Opal School Blog

Expanding the Imagination

Opal School - and the Museum Center for Learning - exist to expand the public imagination for environments that support the wonder of learning.  To do this, we start with a strong image of the child - a recognition of the tremendous capacity in this vibrant natural resource - and a broader vision of learning and cognition than what dominates today's discourse.  We do our part to push at these artificially narrow limits by sharing our research and documentation with other educators through a range of efforts: This blog, workshops, publications, Opal School Online, the annual symposium, and many other projects that reach beyond the student population that attend Opal School.  Last week, for example, we led a professional development workshop on Thinking Like Scientists and Mathematicians for three-dozen teachers and administrators that came from as far away as South Carolina; all this week, we're hosting a study group from Butler University's College of Education.

We're thrilled to be a partner to the A Year at Mission Hill project.  A Year at Mission Hill features a series of ten video clips documenting different aspects of life at a public school in Boston.  I don't see these as "answer" videos; they're not technical films telling others what to replicate; they're not "superhero teacher" films showing what happens when an unbelievably dedicated teacher sacrifices him- or her-self to serving the needs of others.  Instead, (I think) they're provocations - discussion starters with which you can engage co-workers, neighbors, and family in a conversation about what are the fundamental characteristics of the schools all of our children deserve.  These bite- sized videos, released every two weeks, bring up important questions: What is the purpose of public education? What is the role of children in determining curriculum?  What is authentic learning?

The fourth video, Love and Limits, examines children's social and emotional needs and intelligences.  This is a theme that is near and dear to our hearts at Opal School and is closely tied to next month's Sustaining Learning Communities workshop.  "Love and Limits" shows how schools are built around relationships - relationships between students, between teachers and students,and hints at how these are related to the curriculum.  It shows how collaboration - again, between children, teachers and children, and teachers and teachers - builds networks of understanding. It names the false choice between extending emotional capacity and "academic" skills.

Take a look at what they've posted so far.  Better yet, don't watch along: start conversations with others around the series.  What do you see in these clips?  What does it lead you to wonder about?

A Center for Learning

Opal School is a learning place for both the young people who come to class daily as well as for educators who attend our workshops and web-based projects.  Recently, teachers, administrators, and specialists came from far and wide to attend a multi-day session focusing on playful inquiry.  Our work together served as both provocation and meeting place, a site where individuals and groups from six states could discuss what they see teachers and children doing at Opal, how that relates to their contexts, and how it might inspire next steps. 

Why take the time to study together in Portland?  Being here allowed participants to spend important time together in the classroom.  Observations of children and teachers involved in playful inquiry - as well as the physical settings and documentation - were focal to analyzing the environments that support curiosity and the wonder of learning.  The workshop structure provided participants from so many settings the opportunity to compare notes and challenge their conclusions.

At Opal School, we benefit from hearing what visitors say about what they see.  Being together also invites wondrous happenstance.  On this outing, the Opal 4 fifth grade class struck up a conversation with a teacher from Arizona. His gift to them of an atecocolli brought their studies forward, extending questions of colonization and duality.  

The observations and conversations were further supported by presentations from classroom teachers - from pre-school through grade five - providing both the theoretical foundations and stories revealing an arc of learning that extends beyond what can be seen on any one day.  Educators are honored to hear learning stories told with attention to meaning and detail, and it’s through this teacher-research that we learn about how children learn and extend the possibilities of what school can be.

We’re always looking for new ways to connect with our colleagues, both near and far.  In the coming weeks, we’re hosting several studies of Story Workshop, including a monthlong web-based course for Head Start teachers in Montana; presentations & staff trainings in Canada, Washington, and California; and a webinar through NCTE.  We hope you can join us for one of our upcoming opportunities, either in Portland or in cyberspace.

Upcoming opportunities include:

• Thinking Like Scientists and Mathematicians, March 6 
• Sustaining Learning Communities, April 24 
• Opal School Online, April 
• Summer Symposium, June 20-22 

We're looking forward to working with you! 

Welcome New Readers!

If you're visiting the Opal School Blog for the first time because you've linked from the story that includes us on the Edutopia blog, welcome!  We're glad to have you here and are excited to share the wonder of learning with visitors from around the world.  We think that the "Makers" work discussed in AnnMarie Thomas' post is representative of the incredible imagination and creativity children explore when provided by rich environments and experiences - but it's just the tip of the iceberg.

Perhaps you've found us on Pinterest or through a search after reading this post on the Let Children Play blog. Or maybe you've just seen Steve Davee's latest post over at Make Education. We are glad you've come!

Go deeper into our story through exploring this site, watching the videos posted on The Center for Children's Learning youtube channel, checking out our publications or participating in one of our professional development programs - either here in Portland or from a distance via Opal School Online.

We invite you subscribe and to participate. Thank you for visiting!

A Tour of Opal School Online

Let me take you on a tour of Opal School Online!

 

Beginning Conversation

When the wind comes walking in the near woods, the little leaves of symphorine so whisper little whispers. I thinks they are telling me they were come here before I was come here... I can see they were, too, because their toes have grown quite a ways down in the ground.

-Opal Whitely, age 6

Opal Whitely's prolific naturalist writing accomplished when she was the age of our Opal School students inspires us to remember how busy young children are, all the time, working to make sense of the world around them. And how competent. To a child, there are no fragmented parts. There are only endless mysteries providing endless opportunity to explore, marvel over, and untangle. We are born with the strategies we need to weave together understanding and to communicate what we know and want to know more about to others.

If this is all true, then how do we create relationships with children that support this potential? What school environments and curriculum can influence and utilize this potential in ways that ensure children will learn what society needs from them and what we believe they have the right to know? 

If the student is more than an empty vessel and in fact creates new knowledge, then processes for learning must be valued in the same way that content is valued and emphasized.

- Linda Lambert, 1995

What processes do we create at Opal School in order to support learners that we know are actively creating new knowledge all the time? How do we create a process in which an active knowledge maker will learn to read, for instance? And not just learn to read the text on a page -- but to learn the full potential of reading as the endless invitation it is to those who have preserved a sense of wonder and a belief that the mysteries of the world are worth pursuing. A process that supports children to learn to read and write within contexts that have personal meaning preserves and protects those connections.

Human beings are meaning makers. When school environments intentionally support meaning making, learning is joyful, curiosity is sustained, skill development is lasting.

On Tuesday night, in the Charter School, parents and teachers came together to learn more about Opal School's approaches to literacy instruction. On Wednesday night, in the Museum School, parents and teachers also joined together and introductions to instructional processes were made as well. These meetings were openings and invitations to ongoing dialogue and conversation in which we hope our school community will engage throughout the year and as long as our relationships continue-- which we hope to be long beyond any individual time at Opal itself. We treasure the stories of our graduates -- strong thinkers, planners and doers well into high school now.

In coming weeks, we'll share more about the instrucional processes we use at Opal School to support the young meaning makers in our care. You may also want to take time to read the resources that are continually updated on our sidebar. The "Reading List" is a good source of current articles that give more context to our experiences at Opal. The "Fun To Do" section will offer ongoing ways to connect and extend at home. For those of you who want more to read, the "Especially for Parents" book list will provide that. If you purchase your book by clicking through to Powell's, Opal School benefits with a little percentage back.

Here is a small collection of past blog posts to extend the conversation about literacy:

Mental Sticky Notes

The Story of the Story

We Are Our Stories

Schema

Six Word Memoirs

Marcy Berkowitz's recent post on the Early K blog shines a lovely light on children's natural drive to collaborate and make meaning of the world, and the incredible power of discovery that fuels those drives to become ever stronger. Click here to read it and join the conversation!

Caring for friends

The Center for Children's Learning has established a channel on You Tube! Our first video is published on the page, but you can view it here...

 

This is a documentation video that captures a couple of moments of one 4 year old child's journey from cared-for to care-giver. What happens when children are supported to care for each other? Caring becomes a habit of heart and mind.

Visit the Center's Channel by clicking here: The Center on You Tube!

Subscribe by logging in with your Google account, and you'll receive updates when we post new video! Any feedback you have will be helpful in creating future content.

Webinar tonight

Just wanted to let you know that I'll be presenting as part of a panel this evening for a webinar hosted by Child Care Aware Parent Network. The topic is "The Children's Museum Experience: Learning Through Play".

The webinar will be presented between 5 and 6 pm PST.

If you're interested, you can tune in by clicking on this link: 

National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies

Welcome!

Welcome to the new Opal School blog! To get us started, you'll find here school information, documentation of student experiences, photo albums, parenting resources, and recommended reading. You'll also find access to the Opal School book wish list on Amazon. We hope this blog will help a great deal to support communication throughout our school community.

This blog is password protected to support the privacy of children and families within the community. While we encourage you to use this blog to share good Opal stories with friends and family near and far, we ask that you do not make the password widely public. 

The Opal School blog home page includes links to each Opal School classroom. Teachers will use these sites regularly to offer windows into the experiences going on at school. We hope that families will use the comments feature to engage with one another in response to whatever has been posted, to ask questions, and to celebrate the magic that happens at Opal every day.

The blog is managed by Susan MacKay, the Center for Children's Learning Director. She is very much looking forward to collaborating with others in the community as this blog takes shape towards the most useful tool it can be. Please direct questions, ideas and feedback to her at smackay@portlandcm.org.

Happy blogging!