While it's true that great teaching requires attention to detail and expert methodology, it's also true that the best learning takes place when students feel connected to their teachers. Rita Pierson is a 40-year veteran who comes from a family of educators. Here in a seven minute Ted Talk she reminds us of how little things matter, how even the lowest performing students can be responsive to teacher attention and simple methods:

As we prepare to return to school tomorrow, I keep thinking about the importance of emotion and empathy in our everyday lives. As a society we have spent the last decade assuming that 21st century skills are inextricably associated with technological literacy, but I would argue that empathy and emotional literacy are even more important. Thanks to the instantaneous sharing of information on a global scale and the subsequent blurring of boundaries between public and private behavior, there is increasingly greater need to understand ourselves and each other. For educators, parents, and civic institutions alike, the challenge of the 21st century is to pay closer attention to emotion and to become more purposeful--and better skilled--in the promoting of empathy. Our school welcomes this opportunity with humility and urgency.

I didn't grow up in Boston like Dennis Lehane, but the events of the past week have helped me to identify even more fully with my adopted city. Today's piece from The New York Times is beautiful on many levels: a personal account, a historical frame of reference, a literary tour de force, and a tribute to some ordinary citizens on an extraordinary day. Please take a few minutes to read the following Op-Ed piece: Messing With the Wrong City.

Most of us probably take for granted that competition, achievement, and risk-taking are all natural components of a high-functioning society. And while we all carry with us certain assumptions about gender differences regarding risk-tolerance, the science of this subject is still relatively new. According to some new research by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman (Top Dog: The Science of Winning and Losing), it may turn out that many of our basic assumptions about these gender differences have been flawed. The following NPR feature is well worth your attention: The Science of Being 'Top Dog.'

Much has been written over the years about the differences in Eastern cultures and Western cultures. Sometimes this is seen through the lens of art or politics, sometimes through the lens of education or family. On this topic few analysts are so insightful or so fair-minded as David Brooks. The piece that follows brings together perspectives on intellectual versus moral impulses, self-knowledge versus external knowledge, and many other angles relevant to education. Read David Brooks' column on The Learning Virtues.

As we approach our annual Science Fair and begin to review the range of experiments that our students have designed, one needs little reminder that young children are capable of highly original and delightfully playful notions about scientific exploration. The talk that follows tells a powerful story about real-life scientific collaboration between children and adults and reminds us that the imaginative impulse of children can lead toward legitimate discovery. I suspect that this holds true not just for science, but equally for art, music, literature, and design.

As I read this fascinating piece about a British poetry competition called Poetry By Heart, I called to mind immediately some of the poems that I had memorized in my youth. I think of these now as old friends with whom I share a special intimacy: a memory unforgotten, a rhyme remembered, an idea revealed. I felt this same magic as I listened to Richard Blanco's beautiful poem at the Presidential Inauguration yesterday. Please click below if you didn't get a chance to hear it:

Sometimes several words of encouragement is all it takes to empower a young child to keep going during times of adversity. Here's a beautiful story about a young boy who kept going during those difficult times and created a career doing what he always liked best: drawing and telling stories.

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

I often feel intimidated by the sheer vastness of the internet even though (or maybe because?) it is filled with so many interesting ideas and images. Undaunted, I consciously catalogue my bookmarks from time to time in an effort to create additional meaning out of this vastness. I try to keep current with credible news sources as well as interesting and eclectic sites. But due to the very nature of internet interestingness, this seems to be an ever-humbling task. Still, thanks to sites such as Brain Pickings, I remain hopeful that someday I may find a sustainable guide.

Bruce Feiler's piece in today's New York Times provides an unusual glimpse into the author of one of these guides.

While it is tempting to assume that the best teachers in a 21st century classroom are those who are always on track with the latest innovations, there is also something to be said for time-honored methods such as handwriting, public speaking, reading aloud, and even memorization. After all, who among us does not remember a poem that we recited in elementary school? The piece that follows raises some interesting perspectives from the standpoint of several different curricular areas: click here to read about the virtues of some traditional methods.