New blog address!

Hello friends,
Rising Tide School's blog has moved to www.risingtideschool.wordpress.com!  We are enjoying the improved formatting capabilities at wordpress and will continue our weekly updates there.  Head on over and subscribe!

Learning is Serious Fun

Because all activities at Rising Tide School are equally valued, anything and everything can become a platform for serious learning. It doesn't matter if a student's curiosity is sparked by an academic subject or by paper airplanes. Any aspect of our wide, fascinating world works wonderfully as a springboard for questioning, trying, practicing, modeling, making mistakes, failing, getting resources, trying again, and eventually succeeding. These students amaze me as they strive to learn as much as possible and to do the most excellent work possible, every day. Why? Nobody tells them to learn and to try over and over until they succeed, but they do it anyway. Nobody tells them to schedule a class or to spend several hours testing different models of airplane. They make the commitment of their time and energy because they want to. Their choice of learning platform is often "nontraditional" but the learning is always as serious as it gets. Seeing them at their work/play, I increasingly trust that this dedication to learning is not something that can be taught. It is simply, wonderfully, human nature. All that's needed is the space to let it unfold.

Considering your Choices in Education?

Rising Tide School is hosting a January Open House this Sunday, January 31st, from 1:30-3:30pm. Parents, prospective students, siblings, and interested community members are all welcome to get informed about Sudbury education and enrolling at Rising Tide School. Join us at the school, 114 20th Ave SE in Olympia, for conversation and information.

We'll also be at the 1st Annual Olympia Area Private School Fair. This event is on Saturday, January 30th, from 1-3 pm at 1601 North Street in Olympia.

Can't make it this weekend? You can contact the school to schedule an Admissions Tour at a time that's convenient for you. We are excited to share our thriving, growing school with you!

2010

2010 has begun with lots of new energy and activity at school. Emmett and Elijah, pictured above, are each flying a spaceship at hyperspeed to unknown galaxies, carrying precious cargo of captured aliens. The spaceships were built by several students out of folding chairs, cardboard blocks, and the benches from the lunch area. A pair of rainboots wielded by another student served as ship's guns. Deep in a state of flow, the players in extended creative games like this one are blissfully, totally, engaged throughout the school day.

The new year also brings new challenges for this vibrant little school to grow on. As a Staff member, I'm finding my own balance of engagement and letting-go as tensions arise among us. Noise and exuberant indoor play are one issue that we are all dancing with. How can the people who need to run and play loudly get their needs met in balance with the needs of people who need quiet and our landlords who work on the floor below us? School Meeting recently voted to keep the current school law which forbids running and rough-housing in the building. So how will the students who need to be physically exuberant create space for their activities in another constructive way? Likewise, the school's current internet capacity is stretched to the max. How will the people who need the internet take action to meet their needs? I'm challenged to be supportive and available without jumping in and solving the problem for others. I'm also reminded to slow down and take delight in the delicious learning that happens along the way!

If you haven't already, take a moment to subscribe to this blog via email or RSS. You'll get new posts in your inbox and stay up-to-date on school happenings. We expect a lot of growth and change as the school evolves this year and we want you to be a part of it! In expectation of a wonderful new year,

Abbe

Out and About

It's been great to watch students exploring our larger community more and more. In the last two weeks, children have organized trips to Capitol Lake, where they played for hours in snow and ice; to the Children's Museum for lots of pretend play, and to our local park where there is lots of room to run, hide in the trees, and play active games of all kinds. Many of the younger students are outside in all weather, enjoying everything from mud to frost. The photos above are from a museum visit where two students built a farm, complete with chicken coop, and everybody collaborated on creating a dinosaur world in the sand exhibit.

We wish everyone a wonderful winter holiday! We'll be back in this space when school resumes in January. See you then!

The World of the Game

In the last few weeks, many students have been immersed in playing and winning Plants vs. Zombies, a computer game designed by George Fan. It's been a highly collaborative process,with students playing together, separately, or with staff to master the complex and humorous world of peashooters, pole-vaulters, and other magical plants and zombies. Sam is playing here while students gather around, learning and questioning as they watch him skillfully navigate the world of this game.

Although video games are not yet widely recognized as the valid and worthwhile learning environments that they are, Rising Tide School students are free to participate in the fascinating activity of entering a magical and strange world and using their skills and wits to figure it out and master it. I recently enjoyed reading an interview with scientist David Deutsch about the place that video games play in children's lives today. Consider this insight from Deutsch:

"Apart from conversation, all the complex interactive things require a huge initial investment, except video games, and I think video games are a breakthrough in human culture for that reason. They are not some transient, fringe aspect of culture; they are destined to be an important means of human learning for the rest of history, because of this interactive element. Why is being interactive so important? Because interacting with a complex entity is what life and thinking and creativity and art and science are all about."

The full article is here and is a great read for anyone who wants to understand how video games fit into a Sudbury education. Games are an essential way that children learn when they direct their own time, and video games, along with the all the other complex, creative games invented by the students themselves, create the rich world of play and learning that is Rising Tide School.

Learning with Ease and Joy.

I enjoyed seeing this activity repeated over two days, with different students getting inspired to count up their pocket money. The immense power and interest inherent in one's own money set off a great sequence of Sudbury learning. In one animated 10 minute episode, a more experienced student helped a younger one differentiate between the different coins and sort them in order. A pack of students descended on the coin owner, making wild guesses about the value of the money in the lineup and the number of Bionicles that could be purchased. Some left quickly, drawn by other interests, while some stayed to absorb this particular experience. The owner of the coins asked for help from a staff to count them. When they were totalled, the coin owner did some thinking about the item that he was saving for and how long it would take him to save enough for it. Then staff and students began looking at the coins, noticing the pictures on them, finding some foreign coins, some brand new coins, and some coins that were older than anyone in the group! The episode ended with a comment that sparkles with the kind of fresh, free, thinking that comes so easily to these students. "Hey! Wouldn't it be cool if we found a quarter from the FUTURE?!!"

With grins and laughter, the students scooped the money back into the jar and took off for the next big thing.

Easily and naturally figuring out the world around them, from the basics of counting to the big questions of time and space, what a joyful experience of young humans learning as they love to do!