Middle school students met with clients (many of whom were international and based in China), scheduled their own meetings, and consulted with clients to build their dream sustainable homes. Students then executed these plans by designing and building models of these dream homes - all while learning more about sustainable housing design. This project exemplifies how students learn through authentic interdisciplinary bilingual projects.
As PKS teachers, we are always seeking new ways to practice our Habits of Character (respectful, responsible, resilient, collaborative, globally minded, caring and reflective) and bring them to life for our students within and beyond our school community. My own journey took an unexpected turn this past August as a result of an amazing and transformative professional development experience, an experience I want to bring to my students in the classroom.
Grandfriends Day was an opportunity to celebrate and thank the family and friends whose support helps each of us, and our school, grow and thrive. Part of the opening agenda was a spirited Lion dance and kung fu performance by our kindergarten classes, which is one of the many ways our students build authentic connections to Chinese language and culture.
One of our goals at PKS is to instill a love of learning in our students and for them to be curious, connected, and engaged with the world. We nurture these characteristics in the classroom through authentic learning experiences, and encourage it after school by limiting the amount of homework, thereby allowing for more unstructured time to pursue passions and interests.
As Chris Livaccari shared at the beginning of the school year, our key themes for the 2019-2020 school year are connectedness, continuous improvement, and sustained inquiry. Together, we are working to create a culture of learning that engages and challenges not just our students, but also our educators.
One of the greatest joys and challenges of teaching in a progressive school is the ever evolving curriculum. Although the topics for the Units of Exploration are set, the course of study each year is driven by the ideas and questions of each year’s unique group of students; based on their interests we rethink and reshape the projects to provide meaningful, authentic learning experiences.
It is our overall goal to deepen our communication with parents through shared digital portfolios, in-person conferences, and revised report cards that reflect not only key benchmarks in our curriculum but also our focus on understanding and supporting every student as a learner and community member.
Children move in a variety of ways and each time they move, they learn something new. Our bodies are our first point of reference, our own compass, everything we do from birth involves our body moving in some form and from this we learn a variety of gross and fine motor skills. Learn how our movement program helps create a whole body to brain relationship, which helps with reading and learning.
At the beginning of May, we shared the pentagon problem with the PKS community: can you discover or create an irregular pentagon that will tile the plane with no gaps or overlaps? Many students and parents rose to the challenge, and it has been so much fun having conversations about the various solutions and how they found them.
A key area of focus this year has been on re-envisioning the specialist programs going forward, and more specifically, how to more intentionally attend to the whole child and create opportunities for students to engage deeply, fully, and frequently with the sciences, arts, and holistic wellness practices.
We were pleased to host Charis Denison once again for a recent PKS学习 event. Each year when she visits, we take a moment revisit our approach to what used to be called “sex ed.” Schools like ours base this part of the curriculum on research that shows that “the biological, cultural, and ethical components of ‘sex ed’ must be part of a holistic effort to help each child develop an integrated, confident sense of self.”
One of our main goals at PKS is to foster a lifelong passion for learning and exploration, not only among our students but also among our parents, faculty, and staff. A few weeks ago, however, the pedagogical team wanted to try something innovative and engaging to provide our faculty and staff with a different type of professional development (PD) opportunity; something we call “Pinterest Live” or “Old School Pinterest.”
