When I was in college, I kept a notebook of interviews that I had with my grandparents over various holiday visits to their California home. During quiet moments together, I would ask them questions about their life experience. In one of those moments, my grandfather’s story about his travels to South America emerged. He’d trained
I have to start today by saying thank you to each of you for your trust in us as we took your children outside in the 18 degree weather. On a day that us adults don’t really want to be outside, it is hard to knowingly send children outside for an extended period of time.
As predicted, today was our toughest weather by far! If I’m being totally honest, it was tough out there. I mean, how often does anybody willingly go out into the rain? Especially when it’s 38 degrees outside. But, here’s the beauty…on the way out the door, nobody was complaining! Everyone was very well prepared; both
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 of
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
Well, we were hoping for rain and it finally happened! Rain provided opportunities for our Kindergarten class to jump in puddles, play with mud, and get nice and dirty! New weather brings new experiences! Today was our first experience taking public transportation to our location. This week it was the 423 Pace Bus to Erikson
Lake Pontchartrain Causeway The World’s Longest Beam Bridge Over Water This week our first graders began their 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
“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!
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