At Chicago Friends School, we have very small class sizes. When people talk about small classes, the ability to customize instruction and provide individual students with teacher attention come up a lot. Those are important—part of the reason I wanted to teach here was that I wanted to be in a place where I would…
My first week as the new lead teacher in the Acorns class has been a whirlwind. As I’m catching my breath and doing a bit of reflection, one thing that has been a constant all week is the support from the entire Chicago Friends School community — from my fellow teachers jumping in with their…
How can we encourage kids to think critically from an early age? Through an activity that every child is already an expert at – asking questions! The trick is to go beyond simple “what” questions and start asking more complex “how” and “why” questions. I decided to use the book One Plastic Bag to help…
As head, one of my responsibilities is to meet with Middle School Student Government as their advisor. They like having a direct line of contact to their head, and they also do some important jobs for the school. These include: Representing classrooms of younger kids and funneling requests up to me as head. Planning fun…
Adolescence is a wonderful time of development. Kids have new skills and abilities, and also are itching for more freedom and responsibility. They want to do it all, but they still need guidance and support. As our middle school students grow, we look for opportunities for our middle school students to take leadership in the…
Yesterday, the K-2 group ventured out downtown to learn more about Chicago’s rich architecture and food. We have been studying the history of Chicago all year and this was the perfect way to cap it off! We took the CTA bus down to the new Chicago Architectural Center. We were met with a docent to…