Children learn deeply and cultivate a life-long love of learning through experience. At Baker, children master grade-level reading, writing, and mathematics skills, as well as inquiry-based skills through the Next Generation Science Standards. The vehicle for their learning is experience, rather than completing worksheets, memorizing, or listening to a lecture. Let me paint a picture
Dear Families, Last week I wrote about our new thinking routine, where children are paired together in order to speak and listen to each other as they talk through a problem or question that has been posed. This speaking/listening routine is part of what is termed oracy and is the first step in acquiring reading and
Lake Pontchartrain Causeway The World’s Longest Beam Bridge Over Water This week we began our study of bridges in earnest. We began by giving the children some challenges to build a variety of bridge structures with limited materials. One challenge was to see who could make the longest bridge. After some reflecting, the children realized
“It’s Optimistic. Design Thinking is the fundamental belief that we all can create change—no matter how big a problem, how little time or how small a budget.” -Design Thinking for Educators Toolkit As I shared in my Back to School Night welcome, our theme for this 2019-2020 school year at Baker is Design. Each year
Dear Parents, I hope that last week’s back-to-school transition went well for your family. Children and young adults, depending upon their age and disposition, experience transitions in different ways. There is no right or wrong way for children to transition; some test the waters slowly, while others jump into the deep end ready to go!
On this first day of school, I walked through Baker classrooms where I observed a group of preschoolers busily creating a meal in the outdoor kitchen, while another group talked about the food they were making by rolling, cutting, and shaping clay. Our 4th graders were planning an afternoon exploration to the lake – complete
Baker graduates, parents, grandparents, teachers, staff, alumni and friends, Welcome to Baker Demonstration School’s 2019 Eighth Grade Graduation. It is an auspicious year for this annual ceremony. Graduates, your graduation occurs within Baker’s Centennial Year. You are a part of a school that began one-hundred years ago. Baker Demonstration School was a radical departure from traditional
Math happens at school every day, but I want to tell you about a new way we are building math and literacy skills in the classroom. I have been using this daily routine (during the last few months of school) for the past three years. Have you noticed the new check in method at the
We know from the last two decades of neuroscience research that a healthy brain is essential for humans to thrive. We know through research that our brains are in a constant state of change based upon our our environments, interactions and experiences, and, they continue to change throughout the course of the human lifespan. As
Author: Jane Rothschild, 2nd grade teacher Dear Families, As part of our observance of Black History Month, we talked about the Black Heroes and Leaders we have studied as a class thus far: Wangari Maathai, Isatou Ceesay, Emmanuel Yeboah, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, and Ruby Bridges. Second graders talked about what we have learned
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