Swan School Parent Book Club

Dear Parents,

Wow, did we learn a lot at the PNAIS Fall Educators' Conference on October 9th! Marcy was inspired to write to her class' parents about the experience and I must say that I couldn't have said it better. In her letter she wrote:

Hello! Just wanted to tell you a little bit about what we did Friday. All the Swan teachers commuted to the Pacific Northwest Association of Independent Schools' annual teachers' conference in Sammamish to hear internationally-known educator Alfie Kohn speak, attend teachers' workshops and meet and share with teachers from all kinds of independent schools in the Northwest. Kohn is an outspoken proponent of educational practices which put what we know about children as people and how they learn best ahead of the current mania for standardized testing. He had some interesting points to make based on his experiences as an educator and educational research. If you'd like to become more familiar with Alfie Kohn's work, he has a website, alfiekohn.com, and Swan School has most of his books.

What was very interesting to me was a presentation on what the latest researchers have found out about how the brain retains information. One interesting fact is that as we get older, we can retain more information presented to us at once. However, researchers found that adults can remember a maximum of 7 pieces of new information before the brain starts forgetting or prioritizing those bits of information for retention. Guess how many pieces of information the average Kindergarten student can retain at any one time? Two! Researchers have also found that if information is presented in a way that organizes individual facts into related "chunks", we'll remember them better, and maybe even have room for more! Whatever we learn takes overnight to be permanently assimilated, and is dependent on deep restful sleep for the brain to be able to process it.

Linking Alfie's philosophy with the brain research was very affirming to all of us. We learned that the best ways for students to learn the most was for the information to be meaningful to them in some way (not just random "facts" or sheets of math problems), for the information to be presented in an interesting and engaging manner (such as in storytelling), for kids to engage in problem-solving activities to practice what they've learned, for students to work with partners or small groups, for students to teach other students what they've learned to cement their learning, for students to engage in creative hands-on projects where they can use, process, and express what they've learned, for students to act out or engage in role-plays or simulations (like our bee hive a couple of weeks ago), and for there to be a minimum of stress in the learning process, because stress gets in the way of memory and reasoning. All of these approaches to learning are exactly what we do at Swan School every day! Once again we have had what we know is best for kids confirmed! And we learned a bunch of new things to try and met some amazing fellow teachers from some awesome-sounding schools, too! Lots of food for thought!!!

Marcy

PS--Many, many thanks to the person who made it possible for us to attend the PNAIS conference Friday!!!

As I talked with the other staff members I found that we all felt affirmed about what we are doing here at Swan School, how we structure our classrooms, how we believe that students learn, and how we support each child's growth. One thing that we felt we could do better at is sharing current research and thought about education and parenting. To facilitate discussion and learning among our community I propose the formation of a Swan School Parents Book Club. We could choose a particular book to read, decide on a time to have completed reading it, and then meet for an hour or two to discuss it. I have led book groups like this in the past and found them to be both fun and educational. For the first book, I'd like to propose one of Alfie Kohn's books, "Unconditional Parenting: Moving from Rewards and Punishments to Love and Reason" (click the title for a sneak peak on Amazon.com).

If you are interested in joining such a group and are interested in learning more about education and parenting, reply to this email and list dates and times for an initial meeting that would work best for you. I'll do my best to find a common date and time to meet.

I look forward to reading this book, discussing it, and learning along with you.

Russ