Following our classroom intention to grow from “me” to “mwe,” we are intentionally presenting thought provoking experiences as a fun invitation to grow as a community of learners together. These experiences and the teachers’ mindfulness of the goal of community, challenge the children to “slow down” and reflect during our discoveries. This shift in thinking is most easily seen in the West Wing in the first weeks. Using droppers and colored water, the children are engaged in making new colors.
Arnon: Is going to make all the way full!
Ephy: We have purple colors.
Teacher Cindy: What can we do with these colors?
Mehana: I don’t know.
Eli: We can make a rainbow!
Juliet: I’m using hot pink. You mix it with red and then it turns hot pink. That’s a new color.
Arnon: I mixed them to blue and red and yellow. It turned into changing colors.
Juliet: I want to make more colors.
Will: I want to make more colors, too.
Eli: I saved 1,2,3. I saved three for my mom.
Teacher Cindy, noticing all the ‘I’ statements from Juliet, Arnon, and Will responds to Eli and refers to everyone: You saved three in all our community collection and you want your mom to see them?
Eli: When she picks me up. I want to bring her in here and show her.
The “m” for ‘me’ is kept in our goal of Dan Siegel’s definition of ‘Mwe’ because we are always subjective in our approach to the world yet we are happiest when we are connected socially with those around us. There are several opportunities throughout the school and all the teachers in both Wings are dedicated to making connections among the players. Using shared materials, spaces, and ideas, you’ll notice that we tend to not send much home because it’s communally made as we move together toward our goal. – Teacher Flora and Kris