Experiential Learning- What does that even mean right?  Families who hear "Experiential Learning" on a tour probably can not grasp how or why our educational model is so different until their child does a day visit with us, or perhaps until hey are enrolled.  To us it's really about getting deep into the subjects that we are studying, first hand, up close and personal.  We become the lessons.  

It might seem a bit like a rebellious concept, and perhaps it is.  It rebels against the style of education that many of us grew up on (I certainly did!)- sit at a desk, read your textbook, repeat your textbook back, take a test so the teacher knows you understand the information.  But, do you really understand the information?  How do you know what you know? All you can really tell is that someone can repeat back exactly what they were told.  

Whereas, in our experiential model, a student who is studying archeologists and artifacts at Sparhawk Lower School would be tasked with:

• Learning excavation techniques, methods and best practices by studying them and then by physically becoming archeologist and digging up artifacts 
• Creating a Cartesian coordinate system to map the recovery of artifacts - gridding the dig site and then mapping on paper the location of the recovered artifacts
• Studying and categorizing artifacts once they are extracted
• Students create their own artifacts out of clay and repeat the excavation and categorization process.  

We want students to immerse themselves in the experience, and by doing so they will have greater retention of information than if they simply read about the process in a book.  An experience connects all of your senses- it has smells and gives you a feeling, you witness, observe and connect information.  As I said, we become the lesson.  

Originally published September 2015

Postcard from Hog Island

An Audubon retreat for educators provides a rich habitat for a Sparhawk Lower School teacher.

Starting off the 2012-2013 academic year was your typical enthusiastic sort. And, like any class at the Sparhawk Lower school, they had to decide on a class "bird name", the name to which they would be referred to as a group by me, other teachers, administrators, parents and students for the school year. As you can imagine, there are too many too choose from at first, and each one is just perfect at the start.

The Gannets. The Purple Finches. The Harpy Eagles. The list begins broadly, but is whittled down by a system of votes and teacher guidance. I've gotten quite efficient at this over the years, and for this particular class three years ago, the grand winner was the Atlantic Puffins, which was my first seabird name, and come to find out, a bird with a remarkable legacy. 

You see, the Atlantic Puffin underwent a steep decline in the 19th century across its breeding grounds on the Maine coastal islands due to habitat destruction, invasive predators and hunting for their meat and eggs. The birds are monogamous and each pair returns to their burrows on rocky island outcrops each year to hopefully lay, brood, hatch and raise a single chick before taking off to the open ocean once again. All along the northern Atlantic, from Scandinavia to the Atlantic Provinces of Canada these birds could still be found. But there were dwindling or extirpated colonies in Maine.  Until, that is, the early 1970’s, when Stephen Kress, who worked for Audubon, began his life's work, which was to bring the Puffin back to one former colony, Eastern Egg Rock Island, in the Muscongus Bay region of Maine. This project continues today, known as "Project Puffin”.

Project Puffin was a wildly exciting idea for me and the class back in 2012. We loved it, and quickly researched that we could adopt one or more of these Puffins, and thus support the continued work of Kress and his team. We set up our first bake sale fundraiser of the year, and sold enough to adopt two different couples. I promptly received glossy photos, biographies and newsletter updates about our happy puffin colony on Egg Rock.

Then one day came a mailing about something different: the Audubon Camp in Maine, featuring a gorgeous Maine Island and seven different weekly programs, including one just for educators. I was sold on the idea immediately.  One summer, soon, would be the right time to go...

Well, that right time finally came, this year. On Sunday, July 19th I hopped in my car and drove 2.5 hours up the coast to Bremen, Maine, for what was certain to be a grand adventure. My clothing options were functional: I had flip flops, water shoes and hiking boots. My bug spray and sunscreen, and most cherished, my Canon DSLR and a waterproof pair of binoculars for some serious wildlife viewing!

You see, since embarking down the road of adopting those puffins three years ago, my appreciation and fascination for the world of birds and just about anything else wild and natural has become a major interest in both my personal life and in my classroom. The bird memorabilia my students gift me each year has easily doubled. Each new academic year, are now raising bake sale money for multiple conservation programs, always looking to out-do ourselves. I am a total nature geek, and here I was pointing my GPS to an island about to be inhabited by 55 fellow like-minded nature loving educators, all looking to get jazzed about teaching children about appreciating and caring for nature.

I was certainly not disappointed. The entire experience was top notch, from the history of how the island came to be under Audubon's care to the rustic 1900's era buildings to the amazing oceanfront view and wildlife.  During my week, I worked with educators from all over the country (there around 50), and wonderfully enthusiastic and talented instructors.  For five days, I was inspired by the programming, intrigued by my colleagues, and in awe of the delicious food.  What could beat that?

I very much enjoyed this adventure. And I highly recommend to you, reader, the programs that Hog Island Audubon camp in Maine offers during the summer.  I would do it again in a heartbeat, and I am considering becoming a volunteer in the island next summer, as well as attending the island during their family programming week. It was that good.

I could not have attended this program without the support of the Sparhawk PTO, whom have me financial support without question. I felt wonderfully appreciated and encouraged as a Sparhawk educator. I also have to thank the National Audubon society for their scholarship towards my tuition.

It was clear to me, as I listened to Stephen Kress speak to us teachers one night about Project Puffin, that had my class not gone down the road of choosing the Atlantic Puffins as our class bird name way back in 2012, that I probably would not have been sitting in the audience on this gem of an island on the Maine coast. I thought, "I guess even a seemingly small decision like choosing a bird name can lead to wonderful things." I felt that something remarkable had happened to me.

~Lisa Hughes, Grade 4&5 Teacher, Sparhawk Lower School

For more information on the Puffin Project, click here.

For more info on the Audubon Camp at Hog Island, click here.

I was one of the first of my friends to have a child, and it just so happens that I work in education- this automatically makes me the prime candidate for school related questions in my circle.  Undoubtedly the most frequently asked question is, "How do I know when a school is right for my child?"  

Here is my answer, always.

• Do your homework, explore your options and choose a few (at least three) schools to tour that mirror your child's interests, learning style and needs.  
• Make sure the school is within your budget (or ask about financial aid, most schools welcome that conversation!)
• If your child requires services, make sure they are available.  
• Call, ask the questions that are important to your family.
• Book a tour and then GET OUT OF THE WAY.

Here is the most important part of my answer- When you tour the school, bring your child and pay close attention to how they feel.  You know your child better than anyone, and chances are you will know within five minutes if the school is the right fit for them.  The visceral unlearned response; that overall feeling that you get walking in the door, meeting the staff and students, is a mirror of that school's educational habitat.  Allow your child to explore that habitat, ask their own questions and make them part of the process.  It is SO easy to impose our own learned behavior and educational beliefs on our children but they are the ones who will be learning at the school.  Let them lead the way, your child will feel it, or they won't.  

Here are some good reads & videos on getting out of the way: 

• Sometimes, You Need to Get Out of Your Child's Way, by Jim Taylor

• How to Encourage Little Scientists?  Get Out of the Way!

Check out this story about a local mom allowing her child to feel the difference.

• If No Child is Left Behind, Where Was Mine, by Holly Robinson
•  

One of the phrases that you hear most often about the culture at Sparhawk is that we "know our students well."  If you are unfamiliar with Sparhawk, you might think that we are just talking about their academic lives- Billy is a B+ student who likes robotics...  but, in truth, it's much much more than that.  

The Sparhawk culture has been both organically and intentionally created over the past 20+ years.  The cultural intention of Sparhawk can be ideated, but doesn't truly come to fruition without the actions of the community.  We CHOOSE to be invested in each other.  We share in each others' successes, and encourage one another during loss or challenges.  We seek to understand the intricacies of personalities, and celebrate individuality.  Most of all, we listen to our students and value their insightful contributions to our community.  

The depth to which we know our students is highlighted at our graduation ceremony.  Each year, members of our faculty stand before the audience and give individualized tributes and speeches for all of the graduating seniors.  Teachers weave together recountings, fond memories, achievements and joy, showcasing the deep connection and understanding that we have of each student.  Here's a snippet of a story that was shared at the 2016 graduation by Emily White about graduating senior Jordan Michel:

Ten years ago I started my Sparhawk career at the Farm Campus. I happily began teaching Italian for the 1st time in an elementary school.  And ten years ago, Jordan Michel, you too started your Sparhawk career at the Farm School and began studying Italian for the first time in your life.

After a decade, we can reflect on some of the most valuable things that Sparhawk has taught us both: fundamental ideas like patience, perseverance, openness to learning, trust, and bravery. These are just some of the necessary pieces to becoming a fair teacher and a role model student.

Indeed all of our graduates have some of these traits--There are countless memories I could share to demonstrate how they possess them, but I will talk about just three that I think best illustrate some of the finest aspects I see in you, Jordan. In my opinion, these are never-faltering parts of your personality. You embody these qualities and they define how you interact with others. 

These are also some of the exemplary features that turn people into what we like to call good humans. And Jordan, you are just that, a good human. 

Traveling to Nicaragua with you this past winter proved it; the trip allowed me to witness true and generous offerings from the heart. You find joy both in giving and receiving from others, and have much to share of yourself.

You never shy away from an opportunity to help those in need. This is your way of demonstrating kindliness.

It is hard to imagine a better role model for any young man than you, Jordan. You are the perfect gentleman--always holding a door, waiting for all to be served before eating, gracious and sincere. You are a compassionate friend--always supportive of your peers’ endeavors and willing to listen or offer helpful advice.  You are a welcoming smile to newcomers--you accept all without judgment, and realize the opportunities newness and diversity can provide.

Being such a role model, you can only imagine the great fortune I feel knowing that you have been this to many, but most luckily for me, to my own son Nico. Thank you, Jordan for being this to him and to others. 

In listening to this speech a few years ago, and rereading it now, I think the statement that "We know our students well" is too limiting.  The truth is simply that we know each other well.  To many of us, faculty and students alike, Sparhawk is a second home.  We are growing together, sharing defining experiences that will help shape our future choices and we are building human connections that will last a lifetime.

At Sparhawk, students of all ages are given the opportunity to solve practical, real-life problems as well as those found in math books. In other words, we combine traditional skill- development and practical applications. The applications, often called “hands-on” or “experiential” learning, allow students to use and practice their emerging toolbox of skills, in context, and in ways that are intrinsically interesting and make sense to them. The result is greater enthusiasm, commitment, sustained interest and, ultimately, comprehension. This dual approach also illustrates the reason for math learning.

I have never heard a child ask why they need to learn how to read, or write.  Sometimes, however, kids ask, “Why do I have to learn math?” This is because math is hard work in a way that other academic subjects are not, and this is true even for those with math talent. Math is a new language, a foreign one in the sense that few students have much explicit experience of it before coming to school. Children, on the other hand, are immersed in language experiences even in utero. They learn vocabulary by listening as parents talk away to them and provide nouns for everything gaze or hands encounter. They observe social cues and use verbalizations to interact with others, even before they speak their native language. They literally dance the rhythms of syntax, internalizing the patterns while still very tiny.  These are the algorithms of spoken language.

On the other hand, parents don’t talk baby-math to newborns, and even if they did, it would not be “math,” per se; it would simply be words with no reference, and without reference, 2+2 or Pi squared is 9.869604401 are just pretty nonsense syllables, in other words more English, Chinese, or French. We don’t read math books to children. Not even math-talented parents do this. Yes, there are some early exceptions to this rule, but usually it is because a child is, seemingly, mysteriously endowed with some understanding from a rare brain’s organization, that is not attributed to instruction. We have had such children at Sparhawk. However, direct instruction and math immersion is rare in most families and language immersion natural.

Counting, is not math, it is memorization. One-to-one correspondence is a foundational skill that does occur naturally: One cookie for you and one for me; Let’s count the trucks on this page; but beyond that, for most children, the foreign language of math starts once they begin school. The direct parallel would be to imagine a child whose only experience in language arts, before coming to school, consisted of recitation of the alphabet. No stories. No conversation.

Math is not only a foreign language, it is an abstract, ordered, logical and convergent language that, in the earliest years, requires a connection to the real world; it needs reference to real objects. Otherwise, math is intangible and mysterious, abstract and untouchable at a time of life when much of experience and understanding is concrete rather than abstract, and in the absence of experience, meaningless. And, if one is asked to do hard work, one should discover, “What’s in it for me? Why am I learning math?” In the absence of sense-making, math can also be frightening, as we all know it is to many. To too many, in fact.

These are the reasons why experiential math activities are the foundation for our very youngest students, and as children move through early elementary grades and show developmental readiness, more time is devoted to abstract reasoning and increasingly formal instruction in the standard scope and sequence of math concepts. Number facts are memorized and students develop skill in solving mental-math challenges. The combination of traditional skill development, the tools, and enticing challenges to solve, makes for a successful and fear-less approach to math learning. Both text and touch are essential and synergistic ingredients in early math learning. 

RESOURCES

The Learning Way: Meta-cognitive Aspects of Experiential Learning 

Hands On, Mulit-Sensory, Math Activities