Oh darling, let’s be adventurers.
Once upon a time …
there was a teacher.
This teacher – armed with a double major in Math and English, a Masters in Teaching, and a childhood full of teaching stuffed animals and younger siblings – entered the wide, glass-paned doors of a public high school one crystal clear Autumn morning eager to teach and passionate about breaking down All The Barriers so she could usher students into the bright and beautiful world of Mathematics.
For several years she fought valiantly against the rising tide of pressurized (aka, Standardized) tests, climbed mountains of paperwork that documented every iota of the scripted curriculum calendar, mapped out student progress and failure according to a flat, 2-dimensional rubric of Someone Importants’ Expectations, and wrestled endlessly with the integrity-defying, multiple carbon-copied discipline referrals for students who didn’t buy into the system and wouldn’t sell their soul and deny their own personality in exchange for Artificial Intelligence.
But mostly she fought for the students – for them to have a chance to learn valuable, relevant content in an authentic way. She used every tool she knew: project-based learning, groupwork that facilitated differentiated learning in a natural, respectful, hands-on way through discovery-type activities, after-school free tutoring to build positive relationships, and a multiple-intelligences approach to increase students’ confidence in their own unique talents … but the seeds of the joy of learning had a hard time taking root in the relentless, inflexible soil of Testing, Standards, and Timelines.
Five school districts later, (across two states, including Middle School, High School, and online classrooms) this teacher encountered a life-altering Situation: a baby occurred. <3 She knew then that she had to do better for her own children. She determined to give this child every chance in the world to grow up with a passionate, strongly-developed love of learning. She believed whole-heartedly that every child is born a learner, and if provided with relevant, engaging, and authentic learning activities, would grow up with a lifelong love of learning. Thus, R.E.A.L.-World Learners was born. Also, a second baby. And so the homeschooling (funschooling!) adventures began.
Relevant. Engaging. Authentic. Lifelong.
Welcome to our learning community! My name is Sandra, and this is my story of how I got to this point today. My blog is a collection of stories about our adventures with child-led learning and resources that I create for my own children that I’d love to share with other families (homeschooling or otherwise). (You can read more about my thoughts on teaching and learning here.)
I chose the acronym R.E.A.L. to stand for Relevant, Engaging, Authentic, and Lifelong; I believe that everything we teach our children should fall into these categories. When children are intrinsically motivated to learn, they will master skills, build masterpieces, retain and build upon knowledge, and enthusiastically pursue learning opportunities.
I have another ongoing blog for my creative writing adventures at https://ellipsesbysandra.wordpress.com/.
I am also in the process of researching best practices in education and writing a book about my stories, letters, and poems about teaching. Someday I’ll post more here about that.
* The featured image is an older picture, not currently representative of our family. N is much more excited about life these days. 😉