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Susan MacKay
Director of Education and the Center for Children's Learning at the Portland Children's Museum
Recent Activity
We've moved!
We are thrilled to announce our new website! Please join us at opalschool.org. We look forward to connecting with you there!~ Continue reading
Posted Mar 28, 2018 at Opal School Blog
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A center of inspiration and connection
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This site has been mostly dormant this year as we've been designing and building a new, more dimensional site that invites richer inspiration and connection. After a year of efforts, we (finally!) are ready to unveil the result. Over the last several years, this blog has published stories from Opal... Continue reading
Posted Dec 9, 2016 at Opal School Blog
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Public Gardens
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We're so close to sharing our new website with you. In the meantime, we'll continue to crosspost here. As a big fan of the work of both Alison Gopnik and Peter Gray, a post written recently by the latter about a new book, The Gardener and the Carpenter, by the... Continue reading
Posted Sep 19, 2016 at Opal School Blog
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Making pickles
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Opal School exists not only to influence its immediate community: It lives to provoke change far and wide. We know that our workshops catalyze change - but only rarely do we get a window into the ripples. Below, you'll read how Erin Baker brought some of the juice from the... Continue reading
Posted May 13, 2016 at Opal School Blog
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It's not about the towers, either
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I start this post with a shout out to Allie Pasquier, whose recent Bakers and Astronauts post catalyzed this one. Her post examined how the ephemera of our classrooms - the surface layers - the branches - are not important in and of themselves, but only insofar as they are... Continue reading
Posted Apr 25, 2016 at Opal School Blog
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Why we don't do art in school (and why we should)
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This post by Susan Harris MacKay first appeared on the Living in Dialogue blog. In these times, when the demolition of a place as historic as Sesame Street can be thwarted by editing for shorter attention spans and conversion to pay-per-view, it can be difficult to remember what all the... Continue reading
Posted Apr 11, 2016 at Opal School Blog
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The Power of Illusion
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The opinion piece is a famously third grade writing assignment. It is, in fact, Common Core English Language Arts Standard 3.1: “Write opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a point of view with reasons”. It seems fair that children should learn to distinguish between fact and opinion and be... Continue reading
Posted Apr 4, 2016 at Opal School Blog
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Thinking With Charcoal
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Opal School third graders have been exploring charcoal as a language -- a tool for thinking and expression. We began by asking: What can this material do? What colors are you finding that live inside black? As with any new material, any encounter with the unfamiliar, the children made assumptions.... Continue reading
Posted Mar 15, 2016 at Opal School Blog
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Living in Questions
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Visitors to Opal School are oftentimes struck by the quantity and quality of the questions they encounter here. At Opal School, we aim to live in inquiry. As the panel above reveals, questions allow us to remain alongside children in genuine curiosity and wonder. We immerse our questions whose answers... Continue reading
Posted Mar 13, 2016 at Opal School Blog
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Listening to children listening to trees
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As we aim to create a school founded in a strong image of the child, we need to constantly consider our image of childhood and its relationship to adulthood. What might it mean to create curriculum based around the unique gifts of childhood? How can we embrace children’s capacity to... Continue reading
Posted Mar 10, 2016 at Opal School Blog
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Expanding empathy; making change
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Last week, I represented Opal School at Ashoka Changemaker Schools Network Summit in Oracle, Arizona. The Changemaker Schools Network is a global community of elementary, middle, and high schools whose approaches to developing empathy and agency have the potential to inspire a new educational framework. Over an intense three-and-a-half days,... Continue reading
Posted Feb 23, 2016 at Opal School Blog
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Schooling for a better world
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My heart is heavy looking back on a violent year. In the past year, we’ve watched so many individuals gunned down, white supremacy viscerally stamped on their crumbling bodies; the revolving door of mass shootings, reminding us on an almost daily basis of our feeble inability to enact arms restrictions;... Continue reading
Posted Dec 8, 2015 at Opal School Blog
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Creating TEDx (remembering how to jump)
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When the organizers of the TEDx West Vancouver conference called to ask if someone from Opal School would like to share at their event, I shot up my hand. I knew it would be a powerful exercise in synthesis – forcing me to develop clarity around what I care most... Continue reading
Posted Nov 23, 2015 at Opal School Blog
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What does holding a strong image of the child mean in a complicated world?
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At the end of September, Matt Karlsen and I spoke to several groups in the Vancouver area about conditions that support playful inquiry. Over the last few years, educators in British Columbia and Alberta have shown a great deal of interest in Opal School’s work: it responds to their curiosity... Continue reading
Posted Oct 5, 2015 at Opal School Blog
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Sharing what matters
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"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." Martin Luther King, Jr. In observance of the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday, we've had a long weekend. Much of Dr. King's encouragement and inspiration ultimately challenges us all to speak up with, as our friend... Continue reading
Posted Jan 20, 2015 at Opal School Blog
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September Stories
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Each September I find myself wanting to pick right up where we left off in June. The end of the school year is one of my favorite times. It is a time of synthesis and reflection. It's a time of celebration of growth and learning. It's a time where all... Continue reading
Posted Sep 22, 2014 at Opal School Blog
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Reconfiguring
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I don't think I've been so excited to begin a school year in a long time. Opal School's continuous journey to develop an understanding of and approach to a pedagogy of listening and relationships has taken a significant step forward. Tomorrow, when we open our doors on the 2014 -... Continue reading
Posted Sep 1, 2014 at Opal School Blog
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Everything isn't always perfect, but you can try to make it good.
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Dear Person Who is Looking at the Mural: The following letter was written collaboratively by the 8 and 9 year old children who attend Opal School. They have designed and painted a mural as a gift to those who will play on the school playground for years to come. This... Continue reading
Posted Jun 10, 2014 at Opal School Blog
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Who did you collaborate with today?
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Working with a partner is sometimes easier because you have lots of ideas, but it’s sometimes harder because you have to agree. Angelina, age 8 Angelina spoke these words recently as she and her classmates at Opal School were getting ready to launch their final writing project of the school... Continue reading
Posted May 20, 2014 at Opal School Blog
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The We That I Am
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This post comes from Opal School Teacher-Researcher Kerry Salazar. It discusses the work of Opal 2 (grades 1-2.) Learn more about this project - and see the panels themselves - at the Opal School Summer Symposium. Children in Opal 2 spend a year immersed in a study of "The We... Continue reading
Posted May 15, 2014 at Opal School Blog
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Workshop Follow-Up: Reading the World
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Opal School teachers and children share their work with the world through professional development workshops. The effort involved in this is significant - but it's our way of fulfilling our mission of strengthening public education well beyond the walls of Portland Children's Museum. Last week, we held a program called... Continue reading
Posted May 5, 2014 at Opal School Blog
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Creating Possible Worlds
We are so pleased to present our very first ebook! The first to come in our Symposium Series, this ebook documents a project facilitated by Opal Beginning School teachers Lauren Adams and Caroline Wolfe with children ages 3 - 5 years, which they presented at the Opal School Symposium in... Continue reading
Posted Apr 7, 2014 at Opal School Blog
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Testing Talk
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The Magical Tree of Birdland At this morning's whole school gathering, Opal 1 told us about what they've been studying. Taylor explained that they were studying birds and then they saw a giant nest in the woods and they wanted to figure out how big it was and then they... Continue reading
Posted Apr 2, 2014 at Opal School Blog
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