Katy Dalgleish

Dear Thomas Jefferson, What is your favorite pie? I hear that you loved the biscuits that were made in the bakery at Monticello, but I can’t figure out what kind of pie you liked. Everyone says that you fell in love with ice cream when you were in France.  We still have a recipe in…

We studied the research. The findings were clear. The researchers said that people who take notes in handwriting on paper have a higher retention of facts than people who take notes on a computer. At the elementary school where I worked, we discussed the findings and explored what it meant for teaching and learning at…

They were six. We were talking about yellow. It was such a simple lesson. What is yellow? Lemon, flowers, the sun Some colors have emotional weight. Yellow: cowardly, fear, afraid Assignment: draw yellow pictures Sweet George struggled with reading, and his writing was sloppy and hard to read. His drawings were detailed and told stories.…

Dear Thomas Jefferson, Thanks for getting together with me on such short notice. Talking to you about rules, balls, and banks was a wonderful opportunity for me to think deeply about the current banking crisis. It is never good news when a bank collapses. Since we got together, I read the June 24, 1813 letter…

Children on the playground at recess can teach us so much about life. Sometimes they play by the rules. Sometimes they just want to kick balls around and not play a scoring game at all. Sometimes they create games where a few strong kids can change the rules to keep in power and oust the…

Mary (the teacher): When do you think kids are old enough to learn about Pi? Tom (the politician): What?!? Wait!……When will it be on the test? Isn’t that what matters? Besides, isn’t it in the math textbook? Just teach it when it is in the textbook, and I’m sure that is the right time. Mary:…

On December 30, 2014, Former Secretary of Education John King, posted the following on Twitter: What if every district committed both to identifying what made their 5 best schools successful & providing those opps (opportunities) to all their students? Teachers across the country responded.  He most likely did not get the response he had hoped…

I did not know anyone around me. The room was filled with people sitting at tables. We were there to eat a delicious lunch and celebrate all of the successes and achievements of this nonprofit’s previous year. We all believe in the mission:  Heal families and inspire youth to reach their full potential. Maria is…

Welcome to my website, which reveals why you can’t have a good democracy without a strong public school system, and it provides a plan for education reform as a path to a stronger public school system and smarter society. Both are in peril. I am currently writing a book about this topic as well, one…

Dear Thomas Jefferson,  It was fun to Zoom with you.  It’s a great way to connect, isn’t it? Thanks for letting me rant about reopening schools after they have been closed for so long because of the pandemic.  There are so many reasons why the conversation about in-person teaching and learning is frustrating for me.…