All parents and guardians are invited to our Family Education Night - How Children Learn Math on Tuesday, Feb. 25, 7-8p in the Depot. Come and learn from mathematics education expert Jennifer DiBrienza about why TBS classrooms feature discovery-based math and problem solving. We ask that you RSVP here. Childcare is available; please indicate childcare needs with your RSVP.
Dr. DiBrienza received her Ph.D. from Stanford University in math education, and has worked as an elementary classroom teacher, math staff developer, and writer for TERC Investigations in Number, Data and Space, the core of the TBS elementary math curriculum.
Monday, February 24, 2014
Monday, February 17, 2014
Mindfulness Training with Kate Janke
As dedicated readers of this blog already know, the K-5 division has been in the midst of a year-long initiative to implement mindfulness in our classrooms. After six months of meetings designed to help the teachers and staff develop our own personal practices of mindfulness and mindful meditation, last week we spent 15 hours across three days in an in-depth training on how to implement mindfulness in the classrooms.
Kate Janke's Heart-Mind Education curriculum moves through several distinct segments. We're already well on our way to understanding how to teach from presence, which is the first grouping. Next we learned about creating the container that supports children as they enter into mindfulness with physical and psychological safety. Lessons on cultivating connection with self and others mindfully came next, followed by lessons that teach simple regulation and attention skills. The last two clusters of lessons in the curriculum focus on how we treat, speak to, and care for each other, and then a series designed to go deeper into self-awareness and our understanding of perception.
The energy of the faculty at the conclusion of the day on Saturday was incredible -- especially considering it was a Saturday, the third consecutive Saturday working for some faculty, and the first day of February break! While no two classes will be implementing the curriculum in exactly the same way, every teacher has a concrete plan to begin regularly teaching and implementing mindfulness in the K-5 classrooms when we return from break. Be sure to check out your classroom blogs for more info in the upcoming weeks.
Interested in some reading on your own? Check out these resources, but please don't try to pre-teach mindfulness to your children at home -- we want to start with this as a "school activity" before we extend it into the home lives.
The Mindful Child by Susan Kasier Greenland
The Whole Brain Child by Dan Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson
Mindful Teaching and Teaching Mindfulness by Deborah Schoeberlein
The Mindful Brain and Mind Sight by Dan Siegel
Thursday, February 13, 2014
The Best Way Out is Always Through
I feel like we've won the Olympics, if such a thing was possible!
Yesterday's CAIS accreditation visiting committee read-out in the social hall of Netivot Shalom was a cathartic and gratifying experience for the assembled faculty, staff, Board, and parent leadership. The preceedings began with each member of the committee giving a moving personal ancedote; one team member spoke about how being here at TBS re-connected her to the feeling of joyous possibility that she had experienced 15 years ago when her daughter first went to school, while another team member spoke about how he had carried a student's welcoming note in his pocket through the visit, which carried the values and culture of our community.
The committee then read through the six sections that comprise the main body of the report, identifying strengths, challenges and opportunities, and major and minor recommendations for the school to consider as we build an action plan over the next three-six months that will carry us forward for the next seven years. In the big picture, we were encouraged to establish a new narrative in which change is no longer such a powerful force, even though the school has the orientation towards self-improvement, and to slow down and let our roots grow. Some of the specific recommendations include linking the school's mission and learning outcomes more explicitly in our curriculum, developing a multi-year financial plan, and increasing our emergency response preparedness. As we have throughout this process, we'll make the committee's report available to our community once we've gotten a copy.
After the read-out, the committee immediately departed, and the assembled employees and guests moved to the Depot for a champagne toast and snacks to celebrate three years of hard work to reach this point. I'm so thankful to Sima Misra, Anne Buechner, Ann Baranger, and Natasha Distiller for their work on the Accreditation Leadership Team, and to everyone who worked to help the school move through this powerful process of self-reflection. As Robert Frost wrote, the best way out is always through!
Yesterday's CAIS accreditation visiting committee read-out in the social hall of Netivot Shalom was a cathartic and gratifying experience for the assembled faculty, staff, Board, and parent leadership. The preceedings began with each member of the committee giving a moving personal ancedote; one team member spoke about how being here at TBS re-connected her to the feeling of joyous possibility that she had experienced 15 years ago when her daughter first went to school, while another team member spoke about how he had carried a student's welcoming note in his pocket through the visit, which carried the values and culture of our community.
The committee then read through the six sections that comprise the main body of the report, identifying strengths, challenges and opportunities, and major and minor recommendations for the school to consider as we build an action plan over the next three-six months that will carry us forward for the next seven years. In the big picture, we were encouraged to establish a new narrative in which change is no longer such a powerful force, even though the school has the orientation towards self-improvement, and to slow down and let our roots grow. Some of the specific recommendations include linking the school's mission and learning outcomes more explicitly in our curriculum, developing a multi-year financial plan, and increasing our emergency response preparedness. As we have throughout this process, we'll make the committee's report available to our community once we've gotten a copy.
After the read-out, the committee immediately departed, and the assembled employees and guests moved to the Depot for a champagne toast and snacks to celebrate three years of hard work to reach this point. I'm so thankful to Sima Misra, Anne Buechner, Ann Baranger, and Natasha Distiller for their work on the Accreditation Leadership Team, and to everyone who worked to help the school move through this powerful process of self-reflection. As Robert Frost wrote, the best way out is always through!
Friday, February 7, 2014
Links and links and links
When I come across a good link, I drop it into a "links for blog" sticky note on my desktop -- and every once in a while, I push the list out to you, dear readers! So, without further ado, here's some reading for the new year, with a specific focus on topics that are already in discussion and action at TBS.
If I could go back in time, I'd become a neuroscientist! Here's Dan Siegel with a great explanation of how the brain works.
Don't miss Ramsey Musallam's great TED talk on sparking learning. I really like what he says about curiosity and the fundamental role that curiosity and inquiry play in learning, and in the relationship between teachers and students.
Please, parents: don't ever say "I'm bad at math" to your children! Thanks to Julia Schaletzky for this link.
A public school in Sheboygan, WI has begun using mixed 4th/5th grade classrooms. They've recognized the benefits of a developmental mix and the deep student/teacher relationships that can form in multi-year classrooms.
Students need to learn how they learn in order to be their most effective. That's why critical thinking and metacognition are emphasized in our program.
This article on nature journaling echoes an element of our elementary program, especially at the 4/5 level, where students do "spot writing" by returning to the same spot in Strawberry Creek throughout the year to write and draw how the landscape changes.
In case you skipped the link above with the 10 ways to increase your happiness, here's a hint: children can learn to direct and maintain their focus with specific types of mental training.
So much of the discussion of the Common Core curriculum levels process attacks (not inclusive, says the left; too intrusive on local control, says the right; just right, says Arne Duncan). Here's one of the more thoughtful critiques I've read, and I especially appreciate that the author has proposed solutions as well. While I'm at it, let me add that we've attempted to address an over-emphasis on informational text and not enough literature in the new standards by adding in genre and author studies through all grades.
Important news for parents: if you want your child to improve his/her self-regulation, spend some time listening. Then ask him/her about the Zones of Regulation, which we implement K-5!
Here's a great reflection on a teacher wrestling with the utility and reality of homework.
This is a nice blog on one teacher's attempts to differentiate instruction in kindergarten.
Part blog, part store, Creative Star Learning has great resources for generating academic learning in outdoor settings.
If I could go back in time, I'd become a neuroscientist! Here's Dan Siegel with a great explanation of how the brain works.
Don't miss Ramsey Musallam's great TED talk on sparking learning. I really like what he says about curiosity and the fundamental role that curiosity and inquiry play in learning, and in the relationship between teachers and students.
Want to be happier but need some pragmatic advice on what to do? The Huffington Post has answers backed by brain science! These echo many of John Medina's Brain Rules (this is a must-read!), but there are some interesting and important differences. I especially like #9.
Denise Pope at Stanford is one of the foremost researchers on what causes students stress (and by that I mean the bad kind of stress, not the good kind). In her recent book, she advocates no grades and authentic assessment. Hallelujah!
Speaking of assessment, here's an interesting idea about teacher evaluation.
Speaking of assessment, here's an interesting idea about teacher evaluation.
Please, parents: don't ever say "I'm bad at math" to your children! Thanks to Julia Schaletzky for this link.
A public school in Sheboygan, WI has begun using mixed 4th/5th grade classrooms. They've recognized the benefits of a developmental mix and the deep student/teacher relationships that can form in multi-year classrooms.
Students need to learn how they learn in order to be their most effective. That's why critical thinking and metacognition are emphasized in our program.
This article on nature journaling echoes an element of our elementary program, especially at the 4/5 level, where students do "spot writing" by returning to the same spot in Strawberry Creek throughout the year to write and draw how the landscape changes.
In case you skipped the link above with the 10 ways to increase your happiness, here's a hint: children can learn to direct and maintain their focus with specific types of mental training.
So much of the discussion of the Common Core curriculum levels process attacks (not inclusive, says the left; too intrusive on local control, says the right; just right, says Arne Duncan). Here's one of the more thoughtful critiques I've read, and I especially appreciate that the author has proposed solutions as well. While I'm at it, let me add that we've attempted to address an over-emphasis on informational text and not enough literature in the new standards by adding in genre and author studies through all grades.
Important news for parents: if you want your child to improve his/her self-regulation, spend some time listening. Then ask him/her about the Zones of Regulation, which we implement K-5!
Here's a great reflection on a teacher wrestling with the utility and reality of homework.
This is a nice blog on one teacher's attempts to differentiate instruction in kindergarten.
Part blog, part store, Creative Star Learning has great resources for generating academic learning in outdoor settings.
We'll end with a little bit of serious fun:
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