Today in the face of off-and-on rain, I gave the Rockets, our middle school class, a choice of indoor recess or chancing an outdoor recess where rain might fall. They chose indoor recess, and we left behind the normal class-level set of recess sports equipment and trooped up to the gym, where a set of…
Twenty-first-century education can not be about simply filling kids’ heads with knowledge, but rather it is about teaching them the skills and attitudes that they need to become learners. Today, through our digital connections, more information and knowledge than ever is at our fingertips. Just to read through everything on Wikipedia would take a lifetime. …
A couple of weeks ago, two students in my room—a boy and a girl, friends who often play as part of the same group—were on the outs. Small conflicts kept erupting. On the advice of one of our parent volunteers, who had just finished a difficult recess with them, I pulled those two students aside…
In March and April, the middle school students completed a racial justice unit in ELA class. One group of students read Ghost Boys by Jewell Parker Rhodes and another read Blended by Sharon M. Draper for their book clubs and discussed the books weekly. Both groups also read articles about the origins of the Black…
I was at the ISACS (Independent Schools Association of the Central States) Head’s conference last week. At that annual gathering, heads of schools from 18 states from Ohio to Arkansas to North Dakota gather to learn from experts, share and connect, and talk to peers from across the country. During the conference, one session touched…
Something that is relatively unique to this school is that we have multi-age classes. While I was growing up, and while completing my teaching degree, there was always a negative tone when speaking about a “split” class, like it was a bad thing. But that causes someone to think- Why would multi-age classes be a…