by Ari Yares | Sep 28, 2017 | 21st Century Learning, School Leadership
Professional development seems to be a word that strikes fear in the eyes of educators across the country. I know that the teams that I work with often feel that professional development sessions are boring and irrelevant. Instead, they worry about losing a day of...
by Ari Yares | Sep 14, 2017 | 21st Century Learning, The Innovative Dad Blog
As an educator, I have always been a little skeptical about homework. Not that I think that it should be completely eliminated, but that I don’t think that we spend enough time thinking about why we are assigning it. As a parent, my emotional reaction to homework runs...
by Ari Yares | Sep 6, 2017 | The Innovative Dad Blog
Here’s a situation that shouldn’t be too difficult to imagine: Your child comes up to you asking for the permission form that you were supposed to sign. First, you have a blank look on your face. “Permission slip? I don’t remember a permission slip.” Then, awareness...
by Ari Yares | Aug 30, 2017 | The Innovative Dad Blog
Managing a family is hard work, but as I wrote previously, assigning one parent as the lead parent isn’t the solution for many families. The first step is having regular parent to parent conversations. Our kids have learned that many things in our family are...
by Ari Yares | Aug 23, 2017 | The Innovative Dad Blog
Until recently, I had no idea what a lead parent was. I knew there were families where mom was the primary point of contact and others where it was the dad. In some, it was either. I also knew that American culture assumes that mom is the one who really knows...
by Ari Yares | Aug 16, 2017 | The Innovative Dad Blog
Recently, I wrote about my reluctance to have the news radio on when the kids are in the car. Like most parents, I have a strong desire to shelter my kids from the craziness of the outside world, but I also don’t want them to be caught like deer in headlights once...
by Ari Yares | Aug 9, 2017 | The Innovative Dad Blog
The first several days after we dropped off our oldest at sleepaway camp for the first time were the hardest and it had absolutely nothing to do with her. In fact, even though it was her first time at the camp for a full session, she transitioned away from me so...
by Ari Yares | Aug 2, 2017 | The Innovative Dad Blog
Recently, my oldest daughter and I turned her four and a half hour drive to drop her off at camp into a bit of a road trip. We listened to podcasts together in the car, pointed at things out the window, and talked about where we might head on our next stop or what we...
by Ari Yares | Jul 31, 2017 | 21st Century Learning, School Leadership, The Innovative Dad Blog
One of the exciting buzz words among educators is 21st-century learning (yes, I know the 21st century has been here for a few years). It’s a way to package an approach to education that emphasizes things like critical thinking, collaboration, communication, and...
by Ari Yares | Jul 26, 2017 | The Innovative Dad Blog
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about losing my temper. Maybe it’s because I’ve been feeling that it’s been just a little too close to the surface or maybe I’ve witnessed just a few of them at work recently (from kids, not the staff). A...
