EDUCATION MATTERS—SANFORD SCHOOL'S PRIVATE SCHOOL BLOG

Take a mental walk through a school music building. Listen to the stroke of a guitar, the rich harmonies from singing voices, and the dancing feet of preschoolers. Perhaps you can hear them all in succession as you walk down the hallway? A robust performing arts department welcomes a mixture of activities, a symphony of varying sounds, and a buzz of productive energy. Each and every student’s individual artistic journey can and should be supported by a performing arts program. As a music teacher in a department of which I am very proud, I hear students discussing their experiences in the performing arts, as well as prospective families trying to figure out the best place for their child. It is time to clarify some misconceptions and equip families with the right questions to ask.

On a typical school day, students are required to interact with peers and adults, assess situations, and decide upon action steps. A clear frame of mind allows students to effectively manage and reason through stressors in a positive, healthy way.

Sometimes, a child’s frame of mind is unclear or even completely clouded. What’s clouding their thinking and what can we do about it? Below are some examples of common mental filters that, despite being invisible to onlookers, color a student’s world in a way that significantly impacts their school day. Understanding what these filters are and how to combat them is imperative in knowing how to help and support children through their anxiety.

"Students are more likely to engage in healthy behaviors and succeed academically when they feel connected to school," according to the  Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report.  Having a home and school connection brings positive benefits concerning both academic success and healthy decision-making. Below are a few activities that can be used to strengthen the support network for children in the classroom to create a caring community.

When you hear the word “literacy” you probably think reading and writing, but did you know that there’s also physical literacy? Project Play gives this definition: "Physical literacy is the ability, confidence, and desire to be physically active for life.”

Elementary school is the perfect age to teach coding. Learning to code is fun, empowering, and provides essential 21st century skills. According to the US Department of Commerce, within the last ten years STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) employment opportunities have grown by 24.4% vs. only 4% in non-STEM fields, and STEM-focused employees make an average of 29% more than non-STEM workers. It is important that we provide our children with the computer science skills necessary to be successful.

The schedule says “language arts,” but, at first glance, you might think the fourth-grade class looks more like they’re having recess than writing. Students are scattered around the room and spilling into the hallway, happily chatting in pairs, drawing pictures, sticking and re-sticking multi-colored Post-Its on bright yellow paper, or laughing uproariously at a story being told by a teacher. But, believe it or not, this is what writing looks like in our classes! This past summer we traveled all the way to Barcelona, Spain and joined nearly 200 other teachers from all over the world at a summer writing institute created by Columbia University’s Teachers College Reading & Writing Project. The week-long training introduced us to new ways to think about, talk about, and teach about writing, and our classes at Sanford School haven’t been the same since. Now when we approach writing lessons we think about how we’ll support the three different types of communication that we want to see happening throughout the class: teacher-to-student, student-to-student, and student-to-self.

Parent-teacher conferences have been a staple of communication between home and school for many decades, and certainly, there is value in maintaining those important traditional conversations, which often take place without the student being present. This communication is a key to student success. However, the paradigm is shifting, and the age-old process has changed in many schools, as the students are frequently not only attending the conference but actually leading it. Monica Martinez, a senior scholar for the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and co-author of a book that addresses school approaches that facilitate deeper learning, queried, “How many of us, as students, appreciated being talked about in the third person as if we were invisible?”

Student Led Conferences (SLC's) are not new by any standard, but they are gaining momentum and popularity, not because they are a “trend,” but because they encourage and empower students from the elementary level through high school to take responsibility for their learning in a way that might not have happened previously. The format for an SLC can vary widely, from the use of a questionnaire, sharing a portfolio, or highlighting a strength and area of growth in every subject, but the common denominator requires that the student communicates to the parents WHAT s/he is doing in school and WHY.

Personalized learning is when the planning, teaching, and assessment focus on the individual needs and interests of each student. It provides an education that includes differentiation and individualization, tools which support student success.

As any former adolescent can tell you, teenagers can be defiant at times. This resistance often comes from being constantly told what they can and can't do. We are evolutionarily wired to push the boundaries during adolescence, when, more often than not, we hear “You can’t do that!” rather than more positive enforcers. The article, "Can Teenage Defiance Be Manipulated for Good?", supports that defiance can be harnessed in a way that allows for enlightening learning opportunities and avenues for inquiry.

“Transform a wish into a goal by putting a date on it.” Peter Turla

Managing time is a universal issue; certainly, it is not confined exclusively to students. However, school provides the perfect place, along with limitless opportunities, for young people to begin to form habits to effectively use their available “free” time that will assist them throughout their lives.