Not So Usual Celebrations

August 24th is Vesuvius Day.  Mt. Vesuvius is a now dormant volcano.  It’s last eruption was in 79 A.D. on this day.  The eruption killed 3,360 people in the Roman city of Pompeii.  It is in the ruins of Pompeii that we have found out many things about the daily life of early Romans.  Vesuvius,…

Read More

Not So Usual Celebrations

August 23rd is Ride the Wind Day.  Although this is not a sanctioned holiday, perhaps it should be.  This is the day to be carefree, to hang-out, to take advantage of a dwindling summer.  Catch a breeze and soar high above.  Spend the day relaxing and leave your worries behind you, if just for a…

Read More

Not So Usual Celebrations

August 20th is National Radio Day.  In this day of IPods and CD changers, it may be challenging for you to understand how the radio could be so important, but for those who precede these inventions, the radio was as important as soda.  Listening to the radio is what we did.  Today, on occasion, I…

Read More

Book Review: Outliers, The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell

Outliers, The Story of Success, is a great read by Malcolm Gladwell.  Gladwell takes a look at successful people and asks the questions of why.  One of my favorite chapters is number 2, “10,000 Hours “In Hamburg we had to play for eight hours.”  In this chapter Gladwell gives example after example of the overnight…

Read More

Not So Usual Celebrations

August 19th is Aviation Day.  Up, Up, and Away!  If you’ve been following the “Not So Usual Celebrations”, you may have discovered that it is difficult to tell a “sanctioned” holiday from an “unsanctioned” holiday.  Official holiday must been created by an Act of Congress, so you may wonder—which are real and which are not. …

Read More

Developing Capable Young People—The Skills Needed—The Work of Stephen Glenn

Taking a look at the second part of Glenn’s work, he identifies four skills that youth need to acquire to be successful in life.  He identifies these as intrapersonal skills, interpersonal skills, system skills, and judgment skills.  The importance of developing intrapersonal skill—liking and respecting yourself and having the ability to strengthen positive self-control and…

Read More

Not So Usual Celebrations…

August 18th is Bad Poetry Day.  The thing of it is, what some people consider bad poetry, others may think is meaningful and to the point.  That is why poetry can touch your soul, or turn you off.  It tries to capture the essence of what the author is experiencing into words which seldom capture…

Read More

Developing Capable Young People—The Work of Stephen Glenn

It’s been over ten years ago that I had the opportunity to participate in a life-changing workshop entitled Developing Capable Young People. [1]  I read the description of the course in County Office of Education pamphlet and thought it sounded exactly like training that I needed as we started out after-school program.  I was interested…

Read More

Debriefing and the Common Core

Research has demonstrated that learning is experienced more deeply and connections are made more broadly when someone debriefs an activity or lesson with youth.  A debrief gives you an opportunity to check on your objective and see if the youth can demonstrate an understanding of the objective.  A debrief gives young people an opportunity to…

Read More