Finding a Path to Productive Disagreement: Reflecting on our Response to Uncertainty and Confusion
When I think about the Opal 3 community, I find and feel evidence of tremendous growth as a community: we are more cohesive and…
Tag: habits of mind
Children will tell you what they want. If you listen, they might show you what they need
In my last blog post, I reflected on Opal’s 3’s experience of getting their writer’s notebooks, a process which I hoped would help them see themselves…
Intention Setting and Habits of Mind
Last March, Cedar Teacher Caroline Wolfe wrote a blog post about some of the resources that we use at Opal School when thinking about goals…
Being Safe to Risk
What lives between the comfort zone and the danger zone? It’s a place where you feel safe to risk. It’s the zone we work to…
Surprises
Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought. ― Albert Szent-Gyorgyi As the children shared images and reflections of…
Partner Explore: Connecting with Materials, Ideas and Each Other
Recently, as the children have been getting more familiar with the routines and setting of school, they are becoming more comfortable with one another, too. As a…
Imagine All of Us Coming Together to Wonder
The beginning of the school year marks a time of wonder: What will this class of children be like? Where will our studies, interests, and…
Public Gardens
As a big fan of the work of both Alison Gopnik and Peter Gray, a post written recently by the latter about a new book, The…
Partnering with Families – Sharing resources for shared meaning-making
What is possible when we invite parents and teachers together to create shared meaning of our goals and expectations for children? What connections, stories and…
Guest Post: Becoming a Teacher-Researcher
Today’s guest post comes from Sandra Patton, a teacher at Maple Ridge School in Alberta and member of last year’s Opal School Mentorship Program. A year…