Mango Minds

When I began teaching  in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA,  we conducted home- visit conferences with all students and families as our initial parent-teacher conference. I went to each of the 28 homes of my homeroom students to meet the families and talk about how the child was doing in school.    “La teacher is HEEEEERE!” shouted one father when he opened the door to find me standing there.   It was an aggressive approach towards establishing more collaborative relationships between teachers and parents, in some cases helping teachers to better understand the whole child and in others, it was a way to insist that parents become more involved in their child’s education.   The main premise: parents and teachers need to talk and work together. Next week, we will hold our parent-teacher conferences here at school; we will not be visiting your homes.  Though we do not visit your home, our purpose is the same: collaborative relationships be...

Halloween costume day at school is an example of what I think it means to innovate. Innovation begins with a problem, in this case, the problem of Halloween costume day and the dreaded question, “What do you want to be this year for Halloween?”   That a child can only dress up as one thing at a time is tragic.  As with any problem, you have to have the motivation and resource s to work on any solution… why invest the time and energy to create something new or different? Do you even have the material or intellectual resources necessary to solve it? In this case, motivation is clear—our children—but our resources are very different. Whether you set out to make a costume (and kudos to you parents who achieve that! WOW!), or did as I did and went to the Piex, Oca Loca, or Burbujas, you were motivated and used the resources at hand to end up with what was basically a garment and props. Now, I specifically use the description of garment and props, because these ...

Long days make for short weeks and even shorter years. Such could not better describe these past weeks here at BA. Since last sitting down to write to you, we successfully completed our accreditation process and our Board of Trustees announced to our school community that our future location has been finalized: Costa Sur. Both of these achievements are BIG for any school, and that they occur simultaneously, it makes it, well, HUGE. I am proud of all of the work that my colleagues have achieved over these past weeks, because not only has each been involved in a systemic review of our effectiveness as well as anticipating news of the next phase of our school, they have continued to maintain their priorities where we all want them to be: as educators for our children. And so, if you might oblige me, I would like to openly and publicly say to our Elementary teachers, support staff, custodians, and office personnel: THANK YOU.  As I write this, outside my window our Boys SUB 10 s...

Abandon the idea that we have to be like everyone else in order to fit in. We are not ever going to be the same and we are part of the group just the same. We are a school of diverse learners, parents and teachers, and the diversity of our school community lends itself to an enriched understanding of what makes us special.  In September we will highlight with students that each and every person is a valued member of our community. We want to foster connections and friendships in classrooms, develop respect for our peers, and develop a sense of responsibility to our self and others, because achieving an inclusive, accepting learning environment takes a commitment from each person. Cooperation increases learning, and cooperation requires that children utilize complex social skills to achieve a common goal. In September students will explore questions like How do my actions affect others? What behaviors and attitudes permit people to get along and belong? Why are rules impo...

My two-year-old son’s favorite word is “almost,” and he uses it to describe his endless attempts to score a basket, catch a ball or make a goal. He loves this word, because it indicates an opportunity to play just a little longer, “almost, Mami, otra vez!” and so he gleefully misses several attempts on purpose, or not, knowing that I’ll play along until he makes that one last shot. I’m sure this word pops up these days with your own children as they talk about the fact that we’re not quite done with the school year but ALMOST. There is still a little bit more time to learn, time with our classmates and friends, time with our teacher, time in the routine that, even though it can be hard, marks our lives so dramatically. This is a time of celebrating, of closures, presentations, final fieldtrips, and goodbyes. It is an exciting time for children, but also one that causes disequilibrium, because on top of the impending change, we are all tired.  We assume that since vacation...