Taking the MTS Mission Outdoors

BY HEAD OF SCHOOL ANDREW DAVIS
 

The ad-copy version of our mission statement — Learning is Revered, Education is Joyful — is "Serious Learning. Seriously Fun." Standing in my office last week, I had a direct view of three different classes engaged in serious learning that was seriously fun outside.

Fourth-grade humanities students started the year writing about a favorite place, a sanctuary. Then, on Friday, they traded pencils for paintbrushes. Each student worked from a place they'd already spent a week writing about, and Friday's job was to paint it. The watercolors were an extension of the same assignment, not a break from it. Just as they had done when writing, students made choices while painting about what to include, what to leave out, and what makes a place feel comfortable. Sitting at tables in the Covered Courtyard, fourth-grade students were not taking a break from writing; they were revising, just without words.

Towards the end of that period, sixth-grade students poured out of the STEM lab for the first round of the famous egg-drop. Students watched our STEM teacher, Trisha, drop eggs from the top of a ladder, waiting for a sound indicating whether they were cracked or intact. While the egg drop is a favorite at many schools, what I appreciate most about the STEM curriculum is that those students could tell me about the science (such as the forces of gravity, air resistance, and friction at work) and the engineering (the design process they used), the kind of fluency that comes from a teacher who's had meaningful time and training to go deep into her subject, not just a fun activity someone found online. Serious learning that is seriously fun. And, much easier to clean up outside!

Finally, scattered around in pockets of shade, middle school humanities students used their Chromebooks to record a podcast. One of the best uses of technology is to allow students to demonstrate their learning and practice academic skills in real-world formats. Rather than writing another essay (don't worry, they get plenty of practice with that!), these students were writing for and recording in the medium of today, podcasts. They were using the tools of this moment the way we want them to: as something they direct, not something that does the thinking for them. And they were doing it outside, since our campus allows students to spread out, minimizing the chaos of 18 students recording simultaneously.

Every day, I see our mission statement in action. And, many days, I get to see serious learning that is seriously fun outside. I am incredibly grateful for five acres, green grass, scattered benches and tables, and teachers who take advantage of all the MTS campus has to offer.