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…
One of the most compelling pedagogical concepts I’ve ever come across is very simple: Don’t teach a vocabulary word until students already know the concept it describes. Let the experience you create be not, “Okay, there’s this word, and apparently it means X,” but, “Oh! That’s the word for that!” During the fall term, In science class,…
This past week, our school had to make a brief and abrupt shift to online learning for two days, and came back to in-person school on Thursday. All of my class already had some experience of remote learning, from last spring. But we did not know this class as an online community, and we found…
With the current school year coming to an end, I know that parents are feeling excited and anxious about sending their soon to be kindergarteners off to school in the fall. Are they ready? Do they have the right skills? While many of us focus on the basics of letter and number recognition or reading…
https://youtu.be/KExB1B47nwA
Twice a year, our school does a day-long, intergenerational service day. The first is in October as an alternative to Columbus Day, and the second is in the Spring, on Arbor Day. For the last couple of years, these two service days have roughly mirrored their holiday. In fall, as an alternative to a holiday…