• Curriculum Overview
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by Bridget O'Brian, Computers Teacher, and Oldest Group Students

Here is one tangible example of how the symposium changed my curriculum and affected your children. Listening to renowned thinkers and practitioners talk about their best practices inspired me to try something new. One school talked about how their students order all the supplies for their school. What a great way to learn math, teamwork, confidence and organizational skills! My brain was fired up! I saw an unused $60 coupon I was given for my classroom–a direct result of parent donations to the annual fund, by the way–and thought, "What if I gave the money directly to the children and let them start real businesses?" I was nervous that it was unrealistic, that I might lose control of the situation in all the excitement and that the business projects, which were very visible to the community, might fail. But I had also, through the symposium, gained confidence in the idea that when children take real control of their own learning, amazing and sometimes unexpected things can happen.

Here is what the Oldest Group children have to say (they titled this "1000% of $60"):

"In computers we ran businesses. Each group started with only $20 to spend on supplies (altogether we had $60). Each group worked hard on their business and they were all successful. In fact, if you put all of the money together the total ends up around $600! Wow we did have some good businesses!

As a group we brainstormed what we would like to do with the money we have made. Then we took a vote and the majority of us wanted to plant a tree or some rosebushes and have a plaque somewhere near it/them. So we are going to talk to Eric Tamulonis about the different places that might need a tree or rosebushes and then we will see if he has any suggestions of different kinds of trees or roses that we could plant.

After we finished the businesses we reflected on how we thought that they went and other things that we noticed about businesses. A lot of us thought that businesses were somewhat harder than they looked. Some of us realized that you need a lot of energy to be in a business, pay attention and cooperate.

We would like to thank you so very much for participating in our fantastic, wonderful, great, brilliant businesses."

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