Powhatan Pulse Podcast

In this episode, our co-hosts cover six significant changes in education over the past decade and beyond. This conversation lasted well over an hour, so we split it into two episodes. So, if you missed Part 1, head back to our podcast and start from the beginning. We hope you enjoy Part 2 today! Part 2:  6 significant changes in education over the past decade There is no surprise that the podcast went dormant in 2019... So now in 2022 we've relaunched the podcast. Each month we encourage you to join Dr. Caitlin Gosnell, Lower School Director, and Evan Robb, Upper School Director, for conversations around teaching and learning. The Powhatan Pulse Podcast is recorded and produced at Powhatan School (Boyce, Va.). You can find the Powhatan Pulse Podcast on Apple Podcasts and iTunes, or head over to our school website for a desktop experience. Be sure to follow Powhatan School on social media on Instagram and Facebook.    Podcast on our website: https://powhatanschool.org/community/pulse-podcast/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/powhatan1948/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/powhatanschool YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/user/PowhatanSchool/videos

In this episode, our co-hosts cover six significant changes in education over the past decade and beyond. This conversation lasted well over an hour, so we split it into two episodes. We hope you enjoy Part 1 today! Part 1:  6 significant changes in education over the past decade There is no surprise that the podcast went dormant in 2019... So now in 2022 we've relaunched the podcast. Each month we encourage you to join Dr. Caitlin Gosnell, Lower School Director, and Evan Robb, Upper School Director, for conversations around teaching and learning. The Powhatan Pulse Podcast is recorded and produced at Powhatan School (Boyce, Va.). You can find the Powhatan Pulse Podcast on Apple Podcasts and iTunes, or head over to our school website for a desktop experience. Be sure to follow Powhatan School on social media on Instagram and Facebook.    Podcast on our website: https://powhatanschool.org/community/pulse-podcast/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/powhatan1948/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/powhatanschool YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/user/PowhatanSchool/videos  

Welcome to the Powhatan Pulse Podcast.  Join Dr. Caitlin Gosnell, Lower School Director, and Evan Robb, Upper School Director, each month as we discuss various topics in education.   In this short outtake from a prerecorded session this summer, our co-hosts answer the question: "what are you most looking forward to at the beginning of the school year?" There is no surprise that the podcast went dormant in 2019... So now in 2022 we've relaunched the podcast with a goal of producing a new episode each month. You can find the Powhatan Pulse Podcast on Apple Podcasts and iTunes, or head over to our school website for a desktop experience. Be sure to follow Powhatan School on social media at @powhatan1948 on Instagram and @Powhatanschool on Facebook.    Podcast on our website: https://powhatanschool.org/community/pulse-podcast/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/powhatan1948/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/powhatanschool YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/user/PowhatanSchool/videos

Welcome to the Powhatan Pulse Podcast. We are excited to relaunch the podcast for the 2022-23 academic year. Join our co-hosts, Dr. Caitlin Gosnell and Evan Robb, each month as we discuss interesting topics in education and explore the educational experience at Powhatan School.  In this episode with sit down with our Lower School Director, Dr. Catlin Gosnell, and our Upper School Director, Evan Robb as they introduce themselves to our campus community. Special thanks to Mr. Stitcher, our Lower School Music Teacher, for composing the upbeat intro music. 

Mrs. Scarborough leads a roundtable discussion with Mrs. Slavin and four of her students from last year as they discuss The Cap Project. A campus-wide recycling effort, the students reflect on this year-long undertaking. 

Mrs. Scarborough, Head of School, sits down to speak with Dr. Caitlin Gosnell and Mr. Darren Holgate. Gosnell is the new Director of Lower School and Mr. Holgate is the new Director of Upper School. Listen in as Mrs. Scarborough introduces them to the school community.  

Each year Earth Week is a microcosm of our school at its best. As I walked around campus observing activities, three aspects really stand out: 1. That our children are learning about the importance of conservation and our Earth. 2. A sense of community and teamwork. 3. That our children are outside in nature. It is important to get children outside in nature. There has been of research lately that focuses on the effect that getting outside has on our bodies. There’s a fascinating study out of Aarhaus University in Denmark that tracks one million individuals over almost three decades. While it focuses on the connection between health and nature with people at various ages, it zeroes in on the impact that the amount of time children spend in nature has on individuals over time. Mrs. Coutts and I discuss this research in the podcast at the top of the page, so I hope you will take the time to listen as we talk about nature and its effects on stress, mental health and well being.  

Dystopian literature is headlining the world of fiction and the big screen. We sat down with Louise Jaffe, a sixth grade English teacher at Powhatan, to discuss the preeminent piece, The Giver. Listen to the podcast above as Ms. Jaffe discusses The Giver—the book written 20 years ago that inspired later books such as The Hunger Games and Divergent.  

A former elementary and middle school math teacher, Nicole understands the pressures that integrating technology into a curriculum can put on teachers, so her goal is to ease that anxiety for her colleagues. She is willing to teach a lesson in any teacher’s classroom, work with a teacher on a project, or set it all up for the teacher to take the ball and run with it – no task is too small or large and all subjects can benefit from technology use. On the flip side, with a teaching background, she understands the importance of introducing technology to students as a tool; one to be used carefully, creatively, and efficiently. On both sides, her flexibility and “can-do” attitude opens the door of learning for both students and faculty alike. During the weeks I visited Nicole’s classes, it was all about coding. At the younger grades, students were learning the basics of coding through card play with squares and arrows and Scratch, an on-line coding curriculum. As I moved up the grades, I saw students who were already creating games, video book reviews, and other animations. All ages were enjoying the process of learning and using this fun skill of coding, which is puzzle solving on the computer!! Nicole’s next step for technology education is that Powhatan will participate in the Hour of Code, which many schools around the world will be doing. She is using this international activity to officially launch Powhatan’s computer science program, which will build upon the skills she has already introduced to her students and further their ability to independently code. Next, she will be working with teachers to incorporate coding projects into a unit they are currently doing or a topic they are currently studying. Read more:  http://powhatanschool.org/pulse/head-of-school-message/november-letter-computer-science/  

Last week, as I watched young and older students work together planting trees on the Crocker Conservancy, one of the many reasons that I came to Powhatan was highlighted once again for me – we are a Pre-kindergarten through eighth grade school. The learning opportunities when elementary and middle school students attend classes together on the same campus are many and invaluable. These benefits span all age ranges and provide students with the opportunity to gain important lifelong learning skills. Older students gain confidence and build self-esteem by helping and teaching younger students. Younger students see older students being positive role models and then they aspire to be helpful and kind when they get older. Peer to peer learning enables the students who teach a skill to solidify their understanding of it while the student being taught is less fearful to make a mistake or take a risk to try something new. The “one room school house” setting comes alive, creating a “family feeling” type of learning experience. And at Powhatan, all that happens under the watchful eyes of teachers who are themselves modeling collaboration and getting the opportunity to work with children beyond their own classroom wall and grade level. Read more:  http://powhatanschool.org/pulse/head-of-school-message/april-letter-uniqueness-pk-8-school-pulse-podcast/

Mrs. Gilpin gave a presentation at the Virginia State Reading Association (VSRA) annual conference in Norfolk, Va. in March. Her presentation revolved around her recently authored book; Teaching Students to Conduct Short Research Projects. Listen in to the podcast above as Mrs. Gilpin walks you through the five major steps in the research process with examples from her own classroom experience. Mrs. Gilpin would like to thank former Powhatan teacher and national consultant, Mrs. Laura Robb, for her amazing help and guidance with this endeavor. Read more: http://powhatanschool.org/pulse/food-for-thought/gilpin-lifelong-learning-research-book/

My letter to you this month about innovation will take a slightly different direction. Rather than share an observed innovative project or teaching strategy, I am going to share a teacher’s innovative vision and the impact it can make on students of today and those of tomorrow. Not only will this vision inspire students to learn, it will also cause colleagues to stretch, think out of the box and take a new direction with their practice. Innovation can start with a dream, and after that the possibilities are endless. Read more:  http://powhatanschool.org/pulse/head-of-school-message/may-letter-dreams-for-innovation-the-power-of-vision/

Beginning with an app called Book Creator, Alyson Yoder embarked on a quest to ignite excitement for writing books about Mexican animals. To start, she brainstormed with the class to create a list of animals about which they wanted to learn. Next, by doing a lot of reading to experience non-fiction literature, the class learned about text features such as glossary, table of contents, headings and captions. After each student chose an animal to research and the text features to include in their book, they were off and running! When their rough drafts were complete, it was time to move on to using the iPads to create their electronic books. Now the fun really began! Students transferred their stories onto the iPads by using their typing skills. They were amazed how the program helped them to spell the words in their story and lay out the text. Mrs. Yoder even taught them how to take a screen shot! The children were so proud to share their finished stories with me and talk about how they made their choices for the story and why they chose their pictures. It was inspiring to see children helping each other and teaching each other to use all the features of the app. Everyone was engaged, and there was an electric buzz in the air as students shared, listened, and commented on each other’s stories. What really resonated with me about this activity was the pride each student exhibited for his/her work. Many computer skills were introduced and mastered, but the feeling of creating an electronic book of their very own definitely took the prize for success of this project. Read the entire article: http://powhatanschool.org/pulse/head-of-school-message/june-letter-innovation-ipads-writers-workshop/

The Hour of Code volunteers helped us pull off an amazing week for all of our students to explore technology. Please listen in to the podcast as Mrs. Scarborough connects with Mrs. Miller, the educational technology teacher, and discuss learning, technology and the Hour of Code.   

Seventh and eighth graders are taking hold of a piece of history of their interest, researching it using credible sources, and presenting it in the form of a museum exhibit, dramatic presentation, interactive website, documentary, or paper. Mrs. Naghib is modeling her class project after the National History Project, and students will be working on their project one day a week during history class from October until March, when students have the option of submitting their finished work to the NHD Regional competition at University of Virginia. The theme of this year’s competition is “Conflict and Compromise in History”. The over-arching goal of this project is to “provide for students to push past the antiquated view of history as mere facts and dates and drill down into historical content to develop perspective. Mrs. Naghib learned about this project at the National Conference for the teaching of Social Studies, which she attended last fall. Just like her students, she is trying something new – a new way of teaching as a facilitator rather than a lecturer. Once a week, she lets her students take responsibility for their own learning as she steps back to let the ideas flow. She did provide the guidelines for presenting the project which included writing a good thesis, conducting authentic research, and developing an annotated bibliography. But the students are taking it from there, and the excitement they are demonstrating for this project is palpable. Innovation – alive and well in science labs and the halls of history at Powhatan. Join me for my podcast at the top of the page with Mrs. Naghib and her students Louisa Craig, Gillian Banks, and Nathaniel Thompson as they share their history innovation story.

Our coaches, who interact each day with the students, have an enthusiasm for learning which is contagious. The positive way they encourage each student brings out their personal best and resilience... _______ “Good coaching may be defined as the development of character, personality and habits of players, plus the teaching of fundamentals and team play.”     Claire Bee – Former Basketball coach at Long Island University. These words truly resonated with me as I sat down last week with Brian Burke, Athletic Director, at Powhatan and some of his coaching staff. This group of dedicated individuals give of their time and expertise each day to guide our upper elementary and upper school students as they learn a new sport or perfect their skills at a sport they enjoy playing. Powhatan believes that coaches are teachers too. The courts and fields are their classrooms, and the lessons they are teaching are giving students skills they will need for life. Since many of our coaches are classroom teachers and/or individuals who have played the sport they are coaching in high school and college, they understand the importance of what they are doing and the impact it will have on our students as they move on to their next institutions – whether or not they decide to continue playing a sport. The real motivation for our students to become engaged in sports is not just to participate in our athletic program, but to bolster their growth as individuals. At the Middle School level, we want students to have a positive team experience, develop the habit of daily physical activity, step out of their comfort zone to try a new sport and develop important life skills such as resilience, perseverance, self-confidence, teamwork, and communication. We set the foundation for this learning in the lower school physical education program where these skills are introduced and taught through non-competitive games and activities such as tag games, cooperative challenges and creative movement centers. Students learn the give and take of winning and losing and how to support fellow teammates to achieve goals. Our athletic program for sixth, seventh and eighth graders is thoughtfully designed to give students at all skill and interest levels the opportunity to play a sport and/or remain active. Team practices are during the school day so that students are not tied into a practice after school. Many of our students play on travel teams outside of Powhatan, so if a student opts out one season to play a travel sport, there are still active options to try – such as outdoor education, dance, pre-season lacrosse and recreational sports which includes handball, indoor soccer, floor hockey and ultimate Frisbee. All middle schoolers are required to play one season each year, however, 90% of our middle schoolers play two team sports each year and 75% play three team sports each year. Our coaches, who interact each day with the students, have an enthusiasm for learning which is contagious. The positive way they encourage each student brings out their personal best and resilience. Please take a few minutes to listen to the conversation I had with them by tuning in to the podcast at the top of the page. You will be inspired by their dedication not only to the sport they coach, but also to the life lessons they are modeling.

This fall, three seventh grade students had the opportunity to be “Head for A Day” and after their experiences, Mrs. Scarborough asked them to sit down to talk about how it felt to be the leader of the school. Listen to the podcast at the top of the page to hear their thoughts on leadership. Confidence building is a steady daily process at Powhatan. Small steps grow into bigger ones as students move through each grade. A variety of experiences provide all students with the tools for leadership. And learning to lead is just one of the many ways we are all “learning for life” at Powhatan... Read the complete Head's Letter here:  CLICK HERE

Research tells us that four and five year olds’ work is play. In Powhatan’s Pre-Kindergarten Classroom, that looks like Play Lab, which happens every week day at 11:00 a.m. And as I learned from my visits to a very busy Play Lab last week, although it may look a lot like play, there is an abundance of learning happening in every corner of the Lab! Play Lab consists of several areas of learning. The dramatic play area can be whatever the children want it to be, the art center is supplied with many different materials for creation of anything imaginable, the block area has different sized blocks with various figures to use with any structure you would like to build, and the porch area is always changing and evolving with a water and sand table, easel, and many tools and materials to develop small and large motor skills as well as language acquisition. To begin Play Lab, Mrs. Ludwig and Mrs. Dickson each take a group of children and guide them in making a choice of their work for the morning. They must verbalize their choice, it is written down on a special board by their name, and then off they go. Teachers are circulating around the lab making sure that children have the materials that they need, but never directing their work. This is exploration time and the children are designing and creating their own learning experiences. The level of focus, concentration, communication and collaboration is astounding and not a minute is wasted as students go immediately to their chosen areas. During my visits, I spent time in the dramatic play area and block area. The dramatic play area was a pizza parlor. The children made signs and menus (with invented spelling of course) and decided the prices for the food in the restaurant and what they would be serving. I was a customer one time and a pizza chef the next. During my second visit, one of the students decided that she would like to serve soup at the restaurant. Menus had to be changed, prices added and picking the type of soup to serve was quite a decision-making process. There were a few times when the kitchen got quite crowded, and negotiation had to occur along with sharing of utensils and the stove. In the block area, I started my visit by creating a dentist’s office. The children had already decided that signs were needed in this area such as “Stop”, “Handicapped Parking Only”, and “Hand Washing Station”. They had made a set of them the week before my visit. Our dentist’s office used the “Hand Washing Station” sign and even had a candy machine, which the student said her real dentist had in his office. During my second visit to the block area, the dentist’s office had morphed into a dentist’s office in a castle. After all, wouldn’t a king and queen need a dentist? How easily the children shared their creative ideas and engaged in the give and take of group work. At the end of Play Lab and after clean-up, the children come back to their groups to share about their work. Once again, the teachers document their work choice by writing their words next to each child’s name. Even the shyest children must share, and each child listens to each other – asking questions so that everyone has a chance to participate. This interaction builds enthusiasm for the areas in Play Lab and creates a sort of brainstorming session which inspires ideas for tomorrow’s Lab time. Mrs. Ludwig says that the time in Play Lab flies by each day, because the children are so busy. And it is very exciting because you never know from week to week what ideas will change each space. It certainly keeps both teachers’ creative juices going as they continually look for materials to support the children’s ideas and literature to read to them about their themes. The Play Lab represents interdisciplinary, authentic, and self-directed learning for children at this age. And it is just my first example of Innovative Learning at Powhatan! Stay tuned for more in November as I visit another teacher and area of the school!

Listen in to the podcast as our third grade team, Mrs. Gilpin and Mrs. Slavin, provide insight and takeaways from their experience at the Learning & the Brain Conference (Harvard University). Both teachers touch on topics explored at the conference, including: Empathy Innovation Choice Solutionaries Problem Solving Motivation & Mindsets Kindness Community Service Cross-Curricular & Project-Based Learning Communication Skills They also speak about an interesting bridge building project that is coming to fruition in the MakerSpace this week and an ongoing recycling project in third grade that incorporates these topics.

We caught up with Mrs. Jaffe, a sixth grade English teacher, to talk about the importance and benefits of reading. She recently came across two articles that resonated with her because they discussed the importance of instilling empathy through literature. She discusses how reading develops and fosters critical thinking skills, focus and empathy. Reading literature every day helps our students better understand themselves and the characters they read about. This leads to developing empathy for people in their lives and for others across the globe.

In this podcast, we sit down with Mrs. Robb to discuss Grit and Growth Mindset, topics she presented to the faculty on professional day this year. She gives further examples of how she deploys these strategies in her classroom...

Collaboration, communication, critical thinking, and creativity are all skills which are enhanced through play. At Powhatan, time to play and build these skills starts in the youngest grades, laying the foundation for a balanced, healthy life in the middle school and beyond. Powhatan’s community was honored to have Dr. Dorothy Sluss, Professor Emerita from James Madison University, speak about her lifetime passion of studying children’s play on our campus two weeks ago. Enjoy a bonus conversation with Dr. Sluss and Mrs. Scarborough in this podcast about the benefits of play.