Civic Engagement
By Owen Blumenthal When I first arrived in Belize I was surprised. I hadn’t been entirely sure what I was expecting, I had done some surface-level research into the nation but knew very little about it overall. After we piled into a van and embarked on a drive to the zoo, I was blown away by the scenery around me, the jungles were beautiful and far removed from any ecosystem I was familiar with. The zoo itself was very interesting and I thoroughly enjoyed learning more about the Belizian wildlife. From there we drove to Gales Point where I was surprised to see the level of poverty present. This was my first exposure to extreme poverty and it was eye-opening to see the conditions. The work we completed painting houses and building porches felt rewarding though I have wondered if it was the best use of resources, I will defer to Dr.Rimkus…
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Everyone knows the classic game “Rock, Paper, Scissors” used by kids to break a tie or resolve an impasse. Did you know it could be a full-court team sport that draws out the inner athlete in students and teaches them teamwork simultaneously? Recently, students ventured to a nearby Rosslyn playground court for the big RPS middle school team building challenge. Two randomly chosen teams lined up on the baselines; then, one player from each team had to walk (not run!) down the sideline to the centerline, where the first two players had an instant RPS game. The winner moves forward to meet the next player from the opposing team, speed walking down the sideline while the winner advances. If the winner wins again, they keep moving to the enemy baseline. Defeating every opponent in the way yields one point. Capturing the enemy line took 4-5 wins, so the competition was…
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Part of our personalized experiential learning approach at The Sycamore School (TSS) is connecting learning to our larger world, and one of the ways we do this is by regularly taking students on field trips. We call Fridays our community-based learning day — students go on field trips related to what they’re studying, participate in community service outings, and welcome guest speakers. They also engage in extension activities such as science labs and career days. This year, our youngest middle school cohorts studied ecosystems and natural disasters. As part of this experience class, students went to Lacey Woods to investigate and learn how to identify local flora and fauna. They also visited a virtual aquarium to explore underwater ecosystems and food webs. This experience helped them make real-life connections to the concepts they discussed in class. Our youngest cohorts also participated in a soil investigation lab. They collected soil samples…
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We strive to do our best as parents and teach our children how to grow up to be self-sufficient adults. We also want them to become kind and generous adults. Good people. I recently read an article titled For Families: 5 Tips for Cultivating Empathy which reminded me that raising kind and generous adults is not an easy task. How do we cultivate empathy in our children? Our children learn from our actions more than our words. They pay attention to what’s important to us, how we spend our time, and how we treat others. If we want to cultivate empathy in our children, we need to model that behavior ourselves. How do we treat others? Not just our friends, co-workers, and family members who we deem to be our peers, but also the many individuals that make up our community, including waiters, cashiers, custodians, solicitors, and mail delivery people?…
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Every Friday, students at The Sycamore School go into the community for Field Study Fridays. Outings include field trips related to their coursework, community service activities, and some fun team building adventures. Faced with a stay at home order, these Fridays have looked a little different. Thanks to collaboration, creativity, and student choice, The Sycamore School has been able to continue with its Field Study Fridays. TSS formed a virtual Friday staff committee to think outside the box and craft Friday activities that would offer students a variety of choices designed to connect their learning to our larger world, continue our community service Friday focus, and give our core teachers some critical planning time. Although students couldn’t venture out of their homes, they were given a variety of options, enabling students to pursue interests of choice. Our virtual Fridays started with an all school meeting, where students could touch base…
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Parents, help mitigate panic and communicate realistic expectations to your children. It feels as if individuals are falling into two camps in response to the Coronavirus outbreak: panicking or dismissive. Neither reaction is helpful. Instead, we need to take preventative measures seriously and think beyond ourselves. Panic: A Selfish Response Panic can bring out the worst in some: people stealing masks from hospitals, hoarding hand sanitizer, and buying caseloads of water. These reactions show a regression to thinking only of ourselves and our own basic needs and not being mindful of the impact these actions have on others in our community. What happens if people don’t have access to basic supplies because other people hoarded? Social Distancing: It’s Not About You Are you in the dismissive camp when it comes to the seriousness of the pandemic and the need for social distancing? This is a little more subtle, but important.…
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Recently, the Washington Post featured an article Seven ways parents and educators can improve kids’ middle school experience. This article does a great job describing both actions we as parents can take and highlighting steps schools have successfully taken to improve the middle school experience. As I read the article, it felt as if they were describing The Sycamore School and our core tenants. At The Sycamore School, we integrate academic development, social-emotional growth, and civic engagement. The result is a school environment that is designed to provide the best middle and high school experience for our students. Here are examples of how our school is designed for a positive and rewarding school experience. Trust them with responsibility – Instead of offering whole class instruction, our students work at their own pace and use teachers and classmates as resources and guides to help them problem solve and work through challenging…
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What to do when a fun activity turns into a gripe fest? Turn to leadership. I’m not sure if it was due to spring fever, or typical adolescent waxing and waning maturity, but our students’ behavior reminded me of children who get dessert every day and then start to complain about the flavor of ice cream being offered. But instead of dessert, our students were griping about field trips. Since we are committed to experiential learning, we aren’t going to take away field trips; instead, we put the students in charge of running the trips. At the beginning of each week, we ask for a volunteer student leader who is responsible for organizing the logistics of the trip. We’ve already chosen the destination (which correlates to our curriculum) but how we get there and the details of how we organize our group are up to the trip leader. Our leader…
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by Karyn Ewart, PhD. “He used to love school,” is a common refrain I hear from parents. Too many students are falling out of love with school after elementary school, when school transitions from hands-on learning to rote memorization, layered with a lot of homework and a culture of acceleration. Schools are holding college preparedness workshops at the end of elementary school; middle schoolers are taking numerous high school credit courses; then, in high school, students are encouraged to take as many AP classes as possible, so that they can earn college credit. The result of this acceleration? Students are constantly worried about how to get ahead instead of being present. How do we stop this vicious cycle of stress and help our kids learn how to learn? Parents are afraid to ask this question. They need to understand that we can’t engineer a good life for our kids by…
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This article first appeared in early March 2017 in the Arlington Sun Gazette and InsideNOVA. The 2017-18 school year will bring the arrival of a new option in local education with the opening of The Sycamore School – a nonprofit, independent secondary school in Arlington. The inaugural class will include students in grades 6 to 8, eventually growing to 12th grade. Learning will be self-paced, and the school is “a good fit for students who are bright, curious and may not be thriving in their current school environment,” school officials said. The Sun Gazette recently queried Dr. Karyn Ewart, the founder and head of The Sycamore School, about how the institution will stand out among public and private education in the community. Questions and answers are below. One Arlington political leader used to always ask, when tackling an issue, “What problem are we trying to solve?” What problem, or challenge, in…
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Parents and other professionals often ask if The Sycamore School is a Montessori School. The short answer is no. The more complete answer is that TSS shares many commonalities with Montessori programs and would be a good fit for students with a Montessori background, as we strive to cultivate many of the same attributes of Montessori programs: curiosity, creativity, initiative, independence, intrinsic motivation, respect, and love of learning. What is Montessori? According to the American Montessori Association, “The Montessori Method of education, developed by Dr. Maria Montessori, is a child-centered educational approach based on scientific observations of children from birth to adulthood. Dr. Montessori’s Method has been time tested, with over 100 years of success in diverse cultures throughout the world.” Ways that TSS is similar to a Montessori School 1. Students & teachers are partners in learning – Teachers serve as a guide and facilitator, helping students seek out new opportunities to explore content; students learn how to…
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