Archive for 2014
A challenge to parents: How much technology is good for their children?
September 21, 2014
The start of the school year brings many challenges to parents. A key concern is how much technology is effective and appropriate for young children, pre-school through the early years of school? There can be no conversation about how children learn the skills they need to become ready to learn to read without addressing the […]
What children need to be successful in school.
August 25, 2014
Talented teachers + engaged students +challenging curriculum = Success for all. To make this equation into a reality, children need devoted and caring adults to be successful in and out of school. As a new school year approaches, the conversation about what makes for good schools and good teachers begins. What do children actually need […]
Ongoing Dilemma: Which comes first: reading the book or seeing the movie?
August 14, 2014
I love the book The Giver but I feel ambivalent about it’s movie release on August 15. Since stories enter through the back door of our imaginations, they speak to our hearts and minds in very personal ways. I worry that if a person sees the movie before they read the book, they will know […]
Diane comments in NYT:We often find what we need in the stories we read.
July 22, 2014
I am working with a young woman who never ceases to amaze me with her capacity to feel and act compassionately toward others. And I am also struck on how hard this woman is on herself, with standards she would never inflict on others. My hope was that through the compassion she felt for the […]
A story within a story—the magic of coincidences.
July 14, 2014
I recently had the pleasure of presenting my Conversational Reading approach to a statewide group of CT Librarians. This was a dream come true audience for me since it satisfied a long held fantasy of mine—to know something about what people in my audiences actually do with the ideas I present. As part of the […]
