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Teachers Explore Ideas and the World

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Curiosity, a love of learning, and a strong desire to perfect their pedagogical art led two lower school teachers across the Atlantic Ocean this past summer, thanks to the Helen Meador Travel Fellowship: second grade teacher Melissa Sherman and kindergarten teacher Victoria Roca.

The Science of Spelling

Melissa says, "I was looking for a way to make my students' understanding enduring by helping them understand how words are built." She decided to go straight to the source of the ideas she found most helpful: Melvyn Ramsden, a Cambridge educated linguist, orthographer, and author of the Real Spelling resources.

The Meador Fellowship allowed her to study with Ramsden in Cluis, the village in France where he lives. "Most of us were taught that the English spelling system is riddled with exceptions and irregularities, but Ramsden's work clearly shows that the English spelling system is consistent, orderly and predictable," Melissa says.

The Real Spelling way teaches children "morphology (the structure and sequence of meaning), etymology (the interrelation of meaning), and phonology (he representation of pronunciation) in that order." Melissa explains the necessity of using precise terminology, just as in other sciences, and of employing such tools as flow charts and matrices to analyze words.

The method works in a second grade classroom, she says. "I have been applying these principles of rigorous scientific investigation of words to teach my second grade class, and the results are amazing. Students are not only focused on correctness but are looking for a deeper understanding of the how and why of word building. They are engaged and their knowledge of words is enduring, not forgotten after a Friday spelling test. I am still learning from Melvyn, as he is open to questions, consultation and further tutoring through online video conferencing as I continue to deepen my own understanding of the English spelling system."

"Real Spelling shows my students that questions are more important than answers, that the English spelling system is orderly and not riddled with exceptions. The children see that if they learn about a word's history or structure, spelling makes sense."

Forest Kindergartens Inspire

Victoria says that her summer travel to Scotland and Sweden gave her "a new lens to look through when teaching." Her "wonderful experiences working alongside Cynthia Lee in the lower school naturalist program," which Victoria calls "one of the best things we do with our students," made her want to learn more about "forest schools."

In these schools children and teachers spend almost all their time outdoors. Victoria visited The Secret Garden Outdoor Nursery in Fife, Scotland and The Mulleborg I Ur Och School in Stockholm, Sweden. The Secret Garden has no building nor structure of any kind. The children and teachers spend every hour of every day outside in the woods and on the coastline of Fife. With her staff, Cathy Bache, who founded the school a decade ago, chooses a location "based on weather and the interests of her students at the time."

Next Victoria visited the oldest forest school in Sweden, the Mulleborg I Ur Och school on Lidingo Island, established in 1985. The I Ur Och ("rain or shine") movement "focuses on incorporating outdoor activities such as hiking and cross country skiing into a learning program for young children." Students spend two days a week at the school building, taking whole day excursions to the surrounding woods and lake the other three.

The forest schools do more than develop students' gross motor skills "through climbing, walking and maneuvering around a natural environment complete with roots, hills and rocks. The students are always creating. Without pre-made toys, the students have to transform the outside world into whatever they want or need it to be according to their imagination."

Victoria says, "Children 3-6 years old showed a great deal of independence with unpacking and packing up materials, solving problems with peers, or meeting challenges in their projects." Her visit to these schools left Victoria "with a continued sense of the importance and benefit to our students of the naturalist program. As a kindergarten team we are exploring ways to extend the role of the naturalist program and integrate it even more into our curriculum."

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