Peregrinos arrive in Nicaragua! Sister school trip to Nicaragua - Entry 1

Deb Bruns, Maestra Gaby Valenzuela, and Teacher Emma Clancy in Nicaragua

It takes a community to raise a child, and it takes a strong community like Peregrine to create a sister school.  Since most Peregrine families have already contributed to the sister school project in Nicaragua through Gaby, Emma, and Megan’s fundraisers, and all will participate in learning from this project in the classroom, I thought that our community might appreciate blog reports, sent periodically, about this trip.  Please join us in Nicaragua and see what exciting work you are helping to support!

It is Thursday night, almost midnight, at our own Sacramento airport.  See Gaby and Emma straining under the shared weight of a black duffel bag.  This bag is stuffed with art supplies, and is in fact overweight, so a ream of paper needs to be traded out for some of the 200 toothbrushes and paste in the big red suitcase at the United Airlines check in.  (Art supplies were bought from Peregrine fundraising (gracias a todos!) and the toothbrushes and paste were generously donated from parent Ana Antoniu, dentist.)  Soon four of us -- Gaby Valenzuela, Emma Clancy, Deb Bruns (Peregrine International’s organizer and Yolo County’s Science and Environmental Education Coordinator) and I, Lorie Hammond -- are ready to wait for an hour or two in the fluorescent lit airport, in order to board the night flight to Houston and then Nicaragua.  By noon the next day, we arrive sleepy but excited in Managua, where we quickly board a cab to exit the hot capital city and approach the northern Segovia Mountains and Esteli, the third largest city in Nicaragua and the unofficial capital of the North.  Our destination, after a short rest and sightseeing in Esteli, is Sabana Grande, a village in Nicaragua’s formerly war torn northern mountains, near the Honduran border.

Sabana Grande combines many elements that make it a great partner for Peregrine School.  For several years, this town has developed a solar project, Projecto Fenix, which helps villagers to develop the skills to create electricity and environmentally friendly cooking and coffee drying through solar energy.  Susan Kinne, an engineering professor at the Engineering University in Managua, has developed this project with a spunky and creative group of women, Las Mujeres Solares de Totogalpa, who wanted to make their lives better and avoid having to go to the city to work as maids or to do agricultural work for others on farms, by creating work for themselves and self sufficient industries in their own valley.  (Sabana Grande means “the great savanna”, and is a farmable flat grassland in the mountains.) 

The Mujeres Solares, now assisted by many men, a youth group, and many internationals, are creating equipment which harnesses clean power for people like themselves who have never had electricity or running water, and selling this equipment to other towns who can learn from their example.  They are also reforesting a hillside, growing local fruits, drying coffee with solar, and many other things.  Peregrine School has sponsored DaVinci high school physics, and now biology, students from Davis to come to this village annually to share an alternative energy project they have designed.  This year it is a bicycle driven water pump; last year, bicycle driven generators for cell phones and the like.  Deb Bruns has been leading this project, which has now spread to a group of vet students, who are working with the village on more efficient animal husbandry. 

Our goal is to establish a sister school relationship between our two Peregrine Schools and the small school in this village, San Miguel de Archangel, which parallels us in size.  Their school has a preschool of 10 kids and two classrooms, one 1-3 grade and one 4-6 grade.  About 70 kids total.  We will work with these kids to photograph, draw, and write about their lives, and to create a book about it to share with our kids.  We will also have them write letters to establish pen pals with our kids.  This will hopefully be the beginning of an ongoing exchange, which can help our kids to learn what life is like for children in the developing world, while they share their own lives.  It will also reinforce the importance of our Spanish program, as a means of expanding our horizons through communication. 

Today, as an introduction to the country before we arrive in the village, we will tour this city of Esteli, a city famous for youth mural painting.  We will also continue to explore the beautiful, green countryside here, and to familiarize ourselves with the contrasts between traditional and modern, rich and poor, which so characterize developing countries.  We began this process on the way from the airport, when we watched horse drawn carriages carrying people, wood, and agricultural goods driving alongside semi trucks and taxis like ours.  We also saw creatively designed shelters of rough wood, metal sheeting and bricks creating housing and small highway shops, selling papayas, watermelons, hammocks, and a great variety of other things.  These shops stand alongside modern gas stations with 7-11 type packaged food and sodas, creating a bricolage of possibilities in a kind of “real time” which represents many times and realities at once.  

Bienvenidos a Nicaragua! 

A typical Nicaraguan dinner: fish (or meat), gallo-pinto (a mix of rice and beans), home-made salty cheese, fried plantains, and avocado

What does it mean to do cognitively guided instruction in math? A big concept in action

How to teach math is a big controversy in educational circles.  In the United States, math has often been taught by showing kids how to do a particular operation, then having them practice it until they can do it independently.  This would be called an algorithm driven approach, or doing “math basics”.  However, when worldwide annual math and science testing began in the 1995, with the Timms testing (timss.bc.edu/‎), people were shocked to see that American students did not do as well as their counterparts in places like Japan and Singapore.  Some people thought that kids in these places simply did more “drill and kill” practice of math problems, but when the situation was analyzed, it turned out that the countries that did best were ones which spent more of their math teaching time on understanding the number system and solving problems rather than on practicing operations. 

Many people wonder what a math teaching approach based on teaching for understanding would look like.  At Peregrine School, we use Singapore Math, which is considered a Cognitively Guided approach to teaching math.  In this approach, a lot of time is spent on discussion, dialogue, and problem solving.  The following lesson is an example.  

We are in Marcia Margoniner-Reilly’s first-second grade classroom.  Children are sitting at three tables, facing each other and able to see a white board in front.  A large box of ones, tens, and hundreds squares are on a demonstration table in front.

(M stands for Marcia, and S1,2,3… for student speakers):

Children are given number squares of 1 and 10. 

M: How many white squares fit in a 10 strip?  Children count by lining them up and answer: 10.

Now how many fit in a big square?

S: 100

M: Prove it to me.

S1: Uses 10 strips to cover the 100 square.  Then shows that each of these is 10, so 10 x 10 make 100. 

M: Are you sure that 10 x 10 make 100?

S2: I can prove it to you!  He puts all 100 small squares on the big one. 

M puts a number chart as follows on the board.  125=

Hundreds                                 tens                                            ones

1

2

5

M writes the number 125 on the board.  Kids are challenged to make it with the ones, tens, and hundreds squares they have.  They all agree it is as shown above.  They try some other numbers, first building them with the blocks, then putting them in the chart. They do this until everyone can do it easily.

M: Now I challenge you to think of a number you create for other people.  You will make it with the squares, and we will decide as a group how to put it on the chart.  She makes the big box of squares available.  Children get out lots of squares. 

(This is an example of how children can differentiate their own learning in this kind of open-ended setting.  One child, who is advanced at math, gets out a lot of hundreds.  Others get out simpler numbers.)

M: (Referring the child with big numbers)  Look, S2 is coming up with a big number.  He wants to scare us!  Are you making your number, S3?

S3: (watching S2) I am trying to figure out what he is doing.  Then she begins to build a number, saying “S2, you won’t be able to guess this one!” 

S2: I’ll bet I can!

(In this case, the student who created the challenging number has created a challenge for his peers.)

S2: (to S3) Oh, you’ll never guess mine!

S3: 50,000?

S2: No, not at all.  I’m not allowed to go into thousands.

M: Is that true?  I didn’t say that.

(Question: Students want to get more than 10 of the 100’s, but in this lesson they have not yet gotten into using cubes which represent 1000- so they do not have a correct way to represent more than one thousand.  These are the kinds of questions that teachers deal with when doing this kind of lesson.  Should they make game rules that keep student responses within certain bounds, covered by the concept of the time (standards for first grade are to work with numbers up to 1000), or should they let things go beyond these limits and then challenge the students to explain what happened?  The answer to this kind of teaching question will vary with each group of students.  If the students barely understand the concept at hand, going beyond might be confusing.  On the other hand, some students may have the ability to go beyond and benefit from it.)

M goes from student to student, asking them to place numbers on the chart on the board to represent the squares they see built on the students’ desks.  When they get to S2’s number, which has more than 10 hundreds, M points out that it raises an interesting question: what to do with numbers over 10 in any category?

As M moves through the children, several have more than 10 squares in a category, causing them to turn in the squares and get 10’s or 100’s to replace them.  This is the beginning of learning to carry numbers.  Students have practiced this with smaller numbers (up to 100), but not previously up to 1000. 

Numbers evolve as shown below:

Hundreds	Tens	Ones
8	11	15
	11 + 1=12	5
8 + 1= 9	2	5
9	2	5

Number= 925

S1’s number is ten one hundreds, ten tens, and ten ones.  This challenges the kids as they think about how to represent it.

Hundreds	Tens	Ones
10	10	10
10	11	0
11	1	0

M begins by discussing what we do when we have ten ones.  One kid knows that

5+ 5=10, but this equation throws things off, since it is not relevant. 

M: What should I do, put 10 in the ones column?  How many tens do we have?

S3: We have one ten, because 5 + 5 = 10.

M: But how many ones are there in ten?

S1: Ten! So we need to make another ten in the next row.

M: Great idea!  (See red numbers above)  Now how many ones do we have?

Students agree that is hard.  One comes up with the idea that no ones are left. 

M: Great. But now we have a new problem!  What about the tens?  Can we have eleven tens? 

S2: No.  Now we have to move a ten to the 100’s.

M: Right, let’s try it.  (See green numbers)  But now we have a big problem!  We have 11 hundreds.  Can we have that?

This leads to a discussion of thousands, which is the point of the lesson, to understand how the number system works up to thousands.  (Students have up to now been working with numbers only up to hundreds).  They found that if you have more than 10 hundreds, you need to add another column to the chart, and another column to the numbers we write.  The thousands column.

Students are now given a work sheet in which they have to transfer numbers back and forth from drawn squares of ones, tens, and hundreds to numbers written as usual.  They use their cubes to help do these conversions, and either draw the squares on their paper or write the numbers that represent the squares.  This is the independent work that follows and reinforces the discussion which took place. 

This math lesson illustrates how the strategy from my last blog, the collaborative conversation, is an essential tool in teaching math.  This conversation consists of a small group and a teacher discussing an issue or concept together. 

The essential parts of a cognitively guided math lesson are:

1.      The introduction of a question (How to represent big numbers with cubes?)

2.      A mini-lesson which demonstrates a skill or concept  (how numbers look as cubes and on the number chart)

3.      A challenge, presented to individuals or small groups, to solve a problem their own way (make your own big number with cubes)

4.      Group sharing and analysis of people’s solutions (how to write the numbers students created on the number chart). 

5.      Individual practice of concepts learned (writing your own numbers back and forth from drawn cubes to written numbers)

Cognitively guided math is challenging to teach because student solutions can take different directions that can lead to new cognitive challenges.  The teacher constantly defines the boundaries of the lesson, so that the lesson ends up taking a clear direction which illustrates the point s/he is trying to make.  At the same time, students are encouraged to come up with novel solutions and even to try out ideas which they know but which might not prove relevant, in order to learn from their own process.  Balancing keeping a clear direction with letting students experiment is a constant challenge.  There is no one way to do it.

This kind of math lesson illustrates how teaching is an art, in which new challenges constantly arise and require the teacher to improvise solutions.  Marcia illustrates a skillful approach to meeting these challenges.  Yet for each teacher, there are different directions which discussions can take, and a constant set of new decisions to be made.  The exciting part, for teachers and students, is that the challenges created by novel solutions shared by different students always expands the lesson in unpredictable ways, and in the end, causes everyone to see that the number system makes sense and yet provides constant new explorations.  

Collaborative Conversations in the Classroom

In the current evolution of California teaching standards, called the Common Core Standards, one skill that is emphasized is students' participation in "collaborative conversations."  A collaborative conversation is a teaching and learning event in which people talk critically and analytically about a topic under study in a small group.  At Peregrine School, this often takes the form of a conversation between one of our classes or a smaller group of students, and a teacher.  It can also be student to student without a teacher involved.  

In one of my recent classroom observations at the elementary school, teacher Chris Erickson was working with a group of 5-7 graders as part of his integrated language arts and history curriculum about the ancient world.  His focus is on the Shakespeare play, Julius Caesar, for its perspective on Rome, and as a piece of literature.  Since Shakespeare is hard for students this age to read, Chris is using several sources at once: a graphic novel version of the play, short passages from Shakespeare himself, which the students "translate" together into modern English, and a video of the play.  

Hopefully the following excerpt will give you a sense of how Chris talks informally with his students, even relating this theme to current TV dramas, while at the same time dealing with big questions and with critical dialogue.

*****

A sample of  collaborative conversation:  In the new state Common Core Standards, the “collaborative conversation” is an important skill which students practice in many contexts.  The goals of such a conversation are student engagement around a serious theme, collaborative contributions from many students, and critical thinking skills, such as debate.  The way in which Chris models this kind of collaboration with his 5-7 grade class is well illustrated by the following discussion.

Chris’ class is reading Julius Caesar in graphic novel form, as part of their study of Rome.  Eight kids are sitting around the table.  They take turns reading.  Some get dramatic and act out the action.  Others then edit them, saying “that’s not in there”.  Chris suggests that we can all see the pictures, so we only need to read the words. 

One kid comments on the killing of Caesar: “Why did they do this?”  Chris asks the question: “Was it a good thing to kill Caesar?”  He writes this question on the board, saying that the two speeches in this section are the arguments on both sides, and that this will be the question of the day. 

Garnet says: “I think it was right to kill Caesar because he would have grabbed too much power.”

Becca responds:  “I’m not sure.  There is no proof if he would have done this.”

Garnet says: “The strongest people get voted out first, like in Survivor. 

Julia: Yes, but in Survivor, you can vote strong people out, but you might need them to get enough food.  It’s a question whether you want them to get food for the future or if they pose a future threat.  The same is true of Julius Caesar.

Garnet: I think that people tend to vote out really strong people.  They are afraid of them.

Alex: I disagree.  They usually die.

Garnet: You didn’t watch the show!

Chris: Let’s bring this back from the show to the play.  What is the equivalent of food in Survivors for these Senators?  What might they want to keep Caesar around for?

Katrin: Caesar had a will.  Did he know he was going to die?

Chris: People have wills even if they don’t expect to die soon.

Julia: Why couldn’t they have had Caesar sign a contract, that if he did certain things, he would be out of power?

Chris: You mean why did they have to take such an extreme measure as to kill him?

Garnet: But he is really strong willed.  They would not believe he would follow the contract.

Rodrigo: He’s power hungry.

Luke: What happened with his wife?

Julia: Didn’t she have a dream? But I don’t believe that dreams really predict things.  Like if I watch a horror movie at 12:00 and wake at 3:00 AM, I might feel like the things in the movie will really happen, but they won’t. 

Chris: Let’s look in the novel and find Caesar’s wife’s dream.

Kids say that the wife realizes it’s the Ides of March.  It is bad luck.  She wants Caesar to stay home. 

Caesar responds: Cowards die a thousand deaths. 

His wife begs him to stay home.  Then Caesar agrees to stay home for her. 

Chris: This scene makes an important point.  You said that Caesar is stubborn, but here is evidence that he is not, that he changed his plan based on what his wife wanted.  Then he is influenced by Brutus.  Brutus tells him that if he goes to the Senate that day, he will be crowned Emperor.  So he decides to go, over-riding his wife but because of Brutus’ advice.  So he does change his min, twice.

Luke: But you can’t deny that he’s powerful and power hungry-

(he changed his mind and took a risk in the hope of becoming Emperor)

Rod: He was trying to look noble, says “You can trust me when I’m king.”

Chris- Romans didn’t want a king, but were willing to accept a dictator for life. 

Ethan- Makes a crying sound effect. 

Chris: Now let’s talk about the rhetoric and who is more persuasive.  We will break down the two speeches, for and against killing Caesar.  Chris passes out these passages from Shakespeare.

Chris- First we have Brutus’ speech to the Plebeians.  Who are Plebeians? 

Katrin: the middle classes. 

Students now “translate” the speeches into regular English, writing sentences in modern English next to each of Shakespeare’s sentences.  They do this together, as a group.  Chris explains that this is the speech in which Brutus tries to convince the Plebeians that he is trustworthy. 

Chris:  “Censure me in your wisdom.”  What does this mean?

Kids struggle and try out various responses.

Julia: Is it “only judge me using your wisdom?”

This goes on for about ten minutes, with each sentence analyzed.  Everyone is totally engaged.  When someone is too loud, Chris asks: “Are you getting this down?” Behavior is controlled through the context of the lesson.

Chris: There is a very famous line here: “Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more.”  He was trying to tell the Plebeians that he acted out of love rather than out of hate in killing Caesar.  But it was love for Rome.

After everyone has written their translations, the class is asked to read the Shakespeare passages out loud, in parts. 

Chris says to the class: “I’d like you to read this in parts.  To see the Bard’s poetry drip from your mouths.”

Solving problems collaboratively at Peregrine Elementary

When are a pile of wood, old tires, and pieces of pipe precious commodities, rather than objects ready for a dump run?  At Peregrine School, these things are the precious materials from which airplanes and forts are constructed, and about which there is sometimes conflict.  Over a month ago, Peregrine elementary students were having a problem with resource distribution during building projects.  They met together, with our teachers, and came up with a set of rules.  Eight pieces of junk per student, sixteen if two students band together, and so on.  Every student signed the giant rule sheet, and it has been posted ever since.  In the last month, wonderful things were built:  Roman aquaducts moving water underground through pipes and in and out of sandbox cities, and a whole fleet of airplanes with moving propellers.  At the end of each week, the projects are taken apart so that new ones can be made the next.  That is also a student made rule.

However, this week, another building conflict occurred: the question of forts and how they are governed.  And this time the focus was more difficult, because it really was on exclusion and inclusion, an old theme, and on teasing and other mean behaviors.  This piece is on how Peregrine teachers help kids to unravel complex situations like this one (which, interestingly, rework age-old human conflicts related to inclusion, exclusion, territory, behavioral limits, and more).  Yesterday, I was impressed with the teachers’ skills and the kids’ willingness, so I would like to tell the story.  I also feel that as parents, you need to understand this, so you can help your child talk about his/her conflicts in a Peregrine/Cool Tools way. 

Conflict Resolution Session

All the students gathered in the dance room, as did all the teachers, in place of morning circle in the classrooms.  A two part process began, in which the teachers acted as mediators.

The students are asked to be “consultants”, and to tell the group what the problems are.  Students are told not to use people’s names, and are told that once they have spoken, their ideas become group property, are usually recorded on the board, and can be used as talking points for anyone.  Both participants and witnesses can speak.

A picture emerged.  Two groups of kids had begun to build forts on different sides of the playground, and to exclude others from their forts.  Some created passwords.  Some blocked others from entry.  A “war” between the forts emerged, although it was kept under wraps, since everyone knew teachers would not allow it.  There were, separately and in the context of the forts, incidents of teasing or ridiculing.  There were also instances when students raided each other’s forts for lumber.  Many students were not involved at all, but the two groups became unevenly matched, with many boys in one fort and only a couple in the other.  The two boys who ended up on the “losing” team brought the situation to the group. 

Several aspects of the problem were revealed, through discussion.  Teacher Chris wrote many student’s statements on the board, so that everyone could see them.  From many statements, a few key problems were identified.  Final statements were made by every member of the group.  The three key problems were defined as:

·         Forts themselves, do they lead to conflict?

·         War as a mode of play

·         Exclusion from forts

·         Teasing or ridiculing others

The process took an hour, but all students were attentive and involved.  They listened to each other, and everyone weighed in.

Teachers Brittany and Marcia took over, and began the second part of the discussion: possible solutions.

Students voted whether “war” was a good game to play on the yard.  All but two or three voted that it was a bad game, that should not be allowed.  It was agreed that it would not be allowed.

The same discussion occurred related to exclusion from forts, either through passwords or other means.  Everyone agreed that even if forts were kept, there could be no exclusion.  Anyone could enter a fort, up to the point of safety.

Around the question of forts, several solutions were proposed.  One student adamantly felt that forts themselves were the problem, explaining that they were the foundation upon which other conflicts get built.  Others felt that forts could stay if they were not exclusive, but merely settlements, and if anyone could enter another person’s fort.

In the end, the group voted to keep the forts but to outlaw the sides and exclusion.

Finally, students agreed that teasing and ridiculing are already “red light” behaviors at our school, and that they wanted help from teachers in making consequences for students who do these things.  (At another meeting, students had agreed that if students tease or put down others in the yard, they need to sit at the “red table” for the rest of the recess and, in cases of repeated incidents, there are more consequences.)

Everyone voted to accept the proposal: our latest playground constitution.

Central to the proposal working was the idea that when students feel a rule has been broken, and especially if they feel hurt or left out, that they tell a teacher so that the teachers can help them to manage the situation. 

I was very impressed with how all students collaborated, with the expert help of teachers, to solve such a complex playground problem themselves.  They were civil, expressed various ideas, listened to each other, and came up with a viable solution.  This solution will no doubt need amendment, but that will be the next meeting!

Important thoughts for parents:

It is important to understand that unlike at some schools, there is an ongoing process driven by students and teachers together to solve playground disputes.  Students who feel upset by things that happen at school need to tell their parents and teachers, but the action that is taken will fit into the process that the students and teachers have set up.

For example, if a child feels that s/he has been excluded from a fort, s/he can use his/her “cool tools” of walking away, using a purple voice, etc. to try to solve the problem him/herself.  If this doesn’t work, s/he needs to tell a teacher what is going on, so that the situation can be mediated right away, in context, before it gets out of hand.  Learning to use “cool tools” and to tell teachers what is happening is the responsibility of the child, because it helps that child to learn to be an effective problem solver.  Obviously, if a child is much younger than the party in conflict, the teachers will step in sooner, and less is expected in the way of problem solving techniques.  But our ultimate goal, through all of our mediation on the playground and through discussion, is to teach the students to mediate their own conflicts, since they will need to do so as they get older. 

How can parents help?  Parents of course need to listen to their children.  Learning to be a social being is a hard, sometimes painful process.  Then, after hearing their child’s problem, parents can help us most by asking the child if s/he has talked to his/her teacher about this problem, and encouraging him/her to do so. 

We hope that parents can join with us in supporting the process which children are going through, in learning to solve their own problems collaboratively.  We believe that this process is at the heart of what our students are learning. This is not a small matter, nor a small part of the curriculum.

It would be easier for teachers to swoop in and say: “No more forts”.  But less would be learned.  I personally am uncertain whether forts can work as non-exclusive centers, since the word “fort” comes from a conflictive base.  But if there continues to be conflict, the students will come to this conclusion themselves.  And maybe they will surprise me and be able to manage forts without conflict.

Should you as a parent tell your child’s teacher when s/he feels stressed by behaviors at school?  Absolutely.  The child needs to feel s/he has a voice, and has been heard by all adults.  But to support our approach, it is important that you:

1)    Encourage your child to speak to the student with whom there is conflict him/herself, and if it doesn’t work, to tell the teacher him/herself.

2)    Understand that the teacher may not answer you with a “solution” of the sort you might hear at a different school, such as “we will get rid of those…. ” or “---- will be punished…”

3)    Some students think that if they tell their parents, and their parents talk to the teacher, that their side in an argument will prevail.  Some of these arguments, such as “forts or no forts”, are ongoing, and must be resolved by the group. The teacher will feed your child’s comment into his/her process that is ongoing with the group. 

It is important to note, however, that if a student does something actively harmful or dangerous to others, there will be consequences, taken by teachers, to assure that it stops.  Behavior management of particular students is separate from this group process, and ongoing, since the safety of the students is our highest priority. 

Why do this?

This is not an easy way to solve problems.  I was extremely proud of our teachers yesterday, because they showed great skill in guiding the students through a long fact finding and solutions discussion, and were able to set good boundaries so that no one got upset. 

Why would they want to do this instead of simply to lay down rules themselves?

The answer is important.  What our students are learning from being creative problem solvers in their academic work will mean little if they are not also problem solvers in the social world.  They are all prospective junior high and high school students who will need to make decisions about their own behavior and to mediate conflicts between their friends without adults always present. They are also prospective twenty-first century citizens who will have to work collaboratively, sometimes with people with different cultures, languages, and values.   And they are future citizens of a democracy.  Learning to define problems without anger, hear others’ points of view, and solve their conflicts in a collaborative way, are basic skills for life.  The world would be a better place if all people, let alone nations, learned to do this.  Although we do not want to see kids hurt or upset, we are in a sense glad when problems like this emerge at our school, because they are such great learning opportunities. 

Parents: please feel free to talk to your child’s teacher or to me if  you have questions about these matters.  Having you on board is an essential part of making this work.  

Reggio Rocks! Peregrine teachers shine at California Association for the Education of the Young Child (CAEYC) conference in San José

Coffee cups in hand, a crowd of teachers from all over California gathered around Carl Mack’s sticky board, writing their opinions on the qualities that define leadership.  By 8:00 AM, the room was jumping with one hundred and ten people.  Peregrine teachers Megan Forcum (head teacher of the school’s Escuelita program), Gabriela Valenzuela and Emma Clancy (head daycare teacher), guided by Carl Mack. Ph. D., our research partner, and introduced by Lorie Hammond, Ph. D, our academic director, began to speak.  An hour and a half later, the audience did not want to leave. 

What topic was riveting enough to engage its audience so early on a Saturday morning?  Two enmeshed themes emerged:  how Peregrine School inspires leadership in preschool children, teachers, and parents, and how this is done through a Reggio-Emilia inspired approach.

The journey to San José goes back at least a year, when Lorie asked our colleague and mentor, Dr. Carl Mack, Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology at Alliant University, former Superintendent of Del Paso schools, and a former Peregrine grandpa, to work with our teachers on developing leadership.  Since Carl believes that leadership begins from the bottom up, he began by watching the Escuelita class.  Soon he reported that leadership was already well-developed among that teaching team – in fact, that it was so well-developed, that rather than helping the teachers out, he preferred to do a research project on how they work.  That project, which was done cooperatively with Escuelita teachers, developed into a proposal to the state-wide preschool conference, CAEYC, and will soon be a published article.

After Carl introduced his research team and the project, and Lorie introduced Peregrine School, Megan, Gaby and Emma began.  Megan presented the many ways in which leadership is built at Peregrine School- among parents, children, and teachers.  Family projects such as the making and sharing of family posters, families sharing cultural artifacts and performances, and the incorporation of family themes into classroom fantasy play were developed.  Our families and staff are the world, since they come from many countries and speak many languages;  their presentations embodied the world theme which Escuelita embraces.  This theme has led to a study of the Brazilian rainforest, among other things, as exemplified by El Gran Capoquero, or The Great Kapok Tree (by Lynn Cherry), a book which has inspired a 3-D rainforest mural in Escuelita and will provide the theme for this year’s school play in May.  This tree is capped by a 15-foot long boa constrictor, made of nothing more than pantyhose, cotton fluff, and paint!  Hence a theme initiated by Brazilian families (preservation of the rainforest) is expanded by the genius of Escuelita teachers into a mural, a play, and months of meaningful engagement by the children. 

Megan then explained how another Reggio-inspired project, the light table, has resulted in a collaboration with the children involving various things that can be viewed and explored on the light table, such as clear plastic objects, jars and bags of water, clear mosaic glass, glass balls in water, and much more.  Eventually this theme of light resulted in studying light through the windows and the creation of tissue paper stained glass frames to cover the windows.  Along the way, art, shapes, geometry, math, color and of course light were studied.  Most importantly, social interactions were initiated in meaningful ways among the two- to four-year-olds eagerly clustered around the light table to view each new surprise set out there.  Gaby joined in at this point to discuss how leadership and organization occur in Escuelita, supporting the children and the structure of the day and making exploration possible. 

In many schools, teachers and children are tired during when the after school daycare hours roll around, and the program often declines into babysitting.  But Teacher Emma explained how Peregrine’s daycare program is a great time not only to expand themes from the morning program, but also to freely explore children’s interests which may not fit standards that teachers are pursuing.  One example of this is her study of cars, which emerged completely from the children, and has persisted for four months.  “The children wanted to play with the cars every day,” Emma noted, “but we noticed that they always did the same things.  With them, we began to explore new possibilities.”  These possibilities ended up including the creation of two and three dimensional models of cars, explorations of wheels and how they move, cars on ramps of different heights and slopes, the creation of various maps on paper of Davis, upon which the cars could drive, and finally, the creation of giant cars made of soft blocks, which several children could enter and “drive”.  Along the way, trains and airplanes were explored, but never with the passion the children feel for cars.  Some children even sleep with their homemade cars at nap time!  Four months later, the study is far from over.  Every day, the children ask for the cars.

The presentation ended with Carl’s summary of all the kinds of leadership he sees in the Escuelita classroom, and with a testimonial to how this setting gives a voice to children, teachers, and parents alike.  “It is like a big soup,” he said, “with lots of ingredients, yet they all mix together.”  The audience seemed to agree that the result is delicious, and were still asking questions when the next group came in to use the conference room. 

Families who want to see Megan, Gaby, and Emma’s part of this presentation, which shares how Reggio-Emilia inspired activities operate at Peregrine School, should come to the parent meeting at the Peregrine’s Early Childhood Center on Portage Bay West tonight from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.  Dinner and childcare will be provided.  Please call Kathy for a reservation, at (530) 758-8845.  You don’t want to miss it.

New and Exciting Kindergarten Options for Peregrine School

My first public school teaching job, in 1969, was kindergarten.  It was the first school setting the children I taught had ever been in, and my colleagues and I did everything we could to make them comfortable.  Our three hour day was composed of singing time, working with playdough, bead stringing, natural science, circle time with a story, and learning to share.  By the end of the school year, we wanted kids to know how to write their name and recognize the alphabet, and above all, how to interact with each other without fighting.   

Today, kindergarten teachers generally encounter children who have been to nursery school, and already recognize their names and the alphabet.  In public school, kindergarten standards include the curriculum that was taught in the first grade thirty years ago.  Children are expected to read simple books by the end of the year, and to write in sentences.  However, these children are still five years old.  For some, attending “first grade” is workable.  For others, it is not.  Many fall behind, or are frustrated with by sitting at a table doing structured reading and writing, when their bodies and minds drive them to move around and play. 

“The kindergarten question” is a challenging one for many parents.  Families debate about when their child should start, and many keep their children home an extra year.  Five-year-olds now enter kindergartens where they are expected to sit down and read or do math: tasks previously given to first graders, and that are not taught in most European countries until age seven. European children show the same or better long-term academic results as U.S. children, though they start the reading process two years later. One might wonder why Americans are in such a hurry.  (Check out new information about Finland, whose students are world leaders on standardized tests but where kids don’t start school until age seven (see Finnish Lessons, by Pasi Sahlberg)).

The reasons for accelerating academics in the United States are political rather than academic.  School districts and politicians are desperate to see kids pass tests at higher levels.  If that is the goal, they ask: why not start sooner, and push harder, to reach that goal? 

At the same time, many public schools have started “transitional kindergartens” to accommodate many children who are not ready for formal, academic schooling. Simultaneously, the eligibility age for kindergarten has changed.  In California, children now must be five in September, rather than December, to attend regular kindergarten.  Those who are not ready are invited to attend transitional kindergarten, to prepare them for kindergarten the next year. 

At Peregrine School, we have thought deeply about “the kindergarten question.”  Should kindergarten remain part of Primaria, a play based program with an introduction to academics, or should it be an academic, standards based program, housed in our elementary school?  The answer is clearly “both”, because it depends on an individual child’s rate of development.  Each of these approaches turns out to be right for some children, if decisions are based, as they should be, on developmental stage rather than chronological age.

What does a developmental approach to kindergarten mean?

Somewhere between age five and seven, children transition between the sensori-motor stage, where they learn through all their senses and through fantasy play, and the concrete operations stage, in which they become fascinated with learning symbols and playing by rules.  Of course, this transition is gradual, and all students benefit from real experiences and play, regardless of age. But the learning of reading, writing and arithmetic is an important step for all children. Parents and grandparents monitor it intently.  The question is: at what age should these activities be introduced? 

At a Reggio Emilia inspired school, we never want to deny students access to things they are ready to do, regardless of age.  On the other hand, forcing activities that children are not ready for causes many children to become frustrated and feel inadequate.  This is a problem in many kindergartens, where a significant proportion of the children are not ready for academic work. 

Peregrine School will offer new kindergarten options for the 2013-2014 school year. Beginning in the fall of 2013, there will be two kindergarten options at Peregrine School. Both offer a cross-age classroom at either the Early Childhood Center or our elementary school.

At the Early Childhood Center, Primaria will continue to be the same highly enriched, play based program it has been since its inception.  This program will be available to four- to six-year-old children, and will offer a “transitional” kindergarten approach for five year old children whose parents would like them to have another year based on play, enrichment, and some academics.  It will continue to be a highly enriched, five hour program (9AM-2PM) emphasizing science, Spanish, and the arts, and introducing language arts and math.  There will be plenty of time for children to engage in our two-year science theme of water in all its forms through experiments, as well as time to garden and to cook, and to understand the wide world by examining nature and participating in the arts. 

Peregrine Elementary will offer a kindergarten through second grade classroom which is more academic.  Five- and six-year-olds will enter this program when parents and teachers agree they are ready to spend the morning learning reading and math, and to handle a six-hour day in an elementary, cross-age setting.  Afternoons and all day Fridays will be devoted to Spanish and to integrated, project based learning in science, social studies, and the arts.  The k-2^nd grade program will be six hours long (9AM-3PM) so that both academic skills and enriched, project-based curricula can be taught. 

What will the normal progression of classrooms be for a student?  Although this will depend on the child, Primaria will continue to be a two year program that offers a balance of play and instruction ideal for most four- to six-year-old children.  We suggest that children who enter Primaria at age 4 stay for two years before going on to the k-2^nd grade classroom at elementary school.  Particularly, children with fall and summer birthdays, who would be young in regular kindergarten classes, will benefit greatly from their second year in Primaria.  We think this program is best for most children.

Primaria and the k-2^nd grade classroom provide a continuum of developmentally appropriate options for each child. Hence, if a child enters k-2 after two years in Primaria, and advances rapidly, it is very possible for him or her to spend only two years in that classroom.  K-2 is designed to teach basic reading, writing, and math through addition and subtraction.  For some children, this takes three years, for others, two.  Since the focus of k-2^nd grade is “learning to read”, and the focus of grades 3^rd-5^th grade is “reading to learn”, children will naturally enter the 3^rd-5^th grade classroom at different ages, depending on when she or he is fluent at reading and writing. It is important that the child is socially ready as well.  At each level of education, higher degrees of independence and self control are needed.

While it would not be common practice, children can also move from one class to another mid-year, just as they sometimes do from Escuelita to Primaria, depending on their readiness.  Hence, giving children the opportunity to mature naturally will not hold them back—they will always have options to move forward when it is appropriate to their own needs.

We are very excited about our new program because we feel that we are one of the few schools addressing “the kindergarten question” in a developmental way that takes into account the needs of individual children.  We also feel we are honoring childhood by providing a play-based but intellectual Primaria classroom that meets the needs of most four- to six-year olds. 

Parents and teachers are both involved in deciding the where to place children. We realize that having two kindergarten options could be confusing.  While parents will have strong input in what they want for their child, teachers will also be involved, as will I as academic director.  Parents must realize that developmental speed is not linked to intelligence. In many children, development in different areas is not even.  Many highly intelligent children do not learn to read and write early, and need more time to play.  There is no evidence that learning to read early leads to better academic achievement later in life than reading at age six or seven. For example, European children all learn to read in school at age seven, and have high rates of achievement later.  This is why we think that most children should do two years of Primaria, then move to the k-2^nd grade classroom, and take two or three years to complete studies there. 

Public schools have accelerated their expectations for children by a whole school year, even though a majority of schools have many students failing to achieve academic benchmarks.   The many best-seller books on “the hurried child” and on childhood anxiety attest to the toll that this decision is taking on children. At Peregrine School, we have made two important decisions.  The first is to meet grade level standards once students enter the elementary program.  The second is to let the pace of progress vary according to the most important variable: the readiness of each individual child. 

A parent meeting will be held at the early childhood center on Friday, January 25 from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. to discuss Peregrine’s new kindergarten options.  Please attend if you would like to know more about this program.  Both Jessica and Marcia, the Primaria and k-2^nd grade teachers, will be present.  These teachers and I are also more than willing to hold individual parent conferences to discuss the developmentally appropriate placement for your child.

!Escarabajos libres!

Today I had the pleasure of visiting the escuelita class of 2-3 year olds as they experienced a wonderfully integrated circle time and fall walk to Village Homes.  I soon realized how many things we do well at Peregrine School were integrated in this experience, so decided to describe it in this blog entry.  I hope it will serve as a snapshot for parents who are elsewhere and do not see what goes on, as well as for people interested in Peregrine School.

Twenty seven two and three year olds were gathered into a circle by Maestra Gaby, who begins with a song about “hojas”, or leaves.  Gaby captivates everyone’s attention by singing as she holds up some large, crispy, brown fall leaves and drops them from the air.  She then begins a game, in which she puts two leaves behind her back, one “grande” and one “pequeño”, and asks them to guess which is on which side.  When she reveals each leaf, the terms for large and small are reinforced.  To continue with this concept, the leaves are then sorted in the middle of the circle, with Gaby asking if each is “grande” or “pequeño”.  The leaves are then counted: uno, dos, trés…  Gaby then asks “Hay muchas hojas o pocas hojas?”  While all this goes on, two teachers support Gaby, holding children who need help sitting in circle, and two other teachers bring all children to the bathroom, so that when circle time is over, all children will be ready to go on a walk.

All of this is so smooth that it seems easy.  But think about all that is going on.  Every teacher is part of a team, backing up others so that children get what they need socially and physically while the “show” goes on without interruption.  In addition, several interrelated concepts that will resurface throughout the day and week are introduced.  Fall leaves, which have been discussed before, are featured, because the students will soon take a walk to collect more leaves.  The words “large” and “small” are also important parts of a unit on size, and sorting and counting them reinforces math skills as well.  And on top of it all, the whole circle time is a Spanish lesson, reinforced by songs, games and visuals. 

Next Gaby brings out a large Tupperware container in which beetles that metamorphosed from mealworms are living off of corn meal and rabbit chow.  The children have been watching this process for months, but now the beetles are adult and can go free.  A second purpose in the fall walk is to let them go to a new home in some mulch under a tree.  There the beetles will be able to make their own home, and lay their own eggs which will become worms and later beetles just like they did. Gaby explains this, bilingually, then says that we will miss these “escarabajos”, but that they will be free, “libre”.  Everyone chants “libre” several times, raising their hands in celebration about the liberation of the escarabajos.

Gaby explains that in the classroom we will now have a new insect pet- a plastic case full of ants- ornigas- which can make trails in a sugar filled container.  She then introduces the three body parts and six legs that the ants have, and how they carry around crystals of sugar to eat, and instructs the children that they will look with their eyes but not open up these new pets.

It is time to go to the park.  Everyone stands up and is led in a chant “ahorra vamos a marchar” which encourages the children to march in a line to the fence, and, after counting themselves, out the gate to their walk.  The walk is relaxed, because all five teachers and an intern guide the children, organized with partners, along the sidewalk and to Village Homes, where they are assembled in a grassy amphitheatre to eat their snack.  After the teachers hand out hand sanitizer and the snack of home-made vegan pumpkin muffins made by Chef Alison, pear slices, and water, Gaby reads a story about insect life stages, giving the students one last time to consider the cycle they experienced with their meal worms.

The day is beautiful, warm, fallish, and full of color.  Students gather leaves into large baskets  for future art activities, and those who choose to do so take out beetles one by one and let them free.  “Escarabajos libres”, we shout, hands in the air in celebration.  One cannot help but notice that the children too experience appropriate but celebratory freedom, as they feel the cool grass where they sit, pet a Village Homes cat and Rosie the dog, watch their beetles trundle off, and march about through piles of crunchy leaves.