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 […]
Author: Diane Webber
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 […]
The Return of Navid!!
Navid, who lives in Dubai with his family most of the time, rejoined our group this week, and will be with us through the end of the year. We are thrilled to have him back! Here are his thoughts on the subject: “As some of you know, I recently returned back to Miquon after I […]
The Insider’s View: Volume 6
Work Continues: The Industrial Revolution After several introductory lessons about the Industrial Revolution, it was time to dig deeper into some of the details. One strategy for getting the most from our time together is breaking into smaller study groups so that children can explore one aspect of the era in more detail, eventually connecting […]
The Insider’s View: Volume 5
Author Study By Theo Eight weeks ago Diane and Mark’s group came into the classroom after choice time and Diane told us to look at the books on the tables and think about an author we wanted to study. After about ten minutes of looking at the laid out books, everyone had one or two […]