Teaching & Learning at Trinity

A man of faith and justice, Allison Williams believes that questioning the status quo leads to deeper thinking and to making choices grounded on moral and ethical reasoning. He often would play devil’s advocate, seeking his listener to reconsider their thoughts and to justify their opinions. Challenging a position held firmly by others gave him an opportunity to teach. ~ Maryellen Berry

On February 27, Trinity School will celebrate Founder’s Day and sixty years of child-centered education. Maryellen’s beautiful reflection in last Thursday’s TTW is a must-read. Her words about Allison Williams and the founding of Trinity School are poignant. 

Here are the Weekly Learning Links for the week of February 20th:

• The Art of Distraction by Hanif Kureishi (and shared by Stephen on Twitter) — This NYT Opinion piece is “well worth reading for a view on how not paying attention and creativity can intermingle.”
  
• How do Children Learn to Read Silently by ScienceDaily — An interesting and brief article about oral reading, silent reading, and reading comprehension — and the research that FSU is sponsoring over the next four years to unearth better instructional strategies to increase fluency in children.
• 10 Journaling Tips to Help You Heal, Grow, and Thrive by Loran Hills (and shared by Beverly Tatum via Twitter) — Develop your intuition, start a dialogue with your inner child, and log your successes are three of the tips that “tiny buddah” shares about the power of writing for personal and professional growth.
• The Math Curriculum and Department of My Dreams by John Burk — In this blog post, Burk reflects on Park School’s newly designed math curriculum with the 14 habits of mathematical thinking in mind. He asks questions essential to 21st century learning and curriculum — and reflects on the tension of innovative v. traditional curriculum. His reflections are excellent food for thought as we continue our work with social studies curriculum at Trinity.

An important piece of Trinity’s Sixth Grade Program is the Capstone Project which is the culminating project of students’ elementary school career. These projects have a specific goal: students must apply what they have learned through research (their QUEST paper) and demonstrate understanding through a real-life application project which is independently designed. Through the QUEST process, Sixth Graders must identify an area of interest and complete an inquiry-based process which allows the opportunity to investigate a topic in a personalized and student-directed manner.  The purpose of the QUEST research paper and the final Capstone project is to both build and celebrate students’ creativity, problem-solving, critical thinking, synthesis, and analysis skills….all of those 21^st Century learning skills that are so important!

The Sixth Grade teachers have adopted a new practice this year — their students have created an online space to share their ongoing thinking, learning, and researching. You can access all of the students’ sites by clicking on www.trinityweblog.org. Check out Julia’s Math in Photography site, John’s Environmentalism; A Greener Earth site, or Paris’s Fitness Training and Healthy Eating site.

And finally, Andrew Hennessy’s TEDxKIDS@BC Talk (based on his Sixth Grade Capstone Project) is finally live. Watch his eight minuted TEDx Talk here:

Here are the Weekly Learning Links for the week of February 12th:

• Rebranding Teachers by Hyperakt and Studio 360 — “Education is the key to human progress, therefore teaching is among the most important professions for humanity.”  These visuals represent something that is both inspiring for all of us educators and thought-provoking as well. “Teachers are currently represented by uninspiring, childish visual imagery. Images like apples, chalkboards, and the ABCs neither revere the profession of teaching nor do justice to the intellectual and creative development teachers help guide in students of all ages.” Check out what one design firm did when they were faced with this challenge…and turned it into an opportunity for all of us.
• edu180atl: 2.9.12 by Alicia Andreou  — A 250 word reflection on learning from others. Alicia used Emily Connolly’s social studies class (and Skype to Saudi Arabia session) as inspiration for Thursday’s post based on the prompt, What did you learn today?
• Getting Started with Skype by Silvia Tolisano — And speaking of Skype…this is a great resource for teachers who are interested in connecting with others using Skype (a free videoconferencing tool). This document highlights a project called “Around the World with 80 Schools” but it also provides great ideas about various student jobs related to using Skype for learning.
• A Little Empathy by Edna Sackson — A very short reflection on empathy and communication based on Sackson’s experience and observations during a recent hospital visit. How are we focusing on these two skills in schools?

We are halfway through the Green Cup Challenge and thanks to Suzanne Edwards and her team of Fifth Grade Watt Watchers, all of us at Trinity have been educated about energy usage. In the first two weeks of the challenge, we have significantly reduced our energy usage (12% in week one and 13% in week two). The Fifth Grade Watt Watchers are taking their jobs seriously and a few students chose to create a PSA about their watt-watching at Trinity. According to Suzanne, these students “wrote, directed, filmed, and edited the video independently” and it certainly meets the guidelines for the Challenge, as all “videos should be student written and directed for presentation to the school community and the public, creating awareness, excitement and motivation about the Green Cup Challenge.” Way to go, Fifth Grade Watt Watchers! If you want to vote on their video or see other schools’ videos, click here!

Here are the Weekly Learning Links for the week of February 5th:

• On Assessing Creativity: Yes, You Can & Yes, You Should by Grant Wiggins — It seems like many of us are looking for ways to make the notion of 21st century skills as concrete as skills related to the 3Rs. Is it possible to measure the 3Cs (creativity, critical thinking, and collaboration)? Wiggins argues in this blog post (full of excellent links!), that yes, assessing 21st century skills can happen and focusing on impact is essential. I love this quote:  “This idea of focusing on impact is actually key to student autonomy, reflected in self-assessment and self-adjustment. The more we focus on impact – did you achieve the goal of such a performance? – instead of such abstract things as “focus” and “organization” or such indicators such as “eye contact” in speaking (which should not be criteria that are mandatory but indicators of the more general and appropriate criterion of “engaging the audience”), the more students can practice, get feedback, and self-assess and self-adjust on their own.”
• Interesting Books You Should Read by Madeline — Want to know what some of our oldest students are reading? Check out Madeline’s blog (Madeline also publishes “The Trinity Times” every month in paper format) and read her most recent post about the books she (and others) enjoy reading.
• Whale Fall: Poetic Cut-Paper Animation inspired by RadioLab (shared by Maria Popova) — This “stop-motion animation” and its accompanying soundtrack is fascinating and tells many stories, not just the one about “how when a whale dies, its body can sustain an entire microcosm of an ecosystem for up to seven years.” Stop-motion video is being attempted by many elementary school students across the country…is this something some of your students would be interested in learning?
• The Upside of Dyslexia by Annie Murphy Paul — An interesting NYT piece in the Sunday Review section about dyslexia. The last paragraph reflects much of Trinity’s work with strengths-chasing for all students: “Glib talk about appreciating dyslexia as a “gift” is unhelpful at best and patronizing at worst. But identifying the distinctive aptitudes of those with dyslexia will permit us to understand this condition more completely, and perhaps orient their education in a direction that not only remediates weaknesses, but builds on strengths.”

“I think every teacher desires to truly understand their students. Discovering passions and encouraging talents is part of the excitement of working with young children.“

Julia Kuipers, Trinity’s Fifth and Sixth Grade World Languages teacher, beautifully describes her role as a teacher and the powerful connection that she shared over lunch with one of her students. The World Languages team maintains a blog, updated regularly, and it serves as an excellent point of reference for our families and other educators who are interested in our different approach to elementary language instruction. All of you have similar experiences to share … and that’s what makes Trinity such a wonderful place.

Here are the Weekly Learning Links for the week of January 29th:

• Doodle for Google 2012: If I Could Travel in Time shared by Free Technology for Teachers — Every year, Google invites “students in the United States to use their artistic talents to think big and redesign Google’s homepage logo for millions to see.” Submissions are due March 23 and more information about the contest can be found here.
• Inside Maurice Sendak’s Infinitely Creative, Idiosyncratic Mind by Maria Popova — An interesting five minute mini-documentary, produced by the Tate Modern, which reveals “the creatively restless and lovably grumpy workings of [Sendak's] heart and mind.”
• Every Child is a Scientist by Jonah Lehrer — Young children are “naturals” at almost everything. In this WIRED Magazine article, Lehrer explores how not knowing and questioning is often more important than knowing.
• A New [Year's] Challenge: Start with Small Steps by Shelley Wright — What does an inquiry-driven, project-based, tech-embedded classroom look like? Shelley Wright’s four pieces of advice about creating more of a student-centered classroom are both thoughtful and detailed.

Check out what a wonderful job Trinity faculty member Justin Cahill did at the second Admissions Open House. His talk is followed by touching and heartfelt reflections by Third Grader Sarah and Sixth Grader Jillian. Kudos to Justin, Sarah, and Jillian!

Only one Weekly Learning Link for the week of January 8th.  It’s a video about “spontanteous and relentless compassion” and how one fourth grade teacher radically altered his students’ thinking based on a geo-political game he created for his public school students in 1978. John Hunter and his World Peace Game is an inspiration, and his 20 minute TED Talk (embedded below) is worth watching. Additionally, the following two links will take you to other sites to learn about Hunter and his work:

• The Best of TED 2011 on Huffington Post: The World Peace Game

• World Peace and Other Fourth Grade Achievements (The Movie)

Happy 2012 and welcome back to school, faculty and staff! While everyone enjoyed the time away from school, students’ return to the hallways and classrooms in January always brings a certain excitement and energy. On December 23, Fifth Grader Melissa K. even wrote (unprompted) about how grateful she was for Trinity on her blog:

Hello! I’m having the best time ever! I am so glad it’s Christmas break! It’s great to be away from school, but I miss my friends and my teachers also. I know it sounds crazy, but I miss school almost! If you think about it school is very fun sometimes and we are very lucky to go to a school like Trinity. Trinity is a great place and we should appreciate it. Without it, where would we be?

Additionally, many people in our community graciously wrote letters to troops serving overseas as a part of the Bert Show’s Big Thank You initiative back in October. Over Christmas Break, Mary Riddick Stallworth received an email from a solider serving at Camp Bastion, Afghanistan. His email to her was short (“Please ensure this message is given to the kids who sent us wonderful Christmas letters.  We distributed the letters amongst the troops.  A special hello to Jane and Natalie, I have your letters.”), but he attached a lengthy letter that your students would find interesting. It’s an excellent thing to share with your families!

Here are the Weekly Learning Links for the week of January 4th:

• Animated Adaption of The Giving Tree Narrated by Shel Silverstein by Maria Popova — The 1973 YouTube video of an animated reading of The Giving Tree, read by Shel Silverstein himself, is a rare gem indeed. Or as Popova describes, “a priceless memento of one of our era’s most wholehearted creators.”
• 100 Things to Watch in 2012 by JWT Intelligence — An interesting list (in powerpoint form) that serves as a reminder of how incredible creative human beings are. Have you heard of floating yoga (24), hydration stations (34),  smart clothing (70), or Wii U (95)? Check it out!
• New Years Wish: Let Kids Wander by Ross Peters — A beautifully written blog post about carving out precious, unstructured time for wandering and aimlessness…not only for children but for adults as well. How might we use our learning spaces at Trinity in pursuit of this goal — especially since so many children do not have easy access to woods, trees, and creeks like so many of us did when we were growing up?

And the New Year always brings LOTS of lists and articles about resolutions. Interestingly, there are a number of reads about “unresolutions” or “stop doing lists.” Here are three that I found most interesting.

• Mindful Parenting: My Unresolution by Betsy Brown Braun (shared by Kristi Story) — “Mindful parenting starts with keeping your eyes wide open. It’s like the flower’s growth revealed by time-lapse photography… your children blossom before your eyes every day, but only if you pay attention.”
• Best New Year’s Resolution? A Stop Doing List by Jim Collins — “…The “stop doing” list became an enduring cornerstone of my annual New Year resolutions — a mechanism for disciplined thought about how to allocate the most precious of all resources: time.”
• 30 Things to Stop Doing to Yourself by Marc and Angel — “When you stop chasing the wrong things you give the right things a chance to catch you. As Maria Robinson once said, “Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.”  Nothing could be closer to the truth.  But before you can begin this process of transformation you have to stop doing the things that have been holding you back.”

“Seeing students being aware of a bigger world, bigger than their own backyard, is a first step toward global education.” — Silvia Tolisano

During the month of October, Trinity’s Second Grade students teamed up with the Bert Show to write letters to troops stationed overseas as part of the Bert Show’s Big Thank You Campaign. Members of the Trinity community, inspired by Trinity’s very own Second Grade students and teachers (see second paragraph of linked post), contributed over 500 letters to help the Bert Show meet their goal of 400,000 letters.

When Trinity’s Second Graders return to school next week, they will have quite a surprise waiting for them as one solider, J.C.K., MSgt, USAF, has responded to their letter with a note of his own. He begins his letter with the greeting, “My Dear Friends,” and continues to share a bit about his life and his service.

20 DEC 2011

My Dear Friends:

Thank you so much for the letters you sent me.  I have read many messages and they have brought a huge smile to my face.  The pictures are beautiful and all of you are writing very well.  I appreciate the kind words and hearing all about you.

I will be spending Christmas in Afghanistan, which is on the other side of the world.  Afghanistan is a very poor country and the children have very little toys.  There are no trees and there is no grass where I am staying.  At times, it gets very windy and it blows the dirt all around.  It looks like it is snowing but it is called a dust storm.  It gets very cold at night, but warms up during the day.

I take care of the soldiers who get sick and injured.  Our job is to make them feel better and put them on an airplane so we can get them back home.  I am very happy and honored to be serving in the US military and helping other soldiers.

I have made many new friends in Afghanistan.  I have met and worked with people from all over the world.  Some of my new friends have children too.  We miss our families at home, but we laugh and make each other happy which helps pass time.

It is almost Christmas and I am getting very excited.  For I know it is a time of joyous celebration and being with our friends  and family.  Although I will not be home with my family this Christmas, I will be thinking of them and everyone else.  It is our job in the military to protect the families at home so they can have a safe Christmas.

Finally, a little about myself.   I have three kids in high school and one in kindergarten.  We have a small farm in Ohio with ducks, chickens, cats and dogs.  I like to play in the creek and woods and catch snakes with my little girl.  We are going to build a tree house this summer.

Well, I am glad I had the chance to send you this letter and thank you for thinking of me during Christmas.  I hope to be home soon!

Be good, listen to your parents and teacher.

J.C.K, MSgt, USAF

Proudly Serving/Afghanistan

Pretty powerful stuff, huh? And it’s not going to be on “the test.”

And that’s perfectly okay.

cc licensed  (BY NC SA) flickr photo shared by langwitches

Happy last week of school for 2011 and the start of what will hopefully be a wonderful and restful holiday season! Thanks to all of our music teachers who helped usher in the holiday season with the Nutcracker, the ELD sing-a-long, the Saks’ event, and Friday’s Christmas Concert at Trinity Presbyterian Church. Thanks to all of the faculty and staff who partnered with our music teachers and made these learning experiences for students so powerful.

Here are the Weekly Learning Links for the week of December 11th:

• What If the Story Changed? by David Jakes –How many classrooms provide students with a time trip back to the 20th century? In this K-12 Online Presentation (30 minutes), David Jakes explores the notion of two simple words…What If? Jakes explains, “The presentation will challenge your thinking about traditional perspectives on education, and offer insights on how we might rethink these. I’ll begin with an introduction and then offer a series of vignettes that explore the story of change, all centering on rethinking how we approach the design of new ideas with a very simple approach you can use today.” David Jakes has also written a blog post about the notion of getting away from “Yeah, But…” and moving toward acceptance of “What if…”
• Startup Radically Reinvents the Disposable Cup, Eliminating Plastic Lids by Fast Company Design — A rethinking of the traditional “to go” coffee cup that many of us use every week (day?). How might our students be able to rethink similar things that we use every week or day? Could this project serve as an inspiration for other projects?
• Things I Know 296 of 365: We Have to Stop This by Zac Chase — If you haven’t seen this four minute video created by an eighth grader (and has since gained national media attention since his video went viral on YouTube), it’s hard to watch but important. Make sure you read the update listed in the comments section from the child who made the video.
• TEDxCMU: The Next Chapter in Human Computation by Luis von Ahn — What’s a captcha? Well, it’s something that you probably come across every week…if not every day! Learn about how “Luis von Ahn, the man who brought the world CAPTCHA and reCAPTCHA unveiled his newest and most innovative project to date: Duolingo. How can you translate the entire internet and do it for free? Duolingo will be a revolutionary product in which millions of internet users from around the world will work together to translate the internet and learn a new language at the same time. All for free.”
  

Each May at Trinity Graduation, Stephen Kennedy celebrates every Sixth Grade student with a short couplet honoring who they are as young people. In some, he offers a glimpse into the future…maybe predicting how their twirling as the Sugar Plum Fairy in the Fifth Grade Nutcracker or their love of community service will play an important role as they grow and mature. It’s never about their exams scores, the secondary schools they will attend, or their academic record at Trinity. It’s a gift that he gives each student but also a way for him to honor the countless faculty and staff members of the School who have challenged, shaped, loved, and grown these young people into who they are in their Sixth Grade suits and white graduation dresses.

The most recent reflection on  Stephen’s blog (“What the Head Thinks”) is a similar reflection and celebration of three former Trinity School students, all of whom hold the last name of Kennedy. Many faculty and staff at Trinity helped challenge, shape, love, and grow these three during their time at the School. Stephen’s most recent post entitled “A Father’s Personal Accounting” is a beautiful letter to his three children outlining what he wants for each of them as they journey into the future.

Here are the Weekly Learning Links for the week of December 5th:

• The Hardest Things I’ve Learned (Intro) by Peyten Dobbs — This first post (of many) is an attempt to share a number of very important items that author (Trinity alum and Atlanta teacher) Dobbs wishes she had learned earlier than adulthood. The blog post begins with this sentence: “From age 18-22 I wrestled with a spiritual, psychological, emotional and social break down that I now believe, with the benefit of hindsight, stemmed largely out of a realization that everything I had been working so hard for had nothing to do with living life well.” What follows is an honest, provocative, and enlightening commentary on schools today and the “Race to Nowhere” that students often find themselves engaged in through their middle and high school years.
• What Does a Transformational 21st Century School Look Like? by GOOD Education — This short article and its accompanying visual lists 22 interesting indicators which help classify traditional, transitional, and transformational schools. Sam Chaltain has nominated two schools which possess a fair amount of the indicators listed by the Q.E.R. organization – one in Philadelphia (Science Leadership Academy) and another in India (Riverside School).
• 11.30.11 edu180atl post by Sabrina Manns — This 250 word post by Decatur City Schools elementary school teacher reflects on”the importance of truly practicing what I tell my students to do.” Whether it’s writing, observing, _______________. this post serves as a reminder to put ourselves in the child’s shoes every once and a while.

Dawn’s “Giving Thanks” Basket and Bulletin Board in the ELD, the 481 letters to troops serving overseas that arrived in time for Thanksgiving from Trinity students, parents, and faculty/staff, and the many displays and celebrations of Thanksgiving in ELD and ULD classrooms serve as such wonderful reminders of the power of expressing gratitude…in small and large ways. During the Thanksgiving Program, Julia S. shared her reflections about her nine years at the School and how “I can’t tell who I will be ten years from now, but I know that what I have learned at Trinity will always be an important part of who I turn out to be.”  She is certainly grateful for Trinity School.

An additional testament to the gratefulness of our community came from a  blog post I read last week. The fact that Sarah Grace B., a Fifth Grade student, took time to write a blog post about her gratitude to the teachers at Trinity during her vacation is worth sharing:

Does anyone besides me know how amazing trinity school is? Imagine you getting up at about 5:45 every morning and driving to school to work! The teachers even stay after we get out! Then, they go home and do more work! Don’t you think that 8 hours is a lot? Well, imagine like 9 and a half! These teachers work so hard to make a fun and educational day for us! Campbell was about as good as Mrs. Carter at making one subject, that took up a lot of her recesses. It turns out the teacher have to do at least triple that work every day! The teachers are so nice, and everyone should be thankful for them! However, I think if I had all that work, I would need my students to be perfect. I wouldn’t need more of a mess to clean up! So, I thought that over the next part of the year, us students should really work hard on making our awesome teachers life more easy by cleaning up the room perfectly before we leave, have great manners,( like saying yes ma’am or no sir), listening without having to hold up our heads in our hands, and thinking about how these magnificent teachers feel! Thank you so much to the amazing teachers of  Trinity School!

Here are the Weekly Learning Links for the week of November 28th:

• Teaching Creativity: The Answers Aren’t in the Back of the Book by Brian Cohen — This short Huff Post article begins with the following, “When a student asks me, an art teacher, how to do something, I often don’t answer. It’s not that I’m especially possessive of my acquired knowledge; to the contrary, I don’t think knowledge belongs to anyone; it should be shared, or better yet, discovered.” A well-written commentary on developing creativity and how much we all can learn from searching for answers.
• Throwaway Lessons by Tony Baldasaro — An honest reflection on assigned projects and the power of student-generated learning experiences. How can we infuse more problem-based learning experiences at Trinity…and problems and projects that our students truly care about?
• Learning about Blogs for Students (Part II) Writing by Silvia Tolisano — This second post about blogging (the first one is here) provides some helpful advice and resources for teachers who are blogging, have students blogging, or are interested in exploring this new way of writing.
• Most Kids Way Ahead of Us as Digital Learners, for Better and Worse by Julia Steiny — “Adults need to encourage kids to use the promise of technology to tackle tough problems — just like an adult would” argues Julia Steiny in this blog post.