Learner Centered. Teacher Nurtured.
The child longs to understand the world, and there are many things to learn. As we follow the eye of the child across the landscape, a myriad of opportunities for exploration and learning emerge. Some may align exactly with the goals considered by the educator, while others lead the learner and the facilitating teacher to new and even greater discovery. Throughout, in this learner-centered environment, the learners — both adult and child — are fully engaged in the search for meaning and understanding. This journey is always fruitful and often digs to a surprising depth. The children are interested, innately curious, and they have great capacity for learning.
At Slate School, we are all teachers and learners. Our teachers facilitate the children’s learning through their curiosities, wonderings, and interests. At Slate School, collaboration is unique, joyful, constant, and every day among and between students and educators.
Curiosity-driven education leads all learners to become experts in their fields. As each individual shares their expertise and makes connections between disparate topics, a relationship forms that enriches the entire community.
At Slate School, the learner's curiosity drives the curriculum. Our educators teach students skills through the lens of each child's own unique interests. Our students continuously advance their skills -- ranging from literacy and math to science and social skills -- with great enthusiasm and interest.
A learner-centered environment is easily recognized by children, and they work on shared and individual projects with equal intensity. Facilitators observe and participate to move the learner forward as they explore their new understandings, while building skills that help them to access greater complexity of information, both read and discovered. All of this focused learning happens in a joyful classroom of eager learners who are hungry for greater understanding of the world in which they live.
At Slate School, our students explored the concept of "when" and created a timeline that spans much of the classroom. Their timeline explorations integrated many skills and concepts, ranging from math to writing and history. Take a peek at the students' timeline!
Literacy is also embedded throughout every day, and the children are empowered and supported as readers in a joyful learning environment. In support of the acquisition of literacy skills in a student-centered classroom, a wide variety of approaches are embraced. Reading activities are followed by creative opportunities, such as drawing or painting one’s own scenes, or writing one’s own book. Students may also extend stories through drama and writing with many opportunities for retelling and discussing story elements using child-created props. During daily independent reading time starting in Kindergarten, children select books that are of interest to them, and they learn and apply their reading skills. Additionally, the heart of every day at Slate School is our work on projects. Beginning in October, each child selects his or her first unique topic of the year. The process, spanning selection to presentation, takes place 4-6 times in a school year. It is through their interest in these topics that many literacy skills are developed.
Arts-Integrated, Learner-Centered Education
Slate School reimagines education by integrating creative arts into all aspects of the curriculum. The performing arts and visual arts are combined creatively with the students' collaborative learning. Art, music, and drama are woven throughout the fabric of the day. Students use new artistic ideas to explore academic concepts, or to express their ideas. Through this approach, all learners speak the language that they feel best communicates their understanding.
History and social studies come to life for Slate School's students. While learning history, the children draw and paint the historic time periods based on their imagination. They learn about architecture by building cities using wood, cardboard, and paper. They also study historic art pieces to understand the settings, dress, activities, and cultural anthropology of the times. The students additionally create their own performances to further imagine and delve into the time periods being studied.
Slate School's K-2 students wrote and performed their own play called "Rain on the Fall Festival, or Where's The Prize Apple?" All of the students selected their own characters and created their own costumes, and then the Grade 2 students wrote the play.
At Slate School, we wrote The Grateful Song, and our students sang it for our families on the day before Thanksgiving Vacation 2019. The children also created a GRATEFUL banner for our courtyard.
Our Grade 2 students modified Bridge Over Troubled Water into a Slate School version, and our students enjoyed singing it together.
Our students learned about clocks through a unique clock song developed for them!