Welcome to the MTIPS Resources Page

This page contains resources pertaining to Teacher Education, Parent Education and School Promotion. The site is used by educators from more than 60 countries and averages about 1800 views per month.

The information is presented in three different formats: articles, videos, and transcripts from a weekly on-line Q and A chat room called Ask a Mentor. The information is organized by class level, audience, content, and format. Resources pertaining to more than one area are cross-referenced.

Of particular convenience is the search feature at the bottom of the page. You can type in any word and all content with that word will be listed with a brief excerpt to help you find exactly what you are looking for.


Wednesday, October 4, 2017

Your Children Are Not Your Own






Contrary to how it feels when the nurse hands your first born over to you and waves goodbye, your children do not belong to you. They are not simply extensions of you. You have your life and they have theirs. Your lives are not interchangeable. Your dreams are not interchangeable. Children are yours on loan, for what will feel like a shockingly short period of time when they get ready to launch off on their own. And remember, your most important job is to prepare them for that launch. It is critical to remember, however, that despite all of our best intentions and even good parenting choices, there are no guarantees. Children are agents of free will. 

At some point, your children will have to make their own decisions. Some will be good ones, some will not. This is a guarantee. The best we can do is set our sights constantly on the future, on who we want them to become and ask ourselves what specifically and intentionally we have done recently to help our children develop this way. I have found that my answer is frighteningly often: nothing. 

If there were two things I could without fail bestow upon my children it would be agency and empathy. I wish for them that they grow into adults who constantly ask these two questions: “Being that things are as they are, what then shall I do?” (Well said, Jonathan Sacks)

And how can I make this life, this world, this moment a little bit better, a little easier, or a little more beautiful for those I share it with and those who come after? 


--> If I achieve that, I will consider it a job well done indeed. 

–Wendy Calise Head of School 

Monday, October 2, 2017

OfficeMax Takes a Stand on Parenting

-->











Watch the commercial and see for yourself.


Who is doing all the work for what are clearly grown able young people who could shop for themselves?

You got it…Mom. She even carries the bags.

While tempting to shrug this off as no big deal, this commercial is unintentionally defining “good parenting” - a mom running around doing everything while her passive children follow impotently along. The problem is, while this is efficient for mom, it is one of the few opportunities she has to get her children ready to stand on their own two feet.

What could they have learned?

How to interpret the shopping list
How to figure out the layout and organization of a store
How to ask a clerk for help
How shop within a budget that you set
How to handle money and count for correct change
How to carry your own bags

So what would a “good parent” do?

Leave her children at home and do the shopping for them.

Review the list with her children, show them around the store and then let them shop on their own.

 Give her children the list, some money, and wait in car while enjoying some kid free time on her Kindle.

If you want your children to be RTFW, you’re going to have to take them out of the shopping cart.