Teaching and Learning
Reflecting on Leaning In With Curiosity (Part One)
In the beginning of the year, Opal School teachers wrote letters of intention. As Matt wrote here, these letters are our North Star – our…
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Marching for Love
When I took the Opal Advisory Council’s advice to the Opal teaching staff the day after our meeting, I also brought the same reading material:…
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Doing Something When Nobody Knows What to Do
On Tuesday (3.6.18) this week, as we were preparing for our monthly parent advisory meeting, an email arrived from the Superintendent of Portland Public Schools.…
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Leaning in, Plunging Deeper: Going beyond Reading
I recently came across the following passage in The Sun: The less you are caught up in your own hopes and fears, the more you…
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Start a New Story
“Every story starts with the assumption there is some acceptable, canonical state of the world. What starts the story going is that the expectable, the…
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You are Worthy of Love and Belonging
I listened to This American Life’s episode, Three Miles, earlier this week – and I can’t get it out of my head. Here’s the synopsis…
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A new vision and mission for Portland Children’s Museum
As you may be aware, Opal School is part of a larger institution: Portland Children’s Museum. Portland Children’s Museum is an unusual project: A small…
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Who teaches us how to live in democracy?
In his column this week, David Brooks writes, “this year, we’ve been so besieged by Donald Trump’s shriveled nature that we sometimes forget what full…
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Going to Materials
One day recently, 4-year old Eliza was busy with an array of materials. Her teacher paused to observe her just in time to catch her…
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You get new ideas everywhere
At last week’s community gathering, the Willow Classroom of fourth- and fifth-graders shared the story of The Very Cranky Bear. After reading the book, they asked,…
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