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 might lend themselves to playing with this big idea. Wire came to mind as a material to explore together: it is easily transformed, offering these young children a concrete experience …

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 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 …

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 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 …

Scared and Brave at the Same Time

This year, in the Primary Group, we are thinking deeper into the idea of “self.”  As stated in our Letter of Intention to parents at the beginning of the year, we are particularly curious about the children’s growing understanding of themselves.  We believe understanding of self is foundational to all relationships – relationship to one another, to the environment, …

A response to the “Governing Cancer of Our Time”

Our focus for this year’s Summer Symposium is Play, the Arts, and Education for Democracy.  Setting that theme guides our attention throughout the year.  How might play and the arts support education for democracy?  What might that look like when working with young people in Portland in 2016? When we turn our attention away from …

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 writing.  I remember someone sharing that their 4 year old child didn’t write but scribbled.  The teacher shared that scribbling (and other mark-making) IS writing — a necessary stepping stone …

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 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 …

Tough Guy

Every word and action can send a message. It tells children — or students or athletes — how to think about themselves. It can be a fixed mindset message that says: You have permanent traits and I’m judging them. Or it can be a growth mindset message that says: You are a developing person and …