Navigating Emotions with Kapla Blocks

We have a Kapla Block room at the entrance to our school. Its entire purpose is to allow students to build. Children come in the morning and at the end of the day to work on projects and to play. Sometimes parents help, mostly they don't. There is no organized curriculum connected to the blocks. There are no pictures of projects for students to refer to. There is simply a room full of blocks.

Not only is this a room for creativity, this is a room for navigating emotions and understanding the concept of impermanence. These block creations can't stay there forever. Sometimes they come down on purpose, sometimes by accident. But when they come down, there is often a sense of loss that kids must work through. At Synapse, social emotional learning is a core tenant of our school. Navigating emotions is one of the eight core SEL competencies that we teach. This Kapla block room has been a great vehicle for this important lesson.

Edcamp Independent Schools is coming to San Francisco 2/27/16

If you are planning to be at NAIS in San Francisco this year (or will be in the Bay Area), don't miss Edcamp Independent Schools, a free edcamp experience directly following the NAIS Annual Conference (currently in its 4th year). This year we will gather at Katherine Delmar Burke School in San Francisco, CA on Saturday, February 27, 2016.

This is an opportunity for thoughtful educators to join in a conversation about what is happening right now in the world of Independent schools. It is an opportunity for you to lead a session about a topic you are passionate about. It is an opportunity to connect in a smaller group with Independent School folks from all over the country and the world.

Registration is about to open up and space is limited, so please fill out this form if you are interested in attending and we will send you registration information when it is available.

Check out the website to find out more.

Hope to see you there.

Edcamp with Students - Finally!

This Friday the middle school students at Synapse School (where I am the Assistant Head of School), participated in their first student lead #Edcamp. I have been trying to get an Edcamp for kids going at my schools since I discovered how empowering participant driven learning experiences can be eight years ago. It took my amazing colleagues at Synapse to bring it to life. And I actually had very little to do with it.

Abby facilitating a session on Women's Rights

Why
Every year Synapse chooses a Changemaker to focus on for the year. This year our Changemaker is Benjamin Franklin. It turns out that Benjamin Franklin formed his own Edcamp style group that met weekly to discuss different topics. He called them Juntos. Using that as a connection, students considered the topics they would like to discuss and our own #EdcampJunto was formed.

“At age 21, with his printing business established in Philadelphia and his circle of friends expanding, Benjamin Franklin formed a weekly discussion group with twelve men who shared his drive for learning and conversation. Named the Junto (derived from the Spanish to join), the club met every Friday evening in a tavern or house to discuss ‘Morals, Politics, or Natural Philosophy [science].’” -National Humanities Center Resource Toolbox

How
My colleagues Federico Chialvo @federicochialvo, Katie Morgan @fxluvr and Stephanie Seto, @shsetos really took the lead on making this happen. Stephanie put together an excellent lesson plan that steps through the entire process.

Here are the highlights.

• We introduced the concept of Juntos to students in a whole school meeting and then invited them to propose topics that they would like to discuss. 
• Using a simple Google Form, students proposed topics and then indicated if they would be willing to facilitate that session.
• Once we gathered all of the topics, we created a Google Form for students to vote on the topics that they would be most interested in talking about. 
• Then Stephanie put together a schedule of the most popular topics. We divided the schedule into four 20 minute sessions. We also decided to keep the popular sessions on the schedule that didn't have facilitators and allow the kids in the room to figure out who would lead (if anyone).
• Before we started the sessions, I gave students a little background on Edcamps and explained some of the rules. We decided not to let students leave sessions once they had chosen them (ie - rule of two feet). With middle schoolers that can get complicated.
• There was an adult in each room, but they were not there to lead the group. However, they did participate.

What
Here is the schedule we ended up with for the day.

Locations	Session 1 9:30 - 9:50	Session 2 10:20 - 10:40	Session 3 10:45 - 11:05	Session 4 11:10 - 11:30
John’s Classroom Supervising Teacher: John [Session 4: Stephanie]	Video Games Facilitated by: Henry	LARP Facilitated by: Ben	Sports Facilitated by: OPEN	Endangered Animals Facilitated by: Peyton, Roxie, Danielle
Science Room 1 Supervising Teacher: Brian B [Session 1: Adnan]	The Possibility of Artificial Intelligence Facilitated by: Jasper	Matching People to TV Characters Facilitated by: OPEN	Synapse Conspiracy Theories Facilitated by: Beau	Hunger Games Facilitated by: Cara
Science Room 2 Supervising Teacher: Chelsea [Session 2: Adnan]	What will Earth look like in 10 years? Facilitated by: Beau	Youtube Facilitated by: OPEN	Nature Walks Facilitated by: OPEN	Food and Cooking Facilitated by: Andres, Kenaan, Zach
Brian L’s Advisory Supervising Teacher: Brian L	World Problems and Potential Solutions Facilitated by: OPEN	Is the universe real? Facilitated by: Brian	Magic Camp Facilitated by: Ben, Henry	Ideas for School and Ideas for Clubs Facilitated by: Ingrid
Holly’s Advisory Supervising Teacher: Holly	Women’s Rights Facilitated by: Mady, Abby	Star Wars Facilitated by: Evan, Corsa, Frankie, Eli	Interstellar Facilitated by: Tryston	Why do things go viral? Facilitated by: Bella
Danielle’s Advisory Supervising Teacher: Danielle	Books Facilitated by: Phoebe	Animal Sciences Facilitated by: Ben, Henry	Current Events Facilitated by: OPEN	Dinosaurs Facilitated by: Spencer
Jessica’s Advisory Supervising Teacher: Jessica	Space Facilitated by: Tryston	Animal Cruelty Facilitated by: Abby , Mady	Music Facilitated by: OPEN	NFL Facilitated by: Eli
Federico’s Room Supervising Teacher: Federico	Physics of the Flying Disc (AKA Frisbee) Facilitated by: OPEN	What is the best book ever? Facilitated by: Maleeha	The Presidential Election Facilitated by: Daniel	The Psychology of Magic the Gathering Facilitated by: Humza
Steven’s Math Room Supervising Teacher: Steven	The Martian Facilitated by: Humza	What is the best movie of the 2000s? Facilitated by: OPEN	Theodicy Facilitated by: OPEN	SSS Facilitated by: OPEN
Quiet Multipurpose Room Supervising Teacher: Anne [Session 2: Katie]	Communism, Socialism, Capitalism Facilitated by: Eli	Will Star Wars 7 be any good? If no, what will be the outcome? Facilitated by: OPEN	Patterns in Nature Facilitated by: OPEN	Minecraft Facilitated by: OPEN
Katie’s Writing Workshop Room Supervising Teacher: Jimmy	John Cena Facilitated by: Jordan	Why do you get socks and clothes for Christmas? Facilitated by: Lisa	Equality with Humans and Animals Facilitated by: Maleeha , Abby, Mady	Global Warming and Climate Change Facilitated by: OPEN

Now What
When we first introduced the juntos for the day, a student asked, "Is the the first Junto or the last one?" I told her, that was up to the students. If they took this seriously we would love to do this again. From everything I have heard, the day was a huge success. My daughter facilitated 3 different sessions (she is in the 6th grade at my school) and this morning she asked me if we could have Juntos every Friday.

We will definitely debrief the experience, iterate and repeat!

Have I mentioned how much I love my school lately? Wow! - the things that my faculty and students do there blow me away everyday. Stay tuned for more posts on all of the great things  that are going on in this amazing place.

I am also helping to organize another Edcamp Independent Schools #edcampIS on February 27th, the Saturday after the NAIS confernce, at Burke's School in San Francisco. I hope you see some of you there.

Edcamp Foundation #GivingTuesday Campaign

The Edcamp Foundation is organizing a campaign for #GivingTuesday, which will begin on the Tuesday after Black Friday and Cyber Monday. It is a day to encourage people to give to their favorite nonprofits, so they are hoping to connect with Edcamp folks around the world.

It is a very simple campaign: $5 to celebrate 5 years of Edcamp! #IsupportEdcamp5 and #Edcamp5Challenge

Click here to participate in the $5 for 5 years of Edcamp. The Donate button on the website is all that you need!

Here is an explanation of the campaign from Hadley Ferguson, the Director of the Edcamp Foundation:

"While it will raise money, the primary purpose is to show the tremendous reach of the Edcamp movement. Because every Edcamp is independently run, there is no master list of organizers or participants, so when we talk to funders, it is all very general. It would be wonderful to be able to point to this campaign and show how enthusiastic Edcamp folks are and how widespread we are.

It would be great to be able to light up a map with every $5 donation that we receive.

The funds will go into the Discovery grants program that we are rolling out next year. Through it, teachers will be able to apply to the Edcamp Foundation for funds to implement an idea with their students that they learned at an Edcamp."

Please donate $5.00 on Tuesday, 12/1 or at anytime between now and the end of 2015.
I already did!

The Way Education Should Be!

In July of this year I started a new job. I am now the Assistant Head of School for Synapse School in Menlo Park, CA. The past few months have been a whirlwind of getting to know the school, the administration, the faculty and the kids. Synapse is a very young school (it is in its 7th year) with a progressive approach to learning and a mission to educate change makers. I am so happy to finally be at a school that truly aligns with my educational philosophy. Alfie Kohn wrote a wonderful article defining progressive education, I am so happy to say, Synapse fits his definition to a T.

This week culminated in a "Portfolio Day" that showcased students' first trimester learning. Each child guided their parents through the many artifacts of their understandings, becoming the teacher and showing their family members evidence of what they had learned. As I went through the day both as an administrator and as a parent (my children are in 6th and 7th grade at Synapse), I was struck by the "rightness" of this school. This is how education should be, focused on the learner, not on the grade, experiential, constructivist and project based.

If you have been reading my blog over the years, I'm sure you can identify with my feelings. I have been looking for a school like this ever since I wrote my Common Principles for 21st Century Schools. I feel I have finally found my educational home.

If you are planning a visit to Northern California, please reach out if you would like to visit.