Confident, Creative, Collaborative

William Shakespeare

It’s hard to believe that we’re heading into the last part of the school year.

Math Day was so fantastic, and afterwards I had the chance to reflect on how much the students in Turquesa have learned and grown this year. It is truly turning into a remarkable year. There is a sense of ease, focus and maturity in the room these days; this is a hard-earned cultural climate in the Upper Elementary. By that I mean that as a teaching team working in collaboration with children, we know that the entire community must strive together to achieve this.

One of the paths toward this sense of communal well-being is a culture of shared appreciation and acknowledgements. This was so evident to me last week at Math Day. Children were not only confident and proud of themselves; they were proud of each other, and excited to teach and learn from each other. I saw it again yesterday afternoon, too. We spent the morning on ITBS, then had a history/art lesson about illuminated letters. After recess, we continued the lesson with a video about how to create an illuminated letter (link). The entire class then sat together for almost an hour, while everyone happily drew, erased, measured, experimented, shared, congratulated, and offered encouragement and feedback. The entire class! They were working hard, each on their own, but simultaneously together. If this is a glimpse of their future lives and work, I think the world will be in good hands and Dr. Montessori would be proud.
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We have officially begun Midsummer Night’s Dream rehearsals. This is a wonderful collaborative way to finish the school year: Lots of togetherness and creativity, and lots of independent hard work. This production is so much than just Shakespeare! ​

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