Special - Introducing Ms Becca - Lead 3/4/5 Math and Classroom Teacher

Ms Becca discovered her love of teaching early on, while volunteering and working with children during high school and college. After four years as a project coordinator for the World Wildlife Fund, she knew teaching was her calling. Becca began teaching secondary math in DC Public Schools in 2009. She spent five and a half years teaching in DC, with a year-long break to be a stay-at-home mom (with some tutoring mixed in) when her first son was born.  Since 2017, Ms Becca has worked in a private school setting as a first and second grade teaching assistant, K-5 math specialist, and summer camp Assistant Director.

Ms Becca earned her BA in International Studies from Dickinson College and her masters degree in Curriculum and Instruction from American University.  Becca is originally from Massachusetts but has lived in the DC region since 2005.  She currently lives in Hyattsville with her husband and two boys.

Lucky for us, Ms Becca took the time to answer some of our burning questions for this special blog!

Ms Becca, what is your favorite book? A few of my favorites from the past handful of years are Born a Crime by Trevor Noah and Evicted by Matthew Desmond. A few of my favorite children's books are Journey by Aaron Becker and Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Peña.

Ms. Becca, tell us about your favorite dish! A black bean burger from Franklin's in Hyattsville!

Ms Becca, what is your favorite color? Green!

Are you a dog person or cat person? Both!

Ms Becca, is there anything about outdoor teaching that you did not expect? I thought it would be distracting for the students to be outside but in many cases it is easier to focus.

Is there anything you particularly love about SOCS? I love the community aspect and the emphasis on respect for children.

Special - Introducing Ms Christine - Awesome Aide and substitute teacher

After having taught the SOCS Kindergarten class for two years straight, Ms Christine decided to “retire” in 2020, with lots and lots of exotic travels with her spouse in mind… Luckily for us, she returned as Awesome Aide and Substitute Teacher for this very special and challenging school year, and we are so happy that she came back!!

Ms Christine is s an early childhood educator who worked in a private preschool in Maryland. Her teaching philosophy is to teach to the whole child, incorporating all domains of learning by addressing the child’s senses in a realistic environment to encourage authentic learning. As the lead teacher in the preK 5-day four-year-old class, she mentored three teaching assistants, developed and implemented curriculum and assessments school-wide, was responsible for the classroom environment, hosted parent-teacher conferences and communicated with parents on a regular basis. Christine frequently took the classroom outside, believing that learning can and does happen anywhere and everywhere. Mindful of the Maryland preK standards of learning, Christine taught each child at child’s pace. When a child mastered the preK standards, she began to teach the kindergarten standards; this progression continued individually for each child. She earned a BS from the University of Pittsburgh, majoring in both Economics and Business with a minor in German. With a belief that further study is always valuable, she continued to advance her own education by earning an AAS in Early Childhood Education, graduating with High Honors.

A proud mom of four daughters, she and her husband live in Montgomery County, where her daughters attended public school. She enjoys any day on the beach and skiing in western Canada. Currently, Ms Christine provides indispensable support to our teachers, coopers and children throughout the day and is an integral part of the SOCS all outdoor program!

Lucky for us, Ms Christine answered some of our our questions in this super exciting interview!

Ms Christine, what is your favorite book? This is a tough one....there are so many. Two of my most recent reads that stand out are Untamed by Glennon Doyle & The Yellow House by Sarah M. Broom.

Ms Christine, what is your favorite food? Grotto’s Pizza; the plain is the best!

Ms Christine, do you have a favorite color? Yellow. It’s a happy color!

Are you a dog person or cat person? Dog person! Cats actually frighten me. When I was a young child, my aunt had a very big cat named Nickelodeon. He wasn’t bucket-filling at all.

Is there anything about outdoor aiding and teaching that you did not expect? I didn’t expect the additional “things”...! The equipment required to effectively teach outdoors is like suiting up for a mission! Cell phone, walk-in-talkie, voice amplifier, building keys, gloves, notebook...

Is there anything you particularly love about SOCS? The leadership of this program sets the tone for our school and our leadership is simply top notch. It is a privilege to be able to work with our fantastic staff and down to earth, involved members, and to grow professionally in a warmly supported environment.

Special - Introducing Ms Wakana - First Grade Teacher

Ms Wakana knew from her first school experience, when a teacher profoundly influenced her life in Kindergarten, that she wanted to be a teacher. After high school, she moved from her hometown of Kumamoto, Japan to Melbourne, Australia to pursue her dream. Upon earning her Bachelor’s degree in early childhood and elementary education from Australian Catholic University, she decided that it was time for her to go back home. She began her career in education at an international school in Hyogo, Japan where she taught kindergarten in both English and Japanese for two years.  When Ms Wakana moved to Clovis, New Mexico in 2018, she continued as a classroom teacher in Kindergarten and Second Grade at a local public school. She was excited to move to Maryland and join Silver Oaks Cooperative School!

Throughout her career, Ms Wakana has fostered the belief that the individual child thrives in a classroom when seen, heard, and loved by their teacher. She strives to nurturing and inspiring learning in her students, and also working closely with their families.  Ms Wakana enjoys sharing her culture and traditions and learning from others about theirs. She also loves reading good books and taking her dog out for a walk. For this special occasion, Ms Wakana answered some of our burning questions!

Ms Wakana, what is your favorite book..? Anything that is written by Mo Willems and Dan Santat!

And what is your favorite food..? Lasagna, chocolate, sushi, and coffee…

Ms Wanana, what is your favorite color..? Blue!

Are you a dog person or cat person?  I have been a dog person since I was a child. But when I adopted a cat, I became a cat person, too! 

Is there anything about outdoor teaching that you did not expect? Outdoor teaching and learning turned out to be so much more fun than I thought it would be. It has been a wonderful experience to be surrounded by trees and nature while teaching my students. 

What is your favorite thing about SOCS? I love the way SOCS incorporates games in all subject areas. It makes learning exciting for my students and fun for me to teach!

Week 7: Learning by Nature

“[My son] loves going to his outdoor school. Every day is a new experience in the woods.”

— Silver Oaks Parent

Catch and Release

Carolina Mantis

This Must Be the Place

Oak, Acorn, Sprout, or Sapling; we all work best when we find the right spot.

Week 6: All the Feels

“In morning meeting, we have been talking about emotions and how they can be categorized into different zones: blue, red, yellow, and green. We discussed that it is not right or wrong to be in any of those emotional zones, but green (happy, calm, focused, etc.) is the zone that makes learning easiest. We looked at different scenarios and determined which zone we thought we’d be in as a result. Some were extreme: You return home from school and there is a lion in your bedroom. Some were more likely to happen in real life. ”

— Ms. Becca

Weeks 3, 4, & 5: Work in Progress

The SOCS students are enjoying the beautiful fall weather; being surrounded by nature, friends, and teachers who care enough to keep tweaking!

“This past week the unintentional theme seemed to be fine tuning! Originally it seemed like such a simple thing: “We’ll just teach outside and not share any materials!” Turns out . . . . that’s a lot more complicated than we realized. Thank you for sticking with us as we rethink everything we thought we knew about teaching! :) ”

— Ms. Becca

Week 2: Autumn Art

Yarn Pumpkins!

“We kicked off our year of art with a bang . . . or more like a very sticky mess!  We attempted to make glowing orbs or pumpkins. I’m not sure it’s going to work but we will find out next week! :) I have big plans this year for Halloween.  I’m hoping we can create a Glow Gallery where we display neon artwork with blacklights. We used neon yarn for the orbs/pumpkins and plan to hang them in our Glow Gallery if they still stay together once the balloons are popped!”

“ I’ve got so many fun, varied projects planned this year for art! I can’t wait to get into all the fun! (Next week we move on to neon monsters! :) ”

— Ms. Annette

Mixed Media, Markers and Monsters. Oh my!

Go Team!

“THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to each and every one of you! You are all putting time, energy, physical and emotional labor into all of this and it’s paying off. We have a lot of things still to learn but we are doing it quickly. The kids are having a good time outside, even on the wetter days. ”

— Ms. Annette

“Annette, I can not say enough how AMAZING you are and how glad we are to be part of this community. All is going better than we could ever have anticipated, and it’s all thanks to the countless hours you have put in. [My child] is bursting with gratitude every day to go to “real” school, and not be staring at a screen for 6 hours a day. In awe and gratitude,”

— M

“When Alicia and I came up with this wild idea years ago while sitting in her driveway after a preschool board meeting, neither of us ever envisioned this . . . so many of us, working SO hard, all so that our kids can have a really amazing school year this year. Thank you all from the bottom of our hearts. I left this Friday tired, but so happy. This really is something beautiful that we are a part of. ”

— Ms. Annette

“I also want to echo these sentiments and give a big shout out and THANK YOU to Annette and Alicia for making it all happen! We are so so grateful to be a part of the SOCS community, so thankful that these kiddos are able to have an in-person, albeit unique school experience this year, and are so, so thankful for all the work that went into making it happen. [My child] came home on the first day saying it was, “AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING.” Here’s to a great second week.”

— Michelle

“We are so appreciative of everyone - teachers, parents, co-opers, and last but not least, enormously grateful to Alicia and Annette for your vision, dedication, and perserverence. I know that many people are struggling right now with online school, work/home balance, finding childcare, and more. We know how fortunate we are, and it is only possible because of our community coming together to make it happen for our kids. Thank you all. ”

— Alison

Week 1: Together & Apart

In science class, the Oaks made a telephone out of a string and two cups.

“We brainstormed methods we can use to communicate from far away, whether that is 6 feet or 1,000 miles apart. We spoke a bit about sound waves and how the cup and string help the sound waves travel to the other cup. Students observed what worked well and what did not when using the phones, all while keeping a distance from each other. One group even tested what would happen if they crossed their string with the string of another group. Would they be able to intercept the call? So much creativity and curiosity!”

— Ms. Becca

Back to School, Fall 2020

Today was a Day of Firsts.

For the students, it was the first day of a new grade. For some kids, it was the first day at a new school. And for all of us, it was the first first day of school during a pandemic.

Of course we were a little nervous.

Drop off was slower than usual. Kids wore masks, had their temperatures checked, and sat at their desks - outside.

Today’s Lesson: With some caution, life goes on. And learning goes on.

June 2020: Facing Racism

“Jessica and I struggled with whether or not to facilitate something for students while we were at home so it was important to us that it was optional.   We also had a representative for each grade (2, 3, and 4), so that presented a challenge but we are hopeful that everyone got something out of it.  It is such a challenging conversation to do the right way for everyone but we gave it a lot of thought and research.”

— Ms. Becca

Students listened respectfully and each student took at least one turn to share or in some way contribute to the discussion

“There were a few things that came out of the discussion that were neat.  Students made connections to other forms of discrimination, like sexism.  At another point, a student thought back to an article we read about hair discrimination and made the connection to racism (a student who was not allowed to go to school if he kept his dredlocks).  Students also shared actions they have taken to stand against racism.”

— Ms. Becca

Week 18-20: Exploring the Arctic

Arctic Animals Across the Curriculum

For the last few weeks, the Oaks have been researching and writing about an arctic animal of their choice. Their project-based learning has taken them across the curriculum, as they study their arctic animal using the tools of reading, writing, since, and math.

Reading & Writing: “The Oaks are well into the research of an arctic animal they selected. Before researching, we discussed the importance of good note-taking skills, including organizing their notes, citing sources, writing important details. All Oaks had two project work-days to continue their arctic animal project. We drafted a friendly letter and an essay all together and then each Oak began to write their own. The friendly letter is being written from the arctic animal’s point of view and is an opportunity to be creative. The essay will be full of information that students learned through their research and should teach the Acorns more about that particular animal.” 

Ms. Jessica

Science & Math: “The Oaks built on what the third and fourth graders began in math last week, by becoming researchers at an Arctic research base in Eureka, Canada.  Students learned how to read a line graph, with the help of the third and fourth graders who remembered the parts of a line graph. We talked about the x- and y-axes, how to read the labels of axes, and how it is just one way of representing data.  Students worked in groups to analyze one graph that represented one aspect of weather. As a group, we looked at all four graphs (snow depth, average daily temperature, wind speed, and short-wave radiation) to see what they had in common.”

Ms. Becca

Week 16: Science Rocks!

Ms. Becca: The Oaks zoomed in on the geosphere this week by learning about the rock cycle. We saw a demonstration of the rock cycle using jelly beans to illustrate how sedimentary, metamorphic, and igneous rocks are formed. This week we will use Starbursts to demonstrate our knowledge of the rock cycle in a similar demonstration. Students also played a game where they traveled to different stations (sediment, magma, sedimentary, metamorphic, igneous) to represent the path a rock may travel through the rock cycle.

Glorious Mud!

The Oaks are looking forward to snow - in the meantime, there’s mud!

Week 15: Do You Haiku?

Ms. Becca: We brought our poetry unit to a close on Friday, and it was a wonderful event! It was so exciting to see each Oak stand before an audience and share their poetry. Thank you to everyone who was able to be there. I hope to have more opportunities for the students to present or perform in front of an audience. And a special thank you to Dana, our Community Coordinator, who prepared coffee and snacks for us!  

Deep

Digging deep in the earth

Making mini passageways

So small but so strong   

By Eli

The Log

Log with dirt and sand 

Some plants are growing inside 

A mini greenhouse.       

By Daisy

Week 14: Wild at Heart

Silver Oaks children are among the lucky few these days who have access to their own small wilderness, and plenty of time to explore it. While teachers and parents supervise from a discrete distance, kids can enjoy interacting with each other, and with the natural world, free from the constraints of adult life.

“In 2011, UNICEF asked children what they needed to be happy and the top things were time (particularly with families), friendships and, yearningly, ‘outdoors.’ Studies show that when children are allowed unstructured play in nature, their sense of freedom, independence, and inner strength all thrive, and children surrounded by nature are not only less stressed but also bounce back from stressful events more readily. But there has been a steady reduction in available open spaces for children to play. In the USA, the home turf of children shrank by ninety per cent beween 1970 and 1990.”

— from Kith: The Riddle of the Childscape, by Jay Griffith

To read more click here.

Woodland Playground

The Nearby Creek

“Outdoors, we could do what we liked. Throwing sticky seeds at each other, gurgling water or chucking it all over someone. Outdoors was a commons of space and a commons of time, the undivided hours until dark. Outdoors could comprehend all our moods: thoughtful, playful, withdrawn or rampaging. Outdoors was the place for voices other than human.”

— Jay Griffith

A New Friend

Week 13: Hibernation & Migration

“This week in science we had a puppet show that was about hibernation and migration. A puppet was getting help from his raccoon friend to figure out what his believable halloween costume should be. His raccoon friend was letting him know which animal costumes wouldn’t be believable because those animals weren’t around either because they were hibernating or because they had migrated. After the puppet show I read Little Red Bat by Carole Gerber, a book about a little red bat who is trying to figure out if she should hibernate or migrate for the winter. The kids then had some free time to play with the puppets.”

— Ms. Olga, kindergarten science teacher

One of last year’s many puppet shows.

Co-oping as a Parenting Class

This is my first year at Silver Oaks and I was finally able to co-op.. I walked into my son’s kindergarten class not knowing what to expect, but Ms. Christine greeted me and told me, “I’m so glad you’re here today.” I sat on the oval rug with the kids, my son next to me, stoked that I was there, and we did the morning meeting. Ms. Christine let the class in setting our intention for the day that she wrote on the whiteboard, “We were going to have Spanish class. We were going to have a super awesome day.” We sang in Spanish class the same songs I had been hearing my kids sing at home. We made graphs based on the soft dice that everyone had a chance to throw (5’s were winning but 1’s came back and tied it). We ran around outside for outdoor work, read books in the glen, noticed (and wrote about) differences between two different versions of Goldilocks. We did more outdoor work. T

I helped cut some papers, retrieve supplies and clean tables, sweep floors, was there so the teacher could take bathroom breaks. I helped check their math work, but for the most part, I was just present with the kids. It was one of the more relaxing days I’ve had all year. I particularly appreciated not being allowed to use my cell phone. It was a well-needed detox.

As time has passed, I’ve realized how much I learned while co-oping. My two boys enjoy getting on each other’s nerves. My 7-year-old son Oliver likes to “trick” my 5-year-old son Isaac until Isaac gets fed up and hits him and then they both like to come running to me to see who will get in trouble. Through watching Ms. Christine’s conflict resolution technique I’ve learned to get on my kids level and start by saying:

“What would you two do if this happened at school?” After the obligatory, I don’t know’s we walked through it. I had Isaac turn his body toward Oliver and ask him, “Are you okay.”

Oliver replied, “No you hit me.” Onto the second step.

After prompting Isaac responds, “Is there anything I can to do to make it better?”

Oliver says, “I don’t like hugs!”

“Maybe you would like some space?” I suggest. Oliver agrees and they play separately for a while.

Then just like in class, I prompt Isaac to follow up with Oliver. Once again, he turns his body and asks, “Are you okay now?”

This time Oliver, probably missing the company, responds, “Yeah I’m fine.” And they start playing together again.

What has been fascinating to me is that after going through this process a few times their conflicts have significantly decreased. I think it’s partly because they know the process, they are going to get by coming to me and they don’t find it particularly fun. It has taken away the exciting part where they get to yell out their concerns and find out who will get in trouble. It isn’t that we no longer have consequences at home, just that my kids are learning to handle the conflicts that they can handle by themselves.

Alex, father to Isaac (K) and Oliver (2nd).

Week 12: Happy Thanksgiving!

“Today we read The Thank You Book by Mo Willems. We chatted about the things for which we are thankful. ”

— Ms. Christine, Acorns' (kindergarten) teacher