Welcome to the Fall 2013 issue of Independent Teacher. This is a special issue for a few reasons: First, it celebrates our 10th anniversary; in ten years and 20 issues, we have published more than 125 articles on all disciplines and grade levels, and our submissions have grown from three or four per issue to 12 to 15 per issue today. We now count more than 1,700 subscribers and many more readers from around the world. All of these numbers make us very proud. As we mark 10 years of conversations between educators, sharing ideas, innovative projects, and interdisciplinary courses, Independent Teacher has been, and will continue to be a forum for educators of all stripes to explore crucial issues in the world of education.
Second, this issue includes a Q & A with Daniel Goleman, psychologist, author, and lecturer, whose work has influenced the education field for more than 25 years. His book, Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ, has profoundly changed the way educators think about curriculum and pedagogy. In our conversation, Goleman talks a bit about his new book, Focus, describing how important concentration is to the learning process and how difficult it is to achieve in our technology-filled lives.Third, this issue contains an array of articles on the theme "Students and Teachers Learning Together." Our goal is to promote a conversation about shifting pedagogy away from the widely held belief that it’s a teacher's job to pass knowledge on to students, to move away from the usual passive role of students of being talked to, to a new model that expects students to be much more responsible for their learning. "Harkness Math" describes the decades old curriculum at Phillips Exeter Academy (New Hampshire) that requires students to generate the daily discussion in class on problem sets devised by the faculty; "Collaborative Learning" discusses how one school, enamored with the Harkness model, has implemented a version of it in one of their math courses. In a different way, "The Power of Boys’ Lunch in Middle School" exemplifies our topic by detailing how "students, teachers, and counselors have helped craft a developmental guidance program, for Middle School boys, by Middle School boys, discussing, working, and learning from one another along the way.” And, in still another way, two teachers and their students learn about Lewis and Clark together as the teachers visit a reconstructed fort in North Dakota and communicate with their students via Skype.
This issue also includes brief comments from many of our Editorial Board members about their experience working with Independent Teacher. Our Board members are the best, devoting many hours to reading, evaluating, and editing submissions. We literally owe our success to these unsung heroes.
We hope that the articles in this issue inspire you to think more carefully about making your own teaching more collaborative. Then join the conversation.
Send your comments about this issue to [email protected]. We'd love to hear from you.
You might also want to know:
• NAIS has partnered with PBS to highlight exciting and affordable resources for teachers in independent schools. Teachers can now receive a 10 percent discount on courses in PBS’s TeacherLine program, one of Edudemic’s top nine “Places to Find High-Quality Online Professional Development.” Registrants should use the promo code NAISTEACH for a 10 percent discount
• NAIS is also offering independent school teachers access to a free comprehensive, interactive library of digital resources at PBS LearningMedia. Visit www.nais.org for details.