"The teacher should become intimately acquainted with the conditions of the local community, physical, historical, economic, occupational, etc. - in order to utilize them as educational resources." (John Dewey)
We are entering our third week of school - the third week Eric Harvie School has even existed! It has been a busy but exhilarating two weeks as staff have begun to discover who their teaching partners and collaborative teams are and, most importantly, begun to sketch in the stories of the amazing students they are building relationships.
We have invoked the Finnish approach to a slow-starting of school as we opened EHS - "Learning is supported by a peaceful and friendly working atmosphere and a calm, peaceful mood." (Finnish National Board of Education). To enact a slow-start in our school means we have been spending our days exploring the land in and around the community of Tuscany, playing games both inside and outside - some Math or language based, others purely about outdoor exercise, reading and writing gently about our experiences, sharing stories, laughter and songs. Knowing about each other has been more important in every way than knowing facts, figures or key information. Teachers have been learning all the important information about their students - confidence levels, attitudes toward learning, use of oral language in explaining thinking, monitoring and self-correcting, what strategies are they using to solve problems in mathematical tasks, for reading, for writing- and so many other huge understandings that will clearly impact learning as our new school year unfolds. We have solved puzzles and asked questions and fostered great empathy for each other in the process.
The Beakerhead Challenge got us nicely started on the design thinking elements we want to use in every way at EHS. Students were exploring the landscape to listen to sounds, identifying, shaping and creating soundscapes together from various places and generating grand designs and strategies for using materials that included empty paint cans, ping pong balls, elastics, bubble wrap (and boy! do we have a lot of bubble wrap!!) and a variety of other unusual components to create sounds. Together they used the design thinking skills of discovery/building empathy, defining problems, trying ideas, building prototypes, testing and evolving new notions as they created musical instruments, video, choreography, diagrams and stories to support their soundscape creations. Soft starts do not mean easy, no-challenging thinking, take-it-easy kind of days but rather engaging, thought-provoking, collaborative activities that stretch thinking all the time. The Beakerhead Challenge invited us to bring design thinking to life with our young students!
This week brings International Peace Day - a huge celebration in the life of a peace-based school! On Wednesday, September 21 both EHS and Tuscany Schools will celebrate 'Pinwheels for Peace' - a world-wide venture that celebrates connection, care, tolerance and kindness across the world. While participation in "Pinwheels" is a highly visible part of our peace education adventure, it is not the whole story. We will also begin participation in the annual Terry Fox Run this week - another vital component of Peace Education as we strive to support and champion the people in our community who are coping with, and surviving, cancer. Helping to make the world a better place is always our primary goal of peace education and supporting the Terry Fox Run is a vitally important branch of peace education in our community.
Soft launches these first few weeks - of teaching, students, design thinking, peace education. In fact, if you didn't know what you were looking for, you might not find them at all as our classes settle into routines and build familiarity with each other and their teachers. They are, however, there - weaving strong connections and common experiences onto the landscape that will endure as our school begins to take shape, build identity and embrace the learners in our community.
This is exciting work and a most exciting time! We look forward to welcoming families to our Open House this week - together we will build an amazing school on the principles of peace education and design thinking - just watch us go!
Lorraine Kinsman
Principal
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