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Small school in Portola Valley is lab for innovative learning
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Learning
Story by Barbara Wood Photos by Michelle Le
how to learn A pledge, in their own words I pledge to our flag, representing Creekside School. We are the pollywogs and the hawks, Who respect their friends and teachers, The environment and materials. We may not be like everyone else, But we are the best we can be. We grow together and learn together As one big family. Written by the students and signed by each student.
he tiny school, tucked into a ramshackle former insurance office at the back of the Portola Valley Village Square shopping complex, doesn’t look from the outside like a showcase for state-of-the-art 21st century education. But the parents and teachers who set up the Creekside 21st Century Learning Lab say it is just that. The school, they say, is an experiment in learning that others can emulate to teach students the skills most needed to thrive in today’s complex and fast-moving world, and in ways suited to the myriad of different learning styles children possess. Creekside has only 14 students — seven boys and seven girls — and only a fifth-grade class level. And, it may well last only this school year. A group of Portola Valley School District parents started the school when they found out last spring that one of their favorite teachers, Marcy Barton, was retiring from teaching fifth grade at Corte Madera School. They wanted to allow their children to experience Ms. Barton’s innovative teaching methods, and they wanted a place where others could see those methods in action. “We don’t want to just make a change for 14 kids. We want to make sure all kids have an opportunity for this type of education,” says Linda Yates, one of the school’s co-founders. The parents wanted “to take what some of our best and brightest teachers are doing already and showcase it,” she says. The time was also right for Ms. Barton, who started teaching in 1969. She decided in December to take an early retirement offer Continued on next page Above: Robotics instructor Kashmiri Hutcherson shows student-designed robot parts and explains how some structures are sturdier than others as students, from left, Casey, JJ and Trevor react during a class at Creekside Learning Lab in Portola Valley. Left: A Creekside student takes individual work time.
November 14, 2012 N TheAlmanacOnline.com N The Almanac N 25