July 26, 2018 · professional development
As co-teachers, we get to come up with joint educational Halloween costumes! This school year, I’m adding a new role to my plate: Co-Teaching Facilitator! I’ll still be working as a 3rd grade teacher, but also hope to work with teacher teams and support them (and their collaboration). I’m very fortunate to work at a school where Lower School (K-5) Homeroom classrooms have co-teachers (and of course to have this opportunity to try out a new role without having to stop teaching!) and would like to support other teacher teams to utilize all the great opportunities that come along with co-teaching. Even if you don’t (or cannot) co-teach, collaborating with other teachers is so valuable for so many reasons! I find having another adult in the room is so valuable (not only because I can actually go to the bathroom if need be) in many ways, but especially in terms of making observations and
co-teachingco-teaching facilitatorcollaboration
January 27, 2017 · simulations
"Well in the real world not everyone can get everything and this kind of showed me that not all our decision making processes are fair." Notes on our whiteboard from the students' brainstorming and decision making process. How it Works: Yesterday in Social Studies, we did our Sinking Ship simulation (idea credit: we first read about this here ). We had the students in half groups (when half the class is with us and half the class is with a different teacher) so we only had 13 students at a time. For each group, we started by handing out “assignments” on folded slips of paper. The different roles were: migrant worker senator someone who is currently unemployed child firefighter teacher nurse doctor babysitter college student taxi driver lawyer scientist We then asked our students to get in a circle and told them that they were on a sinking ship, and there were only FIVE spots in the
simulationsocial justice educationproblem solvingcollaborationSocial Studies
June 30, 2016 · curriculum
Two students dressed up as US on "Character Day" (for Spirit Week at the end of the year)! Now that it is FINALLY summer (happy summer, teachers! Congratulations on the end of the school year!) We had free time to work on a summer curriculum and instruction program within our entire school. We compiled a social justice education scope and sequence based on existing work and needs from an anti-bias perspective. I (Nina) worked with one of the Art teachers and our author in residence to come up with common vocabulary, document existing work, and identify gaps or areas we'd like to see more work done. For reference, our school is K-8 and independent with one class per grade. First of all, it was fascinating and inspiring to hear about and detail the work our colleagues are doing! We have some amazing investigative work around gender in Kindergarten, work around social class, wealth,
social justice educationscope and sequencecollaboration