4/5 Artwork at the Mission Cultural Center in SF

Last week the 4/5 classrooms went to San Francisco's Mission Cultural Center to install some artwork as part of their celebration for Dia de los Muertos. Congrats to Julianne and all the student artists for having their work accepted into the show!

Sugar Skulls and Snap Cubes

On this morning's admissions tour I lead a group of prospective parents into the Laurel Creek classroom during what turned out to be Project Time. In one corner, Middle School Spanish teacher Tanya Madrid-Campbell was sitting with a table full of K/1 students making sugar skulls to celebrate Dia de los Muertos. A few children sat at a nearby table doing a coloring activity with sugar skull designs. Julia and Lyssa were working with two more tables of children doing three-addend addition with a Halloween theme (the children drew skeletons, pumpkins and candy, counted up each group, and then added them together to a single total). And in the block area, two children were animatedly talking and putting together dozens of snap cubes into large blocks. At the time, I wondered to myself why everyone in the class seemed to be engaged in the projects provided, except those two children, but the structure of the tour didn't allow me to check in with the teachers.

Later in the day, during the ECC-3rd grade faculty meeting on Core Competencies after school, Lyssa brought up those two children as an example of the competency of initiative. She explained that after they had finished the other pre-set activities for the day, the two had decided to try to build sugar skulls out of snap cubes - great examples of the "awareness" and "motivation" components of the disposition of learning that we talk about at TBS. They had come up against some challenging design problems that spoke to the "skill" component of the triangle of learning disposition; how to create indented eyes, as sugar skulls have, and how to create the curves of the skull using the cube shapes? The discovery of these questions was itself a critical learning moment that directed the next step in the children's visual-spatial development, and arose at exactly the right time and in just the right way - from their excitement in building on the activities provided by the teachers, and applying their own creativity to the central idea. Hearing her retell this incident, I also reflected back on my jump-to-assumptions, and how important it is to sometimes be able to see without thinking, and ask before assuming. Wow!

Teachers For Social Justice

On Saturday, October 9, several TBS teachers attended the Teachers for Social Justice conference at Mission High in San Francisco. Two of them wrote brief reflections on their experiences, which we're happy to present here.

"Hearing about the 2010 Teachers for Social Justice Conference

from both my colleagues at the Berkeley School and via an email

from a respected local book publisher boded well for the T4SJ.

I remained skeptical, however, at this conference's ability to

offer tangible strategies towards social change through education

and the organization of schools – I feared more rallying cries

than information and more talk of standardized testing than 

discussion of the teacher's roll in school and society. My

skepticism was proven unfounded multiple times over. The

conference was fantastic. Along with two of my friends and

fellow educators I attended a morning workshop on the roll

of the teacher as an authoritarian and how breaking down 

that tradition can lead to stronger relationships with students,

stronger community-mindedness, and greater confidence amongst

learners young and old. Elizabeth Simms, an art teacher in San

Francisco and a member of the Bound Together Bookstore Collective,

did a wonderful job of facilitating. My time at the conference was

capped off with a presentation by Dr. Linda Darling-Hammond on the

 state of organized education in the United States that was both

depressing and positively motivating and a spirited discussion

amongst my group of friends and TBS colleagues. A well-spent

Saturday indeed."

-Stephen Cahill, Temescal Creek aide

"During the morning session, I attended a workshop called "Making Change vs. 
Making Due" in which we were presented with practical lesson plans and ideas 
of ways that other teachers have incorporated social justice themes in their 
elementary classrooms.  The workshop provided a framework for thinking  about 
and formulating lessons and units using six elements: (1) self-love and knowledge; 
(2) respect for  others; (3) exploring issues of social injustice; (4) social movements
and social change; (5) raising awareness; (6) taking social action.  Each element
is meant to build upon the prior elements, and the presenter, Bree Picower, 
emphasized the importance of establishing a strong sense of community through the
first two elements before broaching such hefty elements as taking social action.  She
also made a strong distinction between charity and social justice action, which was 
particularly striking to me.  She highlighted the popular activity of having students 
collect coins for a penny drive or donate canned goods for those in need as teaching
kids to be more comfortable with the injustice around them rather than empowering
them to take real action to make change.  She proposed that instead of asking, "How
can we help the homeless?" for example, we can ask, "Why do some people not have
homes?" in order to get to the systemic injustices that exist in the hopes of inspiring
new ideas for change.  This workshop was inspiring and effective, and I left with 
many valuable resources to use in my teaching practice."
-- Kyla O'Neill, Blackberry Creek teacher

Two videos I watched today

I watched two very different, very powerful videos on gender identity today, and I thought I'd link to them here.

http://tv.gawker.com/5663083/this-is-the-most-touching-it-gets-better-video-you-will-ever-see?ref=nf

http://jezebel.com/5664165/meet-princess-boy--his-awesome-family

One of the ideas I am most proud of at TBS is our consciousness about gender identity. We weren't always as aware and accepting about gender variance as we have become in the last two years with training and help from the good people at GenderSpectrum. From rethinking the use of the terms "boy" and "girl" as a way to divide students, to creating non-gendered bathrooms, to conversations among students, parents, and faculty about the concepts of gender, we've slowly made in-roads in developing a culture and climate that are structured to be more accepting of gender variant individuals, and creating a space where children are comfortable expressing their gender variance. The importance this has in making our culture and community safe for all members is highlighted by the tragic teen suicides that have unfolded in Marin county and other places in the last few weeks.

I also wonder how to bring about a similarly raised awareness in our community about issues of race, class, and other seemingly taboo subjects.

Preschool Director's Luncheon: School-Parent Communication

Today we hosted the second of a series of luncheons for preschool directors and teachers, dating back to last spring, designed to provide a professional community for preschool directors (raising awareness of TBS being a secondary benefit, of course). The topic of today's conversation was school-parent communication, with an emphasis on understanding how neurobiology influences our communication patterns. The half-dozen attendees relayed anecdotes of scenarios in which they had successfully and unsuccessfully talked to parents about difficult issues as they ate a vegetarian meal. Head of School Mitch Bostian then delivered a quick presentation called "Neurobiology .101", in which he went over the various process and tasks for which different regions and structures of the brain are responsible.

For the final 1.5 hours, special guest Amy MacClain (www.amymacclain.com) lead the participants in an investigation of the struggle parents today face given the structures and values of modern society, and methods administrators and teachers can use to acknowledge their own emotions heading into and during conversation, as well as how to safely hold a space for parents to feel heard. Strategies were discussed to help attendees ground - and stay - in a reflective, rather than reactive, frame of mind when in a potentially loaded conversation. As is wont to happen in a lively group, the conversation also strayed into other topics, such as the perils of enforced sharing; suggestions for future luncheon topics by the participants include multicultural education, cultural inclusion, and classroom management.

Friday's In-house Professional Development Day

We talk a great deal about the importance of professional development here at TBS, and spend a lot of time and energy sending our teachers to seminars, workshops, conferences, and other events that grow their practices. We also have a few days a year set aside for in-house

conversations and activities, and this past Friday was the first of those days.

Faculty met in three groups in the morning, from 8:30-11:00. The ECC faculty met with Andrea to discuss how the playground is used, elements of the program that are targeted directly to the youngest (2.7) students on campus, and other site-specific topics. The K-3 faculty met with Mitch and Laurie Schaeffler, the K-3 Learning Support and Curriculum Coordinator, to talk about how reading is being taught and assessed in those classes, and to introduce the DRA2, a new assessment tool we are implementing in the level. The 4th-8th faculty met with Zaq to continue the conversation about learning outcomes begun at the all-faculty meeting.

Three groups met during the 11-1:30 time in the middle of the day, working during and around the lunch provided by the administration. First, the middle school team met as a faculty. Second, the ECC and K/1 teachers met as a combined group to talk about what the K/1 program looks like, and to begin work to align expectations about where our ECC-4 students are when they leave the ECC, and how both ECC and K/1 teachers can begin adjusting their programs - as well as collaborate and observe each other. Third, the K/1 and 2/3 team briefly met with Mitch for a similar conversation around the K/1 and 2/3 alignment.

From 1:30-3:00, the entire faculty met and walked through the Tuning Protocol, which is one of the methods by which the faculty will be working together in developing their understanding of assessment. This protocol was generated by Allan and McDonald at the Coalition for Essential Schools; along with the Collaborative Assessment Protocol, it is contained in the book "Looking Together at Student Work" by Tina Blyth and other researchers at Project Zero. The protocol has several steps: an introduction by the facilitator; a presentation by a teacher on the assignment that includes focusing questions; an opportunity for participants to ask clarifying questions; a silent time for teachers to look at the example(s) of student work; a period of "warm" (commendations) and "cool" (ongoing questions) feedback that do not offer solutions; a reflection from the presenting teacher on what s/he heard; and a process debrief by the facilitator. While we did this first one as a full faculty, in the future we'll be doing them in small groups. Many thanks go to Mike Sinclaire for bravely offering to be the presenting teacher.

For some background information on this collaborative work, look here. Or, read more about the tuning protocol here.

Tour season has begun

Yesterday (10/6) we hosted the first prospective parent tour of the year on the University Campus. Today we hosted the first one on the Early Childhood Campus.

Like other aspects of school life, the rituals of tour follow a certain seasonal consistency - they happen almost every week from October through January - and there's only so many things to say or do on a tour - talk about school mission and philosophy, see the classrooms, have a chance to ask questions, and explain the application process. Right?

In order to try to have our tours reflect our school's emphasis on constructing understanding in the context of lived experience, and even be an educative experience for the participants, a few weeks ago Mitch, Andrea, Paula and I began working on revamping our University Campus tour. We started with the throughlines that we have for the school - "How is learning together different than learning alone?" and "What do rigorous thinking, learning, and understanding look like?", and discussed how a tour could be structured to engage the participants in the ways faculty engage our students in the classrooms. The result was a restructuring of the event that shortened the standard introductory conversation to a quick framing of the key ideas of throughlines and thinking routines, and then having participants engage in the See, Think, Wonder thinking routine about a first round of classroom observations. Only then did we have a longer administration-driven conversation about the school's philosophy. Administrators and Parent Ambassadors then together guided groups of parents around campus and into various classrooms, winding up back at the Depot for a conversation with a panel of teachers - which we know, from feedback in previous years, is always a highlight. The result, at least based on the feedback on the exit surveys, was that the participants felt activated and engaged as learners, and not just observers, and that they walked away with not only insight, but also understanding, of how we are trying to put our school's mission into action, and our views on the educative process.

Thanks to Ann Kim and Helen Yoon for volunteering as Parent Ambassadors. Please talk to Paula if you'd like to get involved.

Learning Outcomes

Mitch, Andrea and I have been putting our heads together about the process to develop Learning Outcomes and review the curriculum over the course of this year, and we've arrived at an approach that really excited me!

We began by thinking about how to conceptualize Learning Outcomes. Right now, the school's outcomes are embedded in two places - the K-8 curriculum guide, and the criteria that are assessed in the twice-yearly progress reports that teachers send home. We want to have a more explicit presentation of TBS' learning outcomes that can be interacted with at different levels, from more abstract to more concrete, and that contains both qualitative and quantitative metrics or benchmarks to define whether those outcomes are being achieved by our students. Our framework has five sections, which we've arranged in a pentagon - the lines around the outside have arrows pointing in both directions, and each point has two-directional interior lines to the other points as well. At first we played with a pyramid visualization, but we decided that we wanted to a) represent the systems-nature of the outcomes we develop, as opposed to emphasize a hierarchical nature among the components, and b) liked how the five-pointed system mirrors the Cycle of Connection (play, practice, mastery, recognition, connection) that Mitch has been talking about with parents and faculty all year.

Moving from more abstract to more concrete, our model of learning outcomes begins with the Disposition of a Learner (skills, awareness, and motivation) and the Cycle of Connection (as mentioned above). We want TBS students to develop their understanding of what it means to be a successful learner, and these two ideas capture the foundation needed for that to occur. The second point in the system is one of core competencies - ideas like "effective oral and written communication across cultures" or "the ability to find and synthesize information in service of problem solving" - an idea discussed at length in Tony Wagner's great book "The Global Achievement Gap". The third point in the system is a Vision of the Student in terms of these core competencies at each grade level. The fourth point in the system are the actual benchmark skills and knowledge and behaviors that demonstrate understanding in each intellectual and creative discipline that we teach - in some cases this may look similar to what is in the progress reports from last year, and in others it might be different. The fifth and final point in the system is the curriculum, or classroom events and experiences that lead to the performances of understanding on the part of the students. The entire system is encompassed and held by the school's mission: to ignite curious minds, awaken generous hearts, and engage a changing world.

At yesterday's faculty meeting (Wednesday 10/6), we kicked off the process of developing these learning outcomes as a faculty. Below are some pictures of the faculty working in small groups, creating Y-charts of what each proposed competency would look like, sound like, and feel like in a TBS graduate. As the year goes on, we'll move through each point of the system with the faculty, eventually arriving at a rewrite of the curriculum that will allow it to more accurately reflect the learning outcomes towards which the whole school will be working. This process actually creates a frame within which to revise the K-8 curriculum - and develop a consistent ECC curriculum - rather than doing so based only on the individual preferences and desires of administrators and faculty, and that is important for establishing the institution's stability.