Building big ideas through co-curriculars
The other day in front of our building, a 3rd grade parent stopped our incredible movement teacher, Mariangela Lopez, to relay how moved she was by the video that Mari posted to her blog. She spoke almost tearfully about how present and "in their bodies" the children were as they interpreted lines and shapes through movement. I am so appreciative to have witnessed this moment, as our extremely hardworking co-curricular teachers are too often under sung, and their work goes a long way to amplify classroom studies and make your children's work visible.
We have a robust team of co-curricular teachers at Blue School. They are experts and specialists who work intimately with each teaching team to guide students in building skills, vocabularies and concepts in their areas, and also to follow threads of interest that weave in and out of big classroom studies. This year, we have welcomed specialists in Mathematics and STEAM to add to the already strong combination of Studio Arts, Music, Science and Sustainability, Spanish, Physical Education, Dramatic Arts, and Movement and Dance.
In the first month of school, the co-curricular work is already budding in our commons spaces. Here are a few highlights.
Mathematics: Check out this incredibly rich math problem from 5th grade (image below) and stay tuned for more on math in a future blog post. Mathematics Specialist, Meredith Lorber, is also more than happy to talk about math at any time! You can stop by her office on the 3rd floor or email her meredithl@blueschool.org.
STEAM: Have you seen our newly renovated 4th floor space for making and idea-building? Here's a sneak peak (image below). Special thanks to Maureen Reilly, our STEAM Integrator, and to our friends from ConstructionKids, who spent last Thursday and Friday reconstructing this space.
Several of our co-curriculars also maintain blogs rich with images, anecdotes and details from the work they are doing with your children. Please have a look at these blogs, which you can find at the bottom of our newsletter each week, and follow them as you do your child's classroom blog.
In order to facilitate responsive, varied, dynamic, and challenging work, our co-curriculars take time each week with teachers to meet and to brainstorm. They check in, persist, help one another out, and make their talents evident at every moment. Their roles demand flexibility, creativity, adaptability, and phenomenal interpersonal skills, in addition to being exceptionally skilled with children!
We continue to be amazed by their talents, and stronger for their presence here. THANK YOU, co-curriculars!