Normally I reflect through pictures. This time though, pictures of Mill Bay Nature school were not able to create the feelings or memories I wanted to remember or convey, so I took notes. However, even then, some of what I witnessed and felt was intangible, which is hard when schools are looking for examples of transformative practice.
I have two analogies for the 'feel' I got Walking into Mill Bay Nature School on Vancouver Island. The first, in the outside space, was that it was a bit like being at a kids' camp. Kids camps have a positive feel to them because everyone is there for a common purpose – to learn a few skills, try some new things, and create new relationships. At a kids' camp everyone is part of something a little bigger than themselves so there is a sense of belonging and community.
The second analogy, as I walked through the inside portion of the school, was that it was rather like walking into someone's home - a combined living/playroom. Again, there was this sense of accessibility, belonging, and room for student agency. The rooms and hallway flowed one into the other and no space seemed restricted or fully contained. It was an invitation to purpose or play. What flowed from this that was really important for me is that children were allowed to be, they were doing, and they were becoming through feedback, goal setting, and trying new things. I felt the "new BC curriculum" as I toured the school.
I spent 3 days there, and the other thing that really struck me is that I felt I knew a least a little a bit about a really large number of staff and learners. This is important, as even in my own school I have trouble recognizing, creating, and maintaining relationships with students in the building that are not in my classroom. It helps that I was there for a morning meeting of most of the school (it is a multi-age school where students are organized into clans, not grades) – a place where students shared and pitched ideas for upcoming events, in this case a passion show and a superhero club. Students were also invited to bring up anything that might need changing in terms of school rules, culture, or climate (in this case it was a discussion around throwing rocks and sticks. It was decided that rather than a rule, consent and common sense was a better approach). An adult was there to mediate discussions, but the idea that how students act towards each other affects the whole school and not just the two or three students involved, and therefore can be discussed in community is, I think, important. The sense of belonging created allowed me to talk to and get to know students easily.
I was lucky enough to be there while teachers were goal setting with students as well because one of the difficulties with using formative assessment and core competencies is that one needs a bank of examples to start with. The conversation I witnessed was: "When I chatted with (student x) yesterday they said they wanted to improve their spelling, and I know we all want to improve our spelling and that is an easy goal to say, but it was the why that I was impressed with. They said that they wanted to get better at it because they don't know how to spell more powerful words, so I use simpler ones and I don’t think they get my ideas across." This led naturally to a discussion around commitment to learning, to next steps, and to little goals. This in turn lead to conversations around writing and editing (with multiple student examples), the 'whys' of grammar, intent, tone, and word choice. The educators used one child's goal from the day before to create a natural conversation around what would be a traditional classroom lesson.
And don't even get me started on how fantastic story workshop was, or the project work, or the fact that I walked 5-9 year olds 2 km to a park, crossing the trans-Canada highway on the way…
Many thanks to the staff and students at Mill Bay for allowing me to spend time with them and see their work.