Wooden Boat School

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."

~ Mark Twain


What I look forward to the most in the Summer is to be a student. There is nothing quite like just sitting back and having your only responsibility be TO LEARN.

This year I was fortunate enough to start my vacation with a week long course in Seamanship at the Wooden Boat School, in Maine. The United States is a very beautiful country, I have to say. And that school, in Brooklin, Maine is a very special place. It is situated in the middle of acres of wild Maine land, complete with a lake, gorgeous waterfront, and bears.

Students of all ages and walks of life congregate to either build wooden boats or sail them, and everyone is happy. My teachers, Jane Ahlfeld and Jenny Bennet gave lectures in the morning and then stood back or gently guided us in the craft of sailing, much like Montessori directresses... observing and tailoring lessons to individual skill level and interest.

The school, in general, follows many of the principles that I love about Montessori:

- Hands on education
- Learning at one's own pace
- Excellent guidance, but you have to do the work yourself
- Trust in humans (lots of things are done in the old fashioned, honor system way)


I learned a lot, sailed a lot, made new friends, and loved every minute of it.





"Happiness, knowledge, not in another place but this place, not for another hour but this hour."

--Walt Whitman

Be good, be happy.

There is simple kind of wisdom...

A six year old at school today dispensed the same wisdom (among other things) that my friend Dan, who is many years my senior, dispenses to me in his letters when he writes:

"Be good, be happy."

These are some of the notes she shared with friends on her last day of school... They are a gift. She shared them with friends. I share them with you.

Be good, be happy.

Susanne



"This year you are going to be one of the oldest. Be just like me."


"You are the second youngest friend. Behave well."


"This year you are going to be an older friend. Be good."

Let it go.

Today was our last day of the year at school. It tends to be a day of a lot of emotion for me, and this morning I tried to prepare myself by reminding myself to breath and remain aware.

It is another cycle that closes. Our second year together at our school.

A big part of today was about letting things go...
letting go of the children that are moving on,
letting go of all that went undone this year,
letting go of the plans,
letting go of the mistakes,
letting go of the successes too,
all of it, go.

(This way we make space for the coming year.)

Like e.e. cummings:

"let all go
dear

so comes love."

"If you're not learning, then you must not be teaching very well."

John Francis

Sing and dance while the music is being played.

A Peaceful Classroom

"There cannot be peace just because we want peace:"there SHOULD be peace because I am agitating for it". This does not happen. We cannot agitate for peace. When we become agitated we lose our peacefulness. Let there be no agitation. Purify your mind. Then every action you take will add peace to the universe.

Work for your own peace, and you will find that you have started helping the atmosphere around you to become more peaceful."

S.N Goenka "Meditation Now"

Friendliness with Error: Conan O'Brien addressing Harvard Graduates

"And when all else fails, you always have delusion."

About Praise

At school, I've been trying to keep to the rule of thumb: avoid all forms of rewards and punishments. (Alfie Kohn's book on the subject is all one needs to read to be convinced of their ineffectiveness.) While this is pretty straightforward in terms of not having sticker charts, grades, time out corners, and other typical classroom methods of control, I find it trickier when it comes to praise. It can be hard to find the right words when confronted with a beaming child!

For me, the bottom line with praise is that there is a right and wrong way to do it.

I find the arguments against using praise convincing:

-It is ultimately a form of "sugar coated" manipulation
-Children can become dependent on it
-It messes with children's motivations
-It can often belittle a child's success or joy (it can be kind of patronizing)
-It can create a pressure to "perform"
-It can rob a child of their sense of accomplishment
-Often it's just a habitual reaction instead of a genuninely thought-felt comment

(If you're not convinced by my bullet points, here's a great little article with more details about why a certain kind of praise is not the best way to acknowledge a child's achievement.)

At our Conscious Discipline meeting today, we touched on the subject of verbal encouragement. I liked the way our teacher, Helen Guda, spoke about the messages we convey when we praise and her suggestions on how to offer praise consciously.

- You can simply describe what the child did. ex: "You finished the addition tables!"

-Connect what the child did with the feelings of joy and satisfaction they got from their accomplishment. ex: "I can see you are feeling so proud about learning how to play that song on the xylophone."

-Describe what you see. "You put on your shoes all by yourself and you look very happy."

-Notice the effort and progress of the child. ex: "The last time you tried, you walked around half of the line before the water spilled. This time you made it all the way around."

-Notice the contributions that children bring to the group. ex: "You washed the snack table and now everyone will get to eat snack on a clean table."

-Consider if it's really necessary to say ANYTHING AT ALL. Sometimes just a smile is enough recognition.

Wherever you are, be there.

"We must start from where we are
not from where we want to be.
For where we want to be
is to be content
with where we are."

Ian McCrorie

just trying it out to see what happens.

So much of starting a new school is just making shots in the dark and hoping your good intentions will guide them. Cultivating an attitude of adventure/curiosity ("let's just try it out and see what happens") often followed by a disclaimer ("if it doesn't work out, we won't do it anymore") has become a big part of my personal journey as director and teacher. It's the friendliest way I have found to deal with the fact that so much of what I do is completely new to me, and often out of my field of experience. Ranging from simple things like making new recipes that I've never tried with the children, to the more complicated world of handling situations with a child or parents, or the often mystifying world of school finance and accounting.

When I stumble on quotes, blog posts, songs, books, mug quotes, that celebrate the process over the final product/ simply trying as succeeding, I find it really encouraging.






"Enthusiasm, a sense of fun, and high energy are more engaging than skill. William Blake observed, “Exuberance is beauty.” from Martha Writes

"Trying is the same as succeeding." from Molly O'Shaughnessy

"I remind myself of the important lesson for any creative pursuit, “No one cares about my mistakes. What’s important is to do what I want to do.” from The Happiness Project

"Do one thing every day that scares you" Eleanor Roosevelt- from the mug that Sayenne gave me

Routine Books

Our school staff (of 2) is participating in a 7 month long "Conscious Discipline" workshop. I couldn't be happier. This came about after we attended a morning long session intended for parents back in November and found it to be so complementary to what we do in the classroom that we signed up for the long term workshop that is geared specifically for teachers. (Whoo, that's one long sentence.)

The group gathers once a month and discusses a specific aspect of the technique. And for that month, you work CONSCIOUSLY to integrate that aspect in your classroom. A lot of it, so far, has to do with cultivating friendliness with error in yourself.

If you are not familiar with "Conscious Discipline" you can refer to their website, or to the post I wrote previously on the shorter workshop. The book that is on the cover of that post is what this long workshop is based on. It has been a very helpful book with classroom management this year.

This month, we were assigned a homework in which we had to create a material for use in the classroom that would visually remind children of all the steps included in a daily routine.

We made a set of "Routine Books" for our room. The materials needed were basic photo albums, camera and printer. We made a list of all the routines we carry out in the classroom that involve multiple steps and that could be broken down into pictures.

The main ones we included are:

-Arriving at school
-Choosing Work
-Using the bathroom
-Lunch Routine
-Clean up

But we expanded: Using the book corner, Using the outside necklace, Working in the kitchen...

For each of these, we made a small booklet that has a pictures of a child carrying out each one of the steps involved in the procedure. It was really fun for the children involved to mock the process so that we could take the pictures- and yet another great reminder of the lesson without us actually giving the lesson.

Here are some excerpts from the bathroom routine book (Sorry about the neck craning, I didn't realize I had uploaded these twisted):








We also decided to write simple text on the opposite side of the books for engaging readers.

I presented the booklets as stories during small group lessons. My oh my! The children LOVED seeing their classmates in the "illustrations." They listened and looked very attentively as I told each story. And then many of them promptly went on to re-enact the stories. ("Miss Susanne! Look! I'm flushing the toilet like Cristina in the picture!")

We then made the booklets available in the book corner and the children look at them a lot, read them, and tell each other the stories.

This is like a grace and courtesy lesson that keeps on giving itself!

I am impressed at how quickly routines have become smoother in the classroom with the help of these booklets. Toilets get flushed more often, clean up gets done more efficiently, morning greetings are less frequently forgotten.

It is a great way to reinforce these lessons without having to invest a lot of time in re-giving the lesson. I super recommend it!



I took pictures of the formats that other teachers in our workshop used for making the routines "visual". Some of them made a visual "schedule" of the day. And others focused more on micro routines instead. Here's some of what they brought: