“Seen and Heard” – This Summer

Posted on August 18, 2016 by Bixby Teachers

As summer comes to a close, I would like to share on experience I had as a parent this summer. I share it because it reminds of our academic year and our community’s focus on student-centered pedagogy. My younger son discovered the game Pokémon this summer. It came to us after time in our camp at Bixby School where students played this game by bringing in their own card decks and by using the Bixby card deck. I have to admit I was less than thrilled initially.

I found myself negotiating how much of the allowance may be reasonably spent on building the Pokémon deck collection (zero I thought would be a great number!) and at the same time several conversations seemed to center on how to play the game fairly, and in a way that could include and invite players of all ages at school. While my son’s enthusiasm for the game seemed to grow exponentially with every day and round played, I began to wonder whether this new activity would take over and dominate every part of our summer and his social world. Most of all, I just did not understand the enthusiasm for the game.

Then I started to think about our commitment at our school by our faculty to try to understand every child and to truly “see and hear” them. I resolved to honor this commitment as a parent and asked my son if he would teach me the game of Pokémon. He looked at me with eyes wide-open, and a HUGE smile on his face “Really? You are kidding, right?”, was his initial reply (considering that I do play often with my children and that we are an enthusiastic board game playing family, I was a little offended at first by his disbelief).

A few minutes later we found ourselves across from each other at our kitchen table and my son started to explain with great care and detail how this game works. We played a few rounds that afternoon at our home and I started to realize that there are many reasons why children may be drawn to this game. It is a game of trading, attacking, strategy, and suspense. Pokémon characters come in many different shapes and sizes and with varied skills and powers. Players also have to use their math skills to add, subtract and adjust power and reserves of the characters they play (and the former math educator in me rejoiced!). How exciting to see if you have one of the special cards that can defeat the others and how thrilling to click away at the opponents’ powers incrementally but always with the risk to get defeated at the next turn! I also realized that this game required empathy and kindness when played with younger children that may not have all of their strategies or arithmetic skills in place. I learned that at our school older students tried to help younger ones and of course “had to be honest and patient”, according to my son, in doing the math for and with the younger players. In the course of that afternoon, I realized that my judgment about the value of this-admittedly- highly commercialized game (sigh!) had nearly quenched an opportunity for my son to connect with new friends across ages and grade levels and explore concepts such as fairness, kindness, patience, allowance management, and balancing this new enthusiasm for the game with also participating in camp activities and other games throughout the summer.

I can’t say all of these realizations have made Pokémon my favorite summer game but I can report that we had many opportunities for good conversations and planning because of Pokémon this summer. I am reminded that our children’s and students’ worlds can sometimes only be understood if we enter them-despite our judgments and maybe BECAUSE of them!

With a few fleeting days of summer left, I invite you to learn a new game, participate in an activity or have your child truly share one of their interests with you and to see where that journey may unexpectedly take you . . .

And yes, please fee free to email me directly about your experiences or post your story to our Bixby Facebook page!

Patricia

If you want to be a better teacher, take some time to be a student.

Posted on July 21, 2016 by Bixby Teachers

Every time I’ve stepped back into the world of being a student in one form and another over the last few decades, my empathy for other students has increased considerably. And it doesn’t take much time, be it in a traditional classroom or on a tennis court (or more recently in a music studio) for all my patterns of hope and worry to take hold. It’s hard being a student!

I started taking bass lessons again…for the fifth time over my twenty years of just ‘messing around’ with the instrument. What led me back this time was that I knew if I learned a few new techniques, I could have more fun, and less pain, during the monthly jams with my brother and friends. The thing is, I’ve been shown plenty of techniques over the years from many lessons, but I had gone into those lessons with the unspoken hope of a shortcut—some magical insight that would quickly unlock the door to becoming a kickin’ bass player (without lots of tedious practice)! Of course my intellectual self knew this to be unrealistic, just as I believe many of my young students also have some awareness that learning is a process—so why do we adult learners, at least I still do, fall prey to our fears (‘I’m not very musical.’ ‘I don’t have the ear for this, who am I trying to kid…’).

Is it some version of perfectionism? I certainly don’t see myself as a perfectionist, but I recently returned to a favorite website, Lisa Van Gemert’s giftedguru.com, for some insight on the subject. I smiled right away at her posting of a quote by Samuel McChord Crothers, “We are surprised at our own versatility in being able to fail in so many different ways.” How true! In this last year, my ability to make new mistakes seems to have grown exponentially! And each mistake during those previous bass lessons quickly fed my long held fears.

But this time I know why I’m ready for another round of lessons—I’m ready to do the work, and it’s for me (and not so much because of worrying that I’m holding my band mates back). On her website, Lisa has a list of questions to determine if one’s perfectionism (or their child’s) is serving them or not, because there are ways in which it can be healthy. “Does the child receive pleasure from working hard?” “Are the child’s standards based on personal desire (as opposed to outside pressure)?” “Is the child capable of relaxing?”

Each of these questions resonated deeply within me. That last question hit home during a recent ride up and down the ‘I’ve got this…oops, now I don’t’ elevator. One aspect of the bass lessons is to work on ear training, both with my teacher and on a computer program. After getting 66% correct on my first round of matching intervals, I was feeling encouraged. This reminded me of a geography student who was so proud after getting his third correct answer during a latitude/longitude game that he proclaimed, “I’m really good at this!” When he played the game again in his next class, he missed his first two attempts, and he was utterly convinced, “I can’t do this!” That’s exactly how I felt when I scored 58% on my second round! Like I said, being a student all but guarantees empathy for my students.

So then the question became, ‘How can I relax?’ because getting frustrated only led to getting a 52% on my next round! It was time for a break, which we also allow our students to take on occasion. And then plenty of deep breaths the next time I approached the computer…but more importantly, an open mind about what sorts of supports might help me. It turns out that trying to match the notes on the bass is slowly making a difference. I wonder what strategies might help my geography student relax just enough to keep trying those latitudes and longitudes?

It’s the fact that these kinds of questions flood in each time I become a student that I know how invaluable the experience is. I’ve just scratched the surface of what being a student is like for me, and what I perceive it is for those around me. I’m very interested in hearing other people’s stories along these lines, so if you’re willing to send one my way, please do!

Thank you,

Mark

Child’s Play Is About More than Games

Posted on July 10, 2016 by Bixby Teachers

Summer is a wonderful time to kick off the shoes, find a friend, or ten, and invent your own world. What are the kinds of things that happen internally and mentally when we are playing creatively and engaging with our peers? Are these the same skills we require in our “adult world” to function in our homes and offices? Think about what it takes to collaborate as a team of adults towards a common goal. We must be able to communicate a shared vision, take roles and responsibilities, remember shared “rules,” and create something out of nothing. Amazingly, PLAY, although looking like just fun, is much more complex and involves many of the same skills.

The understanding of PLAY’s developmental benefits is what inspires Bixby’s summer camp to be play-based. At Bixby, kids receive ample time, space, and materials to build, invent, and create worlds without any teachers telling them what to do. Our gym floor is a consistent building zone when gym games aren’t happening. The sandbox turns into a medieval castle on a regular basis, and the kindergarten room is filled with role-playing and dress-up.

The following bullet points are from Pete Gray and Lenore Skenazy’s article in the Wall Street Journal titled, “Child’s Play Is About More than Games” (http://www.wsj.com/articles/peter-gray-and-lenore-skenazy-childs-play-is-about-more-than-games-1409179516)

Innovation and creativity. When children aren’t told what to do by a teacher, parent or coach, they have to figure out how to create their own fun and keep it going. That means play is continuously creative. There’s no better way to raise innovators than to allow and encourage play.
Cooperation. In play with others, children learn to negotiate. They have to attend to one another’s needs—”Am I pitching too hard?” “Is she sick of being the troll?”—because if they are totally self-absorbed they know the other kids will quit and play will end. So they learn to cooperate, perhaps the most crucial of all skills we social creatures must learn.
Self-control. To play, children learn they must follow the rules, allow others their turns, and control their impulses and emotions. Play may evoke a child’s anger when a playmate disagrees with or accidentally hurts him. And it may evoke fear when a child is chased by a child-eating dragon. But children must control those emotions to keep playing. They learn not to cry at a minor injury or throw a tantrum when they get upset. They learn not to give in to fear or tattle to an adult—because doing so would ruin the game.
Paying attention. Can you think of any games where kids have to pay attention? That’s right, all of them. Pay attention to the ball, the cards, the rules for who can say what to the GreatMonkey King. Paying attention to details for love of the game prepares kids to pay attention to other things, like adverbs or the decimal point in math.
Managing difficult tasks. Children at play are naturally drawn to tasks at the cutting edges of their abilities—not so easy as to be boring, nor so difficult as to be impossible. Whether scaling fences, building towers, creating make-believe worlds or playing videogames, players keep advancing to higher levels to maintain the sense of challenge.

They learn not to give up when the going gets tough, because in play they are so highly motivated to succeed. That ability can be applied to all of the difficult tasks that life entails.

Learning to practice. Did you ever see a child do the same thing day in and day out? Build with blocks, draw Batman or jump rope? They’re trying to get it right. That’s practicing. It’s what we beg our children to do with their vocabulary lists and piano pieces: Get down to business, focus and work on something hard. The difference istheychoose the something.
Solving problems and taking responsibility. In play, children must solve their own problems—emotional, social, physical or intellectual. In the other parts of a child’s life, adults jump in and make everything work. In play children are the adults. Play is practice for adulthood, because in play the children are in charge.

Come join us at Bixby this summer to watch your child use all of his or her faculties without the struggle of worksheets! Spaces are still available throughout the rest of the summer. http://bixbyschool.org/programs/summer/

Bixby School’s 99 Ways To Play With Kids This Summer!

Posted on June 16, 2016 by Bixby Teachers

Now, set aside school, work and stress; it’s time to focus on 99 ways to play with kids this summer!

Build a toy car racetrack out of old boxes, paper towel rolls and other repurposed materials.
Set up a glow-in-the-dark ring toss—use dollar-store glow necklaces or bracelets as rings.
Organize a massive water gun battle.
Or maybe your kids prefer a water balloon war. Fill them up before starting and keep them in buckets. Make sure the kids wear their swimsuits.
Go geocaching, a fun high-tech scavenger hunt that you can do with a smartphone.
Have a hula-hooping contest—see who can keep the hoops spinning longest and who can twirl the most hoops.
Learn a fun new skill as a family: Try juggling, skateboarding, French braiding or whatever strikes your fancy.
Grab your camera and take photos of plants and animals using different filters and frames, and then compare the results.
Paint the sidewalk with water. See how fast the sun makes your art disappear.
Get some pots and pans for drums, dress up and have a parade.
Make your own ice cream.
Head to your local creek or pond and try to catch (and release) crayfish and minnows with a fine net.
Catch fireflies in a glass jar and watch them shine before letting them fly away.
Go on an alphabet treasure hunt. See if you can find things that begin with every letter in nature.
Host a beverage challenge. Set up chilled cups of seasonal drinks (lemonade, iced tea) and get your friends to try to identify each while blindfolded.
Create your own pop-up playground from old cardboard boxes, fabric pieces and other recycled materials.
Draw a game board on the sidewalk and make up the rules. Kids can become life-size pieces in a game of your own invention.
Turn an old cardboard box into an arcade game, a robot, rocket ship, doll house or hideout and let your imagination do the rest.
Host silly relay races. Have the kids hop on one foot, walk backward, gallop like a horse, skip—the more ridiculous the challenge, the better.
Have a sumo-style wrestling match.
Create a short stop-motion film using dolls, stuffed animals or action figures. There are lots of apps that make this easy.
Go through your recycling bin to see what you can turn into a boat. Add sails and decorations, and then float it in pool, river or tub.
Have a car wash for your toys, bikes and scooters. Make sure to get really wet!
Play flashlight tag. While the other players hide, whomever is “it” must find and “tag” them with the beam while saying their names.
Host a fancy tea party for your stuffed animals.
Go on a neighborhood wildflower walk-do some research in advance so you can identify some of the blooms.
Play old-school backyard games like Leap Frog, Red Rover, Mother May I?, and Red Light, Green Light 1-2-3.
Hit your local garden, park, forest or yard to collect items for a terrarium.
Create a sidewalk masterpiece with chalk.
Rain spoil your picnic plans? Break out the basket and paper plates for an indoor picnic lunch or dinner.
See who can build the tallest tower using blocks or Lego bricks.
Rifle through the dress-up bin and have a photo shoot with your little princess, pirate or superhero.
Set up a tent in the living room, make oven s’mores, turn off all the lights and download a campfire app for your tablet.
Put a small toy in a balloon, fill it with water and freeze. You’ll end up with a toy frozen in a big chunk of ice.
Set up a scavenger hunt in the backyard or local park. Give the kids maps or clue sheets for extra fun.
Have a bird-call imitation contest. See who can do the best owl screech, blue jay squawk or chickadee tweet.
Stage a massive bubble battle and invite the whole block.
Learn how to do yo-yo tricks.
Put on a show! Make up your own or adapt one of your favorite books, movies or TV series. Craft sets and costumes for extra fun.
Head to the beach and build an enormous sand castle.
Play a rousing game of themed charades—see what kinds of wacky themes you can come up with.
Organize a family game night and pull out old standards like Monopoly, Scrabble and Pictionary. Winners can earn points to cash in for small prizes or extra scoops of ice cream.
Have a water cup race. If your kids are on the older side, make it harder by telling them to balance the cups on their heads.
Navigate an obstacle course fashioned out of recycled items (bottles, boxes, cups, etc.).
Get sculpting with Play-Doh and have extra fun making your own.
Squirt shaving cream onto a paper plate and “draw” with your fingers.
Collect items from nature and make a collage. Add paint or leave it au naturale.
Play indoor baseball. Set up a paper home plate and three bases in the living room, throw a paper ball that you hit with your hand and run. Great for a rainy day.
Play bossy ball. Write 10 silly ways to throw a ball on masking tape (through your legs, eyes closed, etc). Tape them to a ball and play catch. When you get the ball, you have to return it the way it says.
Open a lemonade stand or come up with your own small business idea.
Create a baking soda volcano. Pour a bit of white vinegar into a plastic cup, add a tablespoon of baking soda and watch it “explode.”
Make a kite out of paper and string, and then see how high it can soar. Not a DIYer? Flying a store-bought kite is also fun.
Craft a fairy garden from moss, acorns, leaves and other natural materials.
Take apart an obsolete and unwanted household object, like an old printer or clock radio, to see how it works.
Got a projector? Turn your yard into a drive-in movie theater by showing a family favorite on an old sheet or the side of the house.
Make up ghost stories and tell them outside at night. Be sure to bring a flashlight.
Cover your dining table with craft paper and paint a giant collaborative mural.
Raid the pantry for craft materials: Make a macaroni necklace, create a collage from dried beans, peas and lentils, or create with salt dough.
Paint with ice. Put some food coloring in an ice tray, add water and freeze to make super cool “crayons.”
Pull out a deck of cards for old-fashioned games like War, Old Maid and Go Fish.
Take out the bicycles and hit a local bike trail. Pack a picnic and make a day of it.
Make ice sculptures by freezing different shaped containers full of water. Once frozen, take them out (use a little warm water if necessary) and use them as building blocks.
Make your own puzzle. Take a page from a magazine, glue it to a piece of cardboard and cut it up into funky shapes.
Create a comic book based on your summer adventures, or write a collaborative story and add a new paragraph every night.
Enjoy Opposite Day and eat breakfast for dinner, wear your clothes inside out and other silliness.
See if you can actually get a Slinky to go down the stairs.
Draw family portraits—everyone takes turns sitting/drawing, no talent required.
Make a domino chain reaction. See how long you can make it, and try adding curves and going up and down stairs.
Head to the berry patch, peach orchard or local farm to pick some in-season produce.
Play restaurant: Have the kids create a menu, take orders, cook the meal and serve you for a change.
Institute a no-screens rule in the car and play games like license plate bingo and I Spy.
Belt out your favorite tunes with the karaoke machine. Don’t have one? You’ll find instrumental versions of many songs on YouTube.
Play freeze dance. Switch it up with themes like zombie freeze dance.
Throw a balloon into the air and see how long you can keep it afloat without letting it touch the ground.
Create something our of duct tape!
Perfect some simple magic tricks and put on a show.
Learn how to play something your kids are obsessed with, like Minecraft or Pokemon, and instantly become the coolest parent in town.
Build a fort in the living room using couch cushions, blankets and old sheets.
Collaborate on a summer vacation scrapbook using one page for each day.
Hit the water in a canoe or kayak.
Have fun with bouncy balls: Try dodge ball, gaga or kickball.
Paint a terracotta pot and put a plant in it—succulents and grass seed grow quickly.
Wrap the kids up in toilet paper, mummy-style, and see how far they can walk.
Lay down sheets of bubble wrap and have the kids get popping.
Grab your binoculars and go bird-watching at the beach or local park.
Make tie-dye T-shirts together. For less mess, skip the dye and try the Sharpie approach.
Glue small magnets to foam letters and another magnet to a toy fishing pole. See if you can fish your name out of a tub or kiddie pool.
Start or end your day with a giant pillow fight.
Make up your family history. Tell the story of your ancestors. Each person adds a line as you go around. See how silly you can be.
Make paper bag puppets, decorate them with glitter, yarn and other creative items, and then put on a show.
Go stargazing. Look for the Big Dipper, the Great Bear and other constellations in the night sky.
See who can create the best shadow figures. All you need is a flashlight, a sheet and your hands.
Disguise your voices and prank call grandma or anyone else who would appreciate it.
Challenge the kids to a bout of arm or thumb wrestling.
Get dirty making mud pies or dirt sundaes..
Dig up rocks to see the critters that live underneath.
Make noisemakers by filling Tupperware with dried beans.
Build a house of cards—see how high you can go before they all come crashing down.
Lie outside and watch the clouds and try to pick out interesting shapes.

Izze for Izzi

Posted on May 26, 2016 by Bixby Teachers

4^th and 5^th graders have a tradition in math every spring. After spring break, when spring fever is high, it can be difficult to keep students engaged, learning and having fun. So, just to change their routines, I give them the “Izzi Puzzle Challenge.” The puzzle consists of 64 square tiles, each with a different black/white pattern. The only rule is that the edges of each touching tile must match – black touches black and white touches white. They must use all 64 tiles and make an 8 by 8 square. There are many solutions. In order to solve the puzzle, each class must work together to find the solution. If they correctly solve the puzzle, they earn Izzes for the class (sparkling fruit juice). It’s perfect: Izzes for Izzi!

The work involved is two-fold: solving the puzzle itself and figuring out how to work with a group. Students learn from each other. Any problem may have various parts, so students with different learning styles may all experience success contributing to a group solution. Math may also seem like a solitary subject as they are often expected to work independently. Some students prefer working alone and at their own pace; others love the interaction that working with a group offers. Students in 4^th and 5^th grade experience both. The Izzi puzzle requires visual thinking, spatial relationships, effective communication skills, problem solving skills, as well as persistence. What do they do when they’ve matched all but 3 remaining tiles and these 3 tiles don’t fit anywhere? Exchange tiles, start over, give up? Do they encourage and support each other? Each class is given a week to solve the puzzle and then it moves to the next class.

Adults know that learning the subject matter is important, but that it is not the only skill needed to succeed in the real world. When I can help students not only understand the problem, but also how to be a kind, involved and helpful team member, I have done my job.

-Kitty

Science Assessments The Bixby Way

Posted on May 24, 2016 by Bixby Teachers

This time of year, end-of-year reports lead me to a careful examination of my own assessment practices. What have students learned, how do I know they learned it, and how can I improve on my assessment strategies? One of the goals at Bixby is to create a clear picture of student understanding without relying on a battery of written tests. That means seeking alternative assessments that work for diverse learning styles and, in science, help keep class as active and hands-on as possible.

Science assessments come in three flavors. Diagnostic assessment highlights pre- and misconceptions, gaps, learning challenges and strengths. Formative assessment shows how well students are grasping content, so both teachers and students can make adjustments. Summative assessment is the end game; it evaluates how well students mastered content and how effectively the teacher presented it.

In Bixby’s science room—thanks largely to creative teachers of years past—summative assessments are both effective and great fun. Students actually bounce up and down in anticipation of end-of-unit projects. While describing patterns in our solar system may be “boring,” designing your own planet to highlight those patterns is a treat. Students are excited to create comic strips depicting a human body system, or write an adventure story about a blood cell trying to get back to the heart. They clamor to design and test paper airplanes with the forces of flight and Newton’s Laws in mind. These are culminating assessments—but because of Bixby’s small class size, I can hold frequent one-to-one conversations with students as they make progress, to question more deeply, expand on learning, and sometimes reteach.

One of my favorite sources for both diagnostic and formative assessments is a book called Science Formative Assessment, by Page Keeley. They book suggests “tests” which strengthen engagement, give students feedback, promote inquiry and reflection. They’re designed to be embedded in daily lessons, as opposed to at the end of a unit, and add to what I can glean from science notebooks, written warm-ups, class discussions, and eavesdropping on collaborations. Many of Keeley’s ideas fit neatly with Bixby’s approach to active, engaged science learning and serve the range of learning styles. Students create human scatterplots, for instance, to kinesthetically state their ideas, or sort cards according to the preconceptions, then sort again when new information is presented. Another good source is 60 Formative Assessment Strategies, by Natalie Regier. While I’ve relied on suggestions from these sources in the science room, it’s a professional goal to incorporate more of them.

Writing end-of-year reports will no doubt clarify which this year’s assessment strategies were most effective, and for whom. Just as these reports inform next year’s goals for my students, they’ll inform professional goals for me, and help me hone in on smart, creative ways of tracking exactly what Bixby scientists are learning and how effectively I’m teaching them.

-Kathy

The Interest Study

Posted on May 20, 2016 by Bixby Teachers

The interest study is a time-tested, time-honored Bixby writing tradition. Essentially research papers, interest studies give students the opportunity to dive deep into personally captivating topics. The process is more intricate than the smaller projects we work on throughout the year, but students are receptive to it because they have the opportunity to explore their greatest curiosities.

We begin interest studies by choosing topics and subtopics. The tricky part is choosing a topic that isn’t too wide or narrow, but in the “Goldilocks Zone” fit for a 5-10 paragraph essay. This is a critical step in the often-overlooked but fundamental Organization trait of writing. Each paragraph embodies a subtopic or category. Students then create a folder filled with envelopes for each of their categories for taking notes.

Then it’s on to research – from books, encyclopedias, and the convoluted but compulsory internet. Navigating the web is tricky, but it affords limitless learning potential to those who learn to harness it. It’s stunning to see how skilled 4^th and 5^th graders already are on the net – and how quickly their navigational skills develop.

The final step is the actual writing of the papers. Students are encouraged to dive into the body of their papers, using topic sentences to introduce each paragraph before revealing the hard-earned details from their notes. Introductions are actually written after the body, like preview trailers for movies. Conclusions, sources, and title pages are then drafted before editing and revision.

Completed interest studies are steadily flowing in and can be read on the Bixby Writer’s Blog.

http://bixbywriters.edublogs.org/

-Tom

Nurturing A Bixby Community Across All Grades

Posted on May 16, 2016 by Bixby Teachers

One of the things I love about working with preschoolers is that I get to teach in a multi-age classroom with children from two and a half to five years old. I believe strongly that students of all ages benefit from working side by side with both older and younger peers. I think that Bixby does a great job of connecting their students, Pre-K thru 5th, in both social and academic ways that are fun but also quite powerful. Within the preschool, we have a lot of opportunities to give our younger students chances to learn alongside their older friends, and vice-versa. Many times these situations arise naturally thru play; an older student helping a young child across the bridge at the pirate ship, a young, exuberant two-year-old bringing out a more playful side of a rather precocious four-year-old. While other times we are more deliberate in pairing older and younger students together. On a recent outing to Bridgewalk Pond, Alison’s group of three-year-olds helped Megan’s group of two-year-olds to make sure no one got lost (Allison and Megan were also on hand), teachers will sometimes assign buddies to help students walk up from swim and other similar scenarios.

But the relationships across age groups span far beyond the preschool walls at Bixby. We have weekly visits from our fourth grade buddies who come and spend time playing games and doing projects with the preschoolers. Many of these older students enjoy the experience so much that they return voluntarily during their free time to come and read stories with the students. Recently, the kindergarteners invited the older preschoolers over to their classroom to give them an orientation of what kindergarten will be like. Students explored activities together, shared stories, and answered questions. In the evenings, some of the elementary students in aftercare enjoy coming over to visit preschool to read original stories to the students or just play together with some younger friends.

I can imagine the worry that some parents might feel, “Aren’t the younger ones holding my child back? How is he being challenged if he’s spending so much time with younger students?” But at least from my experience, I believe that just as the younger students gain support, academic scaffolding, and emotional encouragement from the relationship, older students benefit strongly as well. Most notably, the interaction forces older students to slow down which requires a lot of patience. This might mean reading at a slower pace, or stopping long enough for a young friend to gather and express her thoughts. Regarding academic content, any teacher will tell you that the best way to learn something is to teach it. Having older students slow down to work with younger students on developing skills doesn’t hinder their skills, but rather reinforces and strengthens them.

But in my mind, the best result of these connections is a strong sense of school community across all the grades. The best reflection of this is shown at any school musical production or weekly assembly. With high-fives, laughter, and smiles, the connection among the students is palpable and makes a meaningful impact on the environment where they come to learn every day. It certainly makes it enjoyable to teach here!

-Taylor

The Tricky Month of May

Posted on May 12, 2016 by Bixby Teachers

I could make a case for how each month of the school year has its own particular and considerable challenges, but right now May and the approaching end of the school year are staring me in the face and I am a jumble of emotions. Among them is excitement for the annual release and the opportunity to utterly change the pace of living to whatever extent one can afford to do that. I have always considered this to be one of the more amazing benefits of being a teacher and I’m hugely grateful for it.

But there is way more to May than excitement—there is also a reckoning. The facing of my many beginning of the school year good intentions, spoken and unspoken… “I’ll do a better job on portfolios this time” and “We’ll make it to the New World in 4^th/5^th grade history class by the end this year.” Well, my portfolios left much to be desired and our history class is still mired down with the plague (there is a small hint of realism in that I think).

Even after many years of teaching, I have the humble honor of wrestling with many end of the year doubts… “Did my students truly grow as learners?” “Did I grow as a learner?” “Was it worth spending over a month of history class on the knight William Marshal?” “And by the way, just how did I end up spending over a month on him?”

At least I can start by trying to answer that last question. This was my first year teaching history, and when we began discussing and illustrating our timeline of the Middle Ages, well over half of the drawings were of knights. So this was clearly a topic worth focusing on more deeply, but how to bring it to life? That’s when I stumbled upon the fascinating story of the 12^th century knight, William Marshal, and things took off from there.

We learned how King Stephen demanded loyalty from the lesser noble, John Marshal, and sought to secure that loyalty by holding one of his sons as hostage—John Marshal sent him his five year old son, William. Twice the king threatened to put William to death and twice his father basically said, ‘Go ahead, …I can make more and finer than he.’ Through William’s childlike innocence, he softened King Stephen’s heart, and each time death was postponed. From there, William Marshal went on to not only live, but to become what many historians believe to be the greatest knight in history, defeating nearly 500 foes in melee tournaments and actively fighting for his king at 70 years old! (He had served five different kings over the course of his life.) This unit culminated in the classic project of making cardboard shields, embellished with symbols and colors of each student’s choosing.

But back to my doubts and the plague, which were both raging by the second week of May…this also happened to be when I had an experience that helped temper some of those doubts (but did nothing for the plague). I noticed a student struggling to get started one Monday morning, unable to even be ready enough to enter his first class. I invited him to take a moment for some conversation with me, and while he could not point to a particular incident, he stated in a voice weighted with doubts of his own, “It seems like no one cares for me.” I certainly can identify with such a global feeling and the accompanying reluctance to have any amount of logical reassurance move me from it. He was unconsciously squeezing his applesauce snacks in his fists as we began to chat and he was open to the suggestion of eating one (low blood sugar is brutal on our perception of the world)…and then the conversation turned to his shield. He said, “I wonder why no one else chose the thistle?” “I’m not sure, remind me about what it symbolizes.” “Pain and suffering…why would a knight choose to put that on their shield, it’s not powerful like the others?” I didn’t think of asking him why he chose the thistle; this child and his family had suffered a tremendous loss over a year ago…perhaps I was trying a little too hard to teach and said, “Well, some people would say that you need to experience everything in order to find all your courage and strength, including pain and suffering.” “Yeah, like William Marshal, he almost died two times.” “Yes, and some people saw King Stephen’s compassion in sparing him as a weakness, while others saw it as a strength—it’s complicated.” He continued, “And William Marshal suffered a lot. He got to be so successful because he could handle a lot of pain.” “That’s right, remember when he won a tournament and nobody could find him at the end until they heard the blacksmith’s hammer pounding away?” “Yup, his helmet was stuck on his head from being squashed by so many hits in the battle and the blacksmith was trying to make it round again!” “And that was what winning looked like!?”

As so often happens when we are able to share something of the shadowy blues we carry around, that global feeling of ‘ no one seems to care’ dilutes, and just by connecting with someone, our energy is shifted and we are ready to keep trying. Also, at this point in our visit, the applesauce snack had taken hold and his mood had shifted to the point of being able to face his class with some spirit. I can’t be entirely certain of exactly how those bits of story added up for him, but it was a somewhat rare revealing of just how powerful stories can be and a glimpse into those deeper resonances. The conversation had done a lot for my spirit too…so while there are plenty of doubts still lingering (and that’s a growth thing), I probably will spend that time on William Marshal again.

Now it’s time to put that plague to rest—after all, Leonardo Da Vinci and the Renaissance are just around the corner!

– Mark

Bixby School’s Field Day

Posted on May 10, 2016 by Bixby Teachers

Here at Bixby, we love to finish the year with a flourish – Field Day!! Formerly known as the All School Picnic, Field Day has morphed into an exciting non-competitive school event. All the elementary students are broken into various mixed grade “teams.” The theme remains a secret until the big day. Some of the previous themes have included Dog Breeds, Colors, Natural Disasters, and Trees. Each team develops their own unique cheer, and walks to the nearby Tantra Park for a day filled with a variety of games and activities, ranging from Smaug’s Jewels, to silly relay races, to playing with the giant Earth Ball. Amanda will be grilling a wonderful lunch at the park this year! We will end the day back at school, with some more mellow activities and yearbook signing. The famous All School Countdown that signifies students moving up a grade level will be held at 3pm at the Amphitheater. Field Day is for students only, however, all families are welcome to join us at the Countdown!

Field Day will be the last day of the school year, Friday May 27th. Students should come dressed for the weather, including hats, sunscreen, and a sense of adventure.

This will be my ninth year coordinating Field Day, and I strive to improve every year, making it more organized, fun, and memorable for the students!

-Nifer