Community Games

 Plans for games about good communities are underway.

 The children are working to develop games that can be played in class to

remind us of the type of strong community we would like to be.

 I am very interested in seeing these games develop.

What will they feel is important?

 How will this work help them to further process their ideas?

Whirlydoodle

 

One dark and windy morning this week, the children were able to see the lights on the Whirlydoodle windmill for the first time. During morning carpool the excitement was palpable. Children, who have since passed on to fourth grade, were also able to observe on the way to their classroom. It was a very exciting morning! Our ideas about energy are not dead and gone. They remain very alive in our windmill collection we have chosen to leave up.

Appreciation

We started a tradition today. Each Friday we will begin our day with sharing an "appreciation" for one of our class members. We are trying to think beyond our immediate friendships to people we might not usually get a chance to compliment. We are looking for acts during the week that help our class to be a better community. My intention for this tradition is to help us notice the kind things that happen in class. I also think that it is a time that we see our ideas and values in action in the small acts of each day.

"I appreciate you because you gave me lost of good feedback on my ideas."

"He always helps clean up."

"He apologized after he the soccer ball he kicked hit me in the face."

"You are great at listening at circle. You raise your and and listen quietly when others are talking."

"I appreciate that he apologized to the whole class after his silly day on Wednesday."

"I like how he always makes peace and doesn't want to fight."

"I appreciate that he always gives people comments and that helps other people give other people comments and it makes our class a better place to be."

"She contributes helpful ideas to our class."

"You help our community stay on topic."

"You do a great job at paying attention and for that I say thank you!"

Forest Fridays

Young scientists make observations that help define earth.
They observe a toad as if it is the fist time they have seen one.

Recess in the forest allows plenty of time to play in the stream.

We spend Friday afternoon in the forest. We go directly after lunch for recess and then stay for some work. Recently we used the time to think about metaphors for community.

A good community is like....

• ants
• bees
• dolphins
• trees
• rain
• water
• the whole world fits together in a community
• leaves
• human body

As I looked over their analogies I noticed the majority of their answers were something found in nature. It was not surprising. We had done our thinking in the woods, after all. But I also couldn't ignore how an understanding of the natural world brings insight. It reminded me of the value of time in the wild to touch and smell and feel all of the experiences we can then connect to other ideas.

"Rain is like a community because each drop is like the little individual. We all come together to form streams and rivers. When water drops are together they can accomplish a lot of important jobs like cleaning things, watering plants and for drinking. The group of water drops can do a lot of good."

Educating the Heart

Of all of the things education brings to children, which is the most important? What one thing can we give them that will prepare them best for a successful, productive, happy life?

I've been thinking a lot about these questions as we begin a new school year as a way to help me center my work. Mary, Anna and I traveled to Portland, Oregon this summer to attend a conference at Opal School. I noticed their dedicated, almost obsessive, focus on community. They took it a lot further than I ever had. In fact, I thought maybe they took it too far. It was in everything! Science and community, history and community, community, community, community. Did it leave enough room for the "important" stuff?

In the past I've viewed work on "how we treat each other in class" as a way to oil the classroom machine. Sure, I thought we should all be nice and caring but it was a foundation so that things would run smoothly so that we would have time for all of the "real" curriculum and so that we could all exist in the same space day in and day out.

The overarching theme for our school (preschool-8th grade) this year is Relationship. This decision has caused me to think the topic over more carefully. The more I processed what I saw at Opal and the more I talked it all over with Anna and Mary, the more I decided to explore.

For the past three weeks of school our literacy and project work has centered around the exploration of community. How do we want to feel in our class? How do we act when we are together? What role does the individual play in a group?

I sat down to watch a movie tonight. One had recently caught my eye on Netflix.  It was called Happy.

http://www.thehappymovie.com/ "Happy takes viewers on a journey from the swamps of Louisiana to the slums of Kolkata in search of what really makes people happy. Combining real-life stories and scientific interviews, the film explores the secrets behind our most valued emotion. "

What the science of happiness says is that we need to be teaching children care and compassion. Happiness is linked to close connections to friends and family and compassion towards others. One of the things scientists have discovered is most effective in improving one's happiness is to practice acts of kindness. The act of kindness releases a chemical called dopamine, the happy chemical, into the brain. The dopamine released in one's brain as a result of kindness is as strong as a mood altering drug like cocaine! It was interesting to be reminded that we have a great deal of control over our own happiness.

The findings are not necessarily shocking. It seems rather intuitive. This type of wisdom has been around for a long time. I just wondered if it has been around so long that we overlook it. Do we forget just how powerful it can be? And if it is so key to happiness, where does it exist in education? Does it belong in education? Is happiness in life a goal of education?  Do happier children learn better?

Can we really disconnect the brain and the heart?

I am curious to see where this year takes us. What changes will I see in the children? How will this year compare to years past? What impact will I see as a result of so much focus on relationship and community?

I have a feeling that at the end of this year I will be a changed teacher. In the end, will I feel like we spent too much time on the topic of relationship? I have a feeling that the opposite will be true; the more we explore the ideas of community, the more complex and valuable we will come to find this work. Our attention will feel insufficient for a topic so powerful.

Who am I?

Who are you?
You are a small piece of the community, but a very important piece.
What strengths do you bring?
What talents will you contribute?

"Why do your eyes look like that?"
"Because I am quiet but I am always watching."
 

"My mask has a cloud dragon putting out fire with rain.
It is from the Japanese ledgend.
 It means I am a peace maker."

"Girls can be tough."

First Day of School

Thinking with blocks about the differences between a good community and a bad community

Ask you child about their creation.

 I need to learn how to better capture lighttable work. Any advice?

 

Looking Back

I ran across old class videos while preparing to share at a new teacher training. It was fun to revisit the old project videos several years later. It made me reflective.

Watching our old videos was kind of like reading an old middle school diary. It gets tempting to rip all of the pages out for fear of the flaws. It is hard to put it all out there for the world to see because it leaves me feeling so exposed. The warts often stick out the most to me as I review past work, but there is also a lot of beauty. I eventually have to face the fact that if I get rid of the things I get self-concious about then I also have to get rid of all of the beautiful, magical things that are intertwined and not able to be separated.

It is what it is.

It is a record of where I have been on this journey. There were moments when revisiting the videos helped me appreciate how far I've come in my understanding of this work. It was like a glance back at the trail I've climbed as I continue to work my way to the summit. However, I was also surprised to find that these videos were full of reminders of important things that I want to get back to.

Dear readers, I bring your attention to the risk one feels when sharing their work so openly and I hope that you will read this blog with compassion rather than judgement. But then again I probably don't need to worry because I've just survived the harshest judgement-- my own.


I've always loved this collaborative piece. Both the photos and the poetry are from the children.

You know you're at Sabot when....

... the children ask me to call them gods and goddesses instead of boys and girls. Or they wanted me to remind them to take their nectar bottles to P.E. or have ambrosia instead of snack.

 We recently had field day where our class took Greece as our country for an Olympic themed event. Realizing that there were twelve Olympians sitting on the thrones of Mount Olympus, the children decided that each should choose a god or goddess to be on the big day. In preparation, we took the characters on for weeks in advance. The children would play god and goddesses at recess, often incorporating bits and pieces of myths into the story lines they were acting out. I even convinced our math specialist to announce gods and goddesses names as a joke when calling children to the office.

Along the way I was telling this to another teacher who made a comment along the lines of, "Isn't it nice that these children can go to school where it is still cool to play gods and goddesses at recess? When my kids were in third grade it was anything but cool." By golly, I think she was right. The day before field day I was invited to be Hermes (since none of the girls wanted to be a god and we really needed all twelve represented).

It was magical! I have to admit that it has always been a bit hard for me to keep all of the characters and stories straight and it's all seemed a bit confusing, but something about cheering for Aphrodite while she did the egg race or chanting Apollo's name as he threw a water balloon shot put into the air really helped me to start making sense of it. These names started to come to life as I connected them to people I already had relationships with. Maybe there is something to playing god and goddesses. Maybe there is something to playing in general. The magic doesn't stop in their grade or shouldn't, anyway. If we let ourselves, I think this could be useful in middle school and as an adult. I just wished that I had joined the fun earlier.



How I Work

I am thankful to have the freedom and permission to let children work in the ways that work best for their brains. One child made a great discovery today...

He said,"I am doing the story of The Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf but I am switching it up with the story of The Three Big Elephants and the Little Bad Mouse. This is how I would plan it. I would act it out with blocks to make sure I knew what was going to happen, what the elephants are going to do to the mouse. This would now help me to focus. If I was going to write a fairytale, I would plan it out with blocks."

With a few coins in your pocket... (continued)

Here is the work introduced in my previous post titled "With a few coins in your pocket..."
I included the work of all of the children so look through as you would like. Again, this work was not made to show all of their solidified ideas about how immigration changed America, but rather it was through this process that they did some of their best thinking.

I am a Greek jewelry maker and I came to America because I wasn’t getting enough money in Greece. I made earrings with one of them having a z hanging from it and one with an omega hanging from it. The z is the last letter of the English alphabet and the omega is the last letter of the Greek alphabet. I did one z and one omega

because the Omega is for living in Greece and the z is for coming to America. In America I am getting more money because the earrings are a new style and people think they are interesting so they buy them and I get more money. Now American jewelry has a Greek influence.

 I am in the shoes of my father who immigrated to America. I want to fly on a concord so I created a model concord. I am going to America to seek education so I drew a computer on the side of the toy concord and wrote “Concord for Learners” on it. I will emigrate from the U.K. so I wrote U.K. Airways on it.

When I get to America, I will be a model maker. Inspired by my dad’s story, I will make model Concords. This is one of my models.

I made this because I emigrated from Greece and I needed to find a job in America. I decided that, as a blacksmith, I would make a lyre from my own home and everybody else would see what music was like back in Greece. I decided to bring the music with me to the new land. I would make these and sell these and everyone else would start liking them so other blacksmiths would start making them.

I needed a job in America. I thought of something an American might be interested in. Then I realized, I just simply had to show my old home. It would be so interesting to them. I mean who had ever seen stinging nettles? They would find it fascinating. And they had never seen the English flag so that would be pretty cool for them. It is going to be hard to find a job. But on the other hand, I will be able to fascinate people with my sewing.

I am from Russia. I made a toy boat to remind me of my trip from Russia to America. Back in Russia I was a sailor and in America I am a sailor too. I am bringing a toy boat to America to show America something new.

I am a German boat maker who makes large boats. I am also an air plane maker. I could help design a boat and then travel over to America on it, just like the designer of the Titanic. Once I get to America I could design more boats and help people get to other places on boats and airplanes. I would teach American about ways that boats work so they might want to use my ideas. This is how I would not be poor but still have a business going on in a new land.

I am a blacksmith from Ireland. I make horseshoes. I made a horse and I would bring that horse on the ship with me so that I can travel to places faster in America. When I got to America, I became a teacher and taught people how to make horse shoes. That is how I made money in America.

I am a chocolate maker from Germany. I came to America because I wanted to escape World War I. I came on a ship and I felt very alone in the world because I was one of the only people from Germany. I felt cold, sad and sort of worried that I wouldn’t make it. I think the chocolate making from Germany will help me get money and get a good job.

I am a Chinese toy maker. I came to America with my family to have a better life. I made a ship and life boats and my family to represent how I came to America. By me coming to America I will change it because there might not be certain types of toys that are like the Chinese versions.

I came to America as a food maker. I decided to make lasagna to show how I immigrated with the cheese shaped like my voyage on top. People probably haven’t had lasagna so I cold make a really good shop after I start out on the streets and such.

I am a living room designer from France. I came to America because I wanted to escape slavery. I needed to get money so I decided that a living room designer would get me money because I did the living room designs back in France and those people liked them. Now in America their living rooms have a part of France. They have French influence.

I am a mirror maker from Germany. I came to America because I wanted to have a better business because people didn’t want mirrors in Germany. I thought that since lots of people came from different places that they might want to see or try out a mirror from Germany to see what it is like. It will give a new variety of mirror to America. My talent might get more used than back in Germany.

Slowing Down

 "If they had never come we wouldn’t be here."



                         "...each one brings one piece of America."

 "If other people come to America then it actually changes America and America changes them."

"... without all of these people coming, America would be tiny and boring. There wouldn’t be certain foods, any cool designs of houses, it just wouldn’t be right without these people coming."

How Has Immigration Changed America?

I asked the children this question several times and we had a few brief conversations about their ideas but mostly I just let the idea sit in their brains. I know that this is a lot of work to share at one time but I couldn't choose  between them. Treat this like a museum of ideas. Read what interests you.

I think an important point to make is that these drawings are not illustrating ideas that were already solidified in the children's minds. It was through drawing and discussing their drawings that the children really worked through most of the idea they communicate here. The drawing was one more way to process. It slowed us down to let us think more deeply.




My mural represents an immigration liner. The immigration liner has flags from all different countries such as Brazil, Argentina, England and Scotland and the American flag. I did the flags because I thought it represented all of the different countries and nationalities coming to form America. I think immigration has changed America because it has made more countries come together.

My mural represents how all of the cultures came together. Like in New York all of the cultures came together in one place. I drew four buildings, each from a different culture. I drew a Chinese temple, a castle for Ireland, a pueblo from Zimbabwe and a sky scraper for modern America. It shows how all the cultures came together to make a city.

Immigration has America in a lot of ways and I tried to represent how we got all of our different ideas for our architecture and buildings.

My mural represents what things people built or brought to America. Some things on this mural are things that we use today. The calendar came from Egypt. The tea cup came from England. The castle came from Ireland. Immigration has changed America by bringing cultures and different things like animals to America.

The picture I made is a bunch of flags of the world, but not all of them because the piece of paper wasn’t big enough. The flags I made represent a bunch of people coming from different place to America. The way immigration has changed America is that without all of these people coming America would be tiny and boring. There wouldn’t be certain foods, any cool designs of houses, it just wouldn’t be right without these people coming.

This is basically showing how immigration has changed American fashion. Each of these pictures represents a different country and their fashion. Each country is equaling our fashion these days. You could take the boots and the shirt from England and mix it with a purse from Russia and a sash from Italy and you will get an American kind of fashion. It is basically kind of saying how immigration has encouraged new fashion in America.

My picture is of a bunch of restaurants from all over the world. At the beginning of the mural, the restaurants are only American. Then as time goes on, the restaurants become a wider variety and there are a lot more than just American restaurants. It shows that if there were no immigrants then there wouldn’t be any dumplings or pizza or burritos or curry.

My mural represents a bunch of people coming from all different places across the world until in the United States they can meet up somewhere and become friends and know each other but they are still from different places. For example, in the post office a person from Belgium and a person from Ireland meet together and become friends. But then the person from Ireland meets another person from Japan and they become friends. But then the person from Japan also meets the person from Belgium and then it is three people from different countries. The main idea of this mural is that there are different people from different places in our country.

I did a picture of the Mayflower to represent the pilgrims and how they changed America. They changed America because they went over there and started the country America. If they had never come we wouldn’t be here. We would be in a different country with different cultures or would we exist at all?

I put the different flags on my mural to represent how many people in the world came to America and how much it has brought us different food, clothing, style, languages and how much it has contributed to the country. The names of the countries on the mural are individual different colors to represent that each one brings one piece of America.

I chose to draw a big ship with people on it that are from different places and have different things and different clothes. It represents all of the different kinds of people in the world and I have a big American flag over top of the ship to represent the United Sates. All of the people came to America for different reasons. That is why everyone has something different, to represent what they do.

My mural is food from different countries, like for instance pizza or tea. If we didn’t have immigration we couldn’t have foods like that. I drew pictures of the foods and then drew the flags representing the country they came from.

If other people come to America, then it actually changes America and America changes them. They can change America by teaching other people how to say words in their language and people in America help them understand the American language. I drew people with their flags on a piece of paper and would come to America. Each one is saying “hello” in their language.

With a few coins in your pocket...

Close your eyes.

Imagine you are leaving your home to come to America.

When did you live?
Where were you from?
How were your traveling?

Now you have come to America.
You have only a few coins in your pocket, but you realize that to survive here you will need to make some money. Imagine a skill you have. To get someone to hire you in this new land you will have to make something. The example of your craft will have to be so good that someone will be amazed and feel that they have to hire you, even though you may not speak english or have a good reputation here.
The thing you make should be a great example of your ability, and also tell the story of your journey to America.

(Stay tuned for updates)
Check out the finished products here