When I think about the Opal 3 community, I find and feel evidence of tremendous growth as a community: we are more cohesive and connected than we were early in the fall; we have absorbed many rhythms and routines that help make our days run more smoothly; we know each other better so we …
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 as writers. Pivotal to this experience was our work with two quotations from writers Julia Alvarez and Philip C. Stead. A writing life is a life with all the windows …
Read more “Children will tell you what they want. If you listen, they might show you what they need”
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 and expectations for children, which includes a body of work by Arthur L. Costa and Bena Kallick identifying 16 habits of mind to use when you are confronted with a …
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 stay in at Opal School. It’s the zone we believe that Vea Vecchi might call the Aesthetic Dimension. The place that Elizabeth Gilbert might say is where you find what …
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 their trip to the Portland Farmer’s Market, they stumbled upon a discovery — that there were many unexpected surprises of all kinds within our trip together. We wondered: How might the sharing …
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 result, they are revealing deeper expressions of who they are while testing the strengths and limits of their newfound friendships. This is a natural and important next phase for building trust …
Read more “Partner Explore: Connecting with Materials, Ideas and Each Other”
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 projects take us? What surprises will we encounter along the way? This year, as I worked to set up a classroom environment to welcome our 3rd graders, I had many …
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 Gardener and the Carpenter, by the former, got me thinking. In summarizing some of Gopnik’s main points Gray writes: We adults can help them best not by teaching, but by …
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 perspectives will emerge through this shared process? What might happen if we offer parents the assessment tools and resources used by the teachers when paying attention to children? How …
Read more “Partnering with Families – Sharing resources for shared meaning-making”
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 ago I was introduced to Opal School through a small workshop in Calgary, AB. Shortly after hearing about the school I applied for and received admission to their Mentorship Program; …