Just before Thanksgiving break, Catalina Rincon (K-1-2 teacher and instructional coach), Stephanie Collins (3-4-5 Division Head), and Grace Reilly (8th grade science teacher and MS instructional coach), and I enjoyed a morning with parents sharing about ways in which teachers and our community are gaining a deeper understanding of the British Primary approach to teaching and learning.

We delved into a key British Primary Concept - Discovery. We read about, linked our reading to our own and our children’s experiences,  and discussed the why and how of:

• Inspiring Wonder
• Igniting Curiosity
• Nurturing Observation
• Embracing Questions
• Supporting Investigations
• Facilitating Communication
• Celebrating Learning
• Designing Reflection
• Emphasizing Constructivism
• Honoring Play

To wrap up the morning, Catalina, Stephanie, and Grace shared a few ways in which discovery infuses each grade level division of the school: 

Catalina: At K-1-2, we begin the school year with really simple things that children are familiar with, like bubbles. We let them play with them and ask What are you noticing? What are you wondering? We let their learning guide and take them. Our class just did a unit on worms. We did not have a set of ideas that these are things we want children to learn. It was really about What are the things that they want to learn? Where are their questions taking them? These moments of discovery happen all the time. You just have to stop and look and you are going to see them. It is naturally a part of everything the K-1-2s do everyday.

Stephanie: In science learners are coming up with their questions. They are forming their hypothesis and testing it. They are looking at the variables. Their learning is guided by Sig and she’s helping them really understand the scientific process and how you can go through that process but the foundation focuses on what the children want to learn about and they get to discover it. Discovery happens across the curriculum; for example, in writing we use mentor texts so we are using model picture books, chapter books, other students’ writing, teachers’ writing and they are looking at it and analyzing it. So, for example, a lesson on sensory images is going to be looking at a text that has strong sensory images but the children are constructing their own meaning around that. What makes a good sensory image? What makes a good hook for an essay? Essays can become boring so how are you going to hook your reader so they will want to read it? Discovery is happening all day, everyday at 3-4-5!

Grace: When we think about discovery it can be so easy, or we can be so quick to think about science class, Look discovery in science. Investigating. Observing. It happens there, and it happens in a lot of other places too. In middle school we are embracing who they are at that age and how they can build and share their understanding in a way that makes sense to them. Our students are coming out of the concrete thinking stages and developing brains that are more ready to think abstractly and we are hitting them with more complex conversations and topics about what’s happening in the world and has happened in the past. Our teachers are presenting multiple perspectives on something, typically using primary sources, so students are able to see what was happening, draw their own conclusions and come to their own understandings of these complex topics. 

It was a morning of discovering Discovery! Here are a few photos and a few Stanley faculty and staff quotes shared at the parent association morning:

Wonder is being alive. It makes you alive. It’s the juice of life. –Mona Akbari

When teachers allow children to play freely and discover their own interests, children become their own best teachers.  –Carolyn Hambidge

How we respond when kids are exploring and investigating is really important. We need to be careful not to intervene too quickly because we’re worried that it’s something that will send our kids down the wrong road.  –Sumant Bhat

The teacher is differentiating constantly. They’re always adjusting. It does look different for every student and that’s the role of the teacher too, to make sure every student is being accommodated for their particular understanding and for their learning and for how they make meaning. –Alex Meallet

I feel like the teacher is backstage. Turning on the lights, putting up the curtains, helping the actors to shine. So the actors can use their talents. They are in the center of the stage. They are the ones that are getting the knowledge and you are wanting them to shine. So I feel like the teacher is sitting next to their students, watching them, guiding them. You aren’t giving them direct answers; you’re helping them find the way to get those answers. –Sofia Cruz

I think about permanence of learning and also relevance. When a teacher just tells a student something, they’re just not going to remember it and internalize it as well as when they come to it on their own. Either you'll remember it much better because you went through the whole process to get to figuring it out for yourself, or if you don't remember it later you also know the process to get there.   –Nan Munger

There is a joy in being the expert in something and knowing and having discovered something. You don't really fully know until you’ve shared it. There's an identity that gets developed and you create this connection with the person that you shared it with. 

–Valentina Reiling

Reflecting is important because you get to know yourself more. Each child gets to know themselves. Until they really have a knowledge of who they are and finding out what they love to do and what they are passionate about, that's how wisdom grows. You can’t have wisdom without knowing yourself a bit and reflecting helps you. So often people do what they’re told in school but don’t reflect. I love how the children here are allowed to reflect on what they’ve done.  –Carolyn Hambidge