On June 14, 2017, Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden (one of the subjects of last week's Thoughtful Thursday) appointed Tracy K. Smith as the twenty-second United States Poet Laureate. In case you were wondering, the U.S. Poet Laureate serves as the official poet of the United States, and seeks to promote a greater national appreciation of the reading and [...]
Tomorrow afternoon at 2 PM (Eastern Standard Time), please join Ground Control Parenting, Learning Heroes, GreatSchools and National PTA for a Twitter chat discussion on how parents can help children succeed in the upcoming school year. We will be sharing ideas and resources, using the hashtag #ReadinessCheck. We at GCP are so excited to join this national conversation about [...]
Don't you just love a good public library? Those of us born in the pre-internet world fondly remember wandering up and down the isles of the local public library, looking for the next great read or the critical info for that paper due too soon. Public libraries today have adapted to the new digital world and are still going [...]
GCP parents, it's time to get focused on helping our sons and daughters get ready for their best school year yet. Here are some helpful resources: Readiness Check: You know what grades your kids got last year, but how much of the material do they confidently understand? Does a C in math for the semester mean that your child [...]
Today's Thoughtful Thursday (actually, "Thoughtful The Day after Thursday" this week) shines the spotlight on the amazing Kevin Young, aka "One of the Hardest Working men in Poetbiz". Young was born in 1970 in Lincoln, Nebraska. He received his BA from Harvard University in 1992 and his MFA in creative writing from Brown University in 1996. Young’s awards and [...]
Yesterday GCP and Independent School Diversity Network (ISDN) hosted an "Insider’s View of the College Admissions Process" on Martha's Vineyard, featuring key admissions representatives from Columbia, Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania discussing the admissions process. Once a year GCP and ISDN fill a living room with kids of color and give them the opportunity to meet with the [...]
The selection of today's Thoughtful Thursday offering, "The First Book" by the celebrated poet Rita Dove, was inspired by yesterday's post about LeBron James' wonderful new IPromise public school in Akron Ohio. The school is designed to inspire middle school students who are performing below their grade levels. Helping them with reading skills will surely be an important part [...]
LeBron James may have taken his talents to the LA Lakers, but he is leaving something very valuable behind in Ohio: a chance for 240 at-risk third and fourth graders in his hometown of Akron to get a brand new public school designed to help them achieve. James and his LeBron James Family Foundation have partnered with The Akron [...]
GCP Parents, hope you and your families are having a great summer! Now is a good time to focus on making sure that your children start the school year right. Have you been combatting summer slide with your children? If not, there is still time. Wherever you are in this process, we've got tips to make it easier. Several [...]
Today's Thoughtful Thursday features a wonderful poem by Terrance Hayes called "We Should Make a Documentary About Spades". Hayes, a professor of creative writing and co-founder of the Center for African American Poetry and Poetics, is the author of eight collections of poetry, including American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin (Penguin Poets, 2018), How to Be Drawn [...]