…as of this past Wednesday, September 4th! We are happy to see one another, to get to the work of creating our new systems (and adjusting them later, as necessary), and to begin imagining what the year holds in store for all of us. Taking a first day of school group picture has become a […]
Author: Diane Webber
The Big Trip of Spring, 2019!
The big trip is a trip toward the end of the year that the 5th/6th pay for with the pizza money we made throughout the year. Instead of adults planning the big trip, the kids plan it! The group makes agreements on where to go and then we break into planning groups. Our groups were: where […]
Why Teach About Colonization and Decolonization?
by Sarah Yanuck June, 2019 One day when I was in high school, I stood by the photocopier with my advisor, Jamie. I may have been working as his teacher’s assistant at the time, or maybe I was just hanging around while he prepared for the following day’s classes. As we stood there, I lamented […]
In the Loop
Pollyanna by Kemper Pollyanna is a gift exchange that takes place right before winter break. it is a tradition to celebrate it in Diane and Sarah’s ⅚ class. This is how Pollyanna works: everybody picks a name out of a hat and they can not tell anybody that name. (That person is their Pollyanna.) We […]
Lifting Veils
How do spaces held sacred by a community reflect and communicate the world view and values of the people for whom the space is sacred? This is the question at the root of our work this winter, and as our exploration continues, we will invite the group to reflect directly on that question and post […]
In the Loop
While this is being published in early January, 2019, in fact it is the last post of 2018 from our group. Enjoy! We look forward to reconvening next week. Blog Process by Tessa Every month, Diane and Sarah’s group brainstorms topics that are new on the whiteboard, and then we each get a topic to […]
In the Loop
The Woodmere Art Museum Field Trip – by Alison The Monday before Halloween, our class went on a field trip to the Woodmere Art Museum in Chestnut Hill to look at Victorian death ceremony themed, decorated, styrofoam cakes. Yeah, I’m not kidding. Dark. Well, it actually wasn’t very dark at all. The cakes […]
What is Mentionable is Manageable
by Diane I have been on a bit of a Fred Rogers kick lately. It began with going to see the excellent documentary film about his life and work this summer – twice (Won’t You Be My Neighbor?). It continued with a visit to the Central branch of the Free Library of Philadelphia to see […]
In the Loop
On September 20th, Back to School Night, parents visited our classroom, starting their visit with a tour of the spots selected for noticing by the young people in the group. The visitors then wondered about those locations, leaving us questions. In the spirit of this year’s school-wide theme, Notice and Wonder, here are our answers to some of […]
Big Trip – Spring, 2018
[Ed.: And with a new school year just days away, I glanced at the blog to realize that I had never hit “publish” on our last, and some might argue, most important blog post of the 2017-2018 year!! So many apologies. Here it is.] In their own words… Every year, the 5th/6th groups take overnight […]