Welcome!

Welcome to the blog of Zaq Roberts, Associate Head of School at The Berkeley School in Berkeley, CA. I blog about a wide variety of topics, from classroom moments I witness, to administrative events and conversations, to the educational blogs, videos, and books I am reading and watching, and how they are influencing my thinking. I hope this eclectic approach will give you insight into the many ways that I am engaging in advancing the school and strengthening our program, and I welcome your thoughts and comments!

This blog takes its name from a quotation by Archimedes that reads "Give me a lever long enough, and I can move the world." The TBS mission speaks directly to the need to engage a changing world, while many of the experiences in our program focus on the development of students' agency and authority. TBS is the lever by which we all - administration, faculty, students, and parents - can together move the world to be more humane, compassionate, and responsive. To borrow an important Montessori phrase, it is our way to remake the world.

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Moments I Witnessed Today








Laurel Creek - Students reading "just right" books during Reading Workshop.













Blackberry Creek - Students working in their Handwriting Without Tears workbooks.








Temescal Creek: A range of activities during math workshop, including tracing and then painting complicated geometric shapes based on the property of symmetry - using the Stamp Game to understand division problems - practicing multiplication facts - using snap cubes to create pattern trains for TERC work - and investigating ratios.






Sweet Briar Creek - Students choreographing on a dance to the Water Cycle Rap:



Strawberry Creek - A mixed 4/5 math class on measurement. One station asked students to select classroom objects, estimate their length or width, and then measure them. At another station, students were measuring the length and width of insects. At a third, a variety of objects not easily measurable waited on a platter to be measured. The crowning activity: how can you measure the thickness of a piece of paper?

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