Julie's Page

It's been a wild ride these past few weeks, with much to do. We were supposed to leave on a brief vacation this week, but circumstances seem to be telling us that that may not be possible, or will perhaps have to be truncated and/or postponed. But nothing is all bad, and mostly it's all good.

I've taken great pleasure in taking more time to look through all of our work together this summer. This little post is mostly to let you know that I'm thinking about all of you, and wondering how you are,… Continue

On Tumblr, you can travel along with me as my thoughts morph from some pretty wide-world questions about how our general education curriculum should be reformed to encourage deep and lasting learning, to a much more specific exploration of education movements of the last century, specifically the Modern School Movement of the early 20th century, and the philosophical anarchists who championed this learning, among whom were members of my family.

My text post on tumblr,… Continue

I'm still grappling with the tension of learning alongside vs. needing to be *expert* in something before we introduce it to others. I'm thinking about the freshness and excitement with which we approach our new learnings, our new discoveries. In Zen (about which I actually know very little) this is called beginners' mind, and it is highly valued. Your roshi, or teacher, will always be encouraging you to get back to beginners' mind, the mind that is fresh and unspoiled, where the inner critic do… Continue

Even if our curriculum during these twelve days were to be solely focused on techno bells and whistles, we would be facing this same eternal struggle. There's just way, way more than we can even begin to touch on in any responsible way in this short period of time. Add to that the fact that yes, we are trying to look at all of this tech in a relevant, rich manner that asks all of the hard questions about why do it in the first place, and does this serve the needs of the content curriculum, and w… Continue

This is a voicethread presentation that I made using old photos of my mother, taken by my father, most likely, in the 1930s and 40s. Continue