Blue Sky School

Last Thursday, Deagan ran a workshop called “Changemakers Mind-Mapping.” Helping learners become a Change-Maker is one of Blue Sky’s goals. In this workshop, we sat down with a group with and a big paper in front of us. We discussed an issue and were looking for the problems that created that issue. For example, my group did “fake news” on climate change. It was fun and I wanted more time to discuss the issue!  Deagan said: “I wish that there was more time.”  I do too! From this workshop, we learned that to be a changemaker you have to dissect a problem into many different problems that may have lead to it. I think we did pretty good because everyone seemed so engaged in what we were doing.

Lately at Blue Sky School, we have been focusing on measurement.  Not too long ago we had HOMEWORK! I know what you’re thinking “WHAT, HOMEWORK AT BLUE SKY SCHOOL! NONSENSE!” I know! We had to measure our walls in our room, the windows and doors. Later we found out that we got to use the measurements to create a model of our rooms. We learned how to convert the measurements we took into a smaller scale.  After learning about measurement, we went on a field trip to Ikea for the morning. We went there to practice measurement and budgeting in the real world. 

The Nurtured Heart Approach by Grace (with consultation from Emi) The “Nurtured Heart Approach” (NHA) is an approach we use at school and are encouraged to use in other areas of our life. This approach was introduced to us by our very own Karen who is very familiar with it and uses frequently in her day to day life. She has also applied it to her old BIP classroom at Bridlewood. NHA is a practice for  seeing people and the world in a more positive light through the power of kindness. The way it works is simple, you give tons of energy to the positive things you notice, and zero energy to the negative things you see.  How do you do this? It’s simple, once you see somebody doing something that's nurturing the environment or their learning  in any way, especially the little things, you stop and recognize that person for it in a real and authentic way. For example, you see someone open the door for someone else, stop them, say something like: “I just want...

My Preferred Learning Environment For a safe learning environment, I need lots of exercise, a good relationship with coaches, and some friends. I also am a visual learner and use different visual tools to help me. I learn when I get lots of exercise. I get pent up energy. I like karate and brain boosts. When I’m in workshops with pent up energy, I look like this.. This is how I feel… I feel like running around the building hundreds of times. This is what I look like when I’m in a workshop with no pent up energy… This is what I feel like… I feel much better in workshops. For the first exploration, I did not take my own brain boosts when I needed to. (A brain boost is when you get your energy out and get your heart rate up.) That changed when I wrote a summary on how I learn. I sent that summary to the coaches and then they made a better learning environment for me. Here is the summary that I wrote. In between workshops, I used to go outside for a...