Kerry Salazar
Sharing Our Stories: Reflecting together on teaching and learning in a pandemic
The current health pandemic has brought about feelings of incredible uncertainty, fear, and vulnerability for teachers, families, and students across the world. Here at Opal…
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What’s a parent to do?
I wrote earlier this year about my desire to step in as a parent when my child is at home doing online learning and my…
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Growing Independence And Collaboration
I used to picture my five-year-old son starting kindergarten as an experience that I expected would be full of nervous excitement, joy, laughter, and new…
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Blocks (and unblocking)
This year, the Primary Team is framing their intentions through a study of self. During the first week of school, teachers set intentions and committed…
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Glimpses into the first week
When people come to visit Opal School, we often hear the question, “What does all of this look like in the beginning of the year?…
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Getting Ourselves Ready
The teachers are back to work at Opal School this week, getting environments ready, cracking open big ideas, and imagining possibilities in anticipation of the…
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designing for tension
“The most frustrating, agonizing part of creative work, and the one we grapple with every day in practice, is our encounter with the gap between…
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collaborating with colleagues
Recently I’ve been thinking about “developing a reflective practice” and the parallels I see between my own practice of reflection and the practices of reflection…
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Developing a reflective practice
Story Workshop began at Opal School many years ago with teachers and children working together to research the question, What is the relationship between literacy…
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Sharing Gratitude
On Friday morning, Opal School children, families, and teachers gathered together for our weekly school-wide gathering. This week, it was the Dogwood community of first…
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