We had an amazing last week of school before winter break! As we do each year, we held our Whole School Project this week, dividing into cross-grade groups to learn and play together for a few days. Our students selected the theme this year: SURVIVAL. I admit this was not my first (or last) choice. But, when you empower kids, you have to accept the consequences. So, our educational team put their heads together and planned a creative and deep program to explore the concept of survival in ways accessible to kindergarten and eighth graders alike. We learned and practiced survival skills; hiked Central Park with the Urban Park Rangers to understand how animals survive in our parks and forests; built bug hotels to attract unique tiny friends to visit our roof deck; and divided into chevrutot (learning pairs) to explore different texts from Bereishit that instruct humans on how to interact with the natural world. We started with community tefillah daily, raising our voices in prayer to set the tone for our day. My colleague Emily prepared this video for the Whole School Project culmination. The students loved it, and I suspect you will as well:
We officially survived the whole school project. But, there are moments during the planning process when an educator might wonder... "why do I choose to teach in a progressive school? It takes so much work!" Ironically, it takes a tremendous amount of behind-the-scenes teacher work to embrace an emergent curriculum like this, where the students' interests drive the learning, and you never know where these interests will land. And, it is worth it!
It is a gift to observe a seventh and first grader learn together over an ancient text or rock or see a middle schooler help a kindergarten student carry a wooden beam. It is an incredible way for educators to end a semester, we get to sit back, and enjoy the fruit of our labor as the students are busy working together on a project of their own choosing.
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