The Festival of Learning is back!

After taking a few years off from organizing community education events, I couldn’t be prouder to let you know that the Festival of Learning is back—bigger and better than ever! On Saturday, February 24, more than 30 innovative schools and educational programs are taking over the beautiful space of the Branch Park Pavilion at Mueller.

This means that, rain or shine, families will be able to visit with educators and students, play games, try new arts and crafts, and learn more about the growing alternative education community in Austin. It all happens from 10am to 1pm, and you can find the details, including all the participating schools, on the Alt Ed Austin website.

The Festival has always been a fun gathering of amazing local educators who want to share their passion for learning. But this year feels special because we’ve been able to expand the number of participants and guests we can host in the fantastic space at Mueller. Parents and kids of all ages will be able to talk to school representatives—including students—and look at cool projects they’ve created. Hands-on experiences will include art projects, code wheels and puzzle boxes, magnet science, knife skills and kitchen hacks, bookmaking, wildflower seed crafts, and much more.

For example, Marie from Tigerlily Preschool offered us a preview of what she’s got in store for little visitors to the Festival: “At Tigerlily children express their own ideas through paint, clay, building, collage, mud making, dance, and drawing. Our table at the festival honors this last medium, drawing, as a powerful tool for young children. Come join our community doodle!”

For older learners, Amy from Headwaters School said they will be sharing “an interactive Identity Board where attendees can use yarn to signify different parts of their identities on a large labeled peg board.” You’ll have to come to the Festival if you want to discover exactly what that mysterious project is all about!

And for those in-between ages and everyone else, Pascal from Bake Austin and Ken from Austin School for the Driven are teaming up to teach basic knife skills (with cut-proof gloves provided!) along with some handy kitchen hacks.

Our goal this year is to give learners of all ages a chance to discover the wealth of opportunities available in Austin’s creative, learner-centered schools, as well as beyond-school programs. The open setting at Branch Park Pavilion allows everyone to move from booth to booth easily to chat, share ideas, and take part in all the activities. And our new location right in the heart of the Mueller business district makes it easy to stop for lunch or a snack before the Festival and burn off some energy at the playground afterward.

Please take a look at our Festival of Learning webpage or Facebook event page for all the information you need about how to get there and where to park, as well as ways to share the details with friends and family. We hope to see you there!

Searching for the “right” school

Alt Ed Austin welcomes Laura Delgado to the blog today to share with our readers some of her wisdom about choosing schools, preschools, and early childhood programs—and to invite you all to the 2nd Annual Small Schools of South Austin Tour!

Laura is a certified Montessori guide with more than 20 years of experience working with children and families. She owns The Montessori Tree, which provides support and education for both parents and children, guided by the Montessori philosophy of respect. She also runs a beautiful home-based, largely outdoor toddler program called The Nest.

Nine years ago, I sat in a circle of expectant mothers. My belly had grown along with my awareness of the uncertainties that lay ahead, but I was certain of one thing at least.

I wanted my little one to start school early, and I already had a school picked out. Silly, right? After all, there are so many other things to think about when you’re expecting, and school? Well, it’s not usually at the top of the list of considerations for first-time parents.

Still, I found myself encouraging the other mothers to start looking at schools. I know it seems far away, I implored, but think about getting a feel for your options, time is going to fly by!

Little did I know how quickly it would fly by! It doesn’t seem that long ago that I was sitting in that circle and, yet, just the other day, my partner and I were talking about middle school options for our daughter! How is that even possible?!

All that being said, I know how overwhelming the school search process can be for first-time parents. Where to begin? When to begin? The only reason I spoke up that day was because I was working in admissions in a large school at the time, and I spoke with so many families who confessed, I wish someone had explained this process to us when we were expecting!

If you’re reading this, and you’re just getting started on your search, regardless of your child’s age, take heart. There are an increasing number of early childhood options available to families in Austin, especially since the onset of the pandemic, which fueled the opening of a great number of “micro-schools.” In addition, there are great resources, like Alt Ed Austin, who will support you in finding the “right” school for your child and your family.

On that note, I’ve had many families ask, Where should we go? What’s the “right” choice? Ultimately, I think that answer is different for every family, every child even. What works for some families may not work for others, what works for one child in your family, may not work for another.

While the school search can truly be a soul-searching process, I always encourage families to begin by considering logistics. How far are we willing to drive? What’s in our budget? Are we needing full or part-time care? Do we need year-round care or can we get by with less?

Once you narrow down your options, you can start considering other factors. Are we looking for a specific philosophy or open to exploring something new? Is class size important to us? Are we looking for specific elements, such as extracurricular offerings? How involved do we want to be?

Ultimately, I encourage parents to visit the school and “get a feel” for the space. The reason is that I’ve had families tell me time and again, We finally found a school, and we knew it was the right one because it just ‘felt right.’ 

I truly believe this is the number-one indicator of "goodness-of-fit." After visiting a school, I encourage you to ask . . . How did I feel when I walked into the space? Was I able to imagine my child learning and growing there? 

In exploring the questions above, you will get closer to finding the right program for your child, or better yet, a handful that feel promising! Following is simply a process of educating yourself about the admissions process at your schools of choice. 

Still, I know that finding time to do all of the above can feel a little intimidating. For this reason, I nurtured a seed of inspiration that sought to answer the question, How can we, as educators and school owners, make this process a little easier for families? 

The answer came in the form of a “tour,” inspired, funnily enough, by the East Austin Studio Tour. Wouldn’t it be great, I thought, if families could spend one morning visiting a handful of schools without having to take time out of their work week? Instead of touring studios, they could tour schools!

This year, I’m thrilled to be collaborating with thirteen other schools to host our 2nd Annual Small Schools of South Austin Tour on Saturday, October 21st from 9am to noon. It’s a celebration, of sorts, of the diverse program offerings available to families in south Austin!

Parents, if you’re just starting your search or still looking for the right fit, I highly encourage you to take advantage of this FREE event. Children are welcome, and there’s no need to RSVP. 

For more information and a full listing of schools, you can follow @themontessoritree or find the event on Facebook. We look forward to seeing you there!

 
Laura Delgado | The Nest at The Montessori Tree

A chat about AI and the new learning landscape

Photo by Levart_Photographer on Unsplash

You’ve probably seen funny, intriguing, or scary news items popping up over the past few weeks about Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the form of ChatGPT, Claude, LLaMA, and other interfaces. You might have heard podcasters explaining or bemoaning the revolutionary new world that’s about to replace our old one. At this point, for me, it’s all still pretty confusing in terms of how it will affect my day-to-day life, but I’m curious and very cautiously optimistic.

One thing that’s pretty certain: Our kids’ lives will be dramatically shaped by AI—and in ways we can’t possibly predict.

In education, two big names—Khan Academy and Duolingo—announced last week that they are on board the ChatGPT train, having been granted early access to develop and test ideas. We’ve already seen both learning platforms suggest some of the benefits they anticipate for learners and educators, but let me preface this short summary by saying I have no idea what the real-world educational outcomes will be because we are so early in the exploration stage. Having said that, here’s a rundown of what’s happening at Khan Academy and Duolingo, along with some links that will take you on a deeper dive, if you’re interested. 

ChatGPT-4, which stands for Generative Pre-trained Transformer 4, is a sophisticated AI model that can understand the context of questions and create written responses that are much more “human-like” than past versions. Khan Academy, a nonprofit dedicated to free, high-quality education for all, has been around since 2008 and is well known in the alt ed community for its library of outstanding YouTube video lessons on math and a vast array of other subjects. Duolingo is a for-profit language learning company that has been on the scene for 12 years. Duolingo teaches more than 100 languages to people all over the world in gamefied lessons, primarily through phone apps. 

There is a free version of Duolingo, but the new AI-assisted features will be offered only within a $30-per-month paid premium version. These features will offer learners more detailed explanations of how a language works in a feature called Explain My Answer. But most fascinating and useful will be the option for learners to role-play and interact with the AI tool like a personal tutor. After a conversation, users will get specific feedback they can use to improve their responses in their next Duolingo conversation or in real life.

Even more powerful possibilities seem to lie in the approach Khan Academy is taking to this new AI tech. Khan is calling its AI-powered platform Khanmigo. It is still in the development stage and open primarily to educators and school districts that are already working with Khan Academy on other projects, but it’s likely that more and more features will be rolled out to ordinary users in the near future.

Because each learner is different, the value of Khanmigo is that it will immediately adapt its tutoring in any subject to meet the individual’s needs, just like a one-on-one tutoring session with a human teacher. So, if a student is struggling with a particular type of math operation, Khanmigo will ask questions that direct the student toward a deeper understanding, rather than providing quick answers. And if a student needs to understand a controversial current news story, the Khanmigo tutor could gather information in order to debate multiple sides of the issue with the student in real time.

Khan Academy also wants its AI tool to become a valuable assistant for educators as well as students, removing some of the time-consuming work of lesson planning and grading so that educators can spend more time engaging with each student.

Sensibly, the folks at Khan are carefully communicating with users and adapting their projects to make sure they are safe and that kids are truly getting an enhanced learning experience rather than simply getting all the answers to their questions from Khanmigo. The short demonstration founder Sal Khan did on YouTube reminded me of a Socratic back-and-forth between students and teachers.

Next week, I’ll take a look at the world that’s opening up for students with disabilities as a result of AI learning tools. If you have hopes, fears, or experiences to share regarding AI and learning, please comment!

Here are a few links to learn more:

• John Fensterwald, “AI in School: Virtually Chatting with George Washington and Your Personal GPT-4 Tutor,” EdSource, March 20, 2023.

• Khan Academy, “GPT-4 In-Depth Demo,” March 14, 2023 (YouTube video).

• Aisha Malik, “Duolingo Launches New Subscription Tier with Access to AI Tutor Powered by GPT-4,” TechCrunch, March 14, 2023.

• John Spencer, “We Can’t Predict How AI Will Change Learning,” February 4, 2023 (podcast).

• Tyler Cowen, “AI Is About to Transform Childhood. Are We Ready?” Bloomberg, March 16, 2023 (opinion); and “How to Learn and Teach Economics with Large Language Models, Including GPT,”  SSRN, March 17, 2023 (academic paper, with Alexander T. Tabarrok).

• Ray Schroeder, “AI Is Impacting Education, But the Best Is Yet to Come,” Inside Higher Ed, March 15, 2023 (opinion).

Shelley Sperry | Sperry Editorial

Media Monday: Empowering kids to become master storytellers

On Wednesday, March 8, at the Austin Convention Center during SXSW EDU 2023, anyone without an official ticket to the conference can explore events in the Expo area—at no charge. If you decide to go, we recommend checking out some amazing Austin student journalists featured in a presentation about PBS’s StoryMaker platform. Leah Clapman of PBS NewsHour’s Student Reporting Labs will be hosting the event in Hall 4, and the young storytellers will talk about their experiences in local and national media.

The StoryMaker platform can be used by kids—with support from educators and parents—who want to learn the ropes of traditional and especially digital media so they can investigate any topic under the sun, share ideas with their peers, and advocate for causes they care about.

For kids, the site offers a huge array of tools, explainers, and other resources that can assist them in their storytelling. For example, they can learn the vocabulary of video and audio technology, take online lessons to polish their skills as interviewers and researchers, practice editing a visual or written piece, learn to fact-check like a pro, and discover how to avoid spreading misinformation in social media. For kids who are interested in communicating their passions—whether they’re traditionally schooled, alt schooled, homeschooled, or unschooled—there’s plenty to spark experimentation and connection.

And for educators, there are additional sets of resources, including project prompts and lesson plans. All the tools are designed to help students find their voices, express themselves in new ways, and reach new audiences.

You can check out more of PBS’s student reporters’ stories here. And the best place to begin with the StoryMaker platform is—logically—on their Getting Started page.

Shelley Sperry | Sperry Editorial

Small Schools of South Austin Tour 2022

Marie Catrett, a frequent contributor to this blog and an extraordinary early childhood educator, is back with a brief update on Tigerlily Preschool and an invitation to an exciting new event for anyone interested in exploring South Austin preschools.

Hello, this is Marie Catrett, writing to you from deep in the adventure of launching a new program. After years of running separate, in-home childcare programs, Lulu Bautista (formerly of Corazón Neighborhood Preschool) and I (formerly of Tigerlily Preschool, out-of-my-home edition) began meeting and dreaming about what a combined program, out in the world, could look like. In this quest we have found a beautiful new home, met city code regulations, obtained our commercial child care license, filled our new space with joy, and jumped into the process of merging our methods into a cohesive, vibrant, ready-for-the-children new program. We proudly present to you our Tigerlily Preschool.

But wait! The only thing we’re missing is … getting the word out to our expanded community!

On November 5th, a collection of schools for young learners in south Austin are holding an event we’re calling the Small Schools of South Austin Tour. Thirteen schools are on the list and all of us will welcome visitors to come see our programs in a casual, drop-in format on that day. For over 20 years I’ve been telling prospective families to go see programs that interest them, as we truly have such a variety of programs here in Austin. Discover the place that feels right to your family for your child.

Help spread the word and RSVP here.

Marie Catrett | Tigerlily Preschool | Small Schools of South Austin Tour

Sudbury silver linings

Today we’re pleased to share an important update from Bruce Smith, a longtime staff member of Clearview Sudbury School, about the Clearview community’s democratic decision-making around reopening during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a time when so many are stressed and scrambling, when good options seem rare, gratitude for the silver linings becomes that much richer. As schools and unschoolers alike approach the end of summer, I am very fortunate to be part of a community that just made our own hard, but healthy, decision.

At a special (and, of course, virtual) meeting in late July, the staff, students, and parents of Clearview Sudbury School voted to push the first day of our 2020–2021 school year to 2021— January 6th, to be precise. Our schedule the rest of the year will also see reduced hours and four-day weeks. This vote followed two rounds of surveys and informal discussions, as we worked over several weeks to assess everyone’s preferences and concerns, along with crunching all the numbers we could get our hands on.

While the outcome was relatively difficult and frustrating, there is also a degree of comfort and gratitude. I know I feel better putting off reopening to a date when more of us will feel safer returning. Neither opening while Texas remains a hotspot nor spinning the revolving door of opening and reclosing held any appeal for me. Nor was I interested in returning to the week-to-week uncertainty of this past spring, not knowing if we’d be closed for a week, a month, or the entire semester.

There have been many times over the years when I’ve appreciated the democratic processes of Sudbury schools, but this is the first time it’s hit home quite like this. There’s still plenty of uncertainty, of course, and it isn’t getting any easier to support our families, to keep everyone feeling connected at a distance. However, in comparison to so many other schools, I feel incredibly lucky to be part of one where everyone has a voice and a vote, where we get to decide for ourselves, together, what approach feels safest and best for us.

In a perfect world, every family would have this much of a say in the decisions affecting their children’s learning. And who knows? If this crisis leads more people to find the educational option that works best for them, well, maybe that will be a silver lining on a grand scale.

Thanks for reading, and my best wishes for health and strength to all of you.

Bruce Smith