A Year At Mission Hill Chapter 7: Shelter From the Storm

This piece was published earlier in the week on the IDEA blog, as part of an ongoing series of responses to each chapter of  A Year at Mission Hill.

 

 

About two minutes into Chapter 7 of A Year at Mission Hill, we see a young student leaving his classroom, obviously frustrated and angry.  An adult follows behind, aware and watchful and prepared to guide him through the emotional storm he’s obviously weathering. In the frames that precede and follow this moment, we get to see the ways that the Mission Hill community supports kids when they are at their growing edges- when they are frustrated, disengaged, unhappy and challenging.  Francie Marbury, principal of Marlboro Elementary School in Marlboro, Vermont knows about the ubiquitous nature of that moment. “That student, very angry, running down the hall – that was familiar,” she notes. “and it’s  so refreshing that the first thing mentioned in response isn’t zero tolerance, planning rooms, or suspension.”

For the adults at MES, a k-8 school of nearly 90 students in Southeastern Vermont, supporting kids in their most challenging moments is a cornerstone of the educational experience. “We’ve modeled our approach on the 3 tiered system used in PBIS but not in a lock step way.” In both schools, every adult in the building can expect to play a role. Mission Hill secretary Jonie Davies comments that kids may come to her to “regroup, take a break…even just for a hug,” At MES, “the other intervention that is so based on community and relationship is just a visit to the secretary – often at the student’s request.”   So, even though we don’t have a lock step approach, we have a clear structure and clear communication so that staff know how to support kids in different situations.” Francie points to the commonalities in the ways that MES and Mission Hill staff build community including having individual classrooms set their rules together, building consistent routines, jobs and expectations as well as shared experiences outside of the classroom.

Beyond the strategies and methodologies, however, it’s clear that the Mission Hill and MES communities share an underlying philosophy about the roles of adults when helping children grow up healthy and happy. “We have worked hard on this,” Francie said, ”and have adopted some specific practices, all predicated on the belief that children need help learning self control and developing a sense of responsibility for their actions and that the whole school community needs to be involved. The idea is that the entire staff is responsible for student behavior.”

It’s not just about managing events during the school day. Mission Hill staff recognize that kids come to school with a whole set of positive and negative experiences that occur in out-of-school time, and they work hard to gather as much information as possible in order to meet the needs of their students. “We don’t always know what’s going on at home with some of these kids.” says Jonie Davies. “We don’t know what they’ve been through.”  According to Francie, the same rules apply at MES.  “It’s about sharing a child’s history, bringing together as much information as possible and developing a plan. This happens formally through our Educational Support Team process.  This team, consisting of two classroom teachers, the guidance counselor, the instructional support teacher, and the principal, meets weekly or as needed to focus on one student.  A child’s teacher brings the student to the group, sharing her observations, student work samples, and whatever else may be relevant.  The teacher solicits information from others, as well – the art, music, and P.E. teachers and any staff who have regular interactions with the student.  Parents are part of the team.”

Anyone who works with children- in fact, anyone who works with human beings- will recognize the gift and burden that comes with helping another person weather the storm of growing up and finding a place in the world.  For the students at Mission Hill- and at Marlboro Elementary- there’s a community of adults standing by, ready to provide shelter from the storm.

 

 

Big Block of Cheese Day

 

You know how sometimes you’re really busy and you see a whole bunch of things that seem blog-worthy and/or shareable, but there’s not quite enough there to merit a full post?  Not enough meat, not enough new thinking or (more likely) not enough time to write the whole thing up? So you end up with a lot of bookmarks and notes with no coherence?  Yeah.  That’s what I’ve got for you today.  Consider it my own Big Block of Cheese Day.

First up, if you haven’t been following A Year At Mission Hill- what the heck’s wrong with you?  It’s a breath of fresh air in a sea of fetid edubabble. Plus you can visit the IDEA Blog to read my posts on each chapter!

Second, after spending a week of my life trying to write 1500 words on how our Critical Skills Program helps teachers with the Common Core (which is akin to writing 1500 words on why water is wet), I was thrilled to read the Next Generation Science Standards. As Edcamp CEO Dan Callahan wrote:

@criticalskills1 have you looked at the NextGen Sci Standards? Prepping my "Teaching the NGSS Using Problem-Based Learning" roadshow now.—
Dan Callahan (@dancallahan) April 11, 2013

Thirdly, I know we all love a good Ted talk.  This one from Sam Chaltain on The Art and Science of Great Teaching is worth 14 minutes to takes to watch it.

On a slightly more academic note, this piece about the benefits of Social and Emotional Learning programs (like our own Critical Skills Program) from the Social and Emotional Learning Group the grabbed my attention while I was conducting a lit search for a grant I’m working on.  What really caught my attention was this:

The positive results the study found do not come atthe expense of performance in core academic skills, but rather enhance academic achievement.

(The full article was published  in Child Development)

And finally, just to end on a lighter note, there’s this piece from the Answer Sheet on an 8th Grader in Saranac Lake, NY who wrote her own standardized test.  And they say kids don’t get satire anymore…

Loving and Hating the Common Core

When I taught debate roughly 10,000 years go, I prided myself on teaching my students to look at both sides of the issues.  I required my students to speak with equal degrees of passion on both sides of every issue.  That old debate teacher in me is thrilled, then, to see that both sides of the aisle love and hate the Common Core State Standards in equal measure.

From E.D. Hirsch to Diane Ravitch to Marc Tucker to Sam Chaltain…everyone has an opinion and those opinions don’t always fall along the expected party lines.  I’ll admit that, after reading the Common Core myself, I don’t find it terrifying or evil.  I like parts of it, dislike parts of it, and acknowledge fully that, like everything else, it will come down to the myriad policy decisions still to be made at the state and local levels.

But, at the end of the day, what could be better than well reasoned, thoughtful debate about what we want for our kids? Sometimes we need something just different enough to make us sit up and notice what we’ve been assuming all along about the perspectives of those around us.  Sometimes we need a bit of a poke to make us re-think what we believed and whether we still want to believe it.

Thoughtful discourse about teaching and learning? Sounds good to me.

 

Where are the Progressives? Right here!

Have you ever found yourself in a room, listening to people talk about you as though you weren’t actually in the room too?  That’s the experience I had when I came across this piece via Dan Callahan’s Remix Teaching.

The title, “Where Are Progressives In The Fight To Save Public Schools?” was enough to draw me up short.  What do you mean “where are we?”  We’re right here.  See us?  Over here?  Not just at Antioch, but at IDEA, the Coalition of Essential Schools, and Expeditionary Learning Outward Bound just to name a few of the organizations that embody the ideals we hold.  More importantly, we’re in the hearts, hands and minds of thousands of educators, parents and leaders.

We’re in hundreds of thousands of schools and classrooms, doing the day-to-day work of teaching and learning with kids across the economic, social, ethnic and political spectrum.  We’re in public schools, private schools and charters.  We’re lousy at controlling the narrative (we have little time or energy for feeding the beast that is the insatiable media machine and we know we pay a price for that), but we’re here. Don’t count us out (and for heaven’s sake don’t lump us in with the Ed Deformers as the author of the piece does).

What Makes a Mind Come Alive?

This piece is cross posted from the IDEA blog as part of the A Year At Mission Hill project.

The teachers at Mission Hill begin the school year together, focused not only on the work to be done in the coming year, but also the ways in which they can use that work to model “being steward to the land, having meaningful work and being kind.” Their connection to The Farm School provides both a frame for that conversation and a vehicle for that meaningful learning.

Teachers at Harrisville Wells Memorial School, a public school serving students in grades k-6 in Harrisville, New Hampshire, work in partnership with the Harris Center for Conservation Education in much the same way. Though the rural location of the school serves as a primary outdoor classroom and learning lab, the expertise of the staff at the Center helps teachers to plan lessons that build upon not only the natural world, but also the real needs of the school and local community. Following the New England ice storm of 2008, students spent time in the field researching the ways in which invasive Oriental Bittersweet made significant contributions to the serious damage to local forests. After learning about the ways in which the invasive species came to the region and what steps could be taken to prevent its further spread, students returned to the forest on school grounds and removed as much of the plant as they could. Students studying bears compared populations in New Hampshire with those found in Yellowstone National Park discovered that New Hampshire fish and game officials had noted that local bear populations were showing an increasing problem with nuisance bears. Students then collaborated on a letter writing campaign to newspapers around the state encouraging residents to take down bird feeders in an effort to protect the bears.

Whether taking walking field trips in the historic mill town to study local geology or examining the water ways of the old preserved historic mill town to learn first-hand about force and motion, educating the community about the role of bats in the local ecosystem by being guest speakers on a local radio show or growing their own vegetables after exploring the emerging Localvore and farm-to-table movements, learning is happening out in the world, not just in the classroom. Recent graduates have returned to the school to continue this habit of service. One former student built a green house for the K-1 students and another helped the 4th and 5th grade students clear a hiking trail and build a kiosk to display students’ science research projects such as animal research field guides. Wells Memorial School teachers see the connection between the curriculum and the community as a key aspect of their work.

Visits to the Harris Center are also a consistent part of each student’s experience at Wells. The school takes yearly hikes to the center and many classes make additional trips to do some hands on learning with over 20 animals on exhibit. As both culminating and introductory experiences, students connect history, science, math and literature to the natural world as a way of deepening their understanding of both. Wells teachers agree with Mission Hill Principal Ayla Gavins’ description of the experience: “Every time we go there and a kid has more ownership over that place, the more they can imagine what’s possible.”

Like students at Mission Hill, the skills students and staff develop working with the Harris Center transfer into other aspects of the school curriculum as well. Since students learn to “be scientists” (rather than just studying science), they approach the rest of their work in similar fashion – acting as historians, writers, mathematicians, engineers and artists throughout their elementary experience. Teachers gain skills at facilitating instruction across their curriculum by team teaching with Harris Center staff. They learn to create structure while remaining flexible to the ways some units of study emerge or expand as they develop through the school year. In both schools, the powerful desire not only to act as a “steward to the land and do meaningful work” but also to connect learning with action, brings together students and community in truly powerful ways.

Singing the Same Song- Chapter 2 of A Year At Mission Hill

As part of the Year at Mission Hill project, I’ll be blogging over at IDEA (Institute for Democratic Education in America).  This piece was originally posted there.

 

“This little light of mine/ I’m gonna let it shine…”

Chapter 2 of A Year at Mission Hill School ended with kids singing these words, I was struck by the similarities between this moment and one I’ve observed often at Symonds School in Keene, New Hampshire.  The simple act of sharing a song may seem insignificant in the big picture of schools and student achievement, but in this case it represents a common culture built on community and relationships that is the foundation of both schools.

A neighborhood school founded in 1881, Symonds is a k-5 public school of fewer than 400 students.  The Symonds community shares Mission Hill’s commitment to “forming relationships, building trust, and discovering what makes each person unique,” but in a more traditional school context.  The ways in which they pursue that goal also share a simple, elegant intentionality. They take the time to know their students well and help their students know each other well through meaningful work and shared experiences. They model the behaviors they want their students to learn, intentionally creating situations in which the social curriculum surfaces naturally. They agree with Kathy Clunis D’Andrea that, “Students here are citizens in their own community. They have voice,” and like as Mission Hill students, they “generate ideas about what classroom rules should be… about what kind of classroom we want, what a good classroom would look like.”

I spoke with two teachers from Symonds – PE teacher Beth Corwin and Gretchen Hoefer, 5th grade teacher – about the ways they and their colleagues build relationships with and between students and one another. For Beth, an 18-year veteran, it all begins with the school’s long-term commitment to the Responsive Classroom model. “The whole school has always gotten together to have common shared experiences – sharing what we’re doing in the classroom as presenters, being an interested and engaged audience, singing and moving together in one place to celebrate learning and our school.”

“Everyone shares,” added Gretchen, a newer addition to they Symonds faculty.  “In my old school the Student Council or older students might present at an assembly, but here there’s an expectation that everyone share what they’re learning and doing – adults and kids.”

Relationships are supported by structures like morning meeting and a school-wide schedule that guards time for collaboration and sharing. “Everyone has common planning time – grade level teams, the specialists – and we are always collaborating informally and formally. Our faculty meetings are very much an extension of the culture we try to build in the classroom. There’s a great deal of respect, we laugh a lot, but we get a lot done. Dick (Cate, long-time principal) is the facilitator but different folks step up to lead conversations. The mood is always positive, even when the work is hard.”  As a newer teacher, Gretchen found that teachers reached out to give her explanations of Symonds traditions and rituals. “Our culture is such that no one – student or teacher – has to feel that they’re on their own,” concludes Beth.

Like Mission Hill, there is intentionality in the way that new adults are invited into the Symonds community.  Just as Jenerra Williams was partially attracted to Mission Hill by the opportunity to build relationships with students, new teachers at Symonds must share a commitment to community.  As Beth says, “Dick has filled the building with people who get it. In the hiring process there’s an intentionality – any new hire has to understand and believe that this culture is the foundation for everything we do in this building.” Gretchen adds, “We also have a greater degree of autonomy than you might expect because there’s a greater degree of trust.”

Learning is at the center of everything. “When we have these solid relationships,” Beth says, “we accomplish our primary mission: kids learn. Without that connection, without that trust, kids don’t learn.”  Or as Jenerra says, “when you know them, you just naturally become their advocate. You just want to protect them and you want them to have the best of whatever it is.”

So while there are lots of similarities in their goals and the experiences of their kids and teachers, it was the singing that got me.  Last year music teacher Peter Seigel and the kids of Symonds used song as a vehicle to both build and explore their understanding of community. In the resulting CD, “Peace Place,” he explains, “our school is cooperative and collaborative on many levels. At our all school assemblies we gather to share what we have done in our classrooms and we sing the songs that bind us together. We believe in the power of song, movement, and togetherness.”

See what I mean? They may be very different in some ways, but these two schools are singing the same song..

Thoroughly Modern Millie

Today I have a guest post from Millie Pike.  Millie teaches 2nd grade at an International Baccalaureate Candidate school here in New Hampshire. Millie is also an emerging member of the Critical Skills leadership community.  Thanks Millie!

As a second grade teacher I always want to be helping my students the best way that I know how and that includes staying current in best practices. Our world is forever changing and so is the future that we are preparing our children for.  With that in mind, we must be teaching our children 21st Century Skills.  But, what exactly are those 21st Century Skills?

These skills have been described as “Learning to collaborate with others and connect through technology are essential skills in a knowledge-based economy.” ATCS –21st Century Skills

Among the best practices for teaching these skill sets are a number of experiential learning models; Project-Based, Problem-Based, Place-Based, and Service Learning.  I have been exploring each of these within my classroom and working to build a deeper understanding for myself.

As part of my exploration and the effort to boost the use of technology, I have been blogging some of the learning that has been happening in my classroom at Teaching and Learning.  My students have also been blogging their about their learning experiences to meet the rigorous requirements of the CCSS.

We’re learning a lot together.  Not just about the content, but about how to learn, think, and collaborate better.  For example, we read The Terrible Things by Eve Bunting and discussed what was fair and what our responsibilities are when there is conflict and unfairness around us.  After some discussion, students used a reflection tool called “Chalk Talk.” Students used markers and paper rather than chalk to write down their ideas and thoughts about the book and our central idea.  They were not allowed to talk, just write.  Students practiced all of the 12 IB attitudes during this activity: appreciation, independence, integrity, commitment, curiosity, cooperation, confidence, empathy, enthusiasm, respect, and tolerance. This activity took about 10-15 minutes.

Click here to see are some pictures of the activity and the final outcomes from our fabulous group of second graders.