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Inspirational Testing
In the Primary class, we have started doing a weekly spelling test. We don’t administer many tests at Living Wisdom School, but the ability to stay calm, centered and focused during a test is an important skill. So, we start small in Primary class with a spelling test...
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Willing Us Forward
Bardia Behmard is an intern working at the Living Wisdom School in Portland. Here’s a poem he wrote for the blog about the importance of developing will. “Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.” —Mahatma Gandhi Dear Will Power, Without youWe’d all still be lying in bed,Counting dotsOn the ceiling Without youWe’d still be stuck in our old ways MLKWouldn’t haveDreamed EinsteinWouldn’t haveThought And John LennonWouldn’t haveImagined Without youEvery bookWould be half done,Every homeHalf built,And every mealHalf cooked, Dear Will Power! What would we doWithout you? You willThe human race forward Thank you
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Working with the Will Personality
In the Education for Life philosophy, we see that each person has a natural strength that they are born with. There are 4 basic strengths that we call the Tools of Maturity: Body, Feeling, Will, and Intellect. It is our jobs as teachers and parents to encourage each child to step into their Tool of Maturity with power and confidence, while also doing exercises to strengthen the other Tools, so that they can grow into well-balanced and mature adults. Sometimes, a child who has a strong will is seen as a problem. We use the term “willful child” as though there is something wrong, and many times try to “break…
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Our Earth and Lava Tubes
The beautiful fall weather has inspired many field trips to give students more hands-on learning experiences while the weather’s great.The Intermediate class (3-4th grade) is currently working on a unit called Our Earth. They have been studying the earth, geology, and natural disasters. As part of this unit, they took a field trip with the Upper Elementary class to the Ape Caves, which is 1.5 hours away from Portland. One of the caves there is the longest lava tube in the United States (13, 042 feet), and all of the students made it through. Here’s a little about the trip, shared by Sonali, the Intermediate teacher. There was total darkness inside…
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Boss of the Day
Bharati is a master EFL teacher who taught at Living Wisdom in Beaverton for 15 years and now fills as a teacher whenever there is a need. She was recently filling in for Usha, teaching Communication/Language Arts to the 3rdgrade class. Since the class is 3-4-5th grade, the 3rd graders leave the classroom to do work, and they often work in a multipurpose room at the school. On this day, the room had recently been drastically changed. All of the Christmas decorations were up. As is perfectly natural, the students were excited, and instantly were drawn to explore the room. Bharati let the students explore for a few minutes, but…
