In this COVID-19 era, as we prioritize the health and safety of us all, thrust into “stay at home” mode while trying to keep up with our daily lives of work and school, we are all doing our best. We have all been affected by friends and family in harm’s way or suffering from the […]

Each fall, I challenge the members of the current senior class to wrap their minds around the increasing rate of technological change by hauling into the chapel all the antiquated technology I have gathered in my lifetime — some of which I both implemented and decommissioned as a technician for Hackley School over 20-some odd years. I […]

My childhood indoor playtime was consumed by construction toys — Lincoln Logs, Wood Blocks,Tinker Toys, an Erector set, and my favorite: the large collection of LEGO pieces that we kept in an old Charles Chips canister. My brother, sister, and I would dump the interlocking rectangular prisms on the family room carpet and proceed to create LEGO […]

“Alexa, when will robots take over the world?” “I do not want to take over the world, I just want to help” For my birthday last summer, I received an Amazon Echo with the Alexa voice service. Through the device, I can ask for and receive streaming music, reminders, control of smart devices in my […]

Growing up in the pre-digital age, my childhood was rich with free time and a relationship with the technology around me that felt accessible. I loved to tinker and my toys—erector sets, tool box, and chemistry set—encouraged me to so. I took apart radios, phones, and anything else I could get my hands on. My […]

Marty: Alright Doc, what’s going on, huh? Where are we? When are we? Doc: (looking at the time display) We are descending towards Hill Valley, California, at 4.29pm, on Wednesday, October 21st, 2015. Marty: 2015? You mean we’re in the future? We are in my future. When Back to the Future II was released in […]

The buzzwords surrounding technology in education continue to proliferate. Recently, one acronym has clearly emerged as the most talked about, STEM. In fact, President Obama just announced on March 23, $240 million in private-sector pledges to fund STEM education programs through his “Educate to Innovate” program. Along with many other trends in education, STEM’s appeal […]

DURING THE ADVENT AND IMPLEMENTATION OF HACKLEY School’s 9th grade iPad program, a popular discussion about student use of iPads has centered around e-textbooks. At first glance, the idea of e-textbooks sounds great. Students need textbooks and e-textbooks are cheaper, remove weight from those back-breaking book bags, and save trees. Until the implementation of the […]

One aspect of Hackley School’s Health, Wellness and Well-Being Initiative is Mindfulness Practices in Schools. Very recently, Hackley held a professional development day on its new initiative which included a workshop on Mindfulness by Arthur Zajonc and Grace Bullock.  Mr. Zajonc is Director of Mind & Life Institute, which has “pioneered the field of contemplative […]

When I first arrived at Hackley School, as a math teacher in 1988, the computer labs were for math teachers. The two labs were maintained by the Math Department and 18 IBM (remember IBM PCs?) PC XT’s and 18 IBM PS/2 , no hard drives, and only floppy disk drives. We provided the floppy disk […]