Category Archives: Uncategorized

This post was authored by Buck Cooper. The 8th Grade team tried something new this year–experiential learning week. In years past, we have had field trips and service learning days sprinkled across the year. This year, we agreed that the final week of 3rd quarter would be handed over completely to three experiential learning opportunitiesContinue reading “Why Not Lean INTO the last week of third quarter by Embracing Spring Fever through Experiential Learning?: The 8th Grade Team says “Hell Yes. Let’s Do It.””

Remember when you were a kid and it often felt like all the adults were in a room making decisions about you and never asking you what you wanted or believed? Yeah- sometimes that’s kinda like our schools.  And also kinda like this blog. So for once (call it spring fever) I decided to ventureContinue reading “Spring has Sprung: Student Edition”

Let’s face it.  We are all losing our minds. Or at least a little bit. This month’s theme of “Spring has Sprung” can allude to joy and rainbows and warm weather and blooming all around us.  But it can also bring to mind severe weather, chaotic winds, uncontrollable sneezes, and the evaporation of best laidContinue reading “Spring Has Sprung: Teacher Edition”

It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood for Kim Sewell (PK4), Andrea Stallings (ECC Instructional Assistant), and Ruth Fletcher (Little Chapel) to delve deep with their educator and Momma hats into all things Mr. Rogers.  In their honest conversation, it becomes clear that the recent resurgence of interest around the show and man behind Mr.Continue reading “(Ep. 3) Motion Pictures Meets Reality: Learning the Art of Slowing Down from Mr. Rogers”

Raise your hand if you want to go back to middle school.  Anyone? Anyone? (Why is it so quiet in here all of a sudden?) If the thought of re-inhabiting your 13 year old skin makes you cringe, you should be warned, Bo Burnham’s portrayal of Kayla’s culminating middle school year in Eighth Grade mightContinue reading “(Episode 2 Drop) Motion Pictures Meets Reality: “Eighth Grade” Takes Us Back to the most Visceral Truths of Coming-of-Age”

We got really deep in our last podcast season. The word accountability doesn’t exactly evoke flowers and rainbows, particularly in the context of schooling. Those conversations were powerful, real, and needed. But we (Toby, Kim, Michelle, Rachel, Buck, and Hollie) decided it was time for something a little lighter. This spring we are excited toContinue reading “Launching our most FUN Podcast Season Yet: Motion Pictures Meet Reality!”

Most of the time talk about differentiation brings to mind open-ended projects and choice.  Giving students multiple avenues to show what they know is key to making room for meaning making.  But what about the ideological differences students bring to classroom spaces?  History, which inevitably involves interpretation that shunts between today, yesterday, and tomorrow,  isContinue reading “Flavors of Differentiation in Paul Buckley’s “Age of Jackson” Unit”

The word is FUN.  There’s not a whole lot of chance for kids to just have fun . . and let it be their choice, because they are being driven to this practice and that practice, doing homework in the minivan.  All three of us offer and do things with the kids that parents sayContinue reading “When the (Official) Day is Done: Discovering “WHAT ELSE” After School”

This post was contributed by Buck Cooper. I can tell you the day that I made peace with children falling asleep in my class. I was in the second semester of my first year teaching at (then) T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Virginia. Another teacher friend who taught at a high school in NorthContinue reading “Meeting Students Where They Are: How do I Respond when a Kid Falls Asleep in My Class?”

A few weeks ago, a group from the Lower School made the trip down to New Orleans for some of the most enjoyable professional development, school visits! Maya Buford, Jessica Farris, Kathy Vial, Mayson McKey, Sara Clark, Sarah Walker, and myself spent two days visiting schools in Metarie and New Orleans. The group visited St.Continue reading “In a land far, far away… Well, not really.”

Elephant in the room: 100% commitment to 24/7 differentiation in any classroom, in its purest and most consistent form, is probably unattainable for a teacher with any semblance of work/life balance.  Why? It takes a whole lot of that slippery, precious precious resource: time. Maybe it’s possible if you are homeschooling your single child atContinue reading “Let’s Get Real about Time, Differentiation, and Sustainability”

This post was contributed by Michelle Portera. I know a girl. A very smart, beautiful girl who can be shy around her peers. She is passionate about science and her brain is constantly wondering things about the world. She likes who she is and is ok with the fact that others may not always valueContinue reading “You’re Doing It!”

Sometimes when I leave my office or a classroom and head down to the ARC, I feel like I’m entering an entirely different world. Indeed, in some ways, the workflow of a coach is nearly unrecognizable from a faculty member’s: starting in earnest before school, loosening up during the school day, and then really ampingContinue reading “Meeting Each Athlete Where They Are: The Coaching/Teaching Connection”

This post was contributed by Hollie Marjanovic. Last November I had the amazing opportunity to attend the Learning and the Brain Conference.  The last speaker was a man named Principal Baruti Kafele.  It was appropriate that he spoke to us on Sunday morning, because as the saying goes….he took us to church.  His passion forContinue reading “It’s the Who and Not the What”

This post is contributed by Linda Rodriguez. I grew up in the age of sages.  Teachers who knew and imparted vast amounts of factual wisdom – so much that my hand would ache trying to copy even just the gist of what they said.  Classrooms were quiet places of rarified knowledge with teacher-wizards who pulledContinue reading “Guiding from the Side”

(Or in my case, the 8th graders who are usually in front of Matt Hosler) I haven’t been in classrooms as much this year.  Blame it on accreditation; blame it on misplaced priorities.  I have missed it.  Beyond missed it.  So when Matt Hosler asked if I might be interested in taking over his 8thContinue reading “Introducing the Jan/Feb 2023 Blog Blast Theme: Teaching the Students in Front of Us”

This post was contributed by Buck Cooper. At last count, I had nine (9) different ways to brew a cup of coffee. Each one has something to commend it. I love the sheer beauty of the all glass, but wood trimmed Chemex and the smoothness of the brew, which usually brings out the sweetness ofContinue reading “Tis the Season for All the Ways to Make Coffee”

This post was contributed by Kim Sewell. I’m not sure if there is a ‘season’ for Professional Development since we teachers seem to do it constantly. Whether it’s reading articles we’ve found or have been shared, or we go to the weekly Wednesday PD, or our bi-yearly whole school PDs, reading books, listening to podcasts,Continue reading “Tis the Season for Professional Development”

As you’ve likely heard, we apparently had the largest number of students/faculty traveling EVER that last few days before Thanksgiving break.  I was one such lucky human, and I got to hang out with Susan Pace, Cullen Brown, and Monica Colletti in Anaheim, California. We went to some great sessions, ate some amazing Thai food,Continue reading “Tis the Season for Conferences and Global Travel and Trips Oh My!”

I know my title is teaching and learning.  And I know that every teacher worth their salt cares deeply about EVERY SINGLE SECOND they are allocated for class time.  We have so much to cover! NEVER enough time! The kids seem like they need longer to get it, too. And so much time is spentContinue reading “Tis the Season . . . For Class Disruptions!”