L to R: Second grade teacher Martha Rich guides Peter Misrach, Jefferson Campbell, Jacob Heimbouch and Aliviah McCarter in working together on a LEGO block creation inspired by a Piet Mondrian color-block painting.
LEGOS. There’s continuous learning with each redesign. It’s all part of the creativity spiral. Research shows us that experiential learning is how kids learn best.” Guidance Counselor Elizabeth Drumm has created a resource file where faculty members are sharing their ideas about how to use LEGOS across all disciplines of the curriculum. Pat Seta’s fourth graders used LEGOS to visually portray the law of reflection, depicting how when light hits a mirror, it reflects back at the same angle on the opposite side. First grade teacher Ceil Johnson asked her students to work collaboratively in pairs to create a seasonal image and communicate with the whole class the story behind their creations.
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Winter Magazine 2016 - 17
As the guidance counselor dedicated to the Lower School since 2009, Dr. Thornton had been presenting professional development sessions to the faculty. Now as director, professional development is high on her list. “There is such willingness among the faculty in the Lower School to embrace and share,” she says. It turns out, LEGOS work with adults, too. In a recent cross-divisional meeting, she put LEGOS on the table and asked the faculty to create likenesses of themselves as an icebreaker. “The intensity with which they were looking for pieces and their eagerness to share their creation was an “a-ha!” moment. They understood: “This is how our students feel. If I’m loving it, imagine if I were 8.”