Traditional and Technological, Room for Both

In the recent edition of Education Update, the official newsletter of ASCD (Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development), the case was made to increase the amount of on-line and virtual learning for students. There is no doubt that the virtual world is changing how we teach and how students learn. The traditional and stereotypical picture of a teacher standing in front of the classroom talking for extended periods of time has long been replaced with a teacher as a facilitator, coach, guide, and technology guru.

While there is definitely an important place for teaching and learning using technology, we should never underestimate the importance of a teacher interacting and teaching on an hour to hour basis. Woodland has long valued the importance of the teacher to student relationship but has also looked for new and creative ways to incorporate technology into the teaching and learning process. Two examples of how technology has changed teaching and learning for Woodland students are the incorporation of Mathletics as a summer math review and the addition of Children’s Progress, an on-line formative assessment tool for our Senior Kindergarten through second grade students. At Woodland we seek to balance the traditional with the innovative. We believe that there is a place for both in successful twenty-first century schools.   

Adam Moore, Head of School

What We are Doing for Our Summer Vacation

After a recent trip to the Agricenter Farmers Market for peaches, my daughter Molly told me that she was going to make a ring out of a peach pit.  Apparently, with a little patience and perseverance, you can rub a peach pit against cement or asphalt and eventually it hollows out into a ring.  This got me to thinking of all of the simple and free (or almost free) activities that I used to do as a kid.  Unfortunately, in all of the years I have spent scheduling camps, activities, and trips, I don’t think I have given my children enough time to enjoy many of the simple summertime joys that fill my childhood memories.  I have resolved to give them the opportunities to experience some of these pleasures, so here is part of our summer to-do list:  

·         To listen to locusts sing in the evening

·         To play flash-light tag in the dark

·         To eat ice cream sundaes for dinner one night

·         To pick berries at a berry farm

·         To snap green beans until our thumbs ache

·         To make homemade peach ice cream

·         To look at the night sky and find as many constellations and planets as we can

·         To skip rocks across a pond

·         To eat sliced home-grown tomatoes, fresh corn, and homemade fried okra as often as we can

I hope that our list has given you inspiration to come up with your own ideas.   My children may roll their eyes when I tell them about our list, and they may not have the most exciting “What Did You Do Over Summer Vacation” essays when they return to school, but I hope that one day they will look back and appreciate our time together.  I know I will.

Cathy Aslin, 

School Nurse