Social & Emotional Learning

It is hard to believe that it has been over a year since we closed our schools and waved goodbye to our students and families at the start of this pandemic, naively assuming that our separation would be an inconvenient bump in the road and not a long-term situation that would require incredible dexterity, patience,…

I became the “consent lady” by default. A health educator for 25 years, I value all aspects of wellness–sex education included. While developing the Health program at the Urban School in San Francisco, my colleague and fellow health education teacher, Jenn, and I were both juggling parenting commitments and child care, and trying to create…

Last spring I was invited by New School-West—as a parent—to travel to Reggio Emilia, Italy, on a Five State Educator’s Tour with the entire faculty and one other parent. I have been a parent at The New School-West Preschool for seven consecutive years. One might call me a New School-West expert—not necessarily for raising 3,4,…

The word discipline originates from the Latin root discere which means “to learn” and forms other derivatives like disciplina which means “instruction” and discipulus which means “disciple or pupil.” At Turning Point School, the disciplinary process in middle school is rooted in the intention of “learning” rather than “punishment” and lends itself best to personal…