After a summer of exciting work with colleagues from Long-View and other educators from beyond, some invigorating sessions of Open Math, and some down time too, we’re now fully immersed in our new year at the micro school.

We kicked things off with Launch Camp, when our newest learners spent two days diving right in to the Long-View way of life – building pendulums from scratch to learn about momentum (and collaboration), choosing the first just-right books for their personal book bins (and understanding that THEY are taking charge of their reading lives), and even figuring out how much is too much in one’s backpack on the walk to the park at lunch time (while realizing that the adults at Long-View trust them to manage all of these details)….

generalLisa ZapalacAugust 30, 2022Long-View Micro Schoolculture, new year, launch camp

The Culture of a Long-View Math Classroom

At Long-View, we spend a significant amount of time investing in the learning culture of our school, with particular attention paid to how this translates within our mathematics classrooms. As Harvard educator Dr. Richard Elmore has so often made clear, the “default culture of American instruction” contains “certain robust patterns of instructional practice that are unique to the US and that are highly destructive to higher level student learning.” From our standpoint, these highly destructive instructional patterns are easily observed within American math classrooms and at Long-View we seek to disrupt these and nurture…

mathLisa ZapalacOctober 24, 2018Long-View Micro Schoolculture, math, studio time, integers, subtraction, navy band

Summer Remodel and Expansion Brings Opportunity

It’s the start of a new school year at Long-View and things feel familiar, but at the same time, everything looks a bit different. Summertime was busy with a remodel of new space we recently acquired. We pulled out walls, re-thought the flow between rooms, and added our signature décor that looks more akin to a creative work space than an elementary and middle school, all in preparation for a larger student community and faculty team.

Getting new spaces ready for our expanded community meant another opportunity to continue to deepen our thinking about how space affects learning and how design of space can positively influence our community….

GeneralLisa ZapalacAugust 29, 2018Long-View Micro Schoolremodel, culture, work spaces, collaboration, new year

How is it an 8-year-old can do that?

Visitors in our Long-View math classes often inquire about the ages of the children, because it is surprising to see such young children engaged in high-level content. How is it that an 8-year-old can do that?

The answer begins with letting go of developmental constraints previously imposed on young learners. Because our classrooms are multi-age and our instructional planning does not start from an assumption that children can only do as much as a generic textbook says their grade level can accomplish, we move much further and much deeper, traversing some very interesting mathematical terrain…

mathLisa ZapalacSeptember 26, 2016Long-View Micro Schoolculture, curriculum, high-expectations