While it is a sensitive period in terms of the brain’s development, middle school is a time in the life of children where the opportunity for connection and creativity is infinite. Baker middle school teachers deeply love the age – its attending worries, moments of awkwardness, and opportunities for joy – and care for students’
Even though Baker is locally situated on Chicago’s North Shore, its history and teaching practices have a national reputation. Many teachers come to Baker early in their career and are deeply influenced by the experience of teaching in such a unique progressive school. In upcoming blogs, we are excited to feature some of our alumni,
“… They started dreaming of all the Invisible Strings they have, and all the strings their friends have,and their friends have, and their friends have,until everyone in the world was connected by Invisible Strings.” (The Invisible String by Patrice Karst) First graders at Baker Demonstration School have been immersed in some really big ideas
It is important to know that learning about diversity, equity and inclusion is not something that happens at specific times of the year – it happens all year! Though we are taking special time to emphasize Black Lives Matter Week in Schools and Black History Month, the majority of learning happens in response to children’s
“Schools with the most freedom to act and the greatest power to affect change must not be fortresses and silos. They must be laboratories and lighthouses. And all of us, wherever we send our children, must begin to see ourselves as caretakers of all that the light can shine upon.” -Jack Schneider, How Private Schools
On Wandering Wednesday #17, the Kindergarten class was so excited to tour behind the scenes at the Wilmette Post Office. It was a great place to tour because the people were exceptionally wonderful with the kids. This Post Office was relatively small, making it clear and easy to see how everything is handled on a
Today, we were joined by a group of middle school students working to make a movie about Wandering Wednesdays. That’s pretty cool, so we were planning for a memorable day. And, if you’ve talked to your kindergartner, I’m guessing you’ve heard about the big event of Wandering Wednesday #16…but before we get to our adventurous
“Allow for the possibility that the best stuff is still ahead of you, waiting to reveal itself. Prepare the way, bit by bit.” -Lin-Manuel Miranda The habits of mind common to January is best embodied in the figure of its namesake, Janus, the two-headed figure of classical renown. One gaze is oriented to the past,
Today, we had our first experience taking the “el” together as a class. More than half of the children said that Wandering Wednesday #15 was their first time ever on the train (or at least that they could remember). They were very excited to look out the window and find things along the way that
It struck me today as we were outside in the frigid (new vocabulary word) weather, that the experience of braving the cold to get outdoors is an incredibly valuable one. Sadly, in regions of the world that go through many months of winter, the majority of people spend their entire day indoors going from fluorescent
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