Photos
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Reimagined Classrooms Invite Collaborative Learning
Hillbrook School’s classrooms are changing and everyone has something to say about it. Eighth graders, believing their art studio was “too adult and too organized,” submitted a petition for its “re-messification.” Last year, over a dozen teachers agreed to begin substantially altering their classrooms and then asked questions about how the changes—which included physical redesigns […]
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It’s in the Music: Students Help Revive Memories for Dementia Patients
A new partnership between The Healdsburg School and a local senior living community brings seventh and eighth graders together with residents suffering from moderate or acute dementia. Coordinated by science teacher Carrie Smith and two Healdsburg Senior Living directors, the project was inspired by “Alive Inside,” a documentary showing how music can elicit memories and […]
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Students Use Technical Skills for Greater Good
All Lick-Wilmerding High School students take a minimum of two years of technical arts classes, including participation in a unique partnership that puts design-thinking skills to work for the benefit of others. The “Private Skills, Public Purpose” (PSPP) class begins with an empathetic stance—an in-depth study of social inequities and an exploration of privilege in […]
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Settlers in the Woods
Inspired by the work of John Hunter, 5th grade Valley School teacher, Tracy Courtney, undertook a new application for teaching U.S. colonization: the woods. Students deeply explored the academic side of this period of history, but core to the curriculum was the opportunity for students to experience the successes, failures and challenges that the colonists […]
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How Girls Become Effective, Compassionate Leaders
Castilleja School’s Center for Awareness, Compassion, and Engagement (ACE) gives girls the skills to transition from witnessing the world around them to becoming active stakeholders, emerging change agents, and compassionate leaders. The school’s Social and Emotional Learning Program (SEL) provides them with the necessary scaffolding to take on these challenges. With raised awareness, compassion, and […]
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Aspen Academy’s Spanish Muralist Club
Aspen Academy’s Spanish Muralist Club encourages student artists to explore Spanish history through their creative talent. This semester, our students learned about Mexican artists, Posada, Clemente, Kahlo, and Rivera, and the effect that major historical events had on their individual styles. The result was their elongated Dia de los muertos ‘esqueleto’ that was displayed at […]
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Adventure, Math, and Writing Animate History
Back in the mid-1800s, when the pioneers set off on the Oregon Trail from Missouri, it took about five months to make the grueling 2,000-mile expedition by covered wagon. This fall, thanks to modern technology and creative teachers, Principia School’s third-grade students have virtually and directly experienced the same journey over a period of just […]
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Mindfulness Brings Healthier, Happier Lives for Students and Teachers
Greenhill School began offering Inner Light: Traditions and Paths of Meditation to juniors and seniors in 2009. The elective class was aimed at honing personal awareness and mindfulness, skills that help manage stress and encourage healthier choices. Soon after, recurring student feedback—“I wish I’d had this earlier”—caught the attention of Upper School administrators. “We realized […]
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The Human Body and Ableism
In third grade CDS students deepen their study of the human body through a Community Based Learning unit about ableism. Students participate in several simulations that provide them with first-hand experience of what it’s like to be differently abled. First, they conduct joint task immobilizations where they limit the use of some of their finger […]
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Take Them Outside!
At CDS, the inspiring outdoor preschool classroom helps children uncover their creative selves. Did you know that studies indicate that children like to play with natural materials—such as stumps, rocks, sticks, seeds, leaves and pine cones—more than human-engineered playground equipment? In our amazing outdoor learning space the children have access to a fabulous mud kitchen […]
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Finding a Different Mindset: Girls Learn from Positive Stereotypes
Inspired by the work noted social psychologist Claude Steele began on stereotype threat, Laurel School’s Center for Research on Girls designed programming to counteract the effects that girls, a group negatively stereotyped in terms of math and science ability, may feel in high-stakes testing situations. For the past five years, Laurel has educated its upper […]
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Caring in the Classroom Unites a School Community
At Prospect Sierra Middle School, fifth graders, led by a trained facilitator, enjoy a year-long relationship with a baby and the family. Lessons about emotions, temperament, brain development, trust, and child safety and care are integral to the process. “I love Baby Bryn,” says one student. “Even when she cries, we feel sad for her […]