Jane's Pocket Change: Schools Within

A continued focus for our trustees, faculty and staff this year is CSW’s Learning and Teaching Initiative. We consider deeply what makes our school strong and what will make it even stronger.
A continued focus for our trustees, faculty and staff this year is CSW’s Learning and Teaching Initiative. We consider deeply what makes our school strong and what will make it even stronger.

What I find fascinating is that as we as adults “teach,” we are learning, all the time; the open minds of our teachers guarantee that we do not “teach to the test” or demand rote learning. We want our students to think, and we too are always thinking.

Our library this year opened as a new space, a welcoming, working space. There’s some improved private space, much improved teaching space and a lot of bright, warm color. Each week in the Maker/ Tinker areas there are problems to be solved; the librarians collaborate with teachers in a brand new way—learning and teaching is happening every minute.

We recently welcomed our third Progressive Education Lab (PEL) cohort to CSW. These four college graduates are part of a two-year teacher training program that CSW participates in with three other schools: Putney, VT, Calhoun, NY and Unquowa, CT. The first-year fellows work closely with four CSW mentors (Tom Evans, Evelina Galper, Marilyn Del Donno and Tad Lawrence) and our senior mentor (Rachel Hirsch) to learn about the tenets of progressive education; they spend significant time learning observation and reflection skills in our ninth grade Ordering Chaos and twelfth grade Re-ordering Chaos classes. Kevin Smith, a teacher in the science department is a second-year fellow in this program.

Throughout CSW we see micro-centers of learning beyond the classroom and the fields. As a learning community this is of course powerful and it ensures that learning and teaching are always at the core.

_____________________________________________________________
Pocket Change is a web diary written by Jane Moulding, head of school.

The Cambridge School of Weston is a progressive high school for day and boarding students in grades 9–12 and PG. CSW's mission is to provide a progressive education that emphasizes deep learning, meaningful relationships, and a dynamic program that inspires students to discover who they are and what their contribution is to their school, their community and the world.