guiding principles – Page 2 – Opal School Online

Setting Intentions for Our Year Together – Intermediate Team

by Matt KarlsenIntermediate September 10, 2016September 15, 2016No Comments

Opal School has two intermediate classrooms, Opal 3 & 4, which include third-, fourth-, and fifth-graders. In many ways, the teachers from the two classrooms function as a team. As a first collaborative effort, the Intermediate Team composed and sent this letter to parents before the first day of the 2016-2017 school year. We’d love to hear the reflections of Opal …

Articulating our intentions

by Matt KarlsenPrimary September 10, 2016September 10, 2016No Comments

Opal School has two primary classrooms, Maple and Magnolia, which include kindergartners, first graders, and second graders. The teachers from the two classrooms function as a team. As a first collaborative effort, the Primary Team composed and sent this letter to parents before the first day of the 2016-2017 school year. We’d love to hear the reflections of Opal …

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Transformational Leadership

by Matt KarlsenFriends May 17, 2016June 19, 2016No Comments

Last week, a post from Erin Dunn Baker showed how one teacher’s experience at Opal School influenced inquiry with the third graders she works with. Here, Susie Morice describes how her study of Opal School is shaping her thinking. Susie’s post first appeared on the blog of the Santa Fe Center for Transformational School Leadership. Transformational Schools by …

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Schooling for a better world

by Matt KarlsenTeaching and Learning December 8, 2015September 15, 2016No Comments

My heart is heavy looking back on a violent year. In the past year, we’ve watched so many individuals gunned down, white supremacy viscerally stamped on their crumbling bodies; the revolving door of mass shootings, reminding us on an almost daily basis of our feeble inability to enact arms restrictions; we’re forced to listen to …

Reconfiguring

by Susan Harris MacKayTeaching and Learning September 1, 2014June 21, 2022No Comments

I don’t think I’ve been so excited to begin a school year in a long time. Opal School’s continuous journey to develop an understanding of and approach to a pedagogy of listening and relationships has taken a significant step forward. Tomorrow, when we open our doors on the 2014 – 15 school year, our students …

Interdependencies

by Susan Harris MacKayIntermediate January 11, 2014June 14, 2016No Comments

As children journey through Opal 1 and Opal 2, they spend a lot of time considering with their teachers and their peers the ways in which we depend on each other in this world. What is a community? What is our relationship to the natural world? “The we that …

The Culture of the Atelier – Connecting minds, hands, rationality and emotions

by Levia FriedmanTeaching and Learning November 18, 2013September 15, 2016No Comments

In my last blog post, I talked about the Hundred Languages, the many ways of knowing and expressing that belong to children. The schools of Reggio Emilia, Italy have given us what Vea Vecchi, who was the atelierista at the Diana Municipal Preschool in Reggio Emilia for 30 years, calls, “The Culture of the Atelier” …

The Social and Emotional

by Susan Harris MacKayIntermediate, Teaching and Learning October 9, 2013September 15, 2016One Comment

Re-reading this article tonight, after a particularly creative third grade Literacy Studio today, I was thrown against the cold reality of the mindset of those who really would have us believe that control, certainty, and the dehumanization of the students in our care is the way to a more robust economy and stable society. In Creativity …

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What does friendship look like in the first weeks of Preschool?

by Lauren AdamsBeginning, Uncategorized October 7, 2013February 12, 2017One Comment

“A friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson In the first few weeks of school we have witnessed the children’s joy, wonder, curiosity and strong desire to be in relationship with their classmates and teachers. Immediately we noticed children finding ways to connect through common interests and mutual experiences, …

Change

by Susan Harris MacKayTeaching and Learning August 4, 2013September 15, 2016No Comments

It’s August and at Opal School that means there are 3 of us here ready to begin the ball toss that will evolve into our 13th year of school. Every year, this ball we toss first is a little different than the one we tossed the August before. At Opal School we listen, we pay …