{"id":1096,"date":"2013-06-13T11:47:15","date_gmt":"2013-06-13T15:47:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.knowyouroots.com\/ijustgottashare\/?p=1096"},"modified":"2013-06-13T11:47:15","modified_gmt":"2013-06-13T15:47:15","slug":"one-of-the-best-moves-we-ever-made","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.knowyouroots.com\/ijustgottashare\/2013\/06\/13\/one-of-the-best-moves-we-ever-made\/","title":{"rendered":"One of the best moves we ever made"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Mathew's<\/a>

Mathew’s first day at the Elizabeth Ann Clune Montessori School of Ithaca<\/p><\/div>\n

The other day I was preparing to teach a class in papermaking at Mathew\u2019s school when I had a revelation. I haven\u2019t taught papermaking to more than a few people in almost 15 years. Moreover, those classes were typically only a couple of hours long, not for an entire week, and this class will have 13 students between the ages of 6 and 12. This was all very daunting, to say the least. I decided to test out a couple of ideas ahead of time that I hoped would occupy and engage the students. Thank goodness I did, because some of my ideas really weren\u2019t all that great. But, while I working with the slurry and deckles (see my other blog on how to make paper<\/a>), inspiration took over and I came up with even better ideas. Bonus: the process of creating also calmed my concerns about teaching the class.<\/p>\n

So, why am I teaching a week-long class at Mathew\u2019s school? Unlike the schools Mathew has attended in the past, his current school switches gears in June. While most schools stop their normal curriculum and do \u201cfun things\u201d they are actually biding time until the school year is over. This school instead announces that the standard Montessori curriculum will end; and in June they will begin the \u201cSwitching Gears Mini-courses.\u201d The new focus is two weeks of mini-courses in the mornings, play rehearsals, and other activities in the afternoons. They create workshops called \u201cplaymania\u201d which involve activities centered on the theme of this year\u2019s school musical, \u201cThe Phantom Tollbooth.\u201d They also ask parents to teach mini-courses for a week. The kids are so excited to learn different things and work on the play; it is amazing the renewed energy there is at the school \u2013 and it is JUNE! Of course, there are a bunch of field trips sprinkled in here and there as well.<\/p>\n

In the past, I always felt school in June was a waste of time. Last year, I kept asking myself why I was waking Mathew up at 6:20am to go to school to do nothing. \u00a0In September, Mathew began attending the Elizabeth Ann Clune Montessori School of Ithaca. Enrolling him there was perhaps one of the best moves we have ever made. Their main goal is to create a mindful and just society through education and community building. I cannot describe the love and thoughtfulness that goes into every lesson, event and process at this school. Everything we have attended has moved me to tears of joy. Last week we went to Mathew\u2019s \u201cMoving Up Ceremony,\u201d announcing that he will be graduating from Junior Level and moving on to the Upper Level School next year. To honor the students moving up, the teachers create acrostic poems describing the student\u2019s attributes and read them to the students in front of all their classmates and families.\u00a0 I am tearing up just remembering the lovely ceremony.<\/p>\n

\"<\/a>

Acrostic Poem for Mathew<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Mathew's<\/a>

Mathew’s Moving Up Ceremony with his teachers Deb & Scott<\/p><\/div>\n

It\u2019s thrilling and an honor to teach at this school. But I can\u2019t lie; it does make me a bit nervous. There\u2019s a lot to live up to \u2013 the teachers and administrators are awesome. I\u2019m glad I picked a fun and creative activity that I am passionate about and love to share. I can\u2019t wait to see what the students make from all the papermaking activities I have planned.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The other day I was preparing to teach a class in papermaking at Mathew\u2019s school when I had a revelation. I haven\u2019t taught papermaking to more than a few people in almost 15 years. Moreover, those classes were typically only … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[99],"tags":[526,522,524,523,525],"class_list":["post-1096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life","tag-education","tag-elizabeth-ann-clune-montessori-school-of-ithaca","tag-montessori","tag-papermaking","tag-school"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.knowyouroots.com\/ijustgottashare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.knowyouroots.com\/ijustgottashare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.knowyouroots.com\/ijustgottashare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.knowyouroots.com\/ijustgottashare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.knowyouroots.com\/ijustgottashare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1096"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.knowyouroots.com\/ijustgottashare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1096\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1107,"href":"https:\/\/www.knowyouroots.com\/ijustgottashare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1096\/revisions\/1107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.knowyouroots.com\/ijustgottashare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.knowyouroots.com\/ijustgottashare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.knowyouroots.com\/ijustgottashare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}