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FROM UNDER OUR BIG TREE: Week 20
TKG LISTEN: Sugata Mitra-Build a School in the Cloud
“Schools as we know them are obsolete.”
That’s the bold assertion of Sugata Mitra, who has been spending many years exploring how young people teach themselves (and each other) without a “teacher” and whose focus is on “What is going to be the future of learning?”
Mitra begins his talk by looking at where the kind of learning we currently do in schools came from. His answer: the British Empire.
He outlines how the Victorians very successfully created a global computer out of people: “It’s called the bureaucratic administrative machine. In order to have that machine running, you need to have lots and lots of people. They made another machine to produce those people. It’s called ‘the school.’ The schools would produce the people who would then become parts of bureaucratic administrative machine.”
Mitra says that we are “continuously producing identical people for a machine that no longer exists.”
FROM UNDER OUR BIG TREE: Week 35
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| © 2012 This information is intended for the families and students of TKG. We love our families! | ||
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FROM UNDER OUR BIG TREE: Week 21
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got stuck we used teamwork to solve the problem. We even inspired another child to test their own collected sticks. (I’m happy her mother encouraged it. I often overhear “no, you’ll get wet, hurt, or dirty” on park days from non TKGers). Thanks MJ for supporting us on yet another beautiful park day and embracing our Gardeners in getting wet and dirty.
We continue to work on our clean up procedure. Students have been excited about checking out materials and we are working on keeping it to the bag minimum. We have been discussing ways to minimize what needs to be cleaned up. “Keeping kitty workshop items in their box when other plans are out” was added to our agreements list. Often the boxes are dumped out, but this way has proven helpful. It is an ongoing process and students have been coming up with some great ideas on making clean up, check out, and going home smoother. Thursday was our best clean up/check out day yet. Spontaneously, “The Claw” came out. It didn’t know what belonged where. It often needed to be readjusted at my elbow, guided, and even frozen to allow more time. Students worked together in getting to items before I did, as well as transporting boxes as a team. We had a blast playing while transitioning.
Happy Learning,
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| © 2012 This information is intended for the families and students of TKG. We love our families! | ||
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FROM UNDER OUR BIG TREE: Week 19 at TKG
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cat who…wait for it… always gets in pickles. Immediately students wanted to pretend to be Pickle and I would be the owner getting them out of the pickle. I helped the kittens for a bit and then a student crawled into my lap and requested a book be read. Into the new book I could hear a trapped kitten meowing louder and louder, he needed support getting out of his pickle. But we were immersed in the story, not to mention the connections we were making. So my teacher brain multitasked. We paused the book, and I used “the force” and freed the stuck kitten while, the book continued and all needs were met. I love my curious kitties!
What a busy week. Park Day was full of stomp rockets, hop scotch, running, roasting marshmallows made of leaves, making connections, underdog swinging, rolling down hills, flying a kite, reading “Older Than the Stars” by Karen C. Fox, and finding the best climbing trees.
Students seemed less interested in outer space and the related projects this week so on Wednesday I asked if they wanted to continue with the space theme or learn about something different. I suggested learning about their body as hospital play is a reoccurring theme with the kittens. We began talking about our brains and headaches and even drew pictures of what headaches feel like. But, when I began making a list of their learning interest bears dominated the conversation. I was curious if they wanted to begin bears immediately or wait until the following week, they chose the latter. Therefore, beginning Monday we will dive into the world of bears! (I can’t stress it enough; it’s wonderful learning in a world that is student centered and not controlled by pacing guides or meaningless curriculum.)
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| © 2012 This information is intended for the families and students of TKG. We love our families! | ||
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TKG IN THE NEWS: Daily Breeze Jan 9, 2012
New private school in Redondo Beach eschews grades, testing
A group of parents has launched a new private elementary school in Redondo Beach that eschews grades and standardized testing and promotes nature-based play by having students meet one day a week outdoors.
Later this month, the school will hold an informational meeting for parents interested in enrolling their children.
The Knowing Garden, which bills itself as a school that takes a “whole child” approach, opened in September at 301 Avenue D in Redondo Beach and currently enrolls four students, all kindergartners. Though located on the property of St. Andrews Church, the not-for-profit school is not religiously affiliated.
FROM UNDER OUR BIG TREE: Week 18 at TKG
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Harold! Harold! Where is Harold? We shouted for Harold in hopes he could hear us. We read books and wrote in our journals. We explored visual perception and made ourselves appear really small by running far away from the observer. A car! Is that Harold? Harold! Nope. We counted, described, and graphed the number of cars that used the parking lot as a turnaround. Harold never showed with the key. Perhaps he prefers to spend rainy days at home, maybe he doesn’t want Wilderness Park goers to contribute to the rain’s erosion, or maybe there aren’t many rain lovers like us out and about on such rare days in Southern California. We said goodbye to Wilderness Park
and walked back to Alta Vista. We found Saturn’s rings and craters on the baseball diamond. We followed rain on its journey as well as picked up trash to save the sea creatures. Balls also played a BIG part of our day. Neptune (a giant exercise ball) was rolled, pushed, and kicked around the field. A game with tennis balls was created and played. Gravity was tested using a tennis ball and an orange. Our “shadows” looked more like reflections even though it was cloudy. The sun briefly peeked out but not long enough for us to make in depth observations. I know the Gardeners love classroom days, but park days always feel so magical…I like to think 
We gained a better understanding how the little house could have been jacked up and moved.
cash register. The energy continued throughout the day and I made some great connections too. I’ve learned that kids need a release from the pressures of living in an adult world. Yes, they still need it in this child centered environment too! The group has loved opposite teacher tag, where they chase me and I fall to the ground when they all have tagged me. However, this game has slowly faded. So when someone excitedly shouted, “Let’s tape up Michelle!” I replied with, “You want to tape me up? I’m okay with that. You can tape me.” I was taped and covered in sticky stickers. I modeled checking in and using my words when I wanted them to be gentle when they covered my eyes. Most of all we had a blast! Here’s a link that explains the science of physical play (The 
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| © 2012 This information is intended for the families and students of TKG. We love our families! | ||
ENROLL: Parent Information Night + Parent Workshop
Please join us for our final 2012 Parent Information Workshop:
We will present information on our school and tour the classroom with our teacher. Additionally, Melody Elder, M.A. Ed, of Awakened Heart Pareneting, will moderate our discussion on the education REVOLUTION and how it comes to life in an environment like The Knowing Garden. If you are interested in enrolling at our school, this will be very helpful…it will help you gain an understanding of our mission and give you a safe haven to explore your relationship to the school you know and the school you envision for your children.
THE KNOWING GARDEN is a community Elementary school for the children and families of the Greater South Bay area. Now open at St.Andrew’s Church in Redondo Beach, our school recognizes humans as natural learners and respects students’ rights to choice, freedom and collaboration. We believe that a project-rich curriculum facilitated by hands-on learning and real-life experiences will prepare our students to be critical thinkers who become lifelong learners and active contributors to the global community. With credentialed teachers, holistic practices, creativity, and low-ratios, our learning plans emerge in partnership with each child. Our students, from diverse backgrounds, become part of a greater community that values respect, mindfulness, divergent thinking, confidence and concern for the Earth. THE KNOWING GARDEN is a not-for-profit school with a public purpose.
FROM UNDER OUR BIG TREE: Week 16 at TKG
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and contemplated how water got into space and on comets, and playing comet catch, we also spent time pretending to be kittens, having an impromptu fire drill, moving the classroom into the hallway, and contemplating ways to get rid of pollution.
Problem solving, communication skills, people skills, life skills – or whatever you want to label it – occurs on a daily basis. The hallway is too small for our big ships but the escape pods were perfect. However, we all wanted an equal amount of pillows in our pods and we have an odd number.
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© 2012 This information is intended for the families and students of TKG. We love our families!
IN THE NEWS: Why community schools are part of the answer
The Washington Post
Why community schools are part of the answer
If there was a hearing that the D.C. Council should not have allowed to be cancelled at the last minute, as happened last week, it would be on this: creating community schools. Why? Because community schools are part of the answer when it comes to effective school reform.
Community schools focus not only on academics but also, through partnerships with outside organizations, child and youth development, family support, health and social services, and community development.
