article originally written for LessonPlanet by Jen Lilienstein For many kids, annual standardized testing is one of the highest periods of stress1 during the school year. In fact, according to the Kids Health1 website, the number one kid stressor is
Smart Reasons to Keep Kids Learning Over the Summer
article originally written by Jen Lilienstein for FamilyShare. For many kids, their mid-July mantra is “lazy”— not “learning.” While summer fun is on the daily agenda, some conceptual calisthenics also needs to make it onto the calendar during July and
Five years later…
In 2011, I started Kidzmet in the hopes that, as parents and educators, we start celebrating and embracing the strengths that our kids were born with rather than trying to school them into molds that society deems optimal at the
Have U.S. Students Fallen Victim to Self-Fulfilling Prophecies?
article originally written for Co-Op Catalyst by Jen Lilienstein I was reminded of an interesting tidbit the other day about the Finnish school system in one of the education news emails I receive the other day. This information has been
On intrinsically motivating students
In late February 2012, EdWeek’s Susan Sandler wrote about Personalization 3.0, or “a hybrid approach of humanity and technology…that uses technology to enhance teacher-student relationships, not replace them.” Sandler references Theodore R. Sizer’s work (late founder of the Coalition of Essential
Sometimes you read an article and feel blessed.
While both the parents and educators attached to Kidzmet feel strongly about giving kids the best education they possibly can, sometimes you read an article that makes you feel truly blessed to be in a position to advocate for BETTER education and
Welcome to Kidzmet’s Recipes for Success!
At Kidzmet, we believe that just as a pre-packaged product is not the ONLY way to cook a dish, nor the ONLY dish we should consume, we cannot continue to think about a pre-packaged standard of intelligence to which we
5-15 Reports :: Learning from our Students
One of my former colleagues recently posted this in our Facebook group. We used to use this technique to get our creative juices flowing vis-à-vis product development and corporate strategy in the educational software world. I’m still a believer that
Have U.S. Students Fallen Victim to Self-Fulfilling Prophecies?
This is a reprint of an article originally published on Cooperative Catalyst I was reminded of an interesting tidbit about the Finnish school system in one of the education news emails I receive the other day. This information has been
What matters in life…and how do we teach these values to our kids?
First, let me just say that I am a HUGE documentary fan. For me, there’s something so rich and compelling about things that really happened or people who believe that they may be really, truly onto something. In the documentary