Math Congress is a structure that we use often at Opal School in which children are invited to communicate their thinking, their strategies, their solutions, “aha” moments, and proofs to their mathematical community. As teachers, even with the clearest of intentions, Math Congress requires us to embrace uncertainty as we are never completely sure what …
Read more “Math Congress: Space for everyone to get on and off the subway”
As a teacher, I am continuously reflecting upon decisions to nudge students, whether nudging them to try something new, to take a deeper dive into something familiar, or to lift the quality of their work. We’ve been nudging students in the Sitka classroom to grow their writing muscles and stamina as they begin using writer’s …
As teachers we are continuously reflecting upon promoting healthy and productive classroom cultures. In designing experiences for children, we consider what we know about optimal learning conditions; those that are high challenge and low risk, those that invite students to experience a state of relaxed alertness. Often times at Opal School, we find that working …
Here's a sneak peek into some of the work the children from Opal 3 have been doing to imagine a new Opal playspace. I just found out we are building more on to the playground. It feels like we are the most important class! I can’t wait until school is over to tell my mom. …
From the very beginning of the year, we have been exploring relationships to place, through maps of summer, to our favorite places in the arboretum and letterboxing to the imaginative world of Wildwood. Some of the larger questions that have been guiding our work include: How do emotional connections inspire curiosity about what sustains life …
While exploring the art of letterboxing over the past couple of weeks, we began to think more deeply about riddles, clues and puzzles. Earlier this week, we invited children to wonder what puzzles, clues and riddles might we find in the arboretum. Would it be possible to find elements of mystery and surprise in such …