Duke School Under the Oak Magazine, Fall 2017

4. It’s not just okay to show
off, it’s necessary.
exemplified collaboration, assessment, and depth
and relevance of topic. We sat in a circle and
shared like storytellers, often recalling specific
Students, teacher collaborators, parents, and the
community all need to be encouraged to brag on
students who had important revelations or truly
connected with the work they were doing.
themselves. For adults in the equation, this might
look like telling personal stories, visiting as a
guest expert, inviting kids to visit their workplace
for a field experience, or being critical visitors
themselves culminating event, asking questions
of students when they themselves are the experts.
For students, this means not only showing
clearly what they learned, but how they learned
I learned that launching a project about soil is
a small way to help a preschooler feel big, and
that first graders aren’t too young to learn about
democracy. I learned that digging deeper into
the story of Durham can help a third grader
who already loves their home understand why
someone in a different part of the world might
it, and putting
love their home
great consideration
just as much. Duke
into what that
School fourth graders
representation looks
discover - with Legos!
like (insert longwinded
- that engineers don’t
pontification
work alone; fifth
about accuracy of
graders are learning
information, spelling,
how to empathize
grammar, and
with people and
legibility here). Sylvia
animals on this
Chard taught me that
project is, at the end
planet; by the time
sixth graders move
from the C building to
of the day, a six-toeight-week-long
story; it
Lunch-And-Learn event with Dr. Sylvia Chard
and Duke School faculty.
the A building, they not
should have a beginning,
middle, and end, and every component should be
a masterful demonstration of craft and care.
only know how to live in
a community, they know how to stand up for it.
Eighth graders go to high school knowing how to
isolate a problem in their world, uncover solutions
and implications, and think, research, resolve, and
present with intention and compassion.
5. Duke School teachers
and collaborators are
doing amazing, inspiring
project work.
Okay. So, Sylvia didn’t exactly teach me this part,
but she was instrumental in helping me discover
it for myself (leave it to her to perfectly model
coverage versus uncoverage, right?).
On the final day of our PATEN training, each
teacher shared a project from the past year that
Sylvia Chard’s mentorship and guidance revealed
to me how our students not only do well, they
do good. She also nurtured my need to keep
asking questions about how we can make Project
Approach even stronger, more relevant, and more
suited to this next generation of problem solvers
in our care. There is so much in our Duke School
community of learners to hold on to, celebrate,
and share.
UNDER THE OAK
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