Opal School Blog
Getting Started with Story Workshop
Story Workshop is an approach supporting young children’s literacy built upon on four pillars: the sharing of stories; immersion in the arts; time for play;…
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What Happens After the Mistake?
I made a mistake the other day. It’s probably true that I made more than one. But the one I’m thinking about, the one that…
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Not just a pretty space
At the beginning of the school year, before the children arrive, all of us teachers at Opal School spend a lot of time thinking about…
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Empathy, Agency, and Changemaking through Playful Inquiry: A study tour for international educators
“Today’s puzzle,” writes Jamie Holmes, “is to figure out what to do – in our jobs, relationships, and everyday lives – when we have no…
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Reflecting on Leaning In With Curiosity (Part Two)
In my last post, I told the first part of our story of using Playful Inquiry to create conditions for children to lean into making sense…
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Inventiveness emerges through the tangles found in play
At a recent meeting Opal teachers were asked to reflect on the ways invention has emerged in their respective learning communities this year. Using a…
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Seeking to understand and be understood
In the beginning community of three-, four-, five-, and six-year-olds, the teachers hope to cultivate courageous thinkers, collaborators, and change makers. We want the children…
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Confronting the disimagination machine
Friday, a frustrated colleague texted me this worksheet that a teacher in her school had given to the kindergarteners she works with on an “accountable…
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Leaving the Door Open for Theory-Building
In the story below, I tell about work that the Sitka classroom of third- and fourth-graders did in the Fall from my own perspective as…
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Growing Theories and Provisional Thinking
This year, in the Sitka learning community of 8 – 10 year-olds, we have been chewing on a big question: How does exploring the relationships…
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