movement of our bodies to the optimal functioning of our brains. Education neuroscience (that's a link to Brain Rules by the way, which is an awesome resource) suggests that spending time on the gym or field is often the best way to boost student academic performance during the day.

In Montessori classrooms our students move constantly from shelf to rug to exploring their environment. We take it even a step further as our students grow and begin to slowly favor a more sedentary academic environment. We begin every day at school working out in our gym. We play games, challenge ourselves to see how long and fast we can run, train in circuits and mostly ask our students to design a physical morning that they'll enjoy. The only requirement is keeping the heart rate up and everyone happily participating!

Highlighting the importance of this in our schools all over the country, Spark has developed a program that focuses on getting PE back into our Public Schools. Furthermore, as Spark points out, not all PE classes are created equal. Far too many have students waiting around for a turn, memorizing googleable facts (our kids don't need to regurgitate how tall a basketball hoop is) or otherwise wasting their time. The key, according to Spark is a high healthy heart rate and committed happy kids.

We couldn't agree more!

Our Math Lessons

2011-05-04T09:48:00.000-07:00

Since we use Aleks as well as Montessori materials to strengthen our students' knowledge of fundamentals, we are able to spend our Math lessons in school focusing on the really important and creative aspects of math.

Quote from our Math teacher:

What must be really boring to a lot of kids is that in math, unlike most other subjects, it pretty much never happens that a student asks a question and the teacher says "we don't really know the answer to that yet," or "different people have different opinions about that; we're not sure who's right." Any science class, by comparison, is full of unanswered questions, to say nothing of English and social studies. What's the fun of getting into a subject where everyone's already figured everything out? But if kids saw that there are still these very basic questions that no one's answered yet, that's the sort of thing that could be really make people want to be mathematicians.

Letting our kids be wrong - Wile E. Coyote

2011-05-03T09:38:00.000-07:00

It is not how often we are right, but how frequently we dare to challenge ourselves and perhaps be wrong that makes it possible to allow true creativity to remain alive and well in our classrooms.

Kathryn Schulz shares an outstanding and really funny analogy in a TED talk about the power of being wrong. She makes the fine but essential distinction between 'being wrong' and 'realizing you are wrong'. To illustrate this difference she takes her audience back to a familiar scene from the 'Road Runner' cartoons. Wile E. Coyote chasing the Road Runner off a cliff, close to catching him, runs quite securely through the air until he looks down and realizes the trouble he's gotten himself into.

Our young students are given the opportunity to be wrong without punishment, so that they are able to boldly explore the unfamiliar and arrive to actual discovery. Wile E. Coyote unfortunately was mentally unable to reflect on his failed experiments, so he was only able to accomplish half of what we can... on the positive side though, even his precipitous failures were unable to stop him from pursuing his delicious goal!

Creativity Unleashed - Aleks

2011-05-02T11:44:00.000-07:00

As we allow our students the independence and environment required to follow whatever passion they imagine, we realize that strong fundamentals make every intellectual enterprise more enjoyable and easy to accomplish. Technological resources have been incredible allies, helping us keep track of our students' progress through math content.

One specific ally has been Aleks, (Assessment and LEarning in Knowledge Spaces) a web-based math tool that records progress, teaches through online lessons, and provides comprehensive data on where our students are in the math curriculum. It is an incredible tool that schools, parents and tutors should check out for their students.

By ensuring our students are constantly progressing in their math facts and strengthening their fundamentals, Aleks allows us to use our instruction time to do what we're ultimately interested in doing with our math program. Enjoying, exploring, and allowing our students to discover their own world of mathematics, their own solutions to the questions that arise from observing numbers, problems and patterns in the world.

Flip the classroom

2011-04-28T14:44:00.000-07:00

Imagine a school-day with no tedious whole group lessons.
Imagine a work cycle where students spend their time manipulating and transforming ideas.
Imagine learning and cementing concepts through experience instead of hearing and forgetting them through disinterest.

Salman Khan's work at the Khan Academy - Flipping the classroom by assigning the lectures for homework and doing actual work during the school day.

Thing kids do when we let them - Build a model of the White House

2011-04-27T11:49:00.000-07:00

An article by Julie Scelfo for the New York Times describes the benefits of woodworking at the kindergarten level. This group of Brooklyn students takes carpentry to a whole new level. Using appropriate caution, the exercise shows the amazing power of young students and allows Kinder students to use their hands to orchestrate their learning. As evidence continues to pour in on how crucial our hands are in our intellectual and social development, the Montessori classroom becomes an even more obvious leader of new 21st century schools.

A Montessori Classroom at Home

2011-04-27T08:26:00.000-07:00

Visit the LivingMontessoriNow blog and check out how to set up your very own Montessori classroom at home.

Overheard in the classroom

2011-04-26T14:35:00.000-07:00

This one is actually from that Ken Robinson TED talk below
Between young student and teacher,

-What are you drawing?
-I am drawing a picture of God
-But nobody knows what God looks like...
-Well they will in a minute!

Back to School During the US Open = Awful

2009-08-31T07:49:00.000-07:00

(More back to school comics at Our Classroom Blog)

The US Open at Flushing Meadows and school starting the same week. Not very fair for me, not very fair at all… Just when I wanted to spend the whole week watching tennis on TV and go over there to Queens a couple times to follow my fellow Argentine players (Go Del Potro!) and maybe my fave for the women - Kim Clijsters, I’m called to that first week of post-summer work. For my last day of freedom today I’ll watch tennis all day long and visit my favorite blogs…

My US Open Expert Predictions

Men’s Final :

Federer beats Del Potro (picture) in 4 sets.

Women’s Final

Safina beats Venus Williams in 2 sets.

Upsets – Nadal and Serena are losing before the Quarterfinals… Bold, very bold.

Love Mid-20th Century Style - September 1940

2009-08-28T10:14:00.001-07:00

As I continue my Summer project of cataloguing the beautiful love and family of my grandparents, I came upon this new letter from my grandfather Antonio to my grandma that I wanted to share, and her telegram response. In 1940, a few years before Harvard and their first visit to the US they would have been in their late teens/early twenties.

Antonio Gomariz, September 2^nd, 1940

“Debo tenerte pronto”

No puedo vivir sin ti.

Mi Corazon esta triste cuando tu estas lejos.

Te amo.

Mi Corazon late furiosamente cuando te ve y es incapaz de mover la sangre de mis venas cuando estas lejos de el.

La unica cosa que me agrada aparte de ti es recordarte!

“I must have you soon”

I cannot live without you.

My heart is sad when you’re far.

I love you.

My heart beats furiously when it sees you and is unable to even move the blood within my veins when you’re far from it.

The only thing I love aside from you is remembering you!

________________________

Ethel Barres, September 6^th, 1940 (Via Telegram)

Mi alma:

Recordandote paso deliciosas horas.

Pues horas y horas es lo que estas conmigo

Te adoro negro mio entranablemente; con alma y razon.

Tu amor es lo mas preciado y precioso de mi vida interior.

Recordarte es para mi dulzura y dicha.

My soul:

I spend delicious hours remembering you,

Hours upon hours you are with me here,

I adore you my endearing, enduring love: with soul and reason

Your love is that most precious and prized within me.

Remembering you is sweetness and sanity.

Remembering Ted Kennedy Part II

2009-08-27T08:24:00.000-07:00

Anonymous Response to 'Remembering Ted Kennedy' Post,

"There was another side to the late senator. You have covered his commendable efforts in the Senate. Let us not forget that he was suspended from Harvard for two years for cheating, was directly responsible for the death of one beautiful young woman, and lived the wild frat boy life in DC while married to Joan.

To many of us Irish Americans he fit the drunken Irish Rover stereotype for far too long. Also, his enthusiastic embrace of abortion - which he saw as Liberal dogma - was and is perhaps the greatest betrayal of his Catholic faith one could imagine (and this is beyond the Harvard, Chappaquiddick, and late-night party boy incidents),
On balance, those of us who are familiar with the Kennedy's place him fourth of the family male quartet...well behind Joe Jr (the best), Jack, and Bobby. And of course, his life pales as compared to Eunice.

So, remember the good work of the late dissipated senator but remember the bad deeds as well. We could have had more good if he could have restrained himself from the bad."

The New York Times yesterday, did an excellent job balancing Kennedy's obit between the 'good' and the 'bad' but I feel that highlighting the negative immediately after a public figure passes is almost more self-serving and sensationalistic than fair and balanced. I do agree though that this comment makes some excellent points other than the comparison to his brothers that I feel is unfair to begin with, and debatable beyond.

Thanks for the comment and balance!

Remembering Ted Kennedy

2009-08-26T10:15:00.000-07:00

Ted Kennedy was a great American legislator, an amazing leader and an inspiring man. I received my Political Science degree at Duke after studying reforms, regulations, and acts that Teddy had a hand in. Any good study of American (or International/Comparative) Politics is incomplete without interacting with his ideology and relentless work ethic. As a Masters in the sociology of education I struggled with the NCLB act he spearheaded alongside Bush and understood his work in closing the racial and socioeconomic achievement gap in schools. We learned of his great efforts directed towards the American student.

To honor Kennedy, we should do as he said as he gave up the possibility of nomination for Democratic candidate for president in 1980. "For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die. ...” The three following causes were a big part of a life he spent in service of the American people. They are three causes that I at least, will work on to keep the dream alive.

* Health Care as a Fundamental Right for All –

“This is the cause of my life.” Kennedy’s life work is forever entangled with Health Care reform. His return to the Senate after his initial scare and operation on his incurable brain cancer are indicative of how close Kennedy thinks we currently are to being able to advance the cause of Universal Health Care. I am keeping an open mind, and listening to all the voices and differing opinions as Kennedy undoubtedly did and would continue to do. I am also keeping in mind the millions of families that can’t afford to take care of themselves and the other millions that are unaware that their health care coverage is insufficient.

* Access to Education and NCLB –

Yes, Kennedy’s partnership with W. spearheaded “No Child Left Behind.” Kennedy sponsored the bill because we track for the first time the inequality in academic achievement and access between students of different races so that we can focus on closing the achievement gap. The problems with NCLB are numerous and have been well documented, so I don’t feel like I should discuss them once again here. That instinct to protect minority populations and forgotten students through accountability is one that should live on (and does). Our efforts to give ALL children the opportunity to be successful should be informed by Kennedy and redoubled.

* Immigration Reform

The failed Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007, the failed Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act, (2005) and partnership with Republicans and Democrats alike are just the beginning of Ted’s resume on immigration. After all is said and done, the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act will have been his biggest contribution to immigration reform, an act that abolished national-origin quotas that had been in place since 1924. The Boston Globe in 2008 argued that President Obama’s successful candidacy could trace its roots back to that Ted Kennedy sponsored ’65 Act. Ted Kennedy’s belief that everyone that would contribute to the American project should be granted access to the American dream while protecting those who need government protection here is commendable and a great example to follow.

Edward Moore "Ted" Kennedy (February 22, 1932 – August 25, 2009)

Fastest and Cheapest Way to get to JFK/La Guardia/Newark

2009-08-25T16:31:00.000-07:00

Late for your flight, broke or curious, I have answers for all three of you no matter what airport you’re heading out to. That is as long as you’re leaving from or going through Manhattan. If you need to figure out how to do the opposite, that is – get back to the city from the airports, just turn your computer over and read it all upside down. It works.

The Fastest and the Cheapest-
I mean within reason here, we all know that if I went outside now and started walking over to Newark I would at some point probably make it over there, and if you’re leaving from the heliport then what are you doing reading this anyways, go close that deal!

JFK

Fastest Yeah a cab here is almost certainly gonna be your fastest option over to JFK. From anywhere in Manhattan, you’re gonna dish out $50-65 dollars and tip unless you want a very angry cabbie. Car services are cuter and reliable and sometimes cheaper.

Price - $60
Time – 30-1hr

Cheapest- You should spend $2.25 in 2009 dollars to take whichever train you’re coming from to the L train, take that to Broadway Junction and take the B15 bus all the way to the airport. If you want to skip the bus part, which does take a bit longer, take the A train at Broadway Junction to JFK add $5 for the AirTran.

Price - $2.25-$7.25
Time – 1hr-1.5hr

La Guardia

Fastest – Debatable, debatable. If you’re close to the NQRW line and its rush-hour it might be one of those special times when cheapest and fastest collide. Otherwise and for more convenience take a $35 cab ride over the triboro or through the tunnel, you’ll be there in no time.
Price - $35
Time – 25-45mins.

Cheapest – Lots of great train to bus options with M60 involved. I like to take the N,W just because if there’s any traffic leaving the city you don’t get it. If you’re already uptown though head up to 125th street on the East or West side and take the M60 over. Either way, you shouldn’t pay more than $2.25

Price- $2.25
Time – 30-75mins

Newark

Fastest- You couldn’t make better travel plans? Well, Ok, you have a choice here for fast, but I would have to recommend the taxi, it might take you just 45mins, but getting out of the city is horrible and Newark is most definitely out of the city.

Price - $60
Time – 45-1.5hrs

Cheapest – There’s two equally good options. (a) The first is taking a subway to Penn Station, NJ Transit train 3 stops to the airport. (b) The other is taking the COACHUSA bus from Port Authority/Byant Park/Grand Central.

(c) There’s an even cheaper option involving the PATHs that I’m gonna just mention (PATH to Journal Square, Different PATH to Newark Stop, NJ transit to Airport, AirTran), it comes to around $13 instead of the $17 it takes to go from Penn Station.

Price –
(a) - $17
(b) - $17 or $14.50 with roundtrip ticket. Plus kids under 12 ride free and students between 12-16 pay $10 instead of $15
(c) – $13

Time – 1hr-2hrs

Happy Travels hope this helps!

New Front Page Video - Gramercy Park Tutors

2009-08-20T08:03:00.001-07:00

Any suggestions? Other than a little Music upgrade, I'm stuck at a foreign no-music computer over here!! This is one of the three 'samples'!

Tell me what you guys think-- It'll be bigger and clearer on the actual website :)

Top Ten Reasons I Love Brett Favre going to the Vikings

2009-08-19T06:51:00.000-07:00

10. Dad Loves the Guy
My dad can call me every Sunday and tell me how amazing Favre was – without the least consideration of how he really played.

9. Sexy Wrangler All-American Jeans
I can watch those more of those All-American Wrangler Jeans over and over during the commercial breaks of all NFL games.

8. Someone Other Than me will pick him up in my Fantasy League
And I’ll win those two games without even trying. Unless they're on...

7. Monday Night Football Spectacular
He’ll be amazing, he’ll win the game single handedly, and it’ll matter cause its against the Bears Week 17 and AP will have kept em in the playoff hunt.

6. Packers Fans Will be Miserable
But they’ll deserve it because they’ve made us miserable with their fun cheeseheads and Aaron Rodgers for too long.

5. Madden Comeback
I can’t believe Madden has left the broadcasting booth, if anything will get him back its gonna be old Brett coming back for one more.

4. Take the Spotlight off my Eagles
I don’t know if signing Vick was the best quarterback pre-season move, but it certainly wasn’t the worst. Just kidding, love Vick and second chances, go Eagles!

3. Indoor/Outdoor References
Frozen tundra of Lambeau vs. MetroDOME. Are you ready for these? There’s gonna be a bunch.

2. 5 O’Clock Shadow
Brett loves looking scruff, and I love the look. The NFC North will be Brett’s scruff vs. Cutler’s mountain man Winter beard.

1. I Love Brett Favre
What a guy, what a story, I’ll be watching every single Vikings game Brett, and rooting for a guy we can all empathize with that loves playing the game so damn much.

Go Favre!

Tuesday Ad Rejects 5

2009-08-18T08:58:00.000-07:00

Damn you Jon Gosselin for ruining not only my favorite sextuplet family but also my very own livelihood... Hope you enjoy your floozies, you bad, bad, distracted man!! Kate you are a sweet sweet monster of a woman and your kids are welcome at our beautiful community anytime!

The Academically Atypical Adventures of Cash and Bart - Chapter 3 - Ready or Not

2009-08-17T09:15:00.000-07:00

Cax and Bart excitedly emailed me back and forth their upcoming class schedules, their new apartment details and everything about new friends they were making. Upon hearing their proposed schedule I quantified their college preparedness in the following way :

Hey not that we do a bad job at the Ixtatan Foundation, but our Math program pretty much tops out at fractions, our English campaign is very song and colors-intensive if you know what I mean, and our Economics department in the rural school really consists of chip-buying-decisionmaking. (Seno Angela is a big 'Contabilidad' star regardless).

Thankfully, I was far more scared than the kids were, I guess it helped to not know what Differential Calculus was at that point.

Free (or almost) and Fun for the NYC family - Episode III

2009-08-13T05:53:00.000-07:00

After a week of blatantly ignoring my NYC families hungry for free and fun family events here they are again on their own. Traveling on the only road they’ve ever known. Two of these events are tomorrow so you best make yourself a busy Friday. Here they go:

1. Free Bike Friday – Governor’s Island.

Ok here it is, the awesomest thing to do in my opinion with the little guys on a Friday. You take the free ferry that leaves from the South Ferry station (1,N,R) over to Governor’s island. Already plenty of opportunity to talk about pirating, conquistadors, mermaids, all those fun water things. Then, as if this weren’t enough, there’s free 1 hour bike rentals. Bike around the cute little island for an hour, check out the crazy military forts therein and you’ll have gotten your daily exercise. After you return the bikes, enjoy a complimentary (!) round of mini-golf or head over to the picnic area. Nice huh?

2. Madagascar Friday – Free Movies at Pier 46, West St at Charles St. Subway: 1 to Christopher St–Sheridan Sq

Check out the earlier post about this. Most importantly, I’ll be there with a handful of tutors and friends promoting Gramercy Park Tutors. Oh there’ll be balloons and cute t-shirts that I’ve made for us and they’ll be an invitation to go on the website and win all kinds of free things, like tickets to the upcoming US Open. If you tell me you know me from the blog, automatic winner!

3. Kayak on the Hudson – Sat/Sun 10am-5pm – 72nd and the Hudson (123 at 72nd)

Take a little ride down the Hudson with the kids. If they’re under 16 they’ll need you to get up in the kayak and ride along with them. Really you should get in anyways otherwise you’re just watching, your kids have fun, right? Totally safe and totally fun, an amazing way to spend this hot weekend.

See you at Madagascar hopefully!

Classroom : Real Problems and REAL PROBLEMS

2009-08-12T05:50:00.000-07:00

I went to WorldFund on Monday and met with their whole office when they took me to lunch and talked to me about their mission creating opportunities for students all over Latin America. They have several programs focusing on English proficiency, teacher and principal training, and just building links with schools in Latin America.

We talked a little bit about their teacher training program and how no matter how 'trained' you are, and what you focus on, the problems in classrooms - especially in poor areas of Latin America - are rarely what you expected and prepared for. I've worked teaching and teacher training in Guatemala and parts of Mexico and here are 3 examples from my experience in development :

Problems and REAL PROBLEMS

Training :

Setting up a cohesive school-wide behavior/reward program to improve conduct and help rookie teachers with discipline.
Scheduling a Monday morning meeting so teachers can work on the curriculum together, share ideas, integrate lessons and cooperate thematically.
Showing the teachers how to use the computer lab and integrate technology into their lessons and curriculum.

Real Problems:

Chicken population per classroom.
Mysterious whole student bodies disappearing for days, coming back and explaining they all had to go "Protect the Forest" -- What? Protect the Forest?? From elves???
Teacher-Student Marriages

Tuesday GPT Ad Reject 5

2009-08-11T04:31:00.000-07:00

Its tough to move kids around the City on their various engagements so GPT hired Brit-Brit to give you a hand. She picks 'em up and drops 'em off wherever you need! Look at these happy children in the car with her, and look how concentrated she is on the road ahead.. Wonderful chauffeuring Ms. Spears, glad to have you on board.

Cax and Bart - Chapter II - Crossing the Border

2009-08-10T07:00:00.000-07:00

I had been gone from Guatemala for a month when the day finally came for Cax and Bart to cross the border into Mexico and attend university in UVM – Villahermosa. I wanted one of the volunteers that work at the Ixtatan Foundation to accompany them over there since the kids had never really left the rural mountain town, and had no idea what a university was all about. But guess what, nobody listens to you anymore and its hard to control things when your thousands of miles away. They left strangely in the middle of the night, presumably because they felt like crossing the border was ‘crossing the border’ on Elias’ (the three awesome adventurers are pictured on the right) truck and through La Mesilla-Ciudad Juarez.

I got this email the following day –

Hola Fernando, lo siento intentamos llamarte pero no pasa la llamada, pero lo bueno es que llegamos y encontramos la Universidad, nos paro la migra y nos quitaron de la camioneta, y estuvimos tres horas en la oficina y luego llegamos y hablamos con el rector y todo esta bien ahora estamos en el hotel que tu dijiste y nos vamos de este hotel el Domingo y nos daran donde vivir para el resto del año.. Ahorita ya solo vamos a irnos en la Secretaria de la Educacion para que no agan validez del estudio realizado en Guatebuena y Seguir en UVM. Arriba Mexico.

Llegamos a las tres de la mañana pero esta bien.

Y te damos muchisimas gracias Fernando ya que tu hiciste todo esto y ahora ya solo es cuestion de hecharle ganas.

att.
Bartolo Oswaldo.

Hi Fer, I’m sorry we tried to call but the call won’t go through, the good thing is that we’re here and we found the University, we got stopped by immigration, they got us off the bus we were on and we were at their office for three hours. Then we got here and spoke to the Dean and everything’s ok now. We’re in the hotel you said to go to and we’re leaving the hotel on Sunday when they’ll give us a place to stay for the rest of the year. Now we just have to go to the Secretary of Education to revalidate the high school degree we got in Guatebuena and keep it going at UVM. Arriba Mexico!

We got here at three, but everything’s ok.

Thank you for all you’ve done.

Bart Oswaldo.

After months of negotiation with UVM to have everything go perfectly at the beginning, the kids showed up at 3 in the morning, after being hassled for hours by immigration and thrown off a bus for no reason. We always think about our border here with Mexico, but the one down South with Guatemala is almost more striking in the differences between the two countries. When the Dean arrived at his office, my two kids were sleeping in front of his door all the stuff they brought for a year of studying in a new country was in their backpacks, not a single peso in their wallets – a total disaster. Thank God for good people, they had them come in, joked around with them to make them feel welcome, got them to their hotel, fed them a great lunch, and gave them money for food to spend in the coming days.

(Cash and Bart's first dinner at the hotel)

An organizational disaster and embarrassing, but the kids were at school and ready to go on these Academically Atypical Aventures and hey, its tough to have my way from all the way up here!

Why I Love What I Do

2009-08-07T07:27:00.000-07:00

“Don’t worry we’re a family here, we’ll make sure you start off just right, everything’s going to be perfect!”

I felt the words melting all the worry away from inside me. I had worked at schools as a lead teacher for four years at this point. I worked in the Durham Public Schools system to complement the work I did in education at Duke and I had never heard such things. I worked as a lead Spanish and then Math teacher at a charter school where those words would have never been said.

Those years as a rookie, passionate teacher at a struggling public school have really given me perspective as I think about how strong the community at CPS (Charlotte Preparatory School) really is. The partnerships between parents and teachers, the community of parents, the connections that us teachers had with our students, the fellowship of teachers, and the support of administrators – it was transformative. At CPS I learned the power of positive community, I learned the gift that we give students by being strong, united and caring about them. I learned that the struggling charter school was more hurt by the bickering among teachers and lack of respect towards students than by tight public funding.

I came to New York City three years later to study at Steinhardt and focus on communities, culture, and the sociology of education. I concentrated on what makes a successful student; how we create positive communities, and found that we really have to re-imagine some communities and our opinions of them. I learned that I wanted to be part of creating positive environments and support for children and families.

I started Gramercy Park Tutors considering my experience working one-on-one with students and families. I believe that the hourly tutoring session is useful, but not what really interests me. I built GPT to create a learning community for families, where we become true partners invested together in children’s success. We made the schools our partners, the teachers our partners, we even work to discover other strong, possible partners.

I meet families every day that want to become partners. They want to join a learning community. Their reasons for calling us range widely but they usually have some concern about their children and their future being limited by academic performance. They are looking for an answer on how to move forward. I tell them,

“Don’t worry we’re a family here, we’ll make sure you start off just right, everything’s going to be perfect!”

Strong partnerships and community are what helps kids move forward. One of the big attractions of private school in NYC is the connections that emerge. GPT is a company that understands the value of these and uses an already strong community to make a real difference. We believe that an hourly tutor makes a difference on Algebra tests but that we make a difference by using our expertise to learn about student strengths and becoming expert partners in their success. I think that whatever business one is involved with, you should never underestimate the power of each other.

Bill Clinton Negotiating for Hostages - Behind the Scenes

2009-08-05T08:43:00.001-07:00

It's your day today Billy Clinton, enjoy and celebrate it! So many good memories, so many. Let me know what you guys think about the new blog layout, I'm not too sure about it but wanted to have a little more space! Enjoy our 42nd Prez and how he worked it with Kim Il!

more about "Bill Clinton Negotiating for Hostages...", posted with vodpod

Tuesday GPT Ad Reject 4

2009-08-04T06:24:00.001-07:00

Thanks for joining the Celebrity Tutoring Team Sarah, we think you are truly brilliant!

I'm a blogginner - or awesome Quiz

2009-08-03T08:44:00.001-07:00

Yeah for sure, I'm a beginner at all this, but unfortunately we're gonna have to go with it, whoever gets 7 out of 7 on that quiz I made on the right is definitely getting a prize though, an awesome prize... Don't you dare google anything, I have placed intricate safety mechanisms... Good luck, I'll help if you need this is after all a Gramercy Park Education. Bon chance.

If anyone knows how to make a much cuter quiz to put on the blog your comments are v. appreciated!

Favaloro teaches Lessons in Health Care Policy

2009-08-03T05:19:00.000-07:00

Wedding in St. Louis was amazing, DJ rocked Boom Boom Pow as the bride and groom entered the reception for their first dance, lots of cupcakes and great to see old friends again. I’ll post the pictures as soon as they arrive via their respective photographic channels.

I’m putting off Cash and Bart chapter 2 till next Monday to reprint Dr. Favaloro’s parting letter and message. This Argentine doctor that was famous for creating the coronary bypass technique, a procedure that’s saved innumerable lives. He returned to Argentina from a comfortable position at the Cleveland Clinic to help medicine in our country grow (sure the meat and delicious Malbec might have also contributed to the decision). The increasing privatization of health care and dwindling government money for the funding of institutes like his Fundacion Favaloro made it impossible for him to continue his benevolent work. In the public sector, the corruption surrounding a large social welfare system with corrupt incentives drove his foundation out of money. His hospital benefited thousands of uninsured Argentines, prepared hundreds of doctors throughout the country and Latin America and is a great example to guide the ‘public option’ discussions we’re having in Congress this week.

Dr. Favaloro’s Suicide Note (English Translation and summary courtesy of Fer)

If my letter of resignation from the Cleveland Clinic is read, it’s obvious that my return to Argentina (after noted achievements in the cardiovascular surgery field) was guided by my love of this country. I came back to work as a teacher, as a researcher, and a doctor.

We immediately requested a number of beds for the uninsured. So we were able to operate on hundreds of patients without any cost at all. The majority of our patients came from national social programs, and we had contracts with the largest among them

With the money we earned, we paid the residents, the secretaries, the nurses and our costs, and split the rest among the doctors. I never allowed anyone to touch a single peso that did not belong to us.

In the mid-70’s we began to organize the Foundation. We built the Institute of Cardiology and Cardiovascular Surgery. When it opened, I wrote 10 basic rules to uphold a rigid ethical standard.

The quality of our work, driven through technology and the professionals we incorporated into the project made it so that we never lacked for work. But we had to fight constantly against the corruption in medicine in our country. We’ve systematically refused to break our standards and haven’t paid a single peso to get the ‘advantages’ available buying in to this corrupt system. So the social programs stopped sending their patients to the Institute.

The stories I could tell about meetings with the heads of their unions! Bunch of corrupt men that live easily at the cost of the workers and pay-off with the monies that are intended for their members’ medical coverage.

For example, the PAMI has an old debt with us (from 94 or 95) of 1.9 million pesos. We would have gotten paid within 48 hours if we had accepted the returns that were asked of us (of course not asked of me directly).

The same happens with patients in the private field (including the insured) which are sent to specific surgeons by their insurers knowing that they will get a juicy cut in return.

For so long, I’ve had to hear this “Favaloro doesn’t operate anymore!” Where does this myth come from? The patients that need to go under the knife and request to be operated here are told, “Didn’t you know that he hasn’t operated anyone for a while now? I’ll recommend someone fantastic from our network, don’t you worry.” This fantastic surgeon will return up to 50% to the recommending agent. I of course, continue to operate with the same enthusiasm and commitment as always.

The surgeons that participate in this network of corruption are internationally renowned doctors that attend these Congresses at American College or American Heart and congratulate me so emotionally there. At the Paul D. White lecture in Dallas dozens of Argentine cardiologists hugged me with tears in their eyes. But when they return here, they return to the ‘system’ and money is what is most interesting for them.

The level of corruption has reached an alarming level. Even at our foundation our doctors have shown me letters they get from these organizations that explain the system of corruption very carefully.

Our situation here at the foundation is of desperation now, millions of pesos are owed to us from work we’ve done, including high-risk patients that we cannot refuse. It would be too easy to say ‘there are no beds available’

Our medical oath does not allow us to do this.

These patients bring with them a high cost that is rarely recognized by our social welfare programs. To this cost, we compound the dozens of other overhead and supply costs that are putting our projects at such risk.

In the United States the big institutions like this, can realize their medical work, their research and education because of private donations they receive. The 5 biggest medical colleges there receive more than 100 million dollars each! We don’t even dream of that here.

At first, I contacted the BID, which helped us initially. They published our relationship in several publications as their highest accomplishments! I sent four letters to Enrique Iglesisias, who throws around lots of money in this Latin America. I’m still waiting for his reply.

Without a doubt, being honest in this corrupt society has its price. One way or another, you have to pay for that honesty

I feel very alone. I knew that it would be an uphill battle from the Cleveland Clinic and that I would have to battle for the foundation. The project of the foundation is wavering and begins to collapse.

We’ve had meetings with my closest collaborators, and some of my closest allies in this fight recommend that to save the Foundation we must become part of this ‘system’.

“We’ll have people organize it all, there are specialists that know how to do this.” “You should step aside, we’ll make it clear that you don’t know any of what’s happening. You have to understand it’s the only way to save the foundation.”

Who’ll believe that I didn’t know anything!

I can’t resign my ethics at this age, it would be extremely difficult for me. I would rather disappear. I can’t say that nobody has defeated me. I’ve been defeated by this corrupt society that controls it all. I’m tired of receiving awards and honor abroad. I was recently included in the millennium Surgeon Legends. I participated in this conference where I had to listen to the same thing over and over.

“The legend, the legend!”

Maybe my greatest sin, here in my country, has been to always loudly convey my feelings, my critique, my complaints at this society of privilege where very few enjoy it all, while most live in misery and desperation. Expressing all of this here, gets punished severely.

I’m consoled by the fact that I treated my patients equally. My colleagues know of my inclination for the poor, that comes from my young days working in Jacinto Arauz.
.
I’m tired of fighting and fighting, galloping against the wind, like Don Ata used to say. I cannot change. It has not been an easy decision, but it has been a thought out one. Please don’t talk of weakness or bravery.

The surgeon lives with death, it is his inseparable companion, I leave hand-in-hand with her.

At some point, at an academic event in the US someone introduced me as a good man that continues to be a rural doctor. I hope I’ll be remembered as such.

In the last weeks I’ve written desperate letters to national entities, state entities, businesses, without receiving a single answer. An outside committee has begun to work at the foundation. Yesterday they began to lay off people that have worked with us for a long time. Some faithful and dedicated collaborators. I could not show my face there on Monday.

I repeat the obligation of cremating me immediately, and spreading my ashes in the hills close to Jacinto Arauz, there in the Pampa. It is strictly forbidden to realize religious or civil ceremonies.

A strong embrace to you all,
Rene Favaloro

Spanish long (actual) version at a friendly blog

Wedding Bell Travel Friday

2009-07-31T00:55:00.001-07:00

Leaving to St. Louis for the wedding of two great friends, Sunil and Leah! Awww, will post pictures. Keep yourselves entertained this weekend by going to visit the amazing Vodka Mom, Vodka Logic, the Scribe, and SmallTalk. And, for the love of me, go to Gramercy Park Tutors, check it out and let me know what you think. Enjoy the weekend, my artsy picture from my former Parisian life, moi sur le metro/and artsy pic of my latter life, en Semuc Champey, Guatemala and go read friends' blogs!

Free (or almost) and Fun for the NYC family - Episode II

2009-07-30T07:39:00.000-07:00

Rain, rain go away – Please please go away! Episode 2 of Free (or almost) and Fun for the NYC family, the in-people have been just calling it FOAAFFTNYCF and I feel a big responsibility to deliver something great for families that have had to spend the last week locked up at home. So my research has been vast, I’ve pleaded with Fun businesses to give me special fun events for my families only, but alas, no specials, just the following three amazing treats for you guys!

3. Free Tennis Lessons Tuesday and Thursday @ CityParks Foundation

We’re sporties here at TheGramercyPark so no wonder this week’s first free activity is this tennis clinic run by CityParks and sponsored by Chase. I’m pretty well known throughout the Carolinas and Lower Manhattan as the ‘Ace”Machine – so fear me and prepare your 5-16 year old from the get-go by showing up early to any of the many locations offered on the CityParks website. Show up for example at:

Central Park Tennis Center
West Drive @ 96th St
Tues & Thurs 1-4PM

2. Two Amazing Sunday Events – Choose Wisely

Fort Greene, Brooklyn, Reading? Go to Fort Greene Park at 1 pm on Sunday for an amazing reading of The Giving Tree, followed by an organized nature walk through Fort Greene Park, maybe take a little picnic and have a nice little fam day in a beautiful park? Maybe not, I don’t make your decisions ☺

Upper Manhattan, Bronx, Music? Go to Van Cortland Park in the South Bronx and check out the amazing Bronx Art Ensemble. Van Cortland’s also an amazingly beautiful park, and guess what, they’re telling people to bring the little picnic and blanket. So its not my suggestion anymore is it? You take that picnic, and take it good!

1. Friday Opera in the Park

East River Park (Manhattan)
Friday, July 31, 2009 at 7 p.m.
Joyce El-Khoury, soprano
Keith Miller, bass
Vlad Iftinca, pianist

Beautiful operatic backgrounds while you enjoy drinks and cheeses on your blanket in the park! What? Why would I be suggesting this? No no no, all wrong, you get to a Clearview Cinema early next Thursday morning to watch a 10:30 showing of a free movie at their Kid’s Club screenings. And wait, there’s more, this Thursday the Clearview on 1st and 62nd street is showing Alvin and the Chipmunks. You get there, you get there early and you wear a red garbage bag dress with a huge A on it. Not that Scarlet letter, a greenish-yellow A on your red garbage dress please.

Enjoy the Summer week with your family, and lets hope it doesn’t rain so much!

Check out that Mike Klonsky gave me a shout out on his SmallTalk blog.. awesome!

Why Gramercy Park Loves Soccer

2009-07-29T06:27:00.001-07:00

I realize we haven't really discussed my number 1 love, so I thought I'd introduce it with a little dancing and a little music. When Diego came back to Argentina I got to watch him do this just 10 feet away at Hindu Club. Enjoy!

more about "Diego Armando Maradona The King of So...", posted with vodpod

Tuesday GPT Ad Reject 3

2009-07-28T06:44:00.000-07:00

Who knows? At this point some mommies love Edward just as much as their teenage daughters and might not mind a visit from our recent addition to the tutoring team! That's not why we hired him, nor did we hire him for his grasp of mathematics - he's dreadful! We're gonna get him parading his vampire-ness around in a promotional t-shirt! Watch us...

Cax and Bart - Interlude Up a Volcano

2009-07-27T13:21:00.001-07:00

My favorite thing about traveling, touristing and sightseeing in Guatemala is that there’s never anything sectioned off. There aren’t any signs telling you what you should or shouldn’t be doing, there’s never a metal bar in the way between you and your decisions. Obviously this is not a child-friendly detail, but its pretty great at making you feel like you are actually discovering some of these beautiful natural wonders for the very first time. What you do with these gorgeous things, or off them, or through them is completely up to you!

At the Pacaya Volcano, which is an hour away from Antigua and a pretty fun and manageable hike up to the summit, Cash, Bart and I experienced one of these wonderful Travel Guatemala moments. I mean, as you’ll see in the video below, they were a little too concerned with the Canadian and American girls that came along with us on our tour group to grasp the totality of this, but they were impressed nonetheless. At Pacaya, the tour takes you up through rocks that are just feet above lava, so close that they completely melted the soles off my shoes by the time we were on our way down. So close that the boys and I got some tortillas at the base, brought them a couple hours up, and cooked ‘em just by placing them on the rocks - which fed our whole group (and won major points with the aforementioned ladies).

The tour guide encouraged us to walk to where the river of lava flowed down the side of the volcano and grab some long branches to try and pick up sticky lava rocks. By the time you were close enough to use the stick your face was burning up so much which caused such intense panic and excitement that the branch part was incredibly tough indeed. I tried it –of course I was able to fish out an awesome lava rock- and my whole beard burnt up in the attempt. Cash and Bart were content to take pictures and make movies – which are attached and awesome.

The tour guide – a classic showman – proudly lit a cigarette with a lava rock in a final Travel Guatemala moment … He has weirdly shaped patches of burnt on his facial hair year-round. I guess that’s the price (too high I think in this case!) you pay for originality.

Adults are babies with big bodies - Pike's 4 Laws of Adult Learning

2009-07-25T10:14:00.000-07:00

A great friend Mago Acosta (on the right) from IBM sent me this from an employee course about learning.

Still go to Demockracy and read my Ed Policy article there!

Gracias Mago, idola!

How does adult learning differ from that of children?
For many centuries, educators assumed that all people learned things the same way and that this "way" didn't change much over the course of their lives. Only in the 20th century did this notion change dramatically. One of the principal contributors to our new way of thinking was Malcolm Knowles. In the 1930s, he began researching the work of many scholars and later he contributed to making more popular the term “andragogy” -- or the study of adult learning.

As scholars examined Knowles' research, they concluded that adults learned in markedly different ways from children. An adult has assumed responsibility for himself/herself and others. Adults differ specifically in self-concept, experience, readiness to learn, time perspective, and orientation to learning. Traditional teaching applied to children is "jug and mug" with the big jug (the teacher) filling up the little mugs (the students). Students are asked to pay attention and have few opportunities to make use of their own experience (Klatt 1999).

What are “Pike’s Laws of Adult Learning”?

Robert W. Pike, an internationally recognized expert in human resources development and author of the book Creative Training Techniques, has conducted thousands of adult training seminars. His principles of adult learning, referred to as "Pike's Laws of Adult Learning," have built upon the original principles defined by Knowles and provide useful guidance for learning facilitators.

Law 1: Adults are babies with big bodies. It is accepted that babies enjoy learning through experience, because every exploration is a new experience. As children grow, educators traditionally reduce the amount of learning through experience to the point that few courses in secondary and higher education devote significant time to experiential education. It is now recognized that adult learning is enhanced by hands-on experience that involves adults in the learning process. In addition, adults bring a wealth of experience that must be acknowledged and respected in the training setting.

Law 2: People do not argue with their own data. Succinctly put, people are more likely to believe something fervently if they arrive at the idea themselves. Thus, when training adults, presenting structured activities that generate the students' ideas, concepts, or techniques will facilitate learning more effectively than simply giving adults information to remember.

Law 3: Learning is directly proportional to the amount of fun you are having. Humor is an important tool for coping with stress and anxiety, and can be effective in promoting a comfortable learning environment. If you are involved in the learning process and understand how it will enable you to do your job or other chosen task better, you can experience the sheer joy of learning.

Law 4: Learning has not taken place until behavior has changed. It is not what you know, but what you do that counts. The ability to apply new material is a good measure of whether learning has taken place. Experiences that provide an opportunity for successfully practicing a new skill will increase the likelihood of retention and on-the-job application.

Making the Familiar Strange - Demockracy

2009-07-24T06:00:00.000-07:00

Please click here to go on Demockracy and read my full article,

(excerpt from my Demockracy.com article)

As mentioned earlier, Pedro Noguera cognizant of the implicit adherence to this culture of failure by the teachers and school itself at Berkeley High School, sought out to “make the familiar seem strange and problematic” as part of the Diversity Project. The Diversity Project task force was charged with improving the school. In one of their initial meetings Noguera writes that they “understood that the biggest obstacle to be overcome involved the explanations and rationalizations of this phenomenon that already existed in the minds of most people. Data on the attrition of minority students and on their performance in academic classes had been publicized and made available to the entire school and community for many years.” In order to make the school realize what it was doing, Noguera and the Project challenged the teachers to question their assumptions on why the students were succeeding and why they were failing. One of the first activities of the Diversity Project took the teachers through the neighborhoods where most of their students lived. The cultural and community resources embedded in these neighborhoods had been previously ignored. Even teachers that grew up in those very neighborhoods now saw them as breeding grounds for academic failure! The Diversity Project asked the teachers to look at these neighborhoods and their denizens in a different way.

Please go check out the article, the website's pretty awesome in general!

Free (or almost) and Fun for the NYC family - Episode I

2009-07-23T12:23:00.000-07:00

There’s nothing better than spending a day outside with the family, enjoying the fleeting summer and each others company. Here are my top 3 events to enjoy for Friday July 24th through next Thursday when I will post Free Family Fun Episode II - a new and exciting top 3! Complete with personal anecdotes and specific recommendations here is the countdown:

3. Free Toddler Tuesday’s at the Bronx Zoo!

I made myself a make-believe toddler to go to this one last week, I just stuffed my pillowcase extra chunky, gave it some buttons to wear down the front and a couple for the eyes, put a carrot on him as a nose and duct taped branches on each side for his little skeleton arms. The Bronx Zoo is the best zoo on earth SAN DIEGO! And the only zoo in the world where my grandma told us to just ‘leave her there’ because she was freezing and it was too cold to walk, and my dad had to rub her feet until she agreed not to perish by the bears. Download the coupon on the Bronx zoo site and go this Tuesday!

2. Free Friday’s at the Brooklyn Children’s Museum!
Are those kids holding up a snake? Oh my god, put the snake down kids, it’s a snake it may be poisonous or choke you to death with its amazing power, throw the snake! Throw it now! See? I’ve never been anywhere where I got to hold a snake and it has really conditioned me against them, don’t make the same mistake with your kids. Sponsored by Target this event starts at 5pm and features Project this week.

1. Amazing Sunday with the New Museum

I walk past the New Museum almost every day, and that is why I find it absolutely awesome, also because of events like this one. It’s a block party at Sara D. Roosevelt Park where educators and entertainers hold all type of amazingly fun activities for kids. Plus, I bet there’s gonna be people promoting and giving things out all over the park. The fete is noon to 7pm on the 26th and please don’t stay home watching TV, go to here. Plus did I mention I walk past the New Museum AND play soccer every week at the LES park? Amazing event!
Have fun with your family!

@ Park Tutors Man Landing on the Moon Today, I'm streaming it and having latte...Awesome

2009-07-22T07:07:00.001-07:00

Awesome video compilation on youtube from Slate. Walter Cronkite and a newscast that will be remembered forever has nothing on modern era 5 second transitions between graphics, twitter and 'on the street' interviews. We wanna listen to ourselves after all, right?

Tuesday GPT Ad Reject 2

2009-07-21T08:51:00.000-07:00

Ms. Hilton remains a loyal customer! In 2008 Gramercy Park Tutors wished her the best of luck in her bid for becoming our 44th President!

The Academically Atypical Adventures of Cash and Bart - Chapter 1.66 Guate Caja Ludica

2009-07-20T10:41:00.000-07:00

So as the initial shock of meeting the countless giant stuffed animals was fading, and the constant of the Chavo del Ocho playing on TV was bringing me back to reality, a plan for the day began to form. We would walk downtown in the hope of meeting the members of a creative/artistic/social group with whom Beth wanted the foundation to partner. Before we left however, I was thrilled to see one of my precious San Mateo student’s sister who now lived with Ronnie and was preparing us a delicious lunch. She made us an amazing meal, it really is truly earth-shatteringly wonderful when young people that don’t have a whole lot give more than they actually should to make you feel welcome.

Cash, Bart, Ronnie, Ema (another Yinhatil Nab’en student), Beth and I went to the local offices of the aforementioned group “Caja Ludica” to find that they were preparing for an upcoming show in the Centro Cultural Miguel Angel Asturias. Caja Ludica is an amazing collective that works with former gang-members in Guatemala (they’re called mareros) and give them a space to be creative, to voice and express their cultural heritage and to be involved in a group in a far more positive way than their participation in maras. The Maya communities have so many valuable stories to tell, and the show they put on as the medium is absolutely wonderful too. We were able to get into the theater to see the rehearsal after I summoned my gaucho heritage - also immensely rich with treachery, subtlety and deception – to convince the guard we were somehow involved.

Cash and Bart loved it, the best part was that the energetically fierce Colombian lady running the show came over and talked to our kids, answering their questions, asking them what they thought – giving them a voice. They now work with Beth and the Ixtatan Foundation in San Mateo, and the kids are thrilled. One complaint that Cash did have though, as the kids performing bent their bodies in a million different ways was, “Profe, they couldn’t do that after carrying huge sacks of corn and cement on their backs for the last 15 years.” Scary or awesome side note is that Cash is just pushing 20.

We returned from Caja Ludica refreshed and ready to celebrate our last night in Guate - because frankly, there was so much to celebrate. With the scholarship coming down to the embassy the very next day for Bart and Cash, Emanuel going to Cuba for medicine in an arrangement with the embassy that really makes Cuba look pretty great, and Ronnie + Eleazar’s sister doing so well in Guate University, it was a total success for Beth’s Ixtatan Foundation and the five kids that were all writing their own Academically Atypical Adventures. Hours of partying, strong debate with friends, a rooftop view of Guate, and sure, some awful but appreciated wine, left us excited and exhausted and ready to go to bed.

My sleeping arrangement involved the living room, the four other guys (Ronnie, Cash, Bart, and Ema) side by side by side by side by side, sleeping on… You guessed it!? A foot-deep layer of giant stuffed animals that completely covered the floor. Please do not let your mind think that these stuffed animals are atypical in any way, that they are meant for sleeping would be absolutely false, you’d be deceiving yourself. These animals are large, but normal, their necks are very thin, they are full of some nondescript filler thing. The pink panther below me had a head that was not circular but exactly the head of the pink panther. Cash took Winnie the Pooh, which was the superior pillow, home-court advantage Ronnie quickly chose Spongebob Squarepants, Bart had stashed the Pokemon JigglyPuff hours before. My combination of Pink Panther and I think Oscar the Grouch (the one that lives in a trash can) for the body was horrendous. My pillow was the Jamaican lobster from Little Mermaid… A lobster pillow.

I had dreams of the giant bear Charles and how I had defeated him so often in my youth, our constant after school battles where I was always victorious and he so shamed would return inconsolable to my brother’s room. As I awoke at around 4 in the morning completely refreshed, I thought maybe going to Mexico to study at an incredibly challenging university that would be infinitely difficult on social, academic, economic and psychological levels was like their Charles. A giant bear of calculus, travel, home sick, culture shock, and near absolute poverty. But I thought, “No. They have me, I’ve defeated Charles before.”

Love Mid-20th Century Style

2009-07-17T09:30:00.000-07:00

Wanted to leave you all to an amazing weekend with a letter from Dr. Antonio Gomariz (also famous for being my grandfather) to Ethel Gomariz (grandma) circa 1944. I'm compiling their greatest hits, and came across this little jewel last night and wanted to share, first in Spanish and then a crude Fer-translation.. Enjoy and many kisses:

"Que nunca se atrevan a sacarnos un beso, porque cual los soldados defenden las insignias de su patria y mueren por ella, asi defenderemos nosotros el emblema de nuestro amor, porque no otra cosa es nuestro beso : el emblema de un amor como no hay otro en el mundo, amor que todo lo abarca, amor egoista por su grandeza, amor absoluto, terminante, total, amor nuestro.

Muneca dame un beso!"

Antonio

Fools those who ever dare rob us of a single kiss, because as soldiers fight and give their lives for the symbols of their nations, we steadfastly defend that symbol of our love, because our kiss is no other thing : a symbol of a love like there is no other in the world, a love that envelops everything, a love that is selfish because it is grand, an absolute love, final, total, our love.
Baby give me a kiss!"

A brilliant genius you think huh? Well its much easier with the right muse...

mse6dan85z

Gramercy : Guide to Namesake Neighborhood

2009-07-16T13:03:00.000-07:00

Instead of working hard on showing you around Gramercy I'll let others get us going here, these are fun and I didn't have to write them!

Lost New York Blog's Guide to the Gramercy - "Gramercy has been swanksville, boasting the most genteel air of moneyed aristocracy to be found in the entire city" Swanksville indeed, Lost New York, Swanksville indeed..

Bee-Boppin' the Boroughs Girls - The formerly non-pregnant guide to the city does an awesome job making Gramercy Park fun.

Obviously, no Gramercy Park review would be complete without a site that catalogues the great Gramercy Park Hotel and all our celebrities! You didn't think this had nothing to do with celebrities did you? You fool, you silly fool!

Not the most impressive celebrity to come out of the hotel and visit Gramercy Park but she's pretty funny to look at...

Can we tutor Bean Cobain Ms. Love?

NYC Free Family Movies in the Park and my Friend Twilight Puppies

2009-07-15T13:16:00.000-07:00

I was inspired to post these by my friend's awesome blog about True Love We're probably also gonna have a huge GPT event (featuring awesome t-shirts) at the Hudson River location, I'll post the details all over the place when we decide on which movie we should attend and promote at.

Take your kids, take a friend's kids, take someone's kids that would really appreciate it and are never doing anything fun!

Hudson River - Movies and Free Popcorn(?) Films begin at dusk, at approximately 8:30pm. Pier 46, West St at Charles St. Subway: 1 to Christopher St–Sheridan Sq.

Fri Jul 17 – Kung Fu Panda
Fri Jul 24 – Ghostbusters
Fri Jul 31 – Star Wars: The Clone Wars
Fri Aug 7 – The Muppet Movie
Fri Aug 14 – Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa
Fri Aug 21 – Curious George

Really leaning towards going to Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa cause Ross is that good as the giraffe and because mutu-mutu is my favorite all time hippo actor...

Or go to Central Park and Watch the one that really inspired me to post this....

Twilight (Puppies) - Aug 21st Rumsey Playfield

Tuesday GPT Ad Reject 1

2009-07-14T12:20:00.001-07:00

Sometimes even our best ideas end up being disappointing failures, we worked hard on Esther, but I don't think she's gonna make it in the end. Thanks to Murphy for the help, but I think Esther's best left alone with her creepy family now... Good luck family, she's a handful

The Academically Atypical Adventures of Cash and Bart - Chapter 1.33 Guate Stuffed Animal Attack

2009-07-13T11:07:00.000-07:00

This particular episode in the Academically Atypical Adventures really dates back decades to when I was a young kid, living with the fam in Wilmington Delaware. My brother and I, with my parents or not (can’t remember) went to either Vegas or Atlantic City or a local fair with other friends of ours from Wilmington. During the trip, my brother was fortunate enough (and yes the following is based purely of luck) to hit the middle bottle with a prize ring and return home with an enormous and highly coveted white stuffed bear he called “Snowy” or some such nonsense but was really named “Charles”.

As a logical reaction of contempt to my brother’s triumph and my failure, and because he was particularly unpleasant and conniving during that particular 8-year growing up period (one instance when I was only a few weeks old my brother turned to my mom on a crowded bus and maliciously asked what they were gonna do when I was ‘gone’) I returned home from school early every day to fight the giant Charles. I would rush home from Chadsford Elementary, run upstairs and get Charles from my brother’s room, put on my tiny boxing gloves and wail on him without control, working up a healthy glorious sweat of vengeance. In the three years we lived in Wilmington, the middle two in Buenos Aires, and only the first of three years in Sao Paulo (I was maturing…) I was never defeated by the giant Snowbear Charles. This experience cemented not a fear of giant Snowbears (what was there to fear from the weak Charles after all?) but a bizarre type of uncontrolled anger that results from seeing giant stuffed animals.

(important, this man has nothing to do with the adventures)

This anger played an important role in the final days I spent in Guate as our two heroes searched for the Visas that would spark their academic trip to life. We left Antigua for Guate when we were assured that we had an appointment at the Mexican Embassy the following day and that all the required documents had been sent from the UVM. So we left our much beloved hotel in Antigua, a luxury experience so rare and rewarding that Bart took pictures of himself holding up all the paintings and other room décor.

We took a bus to the Guate airport, where we met the Ixtatan Foundation director Beth Neville, another classmate and friend Emanuel, a noted filmmaker and documentarian (Chip Krezell) there to record the ‘before’ of these adventures for the Foundation, and our host for the two days in Guate, a Mateano, and former student named Ronaldo Andres. We happily dodged the aggressive airport obstacle course and taxied on to Ronaldo’s place in Guate. Ronaldo graduated with Cash and Bart and is now working on his own college experience in the capital, living with Mateano friends in the center. We’re also very proud of his parallel adventures…

But as for Cash, Bart and me, we climbed the stairs to Ronny’s apartment, arriving together as I immediately felt my laugh trail off, felt my smile disappear. Ronaldo’s apartment in Guate has a pretty big spacious living room. Two of the four walls have raised shelves completely populated by giant stuffed animals. Giraffes, Mickey Mouse, different types of Lizard, Puppies, a Turtle, a Power Ranger or Transformer, and yes, plenty of huge stuffed bears. The night we shared before the embassy visit would be marked by these animals, by Charles and my Wilmington past.

The bachelorette is not my lover...

2009-07-10T07:37:00.000-07:00

Man I loved the bachelorette this year, every week when you thought she was gonna let go of that nutty soccer fanatic guy with the adidas logo tattooed on himself, there she went giving him a rose again and again... I guess useless and infinite Michael Jackson trivia really gets her going in some bizarre and creepoo way. Maybe she likes a peaceful guy that just likes floating around by a jetski holding on to some rope from time to time better than a guy that gets on one and breaks Guiness Book World Records (please see two posts down).

I guess he's a looker though huh, pretty tall and look at that nice thick 'colocho' hair and sometimes that's the bottom line in these quickie reality show worlds, look good in a tan suit and she'll forgive that the jet ski guy down there really won the olympic games...

Flyer for GPT

2009-07-09T15:22:00.001-07:00

I just wanted to share a quote from a really great family with all of you, and what you see here as a simple flyer that just matches a quote with a picture took me around 40 hours to make by the way... Not cause its that good mind you, but because I'm that bad... Damn you photoshop...

Not the picture, that took me seconds, I'm a natural at explaining where and what all the important lake parts are... Natural model, and natural lake connoisseur.

A New Beginning!

2009-07-08T16:23:00.001-07:00

Now, after that short lapse used to finish my award-winning website (www.gramercyparktutors.com), getting some of you lazies to follow this blog and setting Guiness Book of World Records at the Carolina coast, I’m ready to show some consistency here.

Unfortunately either lack of internet, electricity, interest, a key to the Internet café at the Ixtatan Foundation or a Spanish-Maya dictionary has slowed Bartolo down on his quest to write chapter II of the Triple A’s (Atypical Academic Adventures – Las Atipicas Aventuras Academicas). Either way we’re gonna have to alternate with some Ed policy discussion, interesting city events, fun links and stuff you guys suggest to make posting on this even halfway frequent.

The facebook group for Gramercy Park Tutors is also finished and you guys that joined either this or that are the best. We’re gonna work together to really make a difference in the education scene of the City. Thanks a million. As a launch to this new era of consistency in communications this is me killing the tigers of laziness past.

And to conclude in Dharma Bums fashion, I leave you till tomorrow with a hopeful Haiku that I wrote as two great friends were getting married among even more friends and family in Virginia:

My loud voice carries,
Across this Charlottesville lake,
Thunder beats Silence.

Oh dharma...

Cax and Bart - Chapter I

2009-06-24T18:12:00.000-07:00

The Academically Atypical Adventures of Cash and Bart

Meeting the Cast - Chapter I

Gaspar Hernandez (Cash) and Bartolo Lopez (Bart) are perhaps the hardest working, most interesting and enthusiastic guys you and I have ever met. While I won’t bore you with a lengthy description of each right now, I think throughout these atypical adventures you will come to agree with me. They were born and bred in the Northwestern Cuchumatanes mountain region of Guatemala in a town called San Mateo Ixtatan. This town in the state of Huehuetenango is the capital of the Chuj Maya community. You arrive there after a completely treacherous, exhausting, breathtaking and wonderful 5 hour trip on an old-beat up school bus that is repaired three times during your ride around every one of the Cuchumatan mountains. The place is simply amazing and unique. For a great description published in the Penn Yan Chronicle Express please see my great friend Chat Hull’s blog entry which also describes in detail how we all came to be there.

I met Cash and Bart when I taught them Spanish, Literature and soccer at the Yinhatil Nab’en School in San Mateo. Yinhatil Nab’en means “Seed of Wisdom” in Ixtatan’s native Chuj language and it is exactly that idea of planting a seed that brought Beth-Neville Evans, a Charlottesville seamstress/philanthropist/educator/foundation director to found the Ixtatan Foundation and the school that educated Cash and Bart in the middle of the mountains. (www.ixtatan.org) My linkedin recommendation of Beth is
“I worked for Beth at her school in the mountains in 2007, and remain at work for her. I try to constantly link myself to her education development mission. She is brought to tears every time she has to leave the foundation at San Mateo Ixtatan for her home in Virginia where most of her work for the foundation is done. She's sad not because of the many things the foundation and she bring to the Maya town, but because she will miss the many more things the people of San Mateo have to offer her and us all. I am happy knowing she's at the front line of the complex process of development.”
I know, I know…a little dramatic and corny, but it was a recommendation don’t fault me (you know who you are…) Anyways, as foundation director Beth is a big part of these adventures.

During my year in San Mateo, and for the next few months afterwards, I took it upon myself - with some help from Beth - to find a school outside of Guatemala where Cash and Bart might get a scholarship and an opportunity to experience something completely different that they might take back to San Mateo. After many months of trying to catch a break and following up with dead-end contacts, I was finally offered help by a good family friend, my best friend Arturo’s dad – Jorge Brake. Jorge Brake is the President and CEO at Laureate, which operates amazing schools and campuses all throughout Mexico and Latin America that have a social as well as an educational mission. These universities, (UVM – Universidad del Valle de Mexico) in Mexico are crucial stepping-stones for students that may be working or may not have had the opportunity to attend similar universities in the past. They also serve as simply great universities to high-achieving students, competitive with Mexican national and international universities. A perfect fit for Cash and Bart! And guess what, they were offered a full ride - including housing, living expenses, tuition, and transportation. Thanks UVM! These adventures wouldn’t have been possible without Laureate, Mr. Brake, Chat coordinating from San Mateo while I was in the City, Beth, and many other people that work in San Mateo, at the Foundation and at Laureate.

So began the first chapter of these academically atypical adventures for the two young men. I accompanied them to Antigua and Guatemala City to help them process their Visas to study in Mexico and we explored Pacaya volcano, the old capital and even stayed at the house of a friend from SMI while in the capital. Although it was only their second time in beautiful Antigua they mostly wanted to stay in their hotel room and watch Chavo del Ocho while they ate their chocolate surprises. Different chocolate surprises than the ones you get in San Mateo mind you. They also did a way above average job meeting international travelers and getting many girls’ phone numbers and facebook info, which I was of course very proud of. Those two are always confirming all the faith I’ve put in them. Police aggressively interrogated us every 2-3 hours in Antigua. I attribute this to (a) them thinking that I was kidnapping the two kids, (b) them thinking that the two kids were kidnapping me, or (c) how awesome and edgy we looked in our matching hats.

Unfortunately only one of the matching hats is featured here, fortunately I’m wearing it… Those are some nice hats.

A couple of weeks later our two heroes had their passports and Visas in hand, dreams of their Mexican adventures in their hearts and had learned a little more about their strange old capital. I left Guatemala the very next day with my hats in tow, I had bought the three of them after all (ok Bartolo?) and a new chapter of their academic adventure would soon begin with me far away in New York City.

Community Attitudes and Education

2009-06-04T14:47:00.000-07:00

For all the things that we try to improve in our schools, some deeper realities have not changed in many classrooms around the country. Sure, the laptops are there, along with smaller class sizes, bilingual teachers, learning specialists, and many other tweaks to education policy have been implemented. However, despite all these improvements, the achievement gap between affluent White students and others has persisted. In New York City, the nation’s largest school district, the Department of Education, headed by Chancellor Joel Klein and closely monitored by Mayor Bloomberg, has worked on changing everything but what matters might end up mattering the most.

The changes proposed by New York City Department of Education all follow sound education policy in theory. For example, the City review process of schools represents strong accountability within the school district by closing big comprehensive high schools and replacing them with smaller schools. However, despite this improvement in accountability, the community’s support for the students that use the public school system has shown little to no change. Where one would expect outrage and a state of emergency, one finds apathy and complicity that speak volumes of where we find ourselves in the process of closing the achievement gap.

On February 4 of this year, Javier Hernandez of The New York Times wrote an article about the closing of “an Upper West Side behemoth” – Louis D. Brandeis High School. (Never mind that the article was written by another Manhattan behemoth that may also become outdated and “anachronistic”–luckily for the Times that stones from failing Upper West Side high schools don’t reach their glass offices 40 streets downtown.) That February 4 morning, Brandeis students awoke to the news that their school was in the Times for the first time since 1993 when the paper reported on an 8-student arrest that followed a disturbance at the school. The article describes the students as the city’s “most disadvantaged,” from “the poorest regions of the Bronx, Manhattan and Brooklyn,” and having landed at the school “after failing to list any preference on their school choice forms.” Their own teacher, Mr. Bhattacharjya, argued that the school failed “because the students we have come from socioeconomically disadvantaged families, making it impossible for them to get any homework help.” Almost 2,300 City kids, some as young as 13, woke up to read that they and their families were being described as the City’s unfortunate and directionless poor. The story was reread to them throughout the school day as teachers at Brandeis sought comfort and shared outrage from their students.

The situation at Brandeis certainly has been alarming and newsworthy for the last two decades during which the newspaper chose not to report on the school. The state of urban education has been alarming and newsworthy throughout the whole country, as we have allowed the systemic failure of our schools and students to determine the impossible access to opportunity, higher education, and profitable jobs for much of the population. While I support some of the new policy changes being explored in schools and districts across the country, I also know that if we do not pair those changes with outrage toward the current conditions and the achievement gap between rich and poor students in this country, nothing will end up changing. Real change can only happen when newspapers like The New York Times stop publishing articles that treat these students as part of another community, not the one that The New York Times represents. We must be advocates and champions for these students and refuse to allow excuses like socioeconomic difference to determine access to equal opportunity.

The New York Times and many others that fail to understand the commitment we need to make to our kids often propose in-vogue new “can’t miss” solutions to our old problems. It is important to look more at ideas that we can possible stick with over time. One such idea for making a really lasting improvement has been put forth by education policy scholars David Tyack and Larry Cuban in their book Tinkering Toward Utopia. Tinkering argues that although some researched solutions fall short of more revolutionary aspirations, they are still incredibly important as they allow more and more students increased access to opportunity. Far from ignoring important research in the sociology of education and education policy, it must be understood that change needs to be paired with long-term commitment, and there is a need for engagement at multiple levels. Education policy cannot just be about the latest fad.

Real improvements in educational outcomes will entail a long term commitment to closing the achievement gap from many different actors. It is not only the system of education, but also the attitude and apathy of the community that create and tolerate that system that we must work to change. While perfecting outdated systems is helpful and necessary, the most meaningful and transformative change of all may need to happen outside the school. This is something to which The New York Times and others should be more attuned.

link: http://demockracy.com/category/policy/education/