Visit to The Children's Day School of San Francisco

This past weekend I took a trip to San Francisco to visit a fellow "progressive" school, The Children's Day School of San Francisco and then extended the trip to include visiting good friends.  I decided I needed to divide the work and play portions of the visit into different posts.

I would like to thank Sebastian and Nick for having me to thier wonderful classroom on Friday.  Their studetnts were very welcoming and gave me further insight into what other kids are doing in fourth grade classrooms similar to mine. 

I arrived just as groups were working on a treasure map navigation project.  Groups of 3-4 students were creating a treasure map for other group to follow using a series of directions given in metric measurements.  Example: Walk forward 180 centimeters and turn Left.  Then, much like our day, students went to lunch and as the weather was nice, they were able to eat outside.

While outside I was given a tour of the grounds.  The grounds are just great here.  They have a cooperative urban farm and organic garden on site.  There are two sheep and sometimes chickens.  Different classes are responsible for the farm chores and learning about how to care for the various animals and vegetables being grown on site.  There is seasonal sheering of the sheep whose wool is then spun by classes to make yarn for finger knitting and other art projects.

Back inside the day continued with the second part of the math/navigation project, then Academic Choice which is very similar to the Choice time we have except it is always within one's own room.  During Academic Choice, some students wanted to visit the library.  I went with Nick and a couple of students and went to the library.  Now, the school has gone through various expansions and eventually out grew the Catholic Mission that most of the classroom are in.  They purchased an adjacent home and converted it to administrative offices, music center, and the library.

The similarities between The Children's School where I currently teach and The Children's Day School of San Francisco are astonishing.  The differences are not as readily noticeable.  Both school put an emphasis on teaching children through a hands-on/project based experience.  Both share similar origin stories and have similar visions for the future.

Where the schools differ is in tuition and size.  Both schools are fairly small.  They have 15 to 25 students in a class, but have two teachers in each class.  The benefit is a great teacher/student ratio and with a medium size class one has the optimal size for classroom dynamics.  

I really enjoyed my trip to their school and hope to keep in touch with their community.