An act of freedom
It’s been a stunning, bewildering, shocking ten days. I’ve heard people across the political spectrum call the rapid-fire developments chaotic and confusing. It’s hard to…
Tag: playful inquiry
The Secrets of Wire: Play, Reflection and Relationships with Risk
As my colleagues and I continued to think together about our big idea of transformation and some of our research questions, we wondered what materials…
Compasses for navigating labyrinths
I imagine that, for many of you, the holidays included time for reconnection, reflection, and play – and lots of reading. I found myself immersed…
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…
Is it playful inquiry?
Matt and I have been puzzling over this photo this week. Is this moment of questions posed and children deep into their research and writing…
The Possibilities of Loose Parts
When you enter the classrooms of Opal School you will be met with familiar materials that you might expect to see in a lot of Early…
Learning to Walk and Talk (and Write)
When I first began as an assistant teacher long ago, I attended a parent meeting at the school on the topic of young children and…
Pressing the Reset Button
As teachers we are continuously reflecting upon promoting healthy and productive classroom cultures. In designing experiences for children, we consider what we know about optimal…
Focusing our intentions
Don’t for heaven’s sake, be afraid of talking nonsense! But you must pay attention to your nonsense. -Ludwig Wittgenstein As Opal School staff reconvened last…
Setting Intentions for Our Year Together – Intermediate Team
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…