Arriving at the 6A tent this morning for Cohort Crew, you might have wondered if time travel had taken place as you saw Humanities teacher Jennifer in her bonnet and polonaise gown. “Are you a middling?” asked one student, applying her knowledge of clothing worn by different social classes in the colonies. Our Hyla 6th graders are currently immersed in early American history. As shown in this picture taken by Jennifer, students have created colonial claims maps, researching the Europeans who came to North America and the indigenous peoples already living on the continent at that…

“Respect people.” “Respect boundaries.” “Exercise.” One by one, on a recent morning in the meadow, each student in Jeff’s HyLab held up a bright green sheet of paper and made a statement about what they can do to help build a culture that supports health. Each eighth grader then walked into a larger web of rope in the meadow (socially-distanced) to illustrate how each individual choice supports a whole.  “It’s not just about the science,” Jeff explains that Global Health at Hyla focuses on the triangle of biology, journalism, and human organizations. Eighth graders in HyLab…

It has been wonderful to hear the happy sounds of children across the Hyla campus again. Laughter and delight resonating across the meadow. Lively conversations connecting friends and teachers during lunch. Excitement and competition, and even silly animal motions, while playing Spanish games with Señora Ivonne. So good to be together. Art teacher Kate started the school year with her sixth graders by leading them through a drawing exercise that explored how to stretch outside of your comfort zones. Working in pairs, students took turns either drawing portraits with pen and paper or posing for each…

There wasn’t much dirt involved in the 6th grade archaeology unit this year (the actual dig is postponed until next year), but the bright exchange of ideas continued despite distance. As part of their cross-disciplinary collaboration, Kate and Jennifer integrated the website Padlet to provide students with an interactive forum for presenting their work, sharing ideas, and giving feedback in a variety of formats – photos, notes, comments, and video. This year 6th graders created elaborate pop-up books to consolidate their research about the Coast Salish people and introduce cultural universals and artifacts of their invented…

Dear Parents, This weekend we launched humans into space and down below on earth, two viruses raged. Both coronavirus and the virus of racism threaten American lives. Processing the events and scenes from this past weekend in a healthy and productive way is not easy work for adults. Imagine how that feels for children. We cannot shield children from these realities, nor can we pull them into our adult processing; we must remember where they are developmentally and meet them there. When we do that, we have the chance to provide context and bring them into…

“This is a project to reach through isolation.” So began Kate and Emelio’s art and English collaboration with the 7th grade class on a new type of magazine, a “Quaranzine.” Through different mediums and materials, students creatively documented their experiences in quarantine and filled their Quaranzines with reading lists, new delights they’ve found, essays about the new challenges they’ve faced, boredom-solving how-to’s, poetry, illustrated maps, and more. “This is a great way to facilitate students’ exploration of their personal experiences,” explained Kate, “and an opportunity for students to translate those experiences into artwork and written work.” When the…

Click. Zoom. Download. Upload. As students sit at screens for distance learning, it is tempting to focus on technology. Although technology is an essential pathway between teachers and students within the mandated distance environment, it is only one element within the teaching and learning interplay. Whether in person or on screens, the craft of teaching integrates a variety of tools and methods to engage students, sustain their interest, introduce challenges, and provide encouragement – all while delivering content and moving through curricular units. In distance learning, Hyla teachers continue to do this work: they create differentiated…

In what Kim called a “moving and grooving” Global Education class on Monday, students stepped away from their desks to take photos of blooming flowers outside, raid the refrigerator for vegetables they could grow on their own, and sift through the recycling bin for items that could be reused. The motivation behind this interactive scavenger hunt is the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. To celebrate, 7th graders have been working alongside Jane Goodall’s foundation, Roots and Shoots, to complete daily challenges that inspire action. By connecting students with a global network of experts through Roots and Shoots,…

Right now, everyone around the world is experiencing the universal truth that limitations breed creativity. Recently our 8th grade auteurs proved this truth when they filmed their own commercials. This particular drama unit comes with strict constraints: make a 30-second commercial using anything from your home, but with only one camera and in one shot. The challenge is to take what’s in your head, navigate obstacles, and use the tools at your disposal to get your message to your audience. By 8th grade, Hyla students have experienced film as an audience, and they have all been…