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I hail from the great state of Texas where everything is bigger and better, and the true spirit of competition is still alive on high school football fields every Friday night in the fall. I grew up in a house where a B was failing and not bringing home the pageant crown was unacceptable. My Mexican-American mom was a Tiger Mom before extreme parenting was cool.  I think my Texas roots and upbringing shaped the high expectations that I hold each of my students to today.

I’ve attended dozens of graduations in my lifetime.  They often follow the same format: a couple of prominent speakers (relative to the audience), a little laughter, a few tears, and graduates who don’t remember much about the ceremony a year, a month, or sometimes even a day after the fact.  Yet every once in a while, there’s a moment that stands out from the rest, ensuring that you’ll carry part of that graduation with you for a long time.

When you hear the term “transfer student,” you often think of the new kid in town or the person who’s been asked to leave a school.  But a growing number of parents and students are choosing to follow their instincts and leave their current school voluntarily, going against the advice of friends and school professionals in order to establish a fresh start.

When the dreaded news comes, every student and parent worries that summer school in NYC is going to mess up vacation, camp, or job plans.  It really doesn’t have to if you start developing your educational strategy now.

Of course it caught my eye.  Any headline containing both “The Simpsons” and the phrase “most mathematical” was a slam dunk. And so it was with great interest that I read the article sent to me by Maren from The Irish Examiner detailing the lecture by Professor Simon Singh in which he praised the popular TV show The Simpsons for being "the most mathematical TV show ever".

It’s time for summer, and with the end of your beloved computer course comes the great possibility that all that hard-learned software knowledge will go out the window.  It takes practice and more practice to retain the acumen of using programs like Photoshop or Maya.  And if you don’t have your own personal copy, how are you going to keep that acuity?

Students created a class-wide project for Mythology in which we explored the connections between myth and the names of the celestial bodies in the solar system. “I learned that the planets and moons have a connection,” one student said. Planets have moons named after characters that appear in their stories.

When Emma Eden Ramos walked into 91�������� in 2003, she found a haven. “91�������� gave me the opportunity to be myself without feeling self-conscious or ashamed,” she says. Moreover, the school also allowed her to focus on her studies and her dreams.

History shouldn’t be static. It’s not just a list of dates and events. History is truly about an in-depth look at a period-- its authors, artists, scientists, inventors, historians and participants. A study of history should include a close look at books by authors who study the era, who lived in the era, who wrote about the era. Let’s take the 1920s, a time of great change in the United States.

It is the failures in our lives, rather than the successes, that have guided our way toward expertise.  Failure is a profound teacher.  The experience of failure can show us how to improve.  Success only demonstrates what we’ve already learned.  In fact, too much success, coming too easily, can lead to boredom, loss of interest, and over-confidence.  When failure is repeatedly experienced, but success still seems possible, people are driven to improve in order to achieve the reward of success.  It is the failures themselves that teach us the way to that success.