A New Adventure...

This past fall, we offered a four-part workshop series to accompany the exhibit's Denver stay. Each Saturday focused on a different big idea from the exhibit. We had seven core members who attended each workshop, and a few people who attended one or two. 

Each workshop allowed us time to participate in all three phases of messing about... 

And time to collaborate, find shared interests, and develop an It for our I's and Thou's....

And as we grew and learned as teachers, we laughed together, and sometimes cried together. We challenged each other and complemented each other. 

Each workshop offered us time to explore the resources around us - materials and interests (eolithism)....

And when the workshops were all done we realized we missed each other. 

So we decided to do it again...

We realized we don't need official workshops set up to meet as a group. To challenge each other and support each other. Just like Frances and David Hawkins had unofficial meetings of minds in his living room all the time, we could come together and meet, too. 

We met at Boulder Journey School and talked and talked. And we realized that we wanted to keep a space alive where we could meet, mess about, and support each other. 

We came up with a list of reflections about our work since our time together last fall: 

How many children struggle with fitting into their “box”  - timing, TAG,

enriched curriculum leads to more learning - not just for “TAG”

there can be a mismatch of philosophy and value - “this is wonderful, but we can’t”

fear can be a stopper - afraid of change?

all aspects are vital to the question: “how do we engage?”

And a list of goals that we want to explore: 

What is the role of this type of teaching and learning in the current educational climate?

How do we help teachers feel supported and appreciated? How can we help teachers contribute to the success of the school?

How can we involve administration to help create a “team”? How can we communicate that we can all contribute to meaningful next steps?

How can we support the creation of a safe space to discuss challenges?

How can we integrate what is and what could be? What small steps can help change the path?

How can HCoL support the teachers who do go back? What kind of follow-up can there be? How can we maintain the momentum?

What is perceived as “science”? How can we broaden this perception?

Can we create Hawkins-inspired documentation to broaden the perception?

We asked ourselves, how would David and Frances Hawkins go about finding answers? And we thought about the Mountain View Center. 

And as we were talking, Erica mentioned that she'd like to explore more with block play and Patricia declared that she's passionate about block play. And we realized that we could explore all these ideas and grow as teachers by being each other's experts. We can use our explorations around blocks as a forum to explore our larger goals. Will our specific questions about blocks inform our larger questions?

So, next month, we will hold a workshop about blocks. We will mess about with the blocks and use the resources of the teachers we have available to build new understandings. We'll see what new paths come to light as we are playing. Then, we can take those understandings back to our classrooms to support our relationships in the classrooms as well.