Photo Diary

I think viewing what we do in class will make it easier to see what we do. Once school starts I will be able to share the experiences of each day. Since one day can be so different from the next, and curriculum can change moment to moment, there is no way to post a schedule, or list my curriculum or share in any way, except to share what happens- as it happens. Since it is July, and that's not possible, I thought I would share some past photos.



One thing I love about our school is it's setting. Our classroom doors open into a wooded area, and a playground. The kids have ample time to play, explore and create in these woods each day. Outside time and free time are a valued part of the "curriculum." Last year, kids spent months building this dug out, and used branches that fell from a storm to create a very solid roof. They often had shovels, saws and other tools out to aid in the building of their structure. Every child in the class became involved in some way. Kids from other classes also helped. While building the fort, the kids worked out social conflicts as they arose, discovered the downside of clubs, and also reinacted one of our read alouds, "Holes" by Luis Sachar. The children began to use nicknames, as the children in the book did, and we extended this to our classwork, as they wrote acrostic poems with the names, and the story of how each of them chose a name, or was given a name by the group.



Ah, Legos! While not a staple in most 2nd, 3rd or 4th grade classes, this was the choice activity for many kids in my class. Any chance they got, the lego bin was open. We have 3 choice times daily, which end up being well over an hour a day. These times can be spent indoors or out. It is quite unusual these days, to be given this much "play" time in school. Because the interest in legos was so intense this year, I ended up introducing a unit we called, "Small World." I introduced an economy system, and the students created a lego character, business and created a family with a group. Using the economy, we opened the market, and students sold goods and services for their lego people. Aside from simply being a math investigation, this became a social studies project, as we examined the larger context of what makes a society just. We looked at the economy of Small World and talked about economics, scarcity, supply and demand as well as capitalism, communism and socialism. Students debated which system would work best for Small World. After seeing the play “Goin’ Someplace Special,” which was about segregation, we worked on creating ways for Small World to have as much equality as possible. Students discussed ways of making it a fair society so that everyone was included, and had enough of what they needed.



We use the TERC Investigations math curriculum, but each teacher supplements quite a lot. I like the program for our school because it allows us to extend each investigation due to it's open endedness. For example, we were using the book from the 3rd grade curriculum called "From Paces to Feet" which focuses on measurement. A child brought in a 'life size' poster of 6'8" Mariner's player, Richie Sexton. This was quite intriguing to the students. Each child was measured by a partner and compared their height to his (addition/subtraction.) Because he is so tall, this peaked more interest in height. We found the average height of the children in our classroom, the polled and found the height of other kids the same age in our school. We found the mean, median, mode and average height for a 7, 8 and 9 year old at our school. The Guiness Book of World Records is an all-time favorite in our class. We found the heights of the smallest and tallest men and women in the book. The children then compared their height to those people. An activity in the curriculum asks the kids to measure their feet, and their parents feet. It also has them look at the feet of a person in the record book. We read that Matthew McGrory (2005) had the largest feet, and was known to spend $20,000 on a pair of shoes. As an art project, we designed life sized shoes for him. We were going to send him a letter, but unfortunately found that he had passed away. Ironically, this happened the year before as well, and since I keep kids for 2 years, they remembered this well. A boy declared, "This class is cursed! It must be because we learn cursive!"



Literacy is taught through reading and writer's workshop. It is quite individualized. Reading is done mostly with SSR (self-selected reading) and I conference with the kids each week, or more often, since I have a small class. This is a picture of a student reading with her book buddy. Book buddies are from a 4-5 class (pre-K) and they would come once a week. They read books the buddies picked out, books they had practiced for fluency, and books they had written themselves. Sometimes, we also enjoyed a read aloud together. In addition to SSR and book buddies, the class also read several books together throughout the year in whole group guided reading. In Writer's Workshop, the kids write for about 35 minutes a day, and can write on any topic of their choice. We edit, revise and publish books.

What is Progressive Education?

I guess this is a pretty good question to start with... progressive education was founded on the research and educational philosophy of John Dewey, and has been part of the American Education system for about 100 years. What's complicated about it is this idea that today everything has a label. When I tell people about my school, they ask, "Is it Montessori? Waldorf? What is it?" It's as if everything needs to have a brand name. Progressive education cannot be so simply labeled. Montessori, especially is often misunderstood, and cannot even be defined by it's own label from school to school.

The other aspect about progressive education that complicates it's explanation, is that our educational system has already begun to use so much of it's philosophy as standard practice, that people have a hard time seeing how it is different from other types of schooling. Constructivist math, the use of manipulatives, inquiry science, writer’s and reader’s workshop... all has their roots in progressive teaching practices. But it's hard to delineate when the other side of education today is focused on NCLB, testing, scores, student achievement... very goal oriented. I would say progressive education has always been process over product, while schooling today, is focused primarily on the product, which in most cases is passing a test. This is very different.

So basically, it's hard to explain progressive education in our current educational context... people either expect it to be a brand, or to have some sort of outcome different from simply letting children experience and live their lives.

The video, "Big Kids at The Little School" is a terrific example of how kids see their school as different from others. They will be fast to point out that they don't have desks (tables instead) that they don't get grades, report cards, they call teachers by the first name... these are the obvious and easily seen aspects of our school. The subtle differences are what make us different. There is a lot to be said about what children experience in a progressive school, but also a lot to be said about a teacher's experience in a progressive school.

As a teacher, according to Dewey, I am to be trusted to know what is best for my own students. This means that no one else dictates what I do in my classroom. I am responsible for knowing each child on a very intimate level, and knowing how to teach each of my students. The administration and parents need to trust this. This means that I am constantly reviewing my practice, looking at curriculum, changing my ideas, taking classes and learning to teach differently for each group of students I work with.