Middle school students met with clients (many of whom were international and based in China), scheduled their own meetings, and consulted with clients to build their dream sustainable homes. Students then executed these plans by designing and building models of these dream homes - all while learning more about sustainable housing design. This project exemplifies how students learn through authentic interdisciplinary bilingual projects.
Dr. Keisha Siriboe, a consultant who we have closely worked with since 2020, recently came to visit us on campus - for the first time! Over the past two years, she has worked closely with our faculty and staff, addressing critical topics such as diversity, representation, and social justice, and has formed a Social Justice Cohort among faculty and staff…
As PKS teachers, we are always seeking new ways to practice our Habits of Character (respectful, responsible, resilient, collaborative, globally minded, caring and reflective) and bring them to life for our students within and beyond our school community. My own journey took an unexpected turn this past August as a result of an amazing and transformative professional development experience, an experience I want to bring to my students in the classroom.
One of our goals at PKS is to instill a love of learning in our students and for them to be curious, connected, and engaged with the world. We nurture these characteristics in the classroom through authentic learning experiences, and encourage it after school by limiting the amount of homework, thereby allowing for more unstructured time to pursue passions and interests.
It is our overall goal to deepen our communication with parents through shared digital portfolios, in-person conferences, and revised report cards that reflect not only key benchmarks in our curriculum but also our focus on understanding and supporting every student as a learner and community member.
We were pleased to host Charis Denison once again for a recent PKS学习 event. Each year when she visits, we take a moment revisit our approach to what used to be called “sex ed.” Schools like ours base this part of the curriculum on research that shows that “the biological, cultural, and ethical components of ‘sex ed’ must be part of a holistic effort to help each child develop an integrated, confident sense of self.”
One of our main goals at PKS is to foster a lifelong passion for learning and exploration, not only among our students but also among our parents, faculty, and staff. A few weeks ago, however, the pedagogical team wanted to try something innovative and engaging to provide our faculty and staff with a different type of professional development (PD) opportunity; something we call “Pinterest Live” or “Old School Pinterest.”
As many of you know, I have a P3 student here at PKS, and a 2 year old son whom I hope will join us when he is old enough. Both kids were in the car with me on Thursday morning as I tuned in to the Judiciary Committee hearings in which Dr. Christine Blasey Ford courageously told her story. I found myself feeling confused, and a bit helpless, as I tried to balance my civic impulses and my fatherly impulses.
Almost ten years ago, I wrote an article titled "Academic Rigor and Student Engagement: A Perfect Match." While many feared that they would need to sacrifice student engagement in the service of academic rigor, I argued strongly that academic rigor could ONLY genuinely come together with student engagement, and that truly rigorous learning at its core needed to be about exploration, discovery, creativity, inquiry, and pattern recognition.
