Part of our focus as Teacher/Researchers in our learning environment is to empower children to better communicate their needs, feelings and wonderings. In order to develop this ability, the child must first feel relaxed in his surroundings and be able to hear his own desires and curiosities. A child under tension will close down and be unable or unwilling to communicate. In our school great attention is given to the design and feel of the environment: aesthetic is a high priority. A teacher is required to consider the placement of tools, supplies and ongoing works. She must constantly ask herself if the space she has created and is maintaining is most likely to bring out the best in her students. She frequently assesses her surroundings and questions whether they respond to her students’ learning processes and allow them to flourish.

In this well-constructed environment a teacher thinks carefully about how she interacts with and engages each student individually and within a group. She must facilitate their communication in every way possible. She must model the behavior she wishes to see in her students therefore she asks questions that invoke thought and reaction; she provokes. Equally important, she listens closely making interpretations within herself and with her colleagues; she processes. Armed with deeper understanding the teacher engages with her students in meaningful work. Once a child understands that his opinions are valued and respected he begins to express them more frequently; this leads to dialogue. Our school is rarely quiet; it vibrates with the tenor of voices and tells stories with the display of ongoing work. Our environment engages a person’s senses and sensibilities.

When a student recognizes the opportunity before him and participates willingly and confidently in the exchange of ideas, the learning truly begins for everyone. The student becomes the protagonist as he influences the content and the direction of his studies. The teacher also becomes the protagonist as she provokes deeper thought by drawing out what he knows, what he hypothesis and what he needs to know to continue his studies. Together the teacher and the student co-create curriculum.

Of course it should be understood, according to Loris Malaguzzi, founder of the Reggio approach, that a child has a hundred languages. They think, speak and listen through many art forms and these become their expression of ideas, frustrations, joys, accomplishments and continued wonderings. The expressions that emerge through cooking, drawing, painting, dancing, singing, building, etc. are as valued as the ones verbalized. By using wire to imitate the lines in leaves children must examine the leaf closely and determine the exact shapes and directions of the veins, an interaction that may not take place with observation apart from expression. As the student engages in this work he is communicating to his teacher, his peers and the broader community. Each person will relate to the world in different ways and will build his understanding based on varying stimuli. It is important to give each child the opportunity to learn and to express himself in every possible way.

The most effective progressive, social constructivist, Reggio inspired teacher is always certain that there is more to know about each student individually and within a group. She believes that the child has an unending ability to ponder, explore, share, discuss, debate, learn and teach. Therein lies the richness of possibility.

1st Annual Education Conference: Nel Noddings

Nel Noddings, is a well known author and professor of Education at Stanford University. She spent seventeen years as an elementary and high school mathematics teacher and school administrator, before earning her PhD and beginning work as an academic in the fields of philosophy of education, theory of education and ethics, specifically moral education and ethics of care. She became a member of the Stanford faculty in 1977, and was the Jacks Professor of Child Education from 1992 until 1998. While at Stanford University she received awards for teaching excellence in 1981, 1982 and 1997, and was the associate dean or acting dean of the School of Education for four years. After leaving Stanford University, she held positions at Columbia University and Colgate University. She is past president of the Philosophy of Education Society and the John Dewey Society. In 2002-2003 she held the John W. Porter Chair in Urban Education at Eastern Michigan University. She has been Lee L. Jacks Professor of Education, Emerita, at Stanford University since she retired in 1998.

Nel Noddings has 10 children and in 2004 had been married for 54 years. She has described her early educational experiences and her close relationships as key in her development of her philosophical position.

Contributions to philosophy

Noddings’ first sole-authored book Caring: A Feminine Approach to Ethics and Moral Education(1984) followed close on the 1982 publication of Carol Gilligan’s ground-breaking work in the ethics of care In a Different Voice. While her work on ethics continued, with the publication of Women and Evil (1989), and later works on moral education, most of her later publications have been on the philosophy of education and educational theory. Her most significant works in these areas have been Educating for Intelligent Belief or Unbelief (1993) and Philosophy of Education (1995).

Purchase a copy of this presentation by contacting us 732-841-1660 or staff@voyagerskids.com

If that’s where your family is today, then I’d love to chat with you about how Voyagers’ Community School can help. Consider how different your life would be if your child enjoyed learning and smiled each morning as he or she headed off to school.

For High School learners at Voyagers’ we will soon be reviewing progress to date, updating learning plans, arranging internships and independent studies and beginning to outline goals for the coming school year.  These students enjoy a “different” way of thinking about and functioning within a school. They become an integral part of the process. They have a voice!

Most families find that this different way of learning is good for everyone at home as stress levels are reduced and academic performance and demands are no longer central to everyday communication! Families have reported that there is more time to connect around mutual interests and to breathe easier.

Maybe embracing a different way could be good for your family, too! Call today to learn more and to reserve a space for your child, 732-842-1660

Often times a child arrives home with a report card filled with admirable grades; the parent is proud. In earnest a lot rides on this child’s grades but what do these grades mean; is there anyway to know for sure? In truth an “A” or a check on a scale is very subjective. We certainly found this to be true in years past when we hovered around reviews comparing and puzzling over rankings given by each mentor to his or her mentees. Some of these ranks were quite high while others were just average. One mentor argued, “I give average scores to every child unless he or she shows something extra. After all when did average become less than?” Another stated, “I begin with the assumption that every student is excellent and I only give a lesser grade if they appear not to be trying.” When both mentors were asked if they thought their mentee was outstanding compared to the other they quickly said, “No.” In fact they thought they were performing equally and were surprised to learn that each child’s rubric was quite different.

It seems impossible to fairly grade each student in a class, at a grade level, in a school or in a nation. There are too many variables. We feel one of the best representations of a child’s learning lies in an extensive, detailed, narrative generated by a child’s mentor and thoroughly reviewed and discussed by all teacher/researchers. And so… We commit, on average, 10 hours to this process for every child. We recently calculated the time dedicated to producing our last round of reviews. Over the course of about 4 weeks three teachers and our Director collectively invest 280 hours in this project. After a full day of work we each sat at our kitchen tables, in our beds, at the light table, at our desks, in cars, on trains and where every else possible to work another 17 plus hours each week.

The Beginning of the Process

Long before a mentor sits down at his or her computers to type the first draft of a student review the staff has met numerous time. During these meetings they consider each child thoroughly. They also consider class content, ways to improve over previous evaluations and organizational matters.

One of the first things we discuss is prior experience considering what has and has not worked in the past and what we would like to see changed. This year the staff talked over several meetings about the rubrics used for many years. We considered what we liked and disliked about them and came to the conclusion that these served little purpose, as they did not provide a good picture of the child as a whole person. After much discussion we decided that a written, descriptive evaluation alone would best satisfy our desire to provide a comprehensive, heartfelt review and would give parents a better understanding of how their child functioned in our school setting. Having made this decision we moved on, brainstorming a list of everything we should think about and evaluate regarding a child’s social, emotional and academic progress. Once these ideas are gathered we review the list, categorizing each point according to the headings we plan to utilize when organizing our thoughts and writing. Often an item we list fits under more than one category. This triggers lively debate, should we limited this to one category or is it important to be mentioned under several, each time in a different context.

It might seem petty to debate such a thing however this list becomes a reference point for all reviews, a checklist of sorts. As each mentor writes he or she ponders the points and is guided accordingly. Of course this is not the only source we rely upon. It’s important to remember these children have not come to us in a vacuum and the majority of them have been with us for several years. Past experience is important and past evaluations are often relied upon. We spend time rereading what has been sent home over previous years in order to consider goals that were set and progress that has been made since the prior writing.

Before settling in to write staff often brainstorms about individual children, listing the child’s attributes and traits exhibited in school. Since we all have an opportunity to work with each child at some point during the year we all have information and insights to share. Staff members help each other fill in blanks; we provide a system of checks and balances throughout the process.

Of course there is also each child’s body of work to be considered. Academic Journals, Writing Journals, math books, art projects, photographs, anecdotal day-to-day notes and artifacts collected throughout the year are organized, spread out on the table before the teachers and evaluated. We ask ourselves, “Is this his best work?” Does this really show what he is interested in? How is his work organized? What evolution have we seen since school began?” This is all taken into account.

All of this preparation to write fills many staff meetings and in some ways never feels finished. Eventually, however write we must.

The Writing Begins

Each staff member starts the process of writing reviews for their eight to ten mentees. The first items addressed are the six sections of the Social Report. These are the hardest to write and take the longest time for most of us. The teacher assembles all of the information available for a child and attempts to put it into words in a respectful and caring way.

To avoid making blanket impersonal statements about a student the mentor provides as much supporting evidence as possible in the social write-up. These small details give the parents a better understanding of how their child spends his day and what his approach to school looks like and results in. We often ask ourselves if we have painted a clear picture. This portion of the review is intimate, as we talk about the inner child, the outer child, the child interacting with others, with space, with materials, with himself, the child as a whole being. Sometimes there are tough things to say. We labor over these and often revisit them time and again to be certain of our thoughts and our delivery. We strive to be fair, generous, kind and gentle. We are sure to find value and worth in every child and in that sense we love capturing our thoughts on paper.

In addition to the Social Report the staff must summarize each class he or she taught during the period being addressed. A class description covers a teacher/researcher’s initial goals and intentions for the class. It states the direction the class actually took and the topics covered. Each class description also provides the outcome and a list of new and remaining questions if any exist. Once these are composed each teacher/researcher considers the work of each student in the class and composes another portion of his review. Here the teachers must provide specific feedback, which is generated from daily class notes that are maintained over the course of the class.

When considering a child’s gains and contribution in class we think about his level of enthusiasm, his willingness to converse, share, consider, negotiate and debate, his organizational skills, his reliance on prior knowledge, his use of new knowledge, his ability to connect with and use this information from class to class and across curriculum areas. With these considerations in mind we quickly garner a complete story.

While in the process of writing or when a first draft is completed the teacher/researchers will engage in a read aloud. This not only allows the staff to fix grammatical and spelling errors but also provides another opportunity for each person to suggest changes based on his or her experiences with the child. The staff also considers the language and words used in the review and their impact within the context of family culture. The average review takes at least an hour to read through given the constant interruption to discuss the smallest point. We try to reach a meeting of the minds on every review. Finally, each review is edited incorporating all of the feedback given.

These completed reviews are then sent to the Director of the school for her approval. She reads every review and makes comments. These comments are either incorporated into the final version of the document or brought back to the staff for reconsideration.

Compiling the Document

We are constantly documenting our students’ in anecdotal notes and picture; this process goes on day in and day out. Each day we download three cameras and the multitude of pictures are categorized in separate folders by child and again by subject matter. We have thousands of photos from the first half of this school year! These are the files we visit to complete each child’s process folio. Once the text is completed the mentors review all the pictures selecting those that best reflect the story being told. Pictures are examined, cropped, resized and dropped into a new series of pages that are carefully laid out. Each child requires at least 20 minutes; we have this process perfected.

Once everything is completed the printer is called to work overtime. Each review is printed and carefully matched up to the child’s corresponding class descriptions, photos, reviews and physical artifacts such as artwork, which is placed into plastic sleeves. All paper is hole punched and placed into each child’s process folio. Piles upon piles fill every surface of the art room, often including most of the floor. As we go along we check, recheck and cross check the materials and for each student. Before each Process Folio goes out the door we try to be sure we have included everything that will be helpful to the parents and the child.

This document is often the most intriguing and important report we can give a student according to feedback we have received. With the amount of in-depth thought and emotional investment we give when writing we hope that we have conveyed their character clearly and created something that will be useful to them in the future.

In the End

While all of this is going on teacher/researchers are still on the job providing for children’s learning and, in our most recent case, planning, organizing and preparing a Winter Solstice Celebration for 75 guests. This is an amazing feat. The average review includes approximately 9 pages of text and 2-3 pages of pictures. In the end the staff has turned every corner and looked under every stone in a true effort to provide a document that serves parents, children and staff members.

You might think it ends here; no such luck. Soon after we are back at the table considering what went right, what went wrong and what we can do to better. Developing Process Folios is a process that has gone on for five years and will continue to take shape over the years to come.

Copyright 2009

Like many of our classes, the students’ interests determined the course of study for the recently completed third session of Physics This class for the older students culminated with the students photographing a high speed object (the BB from an air rifle) with a camera. Yes, you read that right- guns in school. More about the air rifle later.

The Idea
It all started when students expressed interest in the high speed video they see on television, specifically seeing things break or blow up in super slow motion. They expressed a strong desire to learn to make a video like this. Of course the school can’t afford $50,000 video cameras; the teacher had to find a compromise. Some research yielded methods to take high speed photographs using an ordinary flash unit in a darkened room. The teacher thought this would be a good goal for the six week class since it covered setting up repeatable experiments, velocity of objects, electrical circuits, properties of sound waves and kinetic energy. The students were excited and worked to learn this technique and its nuances in order to achieve their goals.

Capturing a photograph of a high speed event requires very little equipment and a lot of preparation. To record sharp photos of a fast moving object required that they capture an image over a very short amount of time, about 1/30,000th of a second. Since a fast camera can open and close their shutter in 1/8000th of a second a different approach was required. If you open the shutter of a camera in a dark room and then set off a flash unit to light up the room for 1/30,000th of a second you can freeze fast moving objects, like when a strobe light flashes on a darkened dance floor. The trick is to initiate the flash unit at the right time, since only one flash is required to capture the image on the camera.

The Preparations
The first concept the students had to understand was velocity and conversion of units. They started small, by timing ourselves in a 100 meter dash and using the times to determine their scalar velocities. They also practiced their ability to quickly convert SI (metric) units to English units and back again.

In order to build a device that would initiate the flash unit the students had to learn about another branch of physics, basic electronic circuits. They had to understand the function of resistors, capacitors and other components to understand how a sound initiator functioned. This type of device uses an amplified microphone connected to the flash unit to spark the flash. This sound initiator was used by the children to take photographs of balloons popping. They learned that the location of the initiator was essential to the success of the photo due to the speed that sound travels. They observed what photos looked like as the initiator’s microphone was moved farther from the balloon. After multiple attempts they were able to calculate how long it took for a balloon to pop based on the position of the microphone and the speed of sound.

The Next Step
This balloon photo was an excellent start, but being between 10 to 15 years of age, they really wanted to see something break apart more dramatically. This led to the cracker and the egg. One of the key factors in taking high speed photographs is consistency. Yes, a student could hit an egg with a hammer, but could they do it in the dark and be absolutely consistent so the result is measurable? Besides, eggs don’t make noise like balloons. The class talked about various methods they could rely upon to safely make something move fast and accurately while also being safe. One student suggested a firecracker, but that was immediately vetoed by the teacher as being completely unsafe and also illegal.

The next student offered the use of his BB gun. It took quite a while for the teacher to answer that offer. The response was based on many positive attributes: the ability to move an object(the BB) with enough velocity to make a dramatic photo but not so quickly as to hurt someone if something went wrong, moving the object at a consistent velocity to make the experiment repeatable and having the ability to secure it to eliminate the inconsistency of a human aiming a gun. The potential drawback was singular but huge, it was a gun. Yes, guns are weapons, but they are also really just tools, not unlike the knives in the kitchen or the ones used to carve wood in class. Based on the safety and control the students had demonstrated in Archery and the use of carving knives in Woodworking, the answer to the offer was eventually “yes”.

This turn of events required a whole new type of initiator, since a BB gun is too quiet for the sound initiator. A new flash initiator based on an infrared beam was built and tested. It was designed to send a signal to the flash a short time after the BB broke the beam of light. Varying the delay gave them the ability to calculate the velocity of the BB as well as the kinetic energy of the impact.

The Experiment
To ensure the safety of the group members the air rifle was placed in a vise to aim and secure it. Students were given a safety briefing and were required to stand in a safe area to the rear of the experiment set up. The BB’s were safely stopped by a piece of cloth after making the twelve inch trip from the end of the barrel to the target.

The students were able to take two photos, one of a cracker just at the moment of the BB’s impact (that copper colored ball is the BB traveling at 50 mph) and an egg (the BB has entered the egg but still hadn’t exited at the time of the photo). From these two photos, the students were able to see how the kinetic energy was transferred to the cracker as well as how the liquid in the egg absorbed the energy and emerged with just a few cracks.

The Lesson
In the end, the class accomplished their goal of taking a photo of something dramatic and to freeze time to find out what really happens when things break. They had to learn about velocity, electronic circuits, sound, microphones and kinetic energy before finally using a BB gun to capture their photographs. The world we live in is filled with an appalling amount of violence and guns, both in movies and real life. It’s actually a relief to learn that sometimes a gun can be used as the carrot rather than the stick.