Yesterday I took the challenge to make a blog in English. Today we visited the Neighborhood school. They also asked me to write a report for them. Nice to see how eager they are to learn.

Today we saw ‘less is more – depth over coverage’ in many lessons. Teachers take time to approach a things from different angels. The name-study was a great example of this. The name of a student was analysed… What letters do we know, how do we spell the name, how many vowels are there in this name et cetera.

In this school we saw examples of creating a quiet atmosphere. Children were made aware of their own bodies and feelings by meditation, mindfulness and  questions about their bodies by the teachers.

‘Student-as-worker, teacher-as-coach’ was especially visible at projecttime. Children were given full responsibility to do the task. The teacher guides the children by asking questions. The focus of teachers is on the process of learning instead of the product.

There is a great sense of community at the school. Parents told us they really feel welcome. The know the Staff and are involved in the learning of their kids. Parents feel that the development of their child is a team effort (child, parent and teacher).

Taking time sometimes has the side effect that the learning feels slow and less efficient. There is a big difference of approach in projecttime and other subjects. In maths, Spanish or other subjects the children have to sit down and listen to the instruction. some children seem bored during these instruction time. We wonder whether it is possible to differentiate more in these subjects.

We saw there was a difference between younger and older kids in project time. First the children have to learn working with material. Later they learn  to make a plan, a model and an end product. We wonder whether the younger kids are able to make plans also.

We had great day, learned a lot and are curious to experience projecttime tomorrow!