Curating resources & sharing stories to empower teacher & student ownership, wonder, and daring.
Author: McKenzie Ross
I'm just a mom with a teaching license, raising my kids, and writing for this blog! Someday I hope to be back teaching when they are older, but for now, I'm here and loving it!
If you opened this article looking for an inspirational story, then you are absolutely in the right place. One of our scholarship applicants is working towards closing the gap between the special needs students and the neurotypical students at her school. She is putting together an inclusion carnival and working to raise funds so that the event can be free for those that attend. She writes,
“Living with a brother who is nonverbal and autistic I am more aware of the isolation of the millions with intellectual and developmental disabilities in my community. Although discrimination and bullying of children with special needs have decreased, there are still problems being faced with understanding the next step of inclusion. I am organizing an inclusion carnival where kids with special needs are able to come and be themselves and enjoy the carnival in a safe and loving environment. The Inclusion Carnival creates a safe space for kids with special needs and typically developing kids to interact and create lifelong friendships. In my community and many other communities, it is evident that there is not enough attention brought to the awareness of the growing community. It is important to me that these events take place so that we can grow to become more inclusive to all people, despite their abilities.”
“I have a brother with special needs and seeing peers go out of their way to include my brother brings tears to my eyes. I want to live in a world where this is done daily. I am working to raise all funds for the carnival so that it can be 100% free for the kids, it can get my peers involved in volunteering and raising money, and raise profit back to my school club chapter.”
Last we heard, the Inclusion Carnival is still on track and our applicant is working hard to pull this off and bring everyone together. We can’t wait to watch her find success!
One thing that always makes the top of our gift-receiving lists is BOOKS. We were gifted quite a few great kid’s books this holiday season, and I wanted to share what we’ve recently added to our bookshelf. Add these to your Amazon wishlist!
Hi-Five Animals! By Ross Burach: A fun, interactive book for toddlers.
The Christmas Princess by Mariah Carey: A cute story about Mariah Carey as a young girl and her quest for the perfect new pup.
Llama Llama Red Pajama by Anna Dewdney
Goodbye, Old House by Margaret Wild: We bought this for our kids since we made a big move from one state to another this year. Highly recommend this book for those new house transitions!
Adventure Annie Goes to Kindergarten by Toni Buzzeo: Such a good read for a new kindergartener.
A very good new book selection, if I do say so myself! We have some great reading ahead of us!
Did you receive or gift any new books this year? Tell us in the comments!
This post is part of a series where we interview real educators and tell their direct stories. All words are their own. You can see the entire series here.
“My degree is in human development, but I knew I wanted to be in education. I was hesitant to go down the education route because there were some things in public schools that I didn’t enjoy as a child. So I ultimately decided not to get an education degree, but hoped somehow, some way I could still be involved in education, but I truly did not know what that would look like.”
“My first glimpse into alternative education was Montessori. I had randomly heard about it and looked up jobs while I was still in undergrad and ended up finding somewhere that was hiring. I was loosely trained by the owner and I loved it, so I dove really deep into the Montessori world for a few years and finished my degree in human development. I thought I was going to go full-blown Montessori, but then we moved and I didn’t like any of the Montessori schools in our new area. They seemed too aggressive and rigid.”
“I stumbled on an ad for an alternative education school opening up in the fall that was still looking for guides, so I applied and got the job. I ended up using Montessori a lot there, but they wanted me to also keep it more open-ended. I worked there for a year and started their early childhood center, which was a pivotal experience for the school I eventually opened myself.”
“We moved again and I was very much missing teaching. When it came time for my oldest to start school, I could not find a school that felt like my style. It felt like the only thing they were talking about and advocating for was kindergarten readiness, they weren’t talking about anything else other than kindergarten readiness, and it felt very braggy, like, “look how fast we can get your kids to read!” and, “look how fast we can get your kids to count to twenty!”
“That just says to me that they don’t see or appreciate or value childhood. What pushed me over the edge was when I watched a documentary that was all about how education can look different. After that, I had a whole moment where I thought, “I have to start a school! I have to do this myself!”
“I had nine months to get my school ready, so I just dove right in. I ended up combining my experience with Montessori and the curriculum of a previous school I was working at, as well as some training I had started with Reggio Emilia. I’ve blended all of these resources as well as my background in human development to give my school its foundation.”
“The beauty of it is in the environment. It’s in the way I set up the space. It’s all free choice and child-directed, there is minimal direct teacher instruction. That enables them to work at their own pace and choose to work on things that they’re interested in, and allows me to float around and help as needed. All of the materials are child-directed with a control of error built in so they can teach themselves. There is a clear right or wrong and they don’t need me to tell them, which is nice because then they don’t develop that dependency on another person to tell them if they’re good or not, they can have their own experience. It’s this personal, intrinsic experience versus a co-dependency on other people to validate them.”
“It’s definitely a lot of trusting the process and if they’re really into one thing for many weeks and they don’t even touch math, you let them do that and trust that eventually you can integrate those math scenarios into real-life situations so they can see how that skill might benefit them. They work with these materials independently and they might work with me, and I give them these real-life experiences to help them get excited about learning whatever skill they need to learn. Or maybe I would work in small groups as well to help give them the social keys needed. It is fluid, it’s child-directed, it’s play-based, and it’s all hands-on.”
“It really does come from this place where I want to advocate for kids. Now that I’m in this space I can never go back. Whenever I see things that are common in other schools that are dismissive of childhood, I want to fight for them and fight for the kids, the parents, and the teachers. I just want to tell them, “It doesn’t have to be this way! It can be easier, happier, and more natural, and the kids can actually enjoy learning!” That really is the underlying theme of all of it- advocacy for childhood.”
My daughter’s school is on a 4-day week schedule, making Fridays a stay-home day. The first few weeks of this new change proved itself somewhat challenging, she would be home during the day on Friday and struggle with being in a slower-paced routine of staying home. As a very extroverted soul, she needed human interaction, fast-paced, and as much learning as she could cram in. An in-person school situation really is where she thrives.
On a random Friday nothing, in particular, was happening, so I made a very last-minute decision that we needed something to do for the day, so right then and there, our Friday Field Trips started. We packed sandwiches in a lunch box and took off to the capital city of Idaho for an afternoon at the zoo.
I had the goal of making it educational for my daughter since that’s typically what she lacked on her day off from school. And educational, it was! Both through direct and indirect instruction.
On the drive to the zoo, about 1.5 hrs from our home, we turned on the GPS and used the car mount to place it where everyone could see it. We had a very natural discussion about GPS, what it does for us, and how they’ve changed and evolved over the years (didn’t you have a huge, separate system in your car back in the early 2000s?!)
We talked about Boise, Idaho. The capital city of Idaho and what it means to be a capital city. This led us to a light discussion on government and politics. Yes, I was talking government and politics with my 5-&-3-year-olds.
The GPS led us straight to the zoo. We packed up the stroller and headed to the gates. Once inside we looked at the pricing board and found what age range each of us landed under and how many dollars each of us would have to pay. It was especially fun when we realized that our baby was FREE! After some quick math and money exchange at the front gate, we were on our way!
We used the park’s map to navigate to each animal enclosure we wanted to see. We read, read, read all about every animal to learn more about what they ate and where they slept, and what they liked.
After seeing all of the animals we played on the zoo’s playground. Playgrounds are always a great, indirect learning experience, giving children hands-on experiences in physics, science, cause and effect, social-emotional skills, learning empathy, and more.
After an afternoon at the zoo, we made a stop at the grocery store before we went home. Which came with so, so much learning as well! When kids are involved with grocery shopping trips it teaches them many, many valuable skills such as vocabulary, math, and so much more.
I knew I wanted our day to remain educational, but what I didn’t realize was how much natural and indirect learning came from our outing. The vast majority of our conversations were natural and simple curiosities my children had.
“Why is the GPS telling us to turn left?”
“What is this star thing on the bottom of the zoo map?”
“Why are the giraffes and zebras in the same enclosure?”
“Why are the penguins all standing together right now?”
“What happens inside of the capitol building?”
“Why are some things on a cold shelf in the grocery store, but others aren’t?”
“How does your credit card pay for our stuff when you put it into the machine?”
Sloth bear, nostrils open.
Just taking time to answer these questions and have discussions, leading to more questions, made the entire day incredibly educational for all of us. Thank you, Google, for helping me figure out that red pandas mostly eat bamboo, but also like to snack on fruits, insects, and lizards. Also, did you know the sloth bear can completely close its nostrils in order to keep out dirt and bugs when they are invading others’ nests searching for food? Neat, huh!
I think more often than not I am caught up in getting through our daily errands and checklists, but dedicating one day a week to answering all of the questions and having the discussions is what our whole family needs. We didn’t have a clipboard of worksheets or checklists on animals to find. There wasn’t anything we were set on learning, we just took the day minute by minute and I went with where their curiosity took them. So you’ll be hearing a lot more about our Field Trip Friday adventures and what we’ve learned that day! The natural learning of our day is always worth it.
The holidays are here and happening! It’s a great time to look back on the last year to see where our blog has gone.
We’ve published multiple book lists, personality tests regarding how they can be applied in the classroom, advice columns for scholarship applicants, and more. We also awarded $55,000 in scholarship money to five deserving, hard-working students.
My personal favorite is the discussions that have developed in the comments on our posts. Connecting with our readers and continuing the conversations beyond the base post make the information written come alive and is given more meaning!
Overall, this year has been one to remember, and we want to thank you, our readers, for being here and appreciating the content we place before you.
From all of us on the HonorsGradU team, happy holidays!
In a rural California community, a teen has set out to help rid of an invasive species along the river that borders their town. She writes,
“A problem that I have recently observed is the massive amount of weeds there are in the river. Based on the stories that go around town, a certain woman thought they were pretty plants so she put some in the river. After some research, I have found that these invasive water plants are called water hyacinths.”
“These invasive water plants have small seeds that can easily spread, making the plant very invasive to bodies of water. In the river, the water hyacinths have spread across to where boats or kayaks may have a hard time crossing. Not only does this plant provide a danger to people, but also to the fish in the river. According to the Prarie Research Institute, when the fall arrives, the hyacinths will die, falling to the bottom of the river, taking the oxygen with them. This puts the river wildlife in danger as they do not have enough oxygen to survive. The environment is put in danger when the water hyacinths are free to spread. “
“These combined reasons are why I would like to do something about the situation. Seeing the river every time I passed over the bridge overhead, I would look at the damage that the weeds were inflicting. Every time I would pass over the bridge, it seemed as if the weeds had spread even farther. I felt pain for the environment every time I saw the weeds as I knew that nothing was being done to stop it. Prior attempts had only made the situation worse. I took it upon myself to see how I could present a project that would clean up my river. Protecting my town motivated me to start the project of removing the invasive weed of water hyacinth. “
“The long-term goal of this project hopes to create a better mindset for the people of my town. By bringing people together to help better the environment, their perspective can change the way they view the world. This goal intends to change the minds of individuals to start caring about the environment and to also have them realize that however small they may be, they can make a change.”
Her community outreach project is incredibly impressive and we are looking forward to seeing how it continues to unfold over the next few months.
I am a firm believer in spending time with kids outside in the winter. But one problem that comes up repeatedly is the daylight hours lessening as winter pushes on. During the summer months, the days are long and the sunlight is plentiful, we’re typically outside by 7 am and the dark doesn’t force us inside until 9 or 10 pm. In the winter where we are, typically the sun starts setting by 5 pm. With school in session as well, this only leaves us roughly an hour of outside time during daylight hours, which is the busiest hour of our day as well, so finding the capacity to get outside can be hard.
But. If we make some changes and get outside even after the sun has gone down, it opens up so much time! It also proves to have its benefits as well. Simply changing up the lighting in which kids play, changes the way they have to think and problem solve. While riding their bike in the daylight hours eventually becomes a mindless activity to them, riding it during the dark forces them to pay extra attention to their surroundings and their bike, and use their intuition and senses to help guide them. Something that was once a mundane, everyday sport turns into an elaborate thinking process for them.
Our tips for getting outside during the dark hours:
A little bit of risky play while we set up our Christmas lights
Bring the light with you! Flashlights, lanterns, and glow sticks all work wonderfully. We like to buy our glowsticks on Amazon in bulk, making them more affordable. We’ve invested in LED light beanies also found on Amazon. We keep a handful of Dollar Store flashlights around for use as well as a few bigger, nicer ones that put off more light when needed. Pro tip: attach a glowstick to your child’s coat so you can always spot them. Flashlights are great for them to use, but can be easily dropped. Having something more secure that doesn’t require being held can be immensely helpful.
Bringing light to the night!
Get creative with the light. Add in Christmas lights, brighter LED porch lights, or bust open spotlights used for working on cars. Our set typically stays up close to the garage door in the winter so it’s easy to access for when we need them.
Have a set activity when you head outside. I talked about this before in my post about getting outside in the cold, but it’s relevant for the dark, too. Since it’s harder and takes a more active choice to go outside in the dark, choosing your activity before going outside can help.
Visit well-lit areas. Window shop downtown, take walks around college campuses if they’re available in your area, or visit well-lit parks.
Do you try to get your kids outside when it’s dark out? What tips would you add?
