Orienting students to Harkness… All Thoughts Harkness 18 Sep 201718 Oct 2017 "How do you get your students oriented to Harkness? How do you teach these discussion skills to your newest students?" These are questions that colleagues from other schools have asked…
Uncategorized Harkness in a difficult time, The Reader’s Journal 7 Oct 20207 Oct 2020 Ok, this may be an actual Harkness cop out, but I'm doing it. The Reader's Journal (my instruction to them): This class comes at an amazing time in your life,…
Uncategorized “It was satisfying once we ‘got it!’” 7 Oct 2020 “It was satisfying once we ‘got it!’” That was the comment in the Zoom chat at the end of a session I observed on Monday. The meeting was twelve ninth…
Uncategorized Harkness in a difficult time, part I 14 Sep 202014 Sep 2020 The new school year has started and here we all are adapting. I am teaching remotely, as are so many of us around the world. (While some of the Exeter…
Uncategorized Harkness in the woods 12 Sep 2019 I had the chance to join a group of thirteen ninth graders for a day of fun and skill-building at the beautiful Browne Center for experiential education at the University…
building community… Telling Tales 22 Aug 201822 Aug 2018 One of the opening exercises at the Exeter Humanities Institute is the "Group Fairy Tale." This gets the group warmed up, everyone must listen carefully, everyone must participate. It generates…
building community… Building trust at the table 22 Aug 201822 Aug 2018 It's the end of August and so a time to think about "beginnings" again... How do we get a class loosened up? How do we work to pay attention to…
Uncategorized The empty chair 15 Dec 20171 Jan 2018 Early in December I had the chance to visit the classroom of Josh Mishrikey, a high school history teacher in a suburban Boston public school. Josh had attended the Exeter…
Uncategorized What the ninth graders said: part II 28 Nov 2017 Here comes the second installment of the results from surveying the ninth graders of their experience with Harkness, just six weeks into the school year. This post refers to their…
Uncategorized What the ninth graders said: part I 28 Nov 2017 What have you learned about yourself as you have adjusted to Harkness classes at Exeter so far this fall? This was the first question on a survey I distributed (via English…
Uncategorized Scaffolding 18 Nov 2017 Lots of teachers have lately been talking about how much "scaffolding" is necessary for a good discussion. There are lots of ways to answer a question, but a quick thought…
Teaching Around the Oval 