Game of Village

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My work at Alt Ed Austin includes visiting lots of great innovative schools and enrichment programs and getting to see some beautiful ideas in action. There’s no program I love more than Game of Village, so we’re thrilled to have Village director and consultant Cheryl Kruckeberg join us on the blog for a show-and-tell about its educational benefits and sheer delights. Read on to learn how you can get your kids signed up for Village this month!
 

Village is about Play.
Play stretches the imagination,
and imagination can lead us to
whatever and wherever we want to go.

Throughout history, children have prepared for their adult lives by observing and modeling the activities of the adults around them. They imagine, pretend, and practice, and through these activities they gain understanding, stretch their capacities, and explore new concepts and ideas. In play children are released from the constraints imposed by a fear of failure and are left free to experiment. In short, they grow! Play is, in fact, a natural and powerful way to learn, and Village is all about play!

Each game of Village is set in a particular geographical location and time period. It starts with the bare bones of a story line: some challenge to be faced, a problem to be solved, or obstacles to overcome. From this loose outline and the fertile imaginations of the players a world emerges.

Village is played on two integrated levels. On a 1/24 scale the players, known as “Villagers,” design and build a complete village. This aspect of the game includes a “Peep,” a 3" avatar, with an independent personality, life story, and hopes and dreams.

Peeps want a home; Villagers design it for them. Peeps want a piece of land on which to place their fine homes; Villagers get that for them as well! Peeps like party hats, rocket ships, furniture, and social gatherings. (Some of them, like the unique character below, enjoy hammocks, too.) They become embroiled in scandal and drama! There are weddings, fundraisers, funerals, kidnappings, and robberies.

Fulfilling the demands of the Peeps and keeping up with their antics keeps Villagers pretty busy. Using their Peeps’ home design and land as collateral, and inspired by the needs and wants of the Peeps, Villagers head off to the Village bank to secure a loan and begin making purchases for their many new projects. And here begins the second aspect of the game.

Now the Villagers are running their own dynamic community. With money in hand, they go to the Trading Post to purchase all manner of goods for building their Peep homes, general crafting, and various independent enterprises. Villagers open businesses; apply for jobs at the bank, trading post, newspaper, or post office; run for government office; or perhaps attend the Village University. There are many ways for Villagers to earn income and stay busy!

Money and time management and goal setting become important: some Villagers accumulate wealth, others overdraw their bank accounts. Will the Villagers form a government? If they do, will that government be ethical and trustworthy or crooked and out for personal gain? Will laws be needed to keep the peace and ensure that all are treated fairly? The Villagers themselves will determine all of this and more. As in real life, there are model citizens, civil servants, bakers, and artists—as well as scoundrels, loafers, and ne'er-do-wells. It's all learning and all valuable! The possibilities are endless, and the game takes a new turn each time it is played.

From designing and building the scale model village for the Peeps, to managing personal projects and jobs, to attending to civic matters and the myriad interpersonal issues that always arise where groups of people converge, Village is filled with valuable, real life learning. Village is dynamic, unpredictable, and messy. It's challenging, rewarding, and fun! Village, like life, is filled with unforeseen circumstances and opportunities and, although children may play it over and over again, it is never the same and never loses its appeal. Village is filled with peer-based learning, natural consequences, and “Aha!” moments. In Village, young people step into leadership, confront real problems, and collaborate to find creative solutions. They take on the world, and they do an admirable job of it!

As a teacher, mentor, and school director of 40+ years, I can confidently say that Village is the most powerful teaching tool I have ever encountered, and it has completely transformed my understanding of learning and teaching. Most importantly, it has transformed and vastly expanded my view of what young people are capable of. Village has provided me a platform from which to explore and teach applied academics in a meaningful context. I have learned to trust the natural learning process and have grown comfortable with the chaos and mayhem that can come with letting creativity, self-expression, and learning by experience take reign, rather than imparting knowledge in a controlled learning environment. Moreover, Village has brought the spirit of play, creativity, and trust back into my own adult life. Village has become my passion, and it's my goal to share it with as many young people and mentors as I can!

Village takes roughly 25 days from start to finish. It has been played as the central component of an integrated, academic school curriculum, with homeschool groups, and as summer camps. It is best played with 20–26 (or so) children, aged 9–14 years (or so). However, Village, like life, can be adapted to a wide array of circumstances and needs.

For the past 10 years Village has been the heart of the Austin EcoSchool/Village Academy curriculum. With the recent closing of this wonderful school, Village is now loose; unfettered by a brick and mortar location, Village is free to come to you!

If you would like to register your child in an existing Village program or are interested in bringing Village to your child’s learning community, please contact us at play@gameofvillageaustin.org.

A Friday Village program is starting at AHB Community School on January 6, 2017, and is open to the homeschool community. Applications are accepted through mid-January. We are also in the process of launching a Summer Village, complete details of which will be available soon.

You can keep up with VillageinAustin by liking us on Facebook. Or read much more about us on the new Game of Village Austin website.

Cheryl Kruckeberg
 

Synergy Middle School: “Together we can do so much.”

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Rachel Green Soto is one of the most creative, hard-working, and accomplished people in Austin. She is a community organizer and educator with over 14 years experience in the public, private, and co-school communities. Rachel is best known as the founder, director, and teacher of Verona Schoolhouse, a pre-K and kindergarten program in southwest Austin; founder and board chair of the nonprofit Kairos Ed; and founder and executive director of the new Synergy Middle School. We invited Rachel to the blog to explain how she dreamed up the unique Synergy program and what makes it so special.


“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.” Helen Keller recognized the power of a community that brings together its unique gifts to serve all more fully. I couldn’t agree more, and this thought has inspired me to continue my life’s work of responding to the educational needs of our community in collaboration with some of the biggest names in essential youth programs in Austin. Together, we have redesigned the middle school experience to be one where students thrive, not just survive as so many young teens currently find themselves doing in conventional schools.

Synergy Middle School’s vision, adopted from Kairos Ed, is to maximize meaningful learning opportunities within and beyond the classroom by facilitating a culture of collaboration that ignites curiosity, nurtures strengths, and empowers students, families, and educators.

Austin is bursting with amazing youth programs that offer learning opportunities as afterschool classes, spring break and summer camps, and homeschool classes. As a co-school family for many years, we have had the ability to pick and choose our own combination of classes that we consider “essential” parts of our schooling rather than “enrichment.” These programs have provided new experiences, broader content, and refined skills that, as my child’s primary teacher, I have been able to build on, connect to, and weave into our full learning experience. The combination of outside programs with integrated academic content has proven to be a very effective way to deepen learning and make it fun and relevant. Our “a la carte” version of schooling has gone far beyond the four walls of our house and my own expertise as a homeschooling parent. Instead of being limited to my skill set, my kids have had the privilege of also learning from a handful of other teachers with their own knowledge, skills, and passions.

Middle school can be an uncertain and sensitive time of life for students. So much is changing, physically, emotionally, socially, and academically, that these students require the most engaged learning environment possible. Additionally, middle school is an ideal time to introduce a more flexible, yet still structured, environment that allows students new freedom and independence where they naturally desire it, variety to keep things interesting, and a socially and emotionally supportive team of educators to help them navigate these crucial years of development.

Inspired by the positive experience of my family’s a la carte co-schooling years and with a heart to provide wraparound support to students and families during the critical middle school years, I created Synergy Middle School as a full-time, alternative education school that will open in Fall 2017 to its inaugural class of 6th graders and grow by one grade level each year to serve grades 6–8. Synergy Middle School is combining the expertise of established local programs already providing classes to the community and the skill and oversight of professional classroom teachers into one school program.

The handpicked essential youth programs with whom Synergy Middle School is partnering includes outdoor education from Earth Native Wilderness School, visual arts classes from The Art Garage Austin, theater and robotics through the Paramount Theatre, aerial yoga and mindfulness from Yogapeutics, and guitar/voice lessons from Don’t Stop Rockin’.

Teacher-Mentors, the Synergy name for classroom teachers, will provide the students with content area instruction in math, language arts, science, and social studies, multidisciplinary curriculum design skills, and the heart and training to mentor middle school students during these pivotal years. Teacher-Mentors intentionally weave together the five days of programming into one amazing middle school experience connecting academic, social, and experiential learning together in the minds, hearts, and bodies of middle schoolers.


Rachel Green Soto

Media Monday: If it’s fake, it ain’t news you can use

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For many years, I worked as a fact-checker for a magazine with high standards for accuracy and fairness, so for me, one of the most galvanizing and frightening trends of 2016 has been the spread of inaccurate and/or misleading “news” via websites and social media. I believe there’s not much that’s more important than getting the facts right, so I am thrilled that teaching young people—including elementary school students—to hold the media to high standards and to fact-check what they watch and read for themselves is a growing trend in schools.

In November, “Evaluating Information: The Cornerstone of Civic Online Learning,” a study from Stanford University, looked at how well middle school, high school, and college students understand whether they are looking at facts, opinions that are biased, advertisements, or absolute falsehoods online. The results were pretty discouraging. For example, in a survey of more than 200 middle-school students, the researchers found:

More than 80% of students believed that the native advertisement, identified by the words “sponsored content,” was a real news story. Some students even mentioned that it was sponsored content but still believed that it was a news article. This suggests that many students have no idea what “sponsored content” means and that this is something that must be explicitly taught as early as elementary school.

For many educators in the alternative ed community, the development of robust powers of analysis and critical thinking among their students is a foundation of the curriculum. Whether they rely on classical models like the Socratic method of interrogation or harness new digital technologies, the goal is to enable kids to navigate the murky depths of all the false, manipulative, and downright crazy information online so they can form educated opinions and contribute to civic and scientific conversations themselves.

One interesting effort, recently highlighted by NPR, is the National Literacy Project’s “Checkology” program, adopted in a few high schools in pilot form, and rolling out more widely in 2017. Checkology will initially be provided free to teachers who want to test the program.  The interactive, self-paced activities are designed to teach kids how to assess the validity of many types of information.

As highlighted recently by Bill Moyers’s PBS TV show, the Center for News Literacy offers a great toolbox for parents, educators, and students who want to improve their ability to see information more objectively. Teens might be interested in the six-week free online course starting January 9, 2017, called Making Sense of the News: News Literacy Lessons for Digital Citizens.

For a little more information on what could very well be the essential topic in civics education for a long time to come, check out:


Shelley Sperry

 

Post-election in Austin schools: Finding comfort in community

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Photo contributed to the Teaching Tolerance #StudentsSpeak campaign

Photo contributed to the Teaching Tolerance #StudentsSpeak campaign

The past few weeks since Election Day have posed significant and unusual challenges for educators across the country. When divisions among adults are as strong as they have been during the presidential campaign, tensions, fears, and misinformation inevitably come out among kids on playgrounds and in classrooms.

In a report released this week, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) found that schools and universities are the most common places that hate-based incidents take place—including attacks against immigrants, Muslims, African Americans, Jews, and the LGBTQ community. More than 10,000 teachers surveyed by SPLC detailed 2,500 fights and threats related to the rhetoric of the 2016 election, increasing use of racial and ethnic slurs, and the appearance of swastikas and Confederate flags around their schools. From the survey’s executive summary:

Ninety percent of educators report that school climate has been negatively affected, and most of them believe it will have a long-lasting impact. A full 80 percent describe heightened anxiety and concern on the part of students worried about the impact of the election on themselves and their families.
 

Photo contributed to the Teaching Tolerance #StudentsSpeak campaign

Photo contributed to the Teaching Tolerance #StudentsSpeak campaign

We asked some members of the Alt Ed Austin community to talk about what they are seeing and hearing among their students and what kinds of constructive, positive steps they’re taking to support kids, parents, and each other.

Individual and group discussions, with the goal of intellectually understanding the dynamics of the political conflicts, as well as sharing and processing a variety of emotions around the election are important to all the educators we heard from.

Kristin Kim of Sansori High School says, “I encourage [students] to see beyond the layers of realities created by polarization, and be aware of when they are drawn in to reactiveness.” She wants to help them avoid repeating patterns of conflict. 

The team at Skybridge Academy focused on the question of vulnerability, and discussed bullying and how to be an ally to people who need support. Students were allowed to share their feelings anonymously and to discuss them in groups. Skybridge’s co-director, Ariel Dochstader Miller, says she believes the students’ open sharing and discussion helped students, but more discussions are needed to move forward “in a healed and unified space.” “We came to the conclusion that the way through these defensive walls, both literal and emotional, is empathy and compassionate relating and sharing.”

“We focused much more on what we could do for one another than dwelling on what we could not control,” says Antonio Buehler of Abrome. Antonio shares a detailed response on his blog, focusing on how Learners can “transcend electoral politics” and better society in myriad ways.

At KọSchool, the full student body of 8th–12th graders gathered to talk about personal empowerment in times of dramatic change. Students discussed feelings of victimization across the spectrum of political viewpoints and shared their own struggles to keep open minds and not condemn those whose beliefs clashed with their own.

There is also great value, for students and their families, in physical activity—whether it’s work or play—and intimately connecting with the natural world. Erin Flynn of Green Gate Farms says she’s been contacted by several schools that would like to get out among the plants and animals on a “medicinal” field trip. “Teens are especially upset,” she adds, “so I will be putting them to work, giving them some nature therapy.”

Most important, we in the Alt Ed Austin community adhere to the belief that schools must be safe and nurturing homes-away-from-home for all children.  We could not say it better than Austin School Board Trustee Paul Saldaña said it in a moving letter to all the families of Austin ISD:

I want you to know how much I admire the concerns you have expressed this week for your friends, classmates, and schools. And I encourage you to have these thoughtful conversations among your peers and with your teachers in the classrooms. It’s okay for you to express any concerns you may have and to find your voice and use it with conviction. Most importantly, I want to reassure you, that your school and classroom is your home and your sanctuary. It belongs to you and you are safe.

Please take a look at Paul Saldaña’s letter here.
 

Photo contributed to the Teaching Tolerance #StudentsSpeak campaign

Photo contributed to the Teaching Tolerance #StudentsSpeak campaign

You may also be interested in some resources designed for Teaching Tolerance by the SPLC. Using the hashtag #StudentsSpeak, the Teaching Tolerance program is collecting photos with a wonderful variety of heartfelt advice for President-elect Trump on their Facebook page (a sampling of which we’ve included in this post). Take a look, and see how your students can participate here.

Peace.
 

Behavioral interventions for ADHD

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Dr. Lindsay Evans is a child and adolescent psychologist at the Austin Psychology & Assessment Center (ApaCenter). In her work with children and families, she is often asked about the best interventions for individuals with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) or similar concerns. In particular, many families want to know if there are any effective treatment options for managing ADHD without medication. We’re grateful to Dr. Evans for addressing these questions here as a guest contributor.


Many parents are surprised to hear that comprehensive ADHD treatment should always include a strong psychosocial (non-medication) component. Behavior therapy has been shown to be an effective behavioral treatment for child and adolescent ADHD. In fact, for preschool age children (under 5), the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends behavior therapy as the first line of treatment for children. For older children, research indicates that when medication is the only form of treatment, it generally does not lead to positive long-term outcomes. And, importantly, a substantial percentage of children and adolescents with ADHD may be able to avoid using medication if good behavioral treatments are employed. If behavioral interventions are not sufficient, the combination of medication and behavioral modifications strategies can be considered.

Behavior therapy involves using positive reinforcement and structure to help modify a child’s behavior and environment. The interventions can improve the parent-child relationship, and teach children concrete skills to help them function better at home and school. Because they work best when coordinated across settings (home, school, and community), behavior therapy typically involves three components:

  1. Parent training
  2. Teacher consultation/school interventions
  3. Child-focused treatment

Behavior therapy often helps to reset the “magic ratio,” or the frequency of positive to negative interactions and feedback that a child receives. A more in-depth description of behavior interventions for ADHD can be found at the Center for Children and Families. 
 

Parent Training

The first and most important aspect of behavior treatment for ADHD is parent training. As we often tell parents in our practice, although many parents know standard (good) parenting strategies, having a child with ADHD can require a “black belt in parenting,” which is where Behavior Parent Training comes in. Parent training programs (such as Parent Management Training/PMT and Parent-Child Interaction Training/PCIT) are typically provided in weekly individual or group sessions, lasting 12–18 weeks. Parents are taught specific strategies and are asked to practice those in the session with their child or to go home and practice for a week. At the next session, the family reviews their progress with the therapist, problem-solves, and learns new skills to assist their family. Here is a more detailed description of Behavior Parent Training and how to find a provider in your area.
 

Consultation/School Interventions

School interventions typically involve having a child’s teacher provide more structure and positive reinforcement (e.g., specific verbal praise and a sticker chart) in the classroom to help a child reach specific behavior goals. Teacher involvement is critical because behavior therapy is most effective when it is consistent across settings, times of day, and people. A “Daily Report Card” coordinated between teacher and parent can be a very effective method for helping a child reach specific goals at school (a parent guide for starting one can be found here: ADHD parent resources). Coordinating with teachers is an integral piece, and we have listed some tips about parent and teacher collaboration at our ApaCenter blog.
 

 Child-focused Treatment

The third part of behavioral treatment involves teaching children how to improve their interactions with other children. Social skills interventions are typically most effective when they are implemented in school or recreational settings, and the training typically needs to take place frequently for the child to learn the skills (e.g., such as through daily practice at school or in Saturday or summer therapeutic recreational programs). Besides social skills training, a new intervention called Organizational Skills Training has also been shown to improve organization, time management, and planning skills in elementary school children with ADHD.


Finally, it is important to note that individual or small group counseling sessions with children in a therapist's office (such as “Play Therapy”) are not effective for treating child ADHD because they do not help a child practice new skills in other settings. Behavior therapy is effective because it teaches concrete skills to parents, teachers, and the children themselves.

And, a quick note: When I am providing guidance to families about how to help their child, I rely on recommendations that are backed by scientific evidence. Some great websites for finding unbiased information about interventions for children are www.Effectivechildtherapy.org and www.ChildMind.org. Treatment guidelines for ADHD in children can be found at the Center for Disease Control website (believe it or not, a great resource for parents!). Importantly, ADHD is a chronic condition and children with unmanaged ADHD are at risk for poor academic performance, greater problems (such as substance use) in adulthood, and difficulties in their relationships.

Some parents at this point may be thinking, “Gosh, that seems like a ton of work!” And they’re right that behavior therapy does require time and commitment from parents on the front end. But, once learned, the skills quickly become a more natural part of a family’s routine, and they set up a child for more success both in academics in their relationships. The extra effort on the front end can help a child overcome challenges in daily life functioning, which can be valuable in managing ADHD throughout a lifetime.


Dr. Lindsay Evans
 

The whole world in one Houston school

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If you’re feeling in need of a tonic right now—something to nourish and pep you up and get you through the end of the year with a smile on your face—I have a suggestion. Have you seen the Houston episode of Anthony Bourdain’s Parts Unknown on CNN?

The full episode celebrates the gorgeous, charming, and fascinating people of Houston, including hip hop car enthusiasts, Vietnamese fishermen and shopkeepers, Congolese and Ghanaian urban farmers, Mexican American families, and a larger-than-life Indian American radio host. But for the Alt Ed Austin community, the most inspiring visit Bourdain made down in Houston was to Margaret Long Wisdom High School (formerly known as Robert E. Lee High School). Principal Jonathan Tranh, a Vietnamese immigrant himself, led a tour of “the most diverse high school” in a city where minorities are now the majority. At Wisdom HS, 80 percent of students speak English as a second language, and dedicated ESL instructor Gary Reed is one of the keys to the kids’ future success.

Suffering through a typical cafeteria lunch of chicken sandwiches, fries, and canned fruit salad, Chef Bourdain spoke to students from Iran, Pakistan, Burkina Faso, and El Salvador. You’ll love the little glimpses of these students’ dreams of engineering, fashion design, and soccer—and be sobered by the knowledge that so many of them come from dangerous places to which they dare not return. There’s one theme that’s repeated in every segment of the episode, in every corner of Houston, where each person interviewed praises the city’s compassion, climate, and boundless opportunity: “Welcome to America.”

If you have cable, you can probably see Bourdain’s episode “on demand,” and if not, it’s available on the CNN app, and for purchase on many platforms.


Shelley Sperry