Spirit of Place

From time to time I find that I need to walk around our school building, remembering the tiny (but much loved) space we came from four years ago, and remind myself to wonder at the difference and be grateful for where we are. The place is so much a part of how we teach and learn, and our journey of discovery as we turned this new building from a pipe dream to a reality is reflected now in the activities and processes of the teachers and the children who work and play here.

I remember how important it was to us to find the right building. We looked at many, all with some compelling features. Two were close to the river, one had a hill in its play area (sledding!), one was an amazing pile of old warehouses stretching out from an office wing. I imagined that one as a high school where each warehouse became a studio - ceramics, poetry, carpentry, languages, electronics, you name it - but romantic though it was, it was not right for us. We looked at all kinds of places, and each had a unique spirit.

We found the building that we ended up buying first, and a long time before we were ready to do a search. We pressed our noses against the windows like children, and lost our hearts to the nooks and crannies inside and out - the trees we saw growing in the interior courtyard, the way the building branched out and embraced areas of grass and greenery. We mentally emptied the building of walls and repopulated it with bright open spaces, cosy corners and windows everywhere. We wanted a place that felt like home, and even when this building was cold, empty, dark and dusty we could feel its potential.

When we finally entered the space to look around inside, it was full of small dark offices and narrow corridors. I fully expected to come across a corporate Miss Haversham, sitting in an ancient pin-striped business suit at a derelict computer, with spiders weaving webs from her broken door handle to her dusty desk. But even then, the vision of the light-filled library and the bright classrooms cut through the shoddy walls and tiny windowless spaces, and the possibility of dreaming up our own purposeful learning space filled us with excitement.

So we dreamed up our own ideal space. We talked about public versus private space, how a shared space like the library borders with a semi-public space like the classroom front porch, which welcomes children in to the private space of the classroom and also extends it. We talked about deliberately leaving spaces that were not dedicated to one thing or another, knowing that they would find their purpose as the teachers became comfortable and the work evolved. In this way, when Fish Lab (for example) was ready to happen, it was able to grow into the little study area in the middle school commons and create a space which has become a haven and a magnet for all kinds of kids, as well as a place where our Fish Lab aquatic scientists feel pride and ownership. We focused on common areas and areas where two or three children could work in seclusion. We talked about how glass walls could offer the autonomy some students need while giving a teacher full ability to see what was happening. We discussed natural light and its effect on focused learning and added skylights and extra windows. We talked about the needs of transgender kids or adults and made sure that all our bathrooms were single-person use, and that as many as code allowed were gender-neutral. We talked about natural play areas and how to gradually allow our outdoor spaces to evolve. We left the space for the 7th and 8th graders as it was - a large central area for discussion and presentation, and multiple little spaces for small group work, to support the level of project-based learning that they have developed in that class.

The result of all this (and more - this scratches the surface of the conversations we had) is that we have a learning space that flows with the children, where dedicated spaces and open spaces combine to offer flexible, creative teaching opportunities, consistently with the needs of our learning community. It's a great gift to all of us to have a space like this, and the location of the building - right next to County Farm Park, accessible to downtown Ann Arbor, close to the border of Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti, accessible to the freeways - also serves the kind of programs and learning approach of this school. It fills me with gratitude. My hope is that the physical space will continue to evolve as the school itself does, and that it becomes more and more unique as each generation of children shapes changes that reflect the work they do.

Love and Logic: a response to disrespect

For years at Summers-Knoll we have used an approach to behavior issues with our students that has its roots in the Love and Logic approach. (You can find the Love and Logic web site here.) The essence of this approach lies in encouraging children to take responsibility, and therefore to grow into people who can manage themselves, hear constructive feedback, build on strengths and fearlessly address problems.

I was reminded of this today when a message came through my inbox from the Love and Logic people, talking about parenting children who sneer and roll their eyes at their loving mothers and fathers. It's a phase many children go through, a way of establishing their independence and proving, at least to themselves, that they are grown up enough to not have to listen to authority figures. However, it's a damaging way, and one that they deserve help to overcome.

Having heard several parents recently express frustration at this trend in their child's behavior, I thought it good to share some of the Love and Logic insights here. Enjoy. 

Does your child habitually sneer, roll their eyes, or make sounds resembling an alley cat trying to cough up a hairball? Does this happen just about every time you say or do something they dislike?
 
The danger in allowing this behavior is that actions shape beliefs and attitudes. Yep! If anyone acts annoyed or offended often enough, seeds of discontent and feelings of victimhood sprout in their hearts, leading to pervasive feelings of being tread upon.
 
Let their arrows miss the target.
 
Kids launch these emotional missiles in order to strike at the heart. Our greatest source of power against such attacks is showing that they don't get the desired result of anger, lectures, threats, or frustration. 
 
Expect mature expression of feelings.
 
Doing your best to remain calm, reply, "I will know that you are really maturing when you can share your feelings without giving dirty looks or huffing. If you feel something I do is unfair, we can have a mature discussion when both of us are calm."
 
Reinforce mature expression by listening with respect.
 
A great irony: When our kids are able to talk to us about how they feel, they are less likely to act these feelings out in nasty, disrespectful, or irresponsible ways. Listening means demonstrating we care about their opinions. It also means reinforcing healthy, mature expression of opinions and emotions. It's not about allowing them to run the home. It's about ending infantile drama in the home.
 
Provide empathy and consequences if the problem continues.
 
When this behavior has become seriously habitual, wise parents consistently apply a rather generic consequence: "I allow (or do) ____________________ as long as my energy is not being drained by dirty looks."
 
The key to rebuilding respect from our kids involves proving to them that we can handle them without getting frustrated or angry.

One Hen, Two Ducks

On Thursday we had the honor of hosting our second Head of School candidate at a morning meeting. It seemed a good idea to revive an old Summers-Knoll tradition - the whole school joining in with a not-so-simple say-and-repeat game called One Hen, Two Ducks. The kids love this game, they love the fun of the increasing levels of difficulty, they take pride in the long words even as they giggle at them, they enjoy the opportunity to engage their bodies in the response, and they feel involved in the common - if zany - goal of group recital.

Several of you have asked me for the text, so that you can try it at home. There are several different versions you can find on the internet. Some of them even have a 10 line that makes sense. I asked some of our children a long time ago (alumni at this point, out making the world a better place) if we should change to one of those versions. They said no, emphatically. They liked it the Summers-Knoll way. And so it is.

One hen.
One hen, two ducks.
One hen, two ducks, three squawking geese.
One hen, two ducks, three squawking geese, four Limerick oysters.
One hen, two ducks, three squawking geese, four Limerick oysters, five corpulent porpoises.
One hen, two ducks, three squawking geese, four Limerick oysters, five corpulent porpoises, six pairs       of Don Alvarzo's tweezers.
One hen, two ducks, three squawking geese, four Limerick oysters, five corpulent porpoises, six pairs       of Don Alvarzo's tweezers, seven Macedonians in full battle array.
One hen, two ducks, three squawking geese, four Limerick oysters, five corpulent porpoises, six pairs       of Don Alvarzo's tweezers, seven Macedonians in full battle array, eight brass monkeys from the        ancient sacred crypts of Egypt.
One hen, two ducks, three squawking geese, four Limerick oysters, five corpulent porpoises, six pairs       of Don Alvarzo's tweezers, seven Macedonians in full battle array, eight brass monkeys from the        ancient sacred crypts of Egypt, nine apathetic, sympathetic, poor pathetic old men on roller-                skates, with a marked propensity towards procrastination and sloth.
One hen, two ducks, three squawking geese, four Limerick oysters, five corpulent porpoises, six pairs       of Don Alvarzo's tweezers, seven Macedonians in full battle array, eight brass monkeys from the        ancient sacred crypts of Egypt, nine apathetic, sympathetic, poor pathetic old men on roller-                skates, with a marked propensity towards procrastination and sloth, ten lyrical, diabolical                     denizens of the deep, who quark with the queen and queen with the quorl and quorl with the               quizzle at the bottom of the deep blue sea all at the same time.

Enjoy!

Ken Robinson and Creativity

Some of you may have watched this Ken Robinson presentation on creativity before, or listened to the similar-but-different TED talk version. It raises a lot of very interesting points, and is as thought-provoking today as it was nine years ago. Enjoy.

Spinning Dot: spotlight on a community partner

A scene from "This Girl Laughs, This Girl Cries, This Girl Does Nothing."

It's important to us, as educators and as a community, that our children grow up understanding the value of different points of view, different cultural perspectives, and different kinds of people. Starting in kindergarten, we look actively for experiences that will open the students' imaginations to embrace concepts of otherness and see them as opportunities for learning. (For a lovely glimpse of children connecting with a story from another place and time, take a look at Imogen's latest post. Shiyu provides another example here.)

When Spinning Dot Theatre first formed, just over a year ago, Jenny Koppera and I connected immediately over our love of theatre, education, and global awareness. Jenny was as thrilled with Summers-Knoll as I was with her brilliant ideas for her fledgling theatre company, and she immediately started working with our team to bring workshop performances of her productions-in-progress into the school so that our students could help develop the work through their reactions and feedback. The relationship was magical from the beginning.

Spinning Dot is a company committed to bringing plays and stories from around the world to their audiences, specifically with the goal of deepening global connections. What better way to engage a child's heart and mind (serendipitously the subject of Karl's blog this week) in grappling with new ideas and unfamiliar cultures than through rich, adventurous, theatrical storytelling? Like fiction and poetry, theatre develops empathy, involving the children emotionally with characters and narratives that may come from all around the world, but speak to them with voices that matter here and now. If theatre is a gym for compassion (not my phrase, I can't remember where I heard that), theatre that brings global stories alive is a gym for cultural empathy. It develops muscles of inclusion, understanding and emotional memory, bonding ideas together.

Most recently, Spinning Dot brought us their one-person production of Sedna, an Inuit tale of the goddess of the sea, developed by artist-in-residence Kelly Joyce Fielder. It's a moving, haunting, spectacular piece of dramatic storytelling, set inside a muslin tent that simulates an igloo. Only a small audience can fit inside the tent, so Sedna was performed three times, once for each of our early childhood classes, so that the children could experience the magical intimacy of the story. With shadows and projections on the white fabric, haunting music, puppets and inventive lighting, the story enveloped the children on all sides and held them absolutely spellbound. You may have already seen Val's and Elaine's blog posts on the subject. The artistic seeds planted through an experience like that are incalculable. You can see a small patchwork of images from Sedna here, though it doesn't capture the breathtaking magic of the show.

I'm thrilled to say that this is far from the last we'll be seeing of Spinning Dot. In January they are coming back to share their production "This Girl Laughs, This Girl Cries, This Girl Does Nothing" with all our students. (I've seen it, it's astonishing.) They will perform separately for the older and the younger halves of the school, and will follow up their performances with workshops with the students. We're also looking forward to being able to preview other new productions-in-process and be a useful (we hope) part of the artistic development of their work.

Spinning Dot Theatre is one example of the many inspiring organizations and individuals we are lucky enough to connect with, and who generously share their time and expertise with our children. These connections and experiences have become so seamlessly interwoven with our learning that we take them as normal, but the educational layers they add to our process are myriad. Whether it's a visiting artist, a field trip host, or an act of neighborliness that advances our students' process, I want to thank all of them for the doorways out into the endlessly eye-opening world that they offer to the children.

Autonomy and Loving to Learn

We talk a lot about autonomy at Summers-Knoll, as one of the great motivators of action, progress and success. Dan Pink, in his book Drive, famously talks about autonomy, mastery and purpose as being the three elements of motivation. You can watch an explanation here.

Giving children choices and opportunities to partner with the teacher in crafting their learning experiences fosters their natural curiosity and keeps their love of learning alive. It motivates them from within, rather than relying on stickers and grades that offer external incentives (and can easily backfire and become demotivating or punitive). It's also a much more powerful motivator than a gold star or grade because it gives them a healthy, productive, well supported kind of power over their experience and it feels good to learn that way. This sets them up strongly for the future, because students who love to learn will carry that love to the next level and throughout their lives, applying their still-vibrant curiosity to new challenges in new situations. 

The opportunity for autonomy can be seen through the consistent partnerships developed between the teachers and their students, but probably most clearly in the independent projects in which children engage. These projects not only harness their own enthusiasms, they also teach them valuable skills in organization and time-management, as they learn how to frame and develop their interests in order to share them. Spencer's class of 3rd and 4th graders has been doing exactly this, with the explicit intention of practicing and polishing to achieve mastery in a particular area or skill. Read about it here. 

Coincidentally, Sam's blog this week talks about the 10 Things research that his students are working on, which follows the same principle of independent study. In this case, the explicit goal was to develop the skill of memorization in an interesting, motivating way. As he explains, the students ran with it and transformed it into (in his words) "some combination of Google's Genius Time, independent and self-motivated research, and a (brief) weekly progress update given to the whole class."  Chris has also long used a dedicated part of the school week for Genius Hour with his 3rd and 4th grade groups.There's an explicit commitment to sharing in these examples, which is a great tool for reflection, self-assessment, and peer assessment - all vital tools as the children develop and refine their skills.

Our children love this kind of approach and engage in their work with fervor. The training that they receive in situations like this as well as many, many others stands them in good stead when they reach 7th and 8th grade. They have practiced skills in developing, organizing, researching, creating and presenting, both individually and collaboratively. (For more on that, take a look at what Josh has to say about individual learning in a group environment.) They are prepared for larger independent projects with Karl, including the more intense sharing experiences we call Exhibitions - project presentations where students not only explain their work but teach it in explicitly planned hands-on lessons to their audiences of peers, faculty, and family. The level of autonomy they experience - always with the support and guidance of their teacher - keeps their interest and motivation high. It's a huge contribution to the confidence and capable self-advocacy they demonstrate as they move onward to high school. 

On a tangential note, please make sure you read Rachel's library blog this week. We're all pretty excited about the experience she describes, and looking forward to possibilities in the future. 

Learning Beyond the Classroom

"The primary value of place-based education lies in the way that it serves to strengthen children's connections to others and to the regions in which they live. It enhances achievement, but more important, it helps overcome the alienation and isolation of individuals that have become hallmarks of modernity. By reconnecting rather than separating children from the world, place-based education serves both individuals and communities, helping individuals to experience the value they hold for others and allowing communities to benefit from the commitment and contributions of their members."

- Greg Smith, from Place-Based Education: Learning To Be Where We Are

Place-based education - taking the students' work out beyond the classroom and learning while doing in authentic situations - is a crucial part of how we keep learning real. As much as possible this is done through actual, physical transportation to the place and community that is the subject of the work. Sometimes it has to be done through simulations or virtual connections, like the Global Village experience for our 5th and 6th graders (read about where that is leading now here), or the Out of Eden Walk that Chris's class is following through these online resources. Place-based education connects our students with their environment and their community in increasing circles from their immediate surroundings to the far side of the planet. 

When students are able to immerse themselves in the spirit of a place and participate firsthand in initiatives that strive to change the world for the better, they start to build a platform for environmental and cultural literacy. They learn to work with different kinds of people, developing their self confidence and increasing their understanding of cultural and personal differences. They experience the flavor of different places and develop an appreciation for the unique identity of each. They see the relevance of the work they are doing to the larger work of the community, and these connections lead to deeper understanding, greater motivation, and a stronger sense of self-worth. 

This doesn't have to mean long excursions; our 7th and 8th graders participate in work crews around our own building - here's a note from the Library - and you can read about Val's EB children working in the natural environment right outside our door. Our 1st and 2nd graders recently ventured all the way across Platt Road to our very own County Farm Park to work with a naturalist; here's what Elaine has to say about it.  Chris's group of 3rd and 4th graders is working with pioneers in the community to develop and maintain the Buhr Park Food Forest, a community gardening initiative that is part of the Wet Meadow Project. They're learning practical skills, building spatial reasoning, engaging in physical work, and developing thought processes around ecology and social justice. Scroll down in the blog entry to find the food forest section - and take a look at what Chris has to say about the Out of Eden project, too. The 7th and 8th graders recently spent some time working with Earthworks Farm in Detroit (amongst other things), garnering a photo in the Financial Times as they did so, and later spent two days in the Upper Peninsula, in a gorgeous setting where they were able to simply let go and immerse themselves in active, joyful connection with the natural world.