tree – Hansel and Gretel

The Forest

The Forest Hiking through the forest, studying the leaves . . . “Forest” learning begins with large wonderings. “Leaf” education focuses on curricular leaves while (unintentionally) disregarding much of the forest. Below are ten examples of rich, forest-based, senior wonderings from North Lawndale College Prep High School in Chicago. As students walk through the interdisciplinaryContinue reading “The Forest”

Ginger

Ginger We took him in, so, yes, I used to have a dog. An insatiably curious mongrel — you know, the shaggy kind that smells real bad when almost always wet — lived with us. We six, all of us recent college grads, lived in a small house in a small, wet city in Alaska.Continue reading “Ginger”

Curriculum is…

Curriculum is . . . Formal Education is Three Things: Curriculum. Instruction. Assessment. Always, those three components exist within ever-shifting political, social, and economic contexts. And — whew — those contexts have multiple layers which are often in conflict with one another: the classroom, the academic subject, the school, the community, the city/town, the state, American society… Every school day, eachContinue reading “Curriculum is…”