school

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Electronic Quills: A situated evaluation of using computers for writing in classrooms

Quill bookQuill was a suite of software tools designed to foster an environment for literacy in classrooms. We wrote it in Pascal for the Apple II computer. The software, teacher’s guide, and workshops were used widely, including in village schools in Alaska, which I visited three times during the project in 1983-84. Carol Barnhardt played a major role in setting up that Alaska project and in helping us understand the history and context of schooling in Alaska.
Continue reading →

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Reasoning Under Uncertainty

Student-created box plot

Student-created box plot

Reasoning Under Uncertainty was a project funded by the National Science Foundation under its EHR/Applications of Advanced Technology program during 1985-91. The project led to a variety a publications and presentations (e.g., Rosebery & Rubin, 2007; Rubin & Bruce, 1991). Andee Rubin and I were the PIs, but the project eventually involved many other colleagues at Bolt Beranek and Newman, MIT, and local schools in the Cambridge, Massachusetts area. Continue reading →

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Vwayaj mwen Haiti, 1989

Diznef fevriye m’ pral Okay, Ayiti, vizitez Ecole Sainte-Famille. Lekol-sa-a lekol se Graham and Parks School nan Kambrij. M’pral ak moun ki soti Graham and Parks School e lot ki gen interes sou Ayiti. Moun-sa-yo, ki travay ak Les Cayes Children’s Fund, vle ede etidyan ayisyen nan Ecole Sainte-Famille. Etidyan-yo nan Okay bezwen plu bagay: liv, kreyon, bagay fe kreyon-yo gen pwent, plim, papye, chifon, kaye, tap, penti, penso, globe, reg. Moun-yo va pote bagay-sa-yo e va travay ak pwofeso-yo la-a.

M’ gen eksitmen sou vwayaj-la. Petet m’ kapab ede etidyan-yo e petet m’ap gen plezi. Men m’ gen pe tou. M’ konnen selman pitit ayisyen. M’ bezwen aprann kisa tout moun nan Okay abitye fe bagay-la. M’ pa vle fe pwoblem pou yo. M’ gen concern tou sou situation politik. M’ vle vwayaj-la ede moun ayisyen e pa fe situation mal. Dangeur-yo la ki le moun vizite peyi lot, espezialimen ki le peyi-la li soti gen riches e peyi-la li vizite pa gen.

Ye swa m domi

Ye swa m domi, le m ap dodo
Le m ap dodo se pa ke m ki kontan
Menaj mwen pati li fe twa mwa deyo
Le m rete sonje dlo kouri nan je m
Li rale monchwa li siye figi m
Li di yayaya cheri juska la fin du monde

Here’s a [mostly] Google translation of the report I wrote originally in Kreyol:

My trip to Haiti

On February 19th, I will go to Okay, Haiti, to visit the Sainte-Famille School. This school is [sister to] Graham and Parks School in Cambridge. I will be with people from Graham and Parks School and others who are interested in Haiti. These people, who work with Les Cayes Children’s Fund, want to help Haitian students at Ecole Sainte-Famille. The students in Okay need more things: books, pencils, things made of pencils – they have points, pens, paper, rags, notebooks, tapes, paints, brushes, globes, reg. People will bring these things and work with the professors there.

I am excited about the trip. Maybe I can help the students and maybe I will have fun. But I have [fears] too. I know only Haitian children. I need to learn what everyone in Okay is used to doing. I don’t want to cause problems for them. I am also concerned about the political situation. I want the trip to help Haitians and not harm the situation. The dangers are there when people visit other countries, especially if the country they come from has wealth and the country they visit does not.

and of the Haitian song I learned:

[Yesterday, I Slept]

[Yesterday], I [slept], [while I was sleeping]
[while I was sleeping], [my heart was not content]
My wife left three months ago
When I remember, tears flow from my eyes
I pull out my handkerchief and wipe my face
I say yayaya darling until the end of the world

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Rice University

Fonndren LibraryMy introduction to Rice was through Joseph I. Davies. I was a visiting high-school student and he engaged me in an unforgettable conversation about the need for world government.

As a Biology major, I did not take his fabled Biology 100 course, but I did sit in on some of his lectures, including the opening one in which he threw live frogs into the auditorium seats. Amidst all the screams, he would ask “What is life? What makes us know that these objects are living things?” His final lecture of the year, and of his life, was on the meaning of evolution.

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W. P. McLean Junior High School

Three years at W. P. McLean Junior High School (now W. P. McLean Middle School) in Fort Worth, September, 1959 – May, 1962. I worked on mythology newspaper in Miss Dierdorf’s class, and later on the school newspaper, The Thresher.

William Pickney McLean Junior High School first opened on January 28, 1936. The school was located at the corner of Forest Park and Berry Street, the present sight (sic) of R. L. Paschal High School. McLean Junior High School moved to its present location on Stadium Drive in September, 1954. In September of 1969 it was renamed McLean Middle School. McLean’s first principal was Mr. E. E. Dyess, who served for 22 years as the principal. In 1954, the McLean Letter “M” Award was begun …[to be] presented to 8th graders who who excel in scholastic achievement, good citizenship, and extracurricular involvement. –School History, William Pickney McLean Junior High School