Skype Interview with NOAA Climate Scientist

Expanding students’ perspectives of the world around them through exposure to thought-provoking topics and thinking critically about them, learning from authentic sources, and interviewing professionals experienced in their field is the norm at Long-View.

Last week, Navy and Auburn Bands tapped into National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Climate Scientist Andrew Kren’s expertise in the area of remote sensing data as it relates to weather research. Dr. Kren’s work focuses on…

scienceLisa ZapalacNovember 2, 2018Long-View Micro School

Build Week 8: Improving Ourselves Through Improvisation

As the kids arrived on Monday, they noticed a sign in the window: Long-View Micro School Improv Comedy Festival, 12:30 p.m., October 25th @ Fallout Theater.

Only a few had studied improv before, so the learners had a lot to learn before their Thursday show. The week began with a visit from professional improv comedians Jessica Arjet and Kim Roche, who drew three teachers’ names from a hat…

Build WeekLisa ZapalacOctober 29, 2018Long-View Micro Schoolimprov, fallout theatre

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

How to Extend Learning at the Texas Book Festival (Oct. 27th and 28th)

At Long-View, learners are encouraged to extend their learning beyond the boundaries of the school day—to see their learning as a constant process and embrace it as their own responsibility. This month, all of us in the Long-View community have a special opportunity to do just that, and it’s right down the street: the Texas Book Festival….

literacyLisa ZapalacOctober 16, 2018Long-View Micro Schoolbook festival, Texas Book Festival, authors

The Importance of Unstructured Free Play

I have many fond memories of my childhood, but the ones that are most prevalent, and arguably times when I learned about problem solving and navigating sometimes contentious social situations, are the ones when I engaged in unstructured free play with other kids from the neighborhood. I’m talking hours upon hours of time playing tag, climbing trees (and falling out of them), building forts out of found sticks, and catching frog spawn from the creek with these neighborhood children (not all of which I got along with) until the street lights came on signaling it was time to go home…

Igniting Ideas at Campfire

At Long-View, our days begin not with the ringing of a school bell, but with the resonant hum of a singing bowl. Teachers, learners, and visitors gather around an (unignited) campfire log, and as the sound of the singing bowl fades slowly to silence, we settle ourselves in for a rich day of learning.

This ritual, which we call “Campfire,” is not just circle time or show-and-tell, but an intellectually rigorous start to every day. We begin by greeting each member of the community with the Zulu word Sawubona, which means “I see you.” Each person responds, “Sikhona,” meaning “I am here.” But don’t be mistaken--this is not just a silly way of taking attendance. When our learners say they are here, they mean it in every sense of the phrase. Not only are they physically and intellectually present, but they are here for each other as a community of thinkers and problem-solvers….

GeneralLisa ZapalacOctober 1, 2018Long-View Micro Schoolcampfire, birthdays, social studies, current events

All Hands on Deck: Biomechanics Engineering Challenge in Indigo Band

Problem solving is an integral part of the learning experience at Long-View, and Indigo Band learners are working on the unique, not to mention complex, endeavor of constructing a prosthetic hand that can handle (pun intended) the task of grasping and lifting a cup of sand with a weight of at least 200 grams. “One of the biggest challenges is that we have to design it using materials either from the Maker Space or from home,” says Esme. “Marin’s prototype is really impressive,” she adds. “She’s even thinking about connecting a motor to it!”

Living a Reading and Writing Life

At Long-View, learners are daily entangled in words, obsessed with writing, and bewitched by books. During literacy block, learners across age and experience grow to feel and understand that writing and reading are essential to who we are as individuals and as a learning community. We are not just people who do the acts of reading and writing; we are readers and writers. Literacy block is serious work, but it is seriously fun.

What do we mean by the reading life and the writing life?

We fundamentally believe that reading and writing are inextricably linked to who we are…

literacyLisa ZapalacSeptember 18, 2018Long-View Micro Schoolreading life, writing life

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

Tailgate: Kicking Off Community Building

Building community is at the heart of our work at Long-View. We believe learning is accelerated through meaningful interactions with others. Furthermore, we believe families should be involved in creating a culture of learning that blurs the lines of “school learning” and outside learning. We cannot achieve that end if we do not involve families in developing meaningful relationships with us (the school and staff) and with each other. Thus, to begin and reconnect those relationships, we kick off each school year with an event we call the Parent Tailgate….

GeneralLisa ZapalacAugust 25, 2018Long-View Micro Schoolcommunity, parents, tailgate, back to school

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