to work, to home, to school, to home.
Went to the parent open house for the junior high. I was blown away. The teaching team (4 core teachers) works closely together, and it really shows. Kathy Greeley, who used to teach in this school's junior high, wrote
a book about their approach. All the kids get to do 10 hours of community service this year, and they'll put a lot of thought into what they'll do. The math teacher has been there forever and is really good. In science they're studying life sciences, with a project-based approach, and will do field work over 4 trips. In Humanities, they'll be studying justice and dissent, with three pieces. First comes the birth of the USA, including the declaration of independence, the constitution, the bill of rights. They'll have a "Democracy Forum" evening where each kid will make a speech in support of some side of some issue (ok, i'm a little vague on this at the moment). Then they study a radically unjust society with a focus on the holocaust. Each student will prepare a monolog and deliver it in character, from a historical person who in some way fought for justice for people hurt in such a society. I know I'm going to have to bring the kleenex box for both evenings - I cry way too easily and I know I'm going to be trying not to sob because it's going to be so amazing. Anyway, the third piece is to study a society that is just recovering from some horrible period - how do you create a just society after such an experience? Two years ago they studied Iraq, Somalia, Haiti, Rwanda and a couple other places. Yay Cambridge public schools!
And of course, they started off the year with a day of team orienteering. A couple parents told me their kids were dismayed before the orienteering trip because they were put with other kids they didn't know, and then came back afterwards really having enjoyed being with their teammates.