The Jefferson School Head of School Connie Hendricks

By Connie Hendricks

Change happens to all of us every day. Transitions are a part of life. However, transitions can be very difficult for children (and many adults). We assume because a child has attended school before that it will be a smooth transition from year to year. We especially assume this in a small school where the students attend from junior kindergarten through eighth grade.

The truth is, transitions happen every year and change is always occurring every day on some level. The junior kindergarteners are becoming accustomed to separating from their parents, learning how to be a student and how to get along with others; the kindergarteners are being re-introduced to the same and in addition to a whole new set of rules and expectations as are the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th graders. As students transition into 5th and 6th grade the expectations are even more focused on independence and personal responsibility. The 7th and 8th graders are expected to master many of these skills in order to successfully transition to the high school level. If you think this sounds daunting; you can imagine how the student feels.

Teachers and parents can help by guiding students as they reach new stages and encouraging them to take academic risks and to push themselves out of their normal comfort level in order to reach new levels. Establishing a “Get Ready the Night Before” policy at home will help with morning meltdowns. Be realistic and don’t fall victim to over scheduling; making sure to leave enough time to do homework and for family time. Most children are more adaptable then we give them credit for and much more capable of developmentally appropriate independence than we as adults feel comfortable. Allowing children to try on their own, make their own mistakes, and learn from those mistakes in the end helps them to realize their successes. Change is necessary for growth!

Grier White

In recent years, educational experts have addressed high school drop out rates by focusing more on efforts to keep 14 to 17 year-olds in school rather than looking for causes of drop out in earlier years. Having worked with fifth graders the last 22 years of my 33-year career, I would suggest shifting attention away from those at ages so close to dropping out and turn to students ages 10 and 11.

In an effort to avoid punishment and negative labels, public schools have for some time pushed hard to raise student performance levels on standardized tests. Little time is afforded for student choice and exploration and immediate teacher response to what were once called “teachable moments.” It seems that classroom activities must directly address some standard that will be covered during a week of high-stakes testing in the spring. At a mid-year point, many students might leave classmates a few times a week for additional instruction/practice in reading and/or math in order for them to “make the grade” come testing time. For those students in particular, is there any consideration given to promoting a love of learning?

Fifth graders can sense that the goal in the classroom isn’t so much to help them become confident, eager learners, as it is to prepare them to test well. For those who don’t “make the grade,” summer school – whose purpose is to raise achievement level with a second attempt on the test – is imminent.

Summer school has got to feel like punishment. It takes a really creative teacher to project and nurture an environment that seems to provide enrichment.

School districts celebrating their successes in standardized test scores up to and through the fifth grade are scratching their heads over the drop in performance levels by grades seven and eight. I would contend that the scenario described earlier can’t help but contribute to what I term “losing the middle schoolers.” A turned-off adolescent is not going to be very easy to engage in the classroom again (or perhaps, for the first time). The “dropping out” (of school) has started long before the age of 14 or 15. All schools can and must address this serious dilemma much earlier in students’ lives.

Janet Taylor-Smith

By Janet Taylor-Smith

One of my favorite beginning of the school year topics is Rights, Privileges and Responsibilities. Besides offering a nice ‘seg-way’ to writing our Class Constitution, it is one of our social studies standards. The discussions for this topic generally begin the same way each year. When asked what rights are, the students usually respond, “Something we get when we get older.” In response to what are privileges, many answer getting a new video game or system. The consensus for responsibilities is the opinion that if you are lucky, you do not have any!

As with most newly introduced topics, the class brainstorms ideas. I leave the chart listing their ideas on the easel for new comments to be added. Gradually, the concepts of rights, privileges and responsibilities are refined. Rights then include having your own thoughts and opinions and making choices. Privileges include sitting next to a friend at the table and coming to The Jefferson School. Performing your class job, cleaning your work space, and remembering to pack your own supplies for the next school day are added to the responsibilities list.

With encouragement, children begin to understand that being accountable or responsible is not a bad thing. It is part of growing up. Children love the notion that as they learn to take more responsibility, adults view them as more grown up. They begin taking pride in their accomplishments, while improving their confidence. And isn’t having confidence in themselves an important objective for our children?

The Jefferson School Head of School Connie Hendricks with students

By Connie Hendricks

A visit to a classroom at The Jefferson School is quite an experience, and for me, it was a pivotal moment.

When first visiting the school, I stepped into an Upper School classroom to find that students had set up an Asian carpet market. They had spent weeks designing their carpets based on a series of triangle shapes. They then calculated the areas of the triangles, added them up and priced their carpets accordingly. By doing so, these students fully understood and could easily explain the logic behind the monetary value of each carpet.

The students clearly learned the math lesson, but they also owned it, meaning they understood the relevance of knowing the total square inches of their carpets. Ownership is one of the virtues of progressive education, the philosophy that The Jefferson School embraces, and I saw this was a school that valued the importance of helping children become passionate learners.

Humans are curious by nature. We want to learn, as long as our curiosity isn’t stifled by irrelevant trivia.  If we remain interested, we’ll continue to probe deeper.  We like to problem solve, take academic risks, and at the end of the day, we’ll truly own what we learned.  Our knowledge will become part of who we are, and we won’t forget it a week later, like after an exam.

As educators and parents, we need to create more opportunities for children to take ownership of their learning by offering relevance along with any educational setting.  No one likes to follow hollow mandates, but we enjoy learning worthwhile lessons.  Children need to be engaged in ways that allow them to make these connections from fact to value.  In the child-centered environment of progressive education, teachers know how to observe their students’ interests and encourage exploration.

Parents also can bring home some progressive education ideas that encourage more active learning. For instance:

• introduce your children to museums, places of wonderment that often have interactive sections for children

• go on nature walks to expose your child to the sights, smells, sounds, textures and even tastes of each season

• give your children a problem to solve and you’ll boost their self-esteem and self-reliance

• allow them to help you cook and follow recipes

• let them make mistakes, one of life’s best teachers

As John Dewey, the father of progressive education noted, “Education is not preparation for life: Education is life itself.”

The most rewarding gift for any teacher is to see the ‘light’ appear in a child’s eyes. That light means “I get it!….I want to know more!”

When I taught Spanish at The Jefferson School, I was impressed by the students’ passion for learning. It was up to me to rise to their level. By that, I mean the teacher needs to show not just knowledge of another language, but what fun it can be to learn another ‘code’ for communicating. Kids like the concept of the code.

All language is code. Children realize that a new code is the key to another culture, another world, another way to see life. Children love stories and they love to participate. Spanish literature, music and poetry speaks eloquently and children naturally warm to it. When Kyle or Cody or Brenna read aloud, they read with emphasis and their best pronunciation…and everyone was listening for the story. When other kids didn’t understand, it gave us all an opportunity to talk about it.

I used to write a new refran (Spanish proverb) on the board each day and I found that the kids came in the room figuring it out before class even started. Why? They were having fun. I believe one of the most important motivators for learning is a passion to know more. I found, in my brief time at The Jefferson School, that love for knowledge is implanted and reinforced every day by everyone involved at the school.

School is a pretty contrived place. While it does contain a vast array of interesting things to learn and engaging things to do, it often presents these in a way that is designed to be efficient rather than profound. After all, there are a lot of students to educate and a lot of information to teach them. So we have imposed a structure and a culture that is artificial. It rewards the quickest route to the correct answer. That way we can “cover all of the material.”

Since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, we have adopted an assembly line model of education. Master one skill, then tackle the next one on the list. Then move up to the next level and start on the next list. Sure, in the 1970s we turned the rows of desks into clusters of four; but we still have this deadline mentality that says: Don’t spend too much time on any one thing.

It doesn’t have to be this way. There are myriad skills and ideas that you present to kids in school that can’t be fully understood without the luxury of time. You can get kids to deal with the surface of the curriculum content – know the information, perform the calculations. Yet the difference between finding a common denominator and understanding what is really happening when you change that bottom number in a fraction can be three weeks of class time. Three weeks of class time, cutting up pieces of paper and drawing diagrams and creating models and performing presentations, all about changing the denominator of a fraction. Is it worth it? How will we get to all of the other things we have to cover?

Yes, it is worth it. Time makes the difference. Time can mean the difference between school being a list of disconnected tasks and school being a place to investigate and explore. Time allows us to embrace mistakes students make on their way to mastery of a concept. Time spent in providing children experiences that make them ready to learn a skill or an idea will pay huge dividends when they are expected to display their achievement.

It is a bold commitment to worry less about that list of thing to cover and more about the depth of our exploration. But we can do it. We can have faith that curriculum content is not a strictly linear affair. It spirals. Content that shows up on one level shows up again, in different ways, throughout the school experience. If we are reflective about what we do, and we integrate our curriculum, we can have faith that the students will get what they need. We can also design our classroom so they have the time that it takes to make learning a meaningful and relevant experience.

Janet Taylor-Smith

By Janet Taylor-Smith

What makes some experiences unforgettable and others a distant memory? From a teacher’s perspective, I would respond that it would depend on how much of yourself you have invested in the experience.

This is one of the guiding principles behind a project-based curriculum. If students are allowed to invest themselves into their own learning experiences, they will become engaged in the process. Teachers do not have to worry about student interest, if they just begin by listening to the interests of their students.

In my third- and fourth-grade classroom, we have just begun our Invention Project. As a class we have been discussing historic inventors. Students are well acquainted with the determination and hard working spirit that most inventors possessed.

Whenever we begin a new project, we have a brainstorming session. It became immediately evident in this case that for most the students notion of inventing something was daunting.

Before beginning this process, I had visualized each member of my class inventing a gadget; however, my class seemed to be suggesting something else. At that moment, I reminded myself that the purpose of this project was for my students to experience the invention process. What really mattered was that they experienced the process and the joy of inventing.

By not limiting or over-defining the requirements of this project, I allowed my students to pursue their own invention ideas. After all, encouraging students to invest themselves in their work is like granting inventors the freedom to invent.

Grier White

By Grier White

A pretty wonderful thing happened today in my classroom at The Jefferson School. Shortly into the afternoon, I stopped following my lesson plan. That’s right, scrapped everything left in the period!

For a few weeks now, I’ve been reading aloud Flying Solo (Ralph Fletcher) to my mixed class of fifth and sixth graders. I had thought that my period of “read aloud” today would serve as transition between recess and “getting down to business.” The “business” would include a continuation of group research, some mapping, a quick spelling quiz, and – time permitting – introduction of some terms for a new vocabulary unit.

We were nearing the end of “Solo” when I spotted an opportunity. The story follows a class of sixth graders whose beloved teacher, Mr. Fabiano, is absent one day. A communication breakdown results in no substitute showing that day; the students eventually make it almost through to the end of the day before being found out. Their day has been very interesting and challenging yet productive. Their experience, of course, creates great controversy, and upon Mr. Fabiano’s return, they are assigned to write about their day.

I decided – rather abruptly – to stop reading, informing the children that the book ends with selected students’ messages. Of course, there were groans from among my students that I wasn’t finishing at that point. The reason why? It was time for them to respond!

I directed my students to pretend that each would be a student who would need to now write a letter about the adventures of their day. Each could write to Mr. Fabiano, as himself/herself or as one of the characters, or to me and/or my teaching partner Mr. John.

The class response was great and immediate, with some students starting to write, while others first had brief exchanges with classmates. Rate of engagement was at maximum and remained so as we ended the class with some students – selected by chance -   reading their responses, alternating with my reading responses from the book.

But wait, what about those things mentioned above that I had just pushed to the side? The answer lies in the beauty of working at a private, independent school such as The Jefferson School. Teachers and their students are afforded a luxury, a luxury known as TIME. So many factors work together for us to accomplish so much in the learning environment that we have established here. My class will eventually get to the “business” that had been planned; there will be no price to pay for having deviated from the plan; and, in the not-too-distant future, we’ll seize another opportunity like the one we had today. And again, the benefits will be many and great.

John Gause

By John Gause

Just the other night I heard it again on the nightly news. Brian Williams from NBC said it with an almost cliché nonchalance. The U.S, is “lagging behind other countries in tests of some basic skills…” The gut reaction is to think that we need to get better at those tests. We need to get back to the days when we had a focus on “basic skills.” But just what are those tests?

Chances are good that they are a series of questions with no context. Read this passage – answer these questions. Find the missing punctuation in this sentence that you didn’t write to begin with. Perform these calculations but the correct answer may not be among your choices. I’m blogging now because I’m going say what I think: Basic skills are very important, but most of these “tests” that we hear so much about are meaningless as a measure for how we should design our education system.

Teaching kids to do well on these tests does not necessarily make them more fluent with basic skills, much less provide them with a foundation to form higher-level, critical-thinking skills.

Pretend that these tests that Brian Williams referenced don’t exist – no magnet pulling our curricula, our methods and our entire decision-making process toward it like moths to a flame. Now, ask yourself, in this test vacuum, what do we want for our kids? What do we want to give them in the years they spend in classrooms? How do we want them to emerge?

Let’s be clear, I’m not advocating a lack of testing. I believe strongly in it when it is used properly. Tests are a part of life. But they are just a small part of the picture. They are a tool to further the goals of our education system, and not an end unto themselves.

Changing our assumptions about testing won’t automatically change every classroom into a productive learning environment. It won’t make every kid excited about everything they need to learn. As teachers, we need to be very disciplined and very reflective about our practice. If we decide to rely less on tests, what do we rely on? How else do we assess? How do we motivate? What methods are most effective in the classroom? How do we provide our kids with the structure they need as well as the freedom to develop their full potential? How do we report on progress? These are questions about how kids learn. These are the questions we need to ask and answer. I’ll give it a shot in my next blog!

John Gause

By John Gause

For me, school had a lot to do with filling in the blanks, but I want my kids to have a different experience than connecting the dots – someone else’s dots. I don’t want them to think of the world as a place where they have to find a niche. I want them to think of the world as a place where they can create a niche.

I’m not saying that all of mainstream education is designed to provide a narrower set of skills than what I see as possible. But I do think there is a lot of room for discussion about ways to approach education and assumptions we make about teaching and learning.

The perspective that I have to offer is not that independent schools have all the answers. It’s not that mainstream education doesn’t offer wonderful and rich opportunities for students. It’s simply that there are different ways to “do” education – ways that that are tested and proven effective. Terms like “student-centered,” “project-based,” “integrated curriculum,” “non-graded” don’t mean a compromise on hard work and mastery of skills. They don’t mean a lack of structure; they mean a different kind of structure.

Embracing different ideas in education does not mean a lessening of standards. It strengthens them. It enriches them as more than just a level of achievement, but a type of achievement.

These ideas no longer require a leap of faith for me. I see education as a parent and as a teacher. Kids can become disciplined, enthusiastic learners, well prepared to take tests and confront the challenges of higher learning and beyond, through a variety of methods. A culture of deadlines and achievement scores is not a pre-requisite for high standards in education. We should not be asking for ways that we can “get ahead” or “measure up.” The way forward should be to ask, “How do children best learn and grow?” So after nearly 20 years of teaching, and after these few recent hours of considered prose, and after asking this question, it seems I have come upon a place at which I might begin to blog.