Climate Change Protest

Inspired by Greta Thunberg, Seabury MS students walked to Wright Park on Friday March 11th, to voice their opinions on the subject of climate change. Teachers were notified during morning meeting by some of the students that they would like it to be a topic of discussion for the meeting. We watched a news video on the subject, then students decided they would like to attend the protest. Many used their own time to create protest signs to get out their message about climate change.

We arrived at 1:00  after many of the groups had departed, but served as a second wave of voices on the subject. Three of the students chose to take the stage and launched into an impromptu speech about how desperate a situation our climate is in. Seabury supports students taking on community and political activism.

 

Seabury Students Teach Each Other: Tacoma Neighborhoods Lesson

One of the most important skills that Seabury students learn is how to work in a group. Group work is complicated and difficult for a lot of students: the executive function and social skills required to work productively and equitably with others makes it a challenge for any child. It is a particular challenge for gifted children who have often learned from negative group work experiences that their best work is the work they complete alone.

With that in mind, we approach group work mindfully here at Seabury. We encourage goal setting and meta-cognition related to the skills required to work in a group. Students are asked to take roles. We reflect on group work in advisory and during projects, not just after. The work of the group requires the participation of all group members. They must learn to rely on one another.

While the students do not always enjoy working together, they do learn from the experience and improve as group members. Some learn when to lead and when to follow. Some learn to manage expectations and set reasonable group goals. Some learn how to talk kindly when they disagree.

The task at hand was for students to learn about a Tacoma neighborhood, visit the neighborhood, interview experts about the neighborhood, and then teach a lesson about the neighborhood to their classmates.

All seven groups taught engaging and thoughtfully planned lessons based on their research, expert interviews, and field studies. The students took notes on each other's lessons and are using the information from the lessons for the next round of the mini-project and for a social studies comparison assignment.

Neighborhood Field Studies

History gets a bad rap, and as a history teacher, I've heard it all. It's boring, it doesn't apply to me now, it's.... OLD. Which is why at Seabury, we work hard to bring "history" to life for our students, and this is certainly true with our current study of Tacoma and Washington State history. We are studying Tacoma's history through looking at how it developed. How and why it was founded, where people moved, and how it's changed (and is still changing) over time.

This week, our students broke into groups and got out into the city, visiting one of seven neighborhoods in the city of Tacoma, including Hilltop, 6th Avenue, Proctor, and Lincoln. Students were instructed to visit their neighborhoods not as tourists, but as researchers. They took pictures, made notes, interviewed shopkeepers and residents, took tours of historical buildings, visited local grocery stores and shops, and most importantly, ate lunch at a locally run restaurant.

 

One group got the opportunity to learn from a 90 year old, family-run hardware store in Lincoln how the various immigrant groups have changed and molded the neighborhood. They chatted with a shopkeeper at a vacuum repair shop about the art of repairing machinery rather than tossing it out and buying new in a disposable age. And they learned all about a real, live turkey race on 38th Avenue in 1939 that drew a crowd of thousands!

https://tacomahistory.live/2018/04/05/best-bully-friend/

Another group visiting the 6th Avenue neighborhood talked with residents and storekeepers about how the neighborhood is working to become safer, more integrated, and more walkable. They learned about how their neighborhood had a rigid geographic divide based on race that the residents and business now are trying to overcome and make more unified. And students who visited the Ruston neighborhood learned about the economic growth and improvement taking place in the area, from recent shopping and housing improvements to an upcoming hotel and potential ferry directly to Seattle.

Students will take this research back to Seabury and use it, along with additional research they do from school, to prepare lesson plans, to teach each other about their neighborhoods. Then, as a school, they will make some conclusions about where Tacoma has been and where it's going.

Seabury believes that the city is our classroom our students used this classroom well this week!

Seabury Students Design Forever Homes

Seabury Students Design Forever Homes

Using the design process, graph paper, post-it note feedback, and a digital design tool called Sketchup, the Seabury students created their own forever homes.

Before designing their homes, the students interviewed their parents about what they looked for in a home and how the home buying process works.

The design process begins with empathy. For this step, students filled out a client intake form for an architectural firm, but for themselves. They also wrote a half page about who they are and what they would want from a house and created stories of a day in the life of their house.

After much brainstorming, students needed to learn how to use the tools of the trade. Sketchup takes some practice, so they worked through some basics of designing with Sketchup.

During the prototype, feedback, and testing stage, students created three prototypes for their homes, asking teachers and other students for feedback. These pieces of feedback went on brightly colored post-its. Students decided what feedback to adopt into their designs and what feedback to reject based on their own preferences.

Once they had revised their designs, they were ready to return to Sketchup to make their final drafts. 

Students collaborated by asking for advice and help as they worked. 

We were fortunate enough to have Ms. Bartek, an architect, with us to give students professional advice and feedback about their designs and about Sketchup. We are so grateful that she was able to join us.

 At the end of the week, students presented their final designs to one another and several shared with the lower school students at our First Friday Gathering.