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From Struggling Student to Successful Teacher: My Journey with Executive Functioning Challenges
I was a backpack stuffer. All the papers I received during the day were crumpled and stuffed at the bottom of my backpack, crushed by the weight of objects I...
Social Media as Creative Writing Curriculum
The Sycamore School’s Journalism & Yearbook Class is a daily elective where students actively contribute to our school’s social media. This class empowers them to contribute to the narrative and...
A Parent Guide for Helping Your Child Beat the Winter Blues
The short days and less favorable weather of winter often have an adverse impact on our general mood. It is not uncommon for individuals — including children — to find...
The Sycamore School is Moving to Rosslyn
The Sycamore School is moving to Rosslyn! After six years in Ballston, TSS has decided that we are ready to take the next step in our journey and move into...
Redefining the Purpose of Education
What Has Been the Purpose of Education? Our education system is outdated and has been running on autopilot for quite some time. While we have amazing teachers throughout our community,...
TSS Celebrates Coming Out Day
The Sycamore School recently celebrated National Coming Out Day 2022 on Tuesday, October 11. This was kicked off by Dr. Rachel’s Journalism class, who decided they wanted to commemorate the...
Exploring Executive Functioning Skills & Parent Tips
Executive functioning skills are all the skills needed to engage in goal-directed behavior, such as planning a vacation or organizing a birthday party. We use them every day, throughout the...
Parent Blog: How Being Able to Trust The Sycamore School Is The Best Thing
This blog is a part of a series where parents of The Sycamore School’s students share their experiences on what it’s like to be a part of the TSS community...
Parent Blog: How TSS Changed My Life (and My Daughter’s)
This blog is a part of a series where parents of The Sycamore School’s students share their experiences on what it’s like to be a part of the TSS community...
The Educational Value of Field Trips
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...
Parent Blog: How The Sycamore School Helped to Transform My Daughter
This blog is a part of a series where parents of The Sycamore School’s students share their experiences on what it’s like to be a part of the TSS community...
A Love Letter to Teachers
Teachers and healthcare workers are the unsung heroes of this pandemic. We keep dumping more and more on them and then expect them to keep going, undaunted. Perhaps it’s time...
Parent Blog: How The Sycamore School is Helping us Navigate the Middle School Years
This blog is a part of a series where parents of The Sycamore School’s students share their experiences on what it’s like to be a part of the TSS community...
Pandemic Learning Loss
Educators across the country are noticing that students have lost many of the skills they acquired before the pandemic. In some cases, our younger students never developed the skills we...
5 Signs Your Kid’s School Isn’t A Good Fit: Pandemic Edition
*This is an updated version of 5 Signs Your Kid’s School Isn’t A Good Fit, originally published in August 2018. As we continue to navigate education in the wake of...
Communities in Crisis: The Pandemic, School Refusal, and Mental Health Struggles – What We’re Not Talking About
We are in a mental health crisis. The pandemic is once again disrupting our daily lives, and we have a significant number of children, tweens, and teens who are not...
What Do We Want Our Children to Get Out of School?
What do parents want their children to learn in school? To learn specific academic content? To be an independent learner? To be compliant (e.g., follow directions and rules)? To successfully...
TSS Teacher Credentialing and Skills
The Sycamore School (TSS) has a unique approach to learning. We utilize a mastery-based approach to meet students where they are, address any gaps in skills, and move them forward...
High School Psych Experience
At The Sycamore School, each cohort has a different experience class. This transdisciplinary class weaves together language arts, science, history, and math under a common theme. This year, our high...
Return to In-Person Learning: How You Can Help Your Child
This fall, parents around the country took a deep breath and cautiously, worriedly, and maybe even gleefully sent their children back to school for a return to in-person learning. As...
Why Your Student Needs a Progressive No Grades High School
What if a high school has no grades? No Advanced Placement (AP) classes. No International Baccalaureate (IB) program. To most parents in Northern Virginia, this is profoundly unsettling information. They...
TSS Earns Cognia Accreditation
“Is your school accredited?” Since opening The Sycamore School, that has been one of the most common questions. Answering that seemingly simple question was not easy and required some explanation....
Summer Break Update
Summer: a time for barbecues, swimming pools, and some much-needed R&R. The weather outside may be slowing everyone down, but here at The Sycamore School (TSS), we’ve hit the ground...
Let’s Take A Walk Experience
How do I fit into my community? How does my community affect my identity? What about my environment shapes my point of view? These are the questions we pondered this...
Tips to Avoid Summer Brain Drain
I recently was asked to give a talk for the FAA on School’s Out: Tips on How to Avoid Summer Brain Drain. Parents wanted to know how they should be...
The New Normal
Are you excited about the prospect of a more relaxed and carefree summer? Or does the thought of parenting and navigating this new world fill you with anxiety? Maybe it’s...
A Unique Approach to Math
At The Sycamore School, we take a different approach to math instruction. As an independent private school, we are unencumbered by arbitrary year-end standardized tests. Students are free to follow...
Why Grading Erodes our Students’ Love of Learning
Our education system is getting derailed, and as parents, we are unwittingly becoming part of the problem. Somehow, we have lost what education and school are all about: learning. We...
Ecosystems Experience
Ecosystems Experience Blog - by Jon McKenney At The Sycamore School, instead of separate core classes, students engage in transdisciplinary experiences each semester that weave together content from english, science,...
Remote Learning Part II
Over the summer, we created a comprehensive COVID reopening plan which offered our students the choice of full time in-person or remote instruction. The vast majority of our students chose...
Cultivating Empathy
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....
A Beginner’s Mind
At The Sycamore School, we regularly participate in professional development training. They cover a wide range of topics over the course of a year from familiarizing staff with our on-line...
First Week of In-Person and Remote Learning
Back to School 2020 has necessitated months of creativity and planning. The hard work paid off when our in-person learners walked through the door Monday for their first day of...
Opening Day In-Person Countdown!
It’s one week before we open our doors (literally) for the new school year at The Sycamore School! It’s been a wild ride since we had to switch to a...
Capstone Project
The Sycamore School was founded on the fundamental belief that learning can be engaging, enjoyable and personal. We encourage students to be active participants in their education through our student-driven...
COVID-19 Update
TSS plans to resume in-person learning 5 days a week this fall. As part of our return to school plan, no visitors (to include parents) will be allowed into the...
Fall School Planning
Public schools in our area are asking parents to make a choice for fall: keep your child/ren home for 100% virtual, or choose a hybrid model where they are in...
Field Studies During a Pandemic
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...
Remote Learning – Tips and Lessons Learned
Shifting to distance learning has been an adjustment for students, staff, and parents. At The Sycamore School, we offer individualized instruction, so our unique challenge was determining how to offer...
First Week of Remote Learning at TSS
The week of March 9th felt like a month. At the beginning of the week, the coronavirus still seemed at arms length. By Wednesday evening it became clear to me that...
Virtual Schooling Resources: Movement and Mindfulness for Kids
Tips and Resources to Keep Kids and Families Active and Calm During the Coronavirus Outbreak (and always!) Are your kids going crazy in the house? At the Sycamore School, our...
Don’t Panic! How parents and families can respond to the COVID-19 outbreak
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....
Coronavirus Response and Updates
The Sycamore School Announces Changes In Response To Coronavirus After much deliberation, we have decided to move to distance learning and instructional support starting Monday, March 16th. The TSS facility will...
Are Gifted and Talented Programs Dumbing Down Our Students?
More and more frequently, parents of young students are pushing for their child to be identified as “gifted and talented”. Parents might think they are benefitting their children by advocating...
Does Nagging Work for You?
At some point, every parent has nagged their child. It is just in our nature as parents. We nag because we are frustrated and don’t know what else to do....
Uncovering and Addressing Executive Functioning Struggles In Students
Late, Lost or Missing Homework? Uncovering and Addressing Executive Functioning Struggles In Students Another week and another missing assignment in the grade book for your student. It seems like all...
Culture of Kindness
We have all heard the term “Mean Girl.” According to a recent school study, nearly 1 in 4 girls reported being bullied during the year. This is in sharp contrast...
Steps to a successful Middle School experience
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...
Back to School Jitters? Or a Bigger Issue?
On the first day of school it’s hard to tell who is more nervous, parents or students. You all want the school year to be a success, but there is...
Summer Reading Picks
One of the things I love about summer is that I’m able to read a lot. I lean toward mysteries and modern fiction. This summer, I branched out a little...
