Peaceful forts is the rule

We've had a beautiful fall.  The colors, the warm days, the light filtering through the red and orange leaves...

This morning I wished a sunny day to one of our parents and he said that since his job is in a basement, he can't see the sun.  I feel so sad for him!  It is so wonderful to work in a light-filled space with the sun streaming in my windows.

Being outside in the light is a freedom and privilege that we try to maximize at school - especially since we are the beneficiaries of a 77 acre outdoor classroom.  We recognize that kids' day is ruled by adults so much of the time, so committing to get them outdoors for an hour or two a day is a priority.

We are doing a construction project right now that has put the play structure for grades K - 8 off limits and we have moved recess to the field and woods.  It is definitely fun - but as in many ventures with children, needs regular adjustments.

Here is part of an email that one teacher sent around over the weekend asking others to join in a meeting with the K - 5 children. (When you read this, you will see why I truly love my job!)

With forts, there are lots of concerns about exclusion (kids telling others they aren't allowed in their fort, cloaked in "there's no room"), kids "stealing" things or "destroying" the forts of others when unoccupied, which has led to guards, and plots to attack. My guys also complained that there were secret passwords and security guards who kept people out. I wouldn't say my kids are up in arms, but there's a lot of uncertainty and hard feelings in the works. As for sticks, I heard they are still being used as weapons and a bunch of my kids said that sword fighting is happening when the adults aren't looking. I did feel the other day that the consent given to use sticks for digging has become a definite loop hole. 

So, there was a meeting this morning at 9:00 and the kids and teachers came up with some new guidelines:
Peaceful forts is the rule...sticks can only be used to build forts, not to dig or for weapons...forts can only be destroyed with the consent of all builders...

It was definitely more peaceful today.  At recess, I was reminded that kids' natural proclivity is to be very industrious.  They were working very hard on forts, a new bridge, a see-saw - and I heard a lot of negotiation and talk to remind each other and themselves about the rules.  Sitting down together this morning to work it all out was a crucial process for the peaceful day we had.

I am tempted to take this lesson and apply it to our country's political process, and my optimistic view is that elections, debating among ourselves and voting are the ways we set and reset our rules in pursuit of industriousness and fairness.  I think "peaceful forts" is a pretty good rule.

Where the outdoors is both classroom and teacher

Kids are wired from birth to be scientists - to explore and discover things and use their senses.

Fourth and fifth graders today were begging to stay in the woods to continue their New York forest study.  They have each adopted a tree for a year-long project.  Tasks include describing the tree, drawing the tree from different perspectives like lying down or from above, writing a poem about the tree, and scientific investigation.

K-1's are studying salamanders and 2-3's are starting the year with their annual water study and participation in the DEC's Day in the Life of the Hudson River.  Middle schoolers have started something new - The Nature Patchwork Project, observing an area of the school's property for a year, and creating detailed nature observation journals that they will publish to Pinterest as a way to share their findings publicly.

Thomas Friedman in a September Op-ed We Are All Noah Now urges our generation  - and our children's  - to be the "Noah generation" - charged with saving the earth and its species from extinction.  To care about nature, children need to be immersed in nature and be environmentally literate.  In today's tech-focused world, that's not so easy.

How lucky are we that Parker is at the cutting edge of pedagogy in a unique learning environment, where the outdoors is a classroom and a teacher both?!

Time to catch a frog

It's a whirlwind at the end of the school year.  Now as the perfect blue of the June sky beckons, it's time to go out and catch a frog.

There is something about the rhythm and pattern of our school lives that leads to a winding up at the end of the year - and then an inevitable winding down.  Could it be that Shows of Work, field trips, launching a student-made boat on the pond, graduation speeches, our 25th Anniversary Celebration, a ground-breaking ceremony, the Board of Trustees annual retreat...et al...leave us craving the relative simplicity of summer?  Would we feel such a sense of accomplishment and the sweet pleasure of an iced tea on the patio if the ending of the year were not so frenetic?!

On the radio the other day, I heard a song I fondly remember from childhood and our family's seemingly endless seven-hour drive to the beach every summer.  Now I'm dating myself -  it was Nat King Cole's Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days of Summer.  That song just sounds like summer to me.

I think that "lazy" is the key word.  It is great to be lazy in the summer - and it can be the impetus for flights of crazy imagination.  Lin-Manuel Miranda, creator of Broadway's Hamilton expresses it beautifully in this interview in GQ about how the key to parenting might be less parenting.   He recalls a car ride as a kid where a friend entertained himself with a stick - just a stick - for three hours.

At Planet Parker camp, kids are often down at the pond catching frogs - and they develop a whole fantasy about even that.  "This frog can't afford us," I heard one girl say.  What funny story about frogs lead to that idea?!

So, it's officially summer - grab a soda, some pretzels and a beer - or a frog - and enjoy some lazy days.  You've earned it!

The gift of learning in nature

Boy, are we fortunate!  I just read an article from the US Department of Education talking about the benefits of a nature-based curriculum.  Here is the photo with their article:

At least these kids are outside and have a tree to study.  I recently visited a very fine school in Rye, NY. Their facilities were impressive.  But I felt so confined in large buildings without the sun streaming into the windows and a view of the woods from every perspective.

How amazing for our kids at Parker to be able to head into the woods and meadows, the streams and pond in a moment.  The living world around us amazes every day.  The wonder and solitude and the possibilities for learning that come from time with nature are part of our everyday school lives.

We have all the benefits of a rich curriculum, smart and caring teachers, and a culture of caring.  And on top of that we have the gift of the best facility of all:  a 77 acre outdoor classroom.

Robotics to tree forts - the balancing act

Technology is such a mixed bag.  Building a LEGO robot and programming it to do very cool stuff - that's truly fun.  And so is building an awesome tree fort.

I remember as a child, begging to watch the hour of cartoons available on TV on Saturday mornings before I was told to "Go out and play!"  That part lasted the rest of the day.

Finding the balance for our kids today is challenging.  How much computer time is OK?  How can we make sure our kids are getting time outside for exploring?  Both build skills they will need in their futures: intellectual acuity, perseverance, ingenuity, a creative mindset, emotional stamina, flexibility and cooperation.

Teachers struggle with this balance, too.  When should we start teaching keyboarding?  How young is too young for learning through apps?  Here is an interesting article from MindShift about an experiment that shows that pencil and paper note-taking is much more effective for recall and analysis than taking notes on a computer.  The brain processes information in many ways, and we want to get it right!

This summer our faculty is reading Catherine Steiner-Adair's book, The Big Disconnect.  I've heard her speak and she is compelling in her arguments against screen time for both adults and kids.  Our reliance on our phones and iPads  - our literal addiction to our devices - prevents us from connecting on an emotional level with those we love most.

Teachers will be discussing The Big Disconnect this fall and we'll hold some discussions with parents, too.  I hope you will join in the conversation!

Where children yearn to be

Learning, like fire without oxygen, can suffocate without freedom.

In her Times Union editorial, Picturing Education on a Bell Curve, Kristin Christman bemoans the strictures placed around traditional schooling.  Why does school have to be the way it is?  Why can't we be more creative in how we structure school?

I have often wondered the same thing.  Does the lunch room have to be a loud place lacking in civility?  Why is there a rigid schedule that leaves out time for flexibility and play?  I recall as a child feeling like school was a long sentence stretching far into my future. Summer was the welcomed reprieve for losing myself in a book, and during my six weeks of camp in the mountains an unbelievably free time to discover what seemed far more real and important than what happened during the school year.

As progressive school educators, we have the luxurious freedom to work with like-minded colleagues to craft a school experience that puts the children first.  We can make school interesting and fun.  We can eat lunch at small tables with friendly civility.  We can take the afternoon for Muddy Boots Club or a week for tinkering with engines and planning how to do "good" in the world.  We like to ask ourselves, how can we best capture children's hearts and minds?  How can we make school the place children yearn to come?

School  - and at Parker that includes summer camp - is meant for intense friendships and self-discovery, where kids can get lost in a good book, tinker, dance, experiment and play in the woods. A place where kids learn to question and think, to hold themselves to the highest standards because it matters.

Christman has it right: To thrive, children require sleep, shelter, nutrition, fresh air, nature, athletics, play, love, family, friends, stimulation, education, community, a sense of power and purpose, and freedom to pursue their passions. Of course school should be that place where children thrive!

Getting kids to sit still

I love the things that neuroscience re-teaches us.  In this great article called The right- and surprisingly wrong - ways to get children to sit still in class we learn that the ways at Parker that we get children to "sit still" are supported by science.

We have lots of recess every day.  It's outside, unless it's raining.  Kids roll down hills, explore in the woods, and are determined to master the monkey bars.  (As it turns out, running around, rolling down hills, and hanging upside down are essential activities for stimulating the inner ear - leading to development of balance.)

There's Muddy Boots Club, too, and sled-riding in winter.  We have 2,000 Steps for middle school - a time in the morning for walking and talking - recess, and an outdoor "brain break" every afternoon.

Founder of TimberNook, a nature-based development program, Angela Hanscom says, "All (that's) needed is time and practice to play with peers in the woods – in order to foster emotional, physical, and social development."

It is interesting that the things that children do naturally - rolling down hills, building giant block structures, or lying upside down on the furniture - are almost absent in traditional school settings.  By giving children time to do what they love, they can much better do what we adults need them to do (for at least a little part of the day) - sit still.

Passion for living

What a week at school!  Our treasured middle school visitors from St. Peter's School in Barcelona have been here all week, living with our host families.  They toured the capitol and the State Museum with 6-7's.  8th graders went to a Poe presentation by the Capital Rep.  On Wednesday the whole middle school went bowling after school - and dancing, too.  Thursday was a day at the Hudson River doing water quality testing - the cold and rain couldn't stop us!  2-3's and 6-7's were intrepid scientists, undeterred by the conditions.  This afternoon there is a soccer game and our St. Peter's friends are joining in.

Today was Robert C. Parker Day  - everyone performed at Assembly, including the new chorus, and our Barcelona friends expressed their thanks for a wonderful time.  This poem was written for the day and characterizes Bob Parker, former Head at Emma Willard School and an inspiring educator who died in 1986. It's a great way to end a week of learning, international friendship and fun.

 RCP Day Poem by Seth's Advisory

From tower with his trumpet playing

Wise words he was always saying

To rivers with his paddle rowing

The best example he was showing

On mountains to the top he’d climb

To him books were divine

Television he found boring

He preferred to learn by exploring

From students he expected the best

He wanted for them great success

In the countryside he would run

For him this challenge was fun

He showed great passion for living

Even today, he continues giving

The new pond

Everyone is loving the new pond.  It has been an exciting setting for science classes in almost every grade.  Students are observing how it is evolving, what creatures it is holding, the nearby insects and plants, animal tracks...

Today a group of 2-3's led me urgently (yet quietly!) to see a brilliant green frog peering out near the shore.  What a way to hook children's interest in science and the natural world.  And to think it's all right in our back yard! 

School is a lot like summer camp

When children are interested in learning for learning's sake, you know something is going right in their schooling.  Rewarding students for taking intellectual risks helps them develop a mastery mindset, where motivation and engagement are high, and performance anxiety is low.  Kind of like summer camp.

This article in Mind Shift, What Schools Can Learn from Summer Camps hits the mark on something I like to think about: how at Parker we try to make school a lot like camp.  Camp is fun and spirited.  Kids pick things they are interested in: rockets, outdoor survival, LEGO robotics, cool chemistry, or cartooning to name just a few.  They sing together and play in the woods.  They bond with friends and counselors.  They love camp!

At its best, school is like that, too.  Exciting and interesting - a place where you can take on something you're not sure you can do.  Friendships are forged in the throes of shared experiences, working out conflicts, and when teams figure out how to work together.  Students find out that taking a risk has huge rewards, whether they are successful or not.

At Parker, we are so fortunate that the natural elements are in place: the creeks and woods, the pond and meadows.  We have developed a program that turns those features into benefits: capitalizing on the natural world to help children develop their tolerance for risk-taking, life-long curiosity and the courage and confidence to explore.

Kids need adventure

All right - we won't go quite as far as creating The Land as described in The Atlantic's article The Overprotected Kid.  But our Planet Parker Summer Program has elements of crazy - and that's why kids love it.  The new brochure is here.  Sign your kids up today for some old fashioned adventures!

 

Science pond

Every day in this cold, cold weather, the excavators and the big dump trucks are working away.  We have all watched with fascination as the new science pond takes shape!

The pond will be a great feature of our outdoor-based science program and a centerpiece for exploring water ecosystems, clean water advocacy, and STEM.

It is being dug at the site of what we believe was the former farm pond.  When it is done, it will be about a half-acre in size, with gently graduated sides and a depth of 8 feet in the center.  We’ll put some split-rail fencing with mesh at crucial spots around the perimeter and plan to add a deck and a pond shed for storing buckets and nets and all the other equipment needed for pond exploration.

The strategic idea for a science pond came about at forums and discussions with trustees, parents and teachers about how to maximize the natural science features at Parker.  The streams, woods, meadows and wetlands are all wonderful elements of discovery and analysis for our students, so creating our very own pond seemed to be the natural next step.  With the generous initial funding of a special donor and the guidance of the school’s Planet Parker Committee, coordinated by Jamie Crouse, we were able to get started this winter.

One of the biggest questions for the Planet Parker Committee was “Where do we put the fill?”  Take a look at the east side of our parking lot and you will see the natural solution to our parking issues when we have big events: an expanded parking area!  We will keep it grassy and it will be great for parking overflow.

The next phase of the project is watching the pond fill with water from the water table.  I am sure there will be mud!  But then the native plants will fill in on the banks and the meadow will seed itself again.  Students have been charting the man-made changes to the site and now they will have the opportunity to see how the land restores itself and what wildlife and plants make their new home at the Parker pond!

Citizen science at work

This was our fifth year collecting data on the Hudson River for Snapshot Day.  All the information goes to Lamont Dougherty Earth Observatory at Columbia for analysis in this DEC project involving over 70 schools from the Troy Dam to Manhattan.  The 2-3's and 6-7's take their responsibilities seriously as they measure turbidity, pH, salinity, water and tide flow, and collect sediment samples, micro-invertebrates, and other measurements of river health. 

They get the thrill of being in the field and tracking this majestic river's health over time, monitoring the effects of human and weather activity.  Citizen scientist experiences like this lend purpose and passion to the learning for Parker kids - highly motivating!

Muddy Boots Club

I had as much fun as the kids finding fall leaves and leaping frogs in Muddy Boots Club this afternoon! 

Can children grow up without play?

 

You can’t teach creativity; all you can do is let it blossom, and it blossoms in play  ~ Peter Gray


Here is an interesting article about playing and how it is an essential way for children to learn about the world, themselves and others: The Play Deficit by evolutionary psychologist Peter Gray.  Through play kids learn negotiation, empathy, inginuity and other skills that have been identified as markers for success in life.

Having grown up in a time in the 50's and 60's that the author talks about as being the golden years for children's play - when childhood was completely filled with unstructured time for wandering, getting into and out of trouble, and running with a gang of mixed age neighborhood kids, maybe it is just my nostalgia that makes Gray's ideas ring true.  But watching children at Parker every day and seeing their real need  - and joy - to run, tumble, tussle, build, dig and interact with imagination, I think he and other educators and psycholigsts are on the right track.

Maybe that's why I love Planet Parker summer camp and Muddy Boots Club and why I feel so strongly that we need to carve out a place for play at school.

What are your thoughts?  What challenges do we face? 

The 77 acre classroom

There is probably nothing at school that is cooler than going outside to find new things on a beautiful day.  How lucky we are that such beauty is in our backyard!

Move!

Moving!  It is so important for developing minds and overall health.  Here is a great article from Children and Nature Network: "Sitting is the New Smoking!"  Richard Louv says "A growing body of evidence indicates that children need far more activity, including unstructured play, to improve health, cognition and emotional well-being. Nature-based exercise appears to be especially effective."

Getting off our seats and onto our feet inside and out adds a priceless balance to our lives at Parker.  And it makes us smarter!

Clean water advocacy

Amazing day on the river collecting water and weather data for Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory and the DEC.  Thank you to the many parents who helped out, too!  This year we found many fish - even the rare-to-spot striped sea bass, spawned last spring.  Click here for more about Hudson River Snapshot Day.