A "Typical" Day at Tallgrass Sudbury School

What is a typical day like at Tallgrass Sudbury School?  Here is an article by staff member, Melissa Bradford.

Often staff members are asked what a typical day is like at a Sudbury school.  It's very difficult to answer this question, because every day is very different and activities are constantly evolving.  Here is my attempt to describe the kinds of activities that take place on a "typical" day at Tallgrass.

I staff on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.  Usually when I arrive I sign in, check the phone for messages and walk through the school to get a sense of what's been going on lately.  I look for evidence of new activities, and catch up on ongoing ones.  I might see new announcements on the bulletin boards, the start of a new K'nex creation being built, new motions for this week's School Meeting, new artwork on the walls or drying on the table.  I'll check to see if progress has been made on the 2000 piece puzzle.  Are there new Judicial Committee complaints for the JC to consider today?  Do any library books need to be reshelved? 

When other staff members arrive, we confer by looking at the "to do" list on the white board of the office and discuss what administrative duties we will try to accomplish today (update the website, balance the checkbook, return phone calls, revise the parent handbook) whenever we are not tied up baking banana bread, responding to five-year-olds asking us to play with them, attending School Meeting, helping the arts & crafts corporation write bylaws for use of art supplies, certifying someone on the computer, or discussing the latest Harry Potter movie.

It's not that we don't ever assume a traditional teaching role, because we do on occasion teach a class when students request it.  Every year I am asked by a few students to do science, math or algebra classes, probably because they know I have a background in teaching math and science.  We always decide together how often the class will meet, what topics they want to cover, and how they want to go about mastering the material.  Being able to teach students who are choosing to be in class is a very different, and much more enjoyable, experience than when I taught eighth grade in a traditional school early in my career.  During one algebra class, a student observed, "I didn't think I liked math, but this was so much fun.  I think that's because I was choosing to do it.  Can't we meet more than twice a week?  Please?"  I laughed to myself and thought, "I never would have heard this in a traditional classroom." 

There are also many times when I observe how unnecessary we are to the learning process.  Recently, one of our five-year-old students put a sign up sheet on the board to offer to teach a ballet class.  Another five-year-old signed up for the class, but several weeks had gone by, so I thought nothing actually came of it.  Then I happened to walk by the main room, and there they were, the one student teaching the other first position, second position, stretching, pointing toes and so on.  Never mind that one of our staff members studied ballet for many years.  These students knew exactly how they wanted to share and acquire knowledge, and they went about doing so without any interference on the part of staff members.

I'm always amazed at the conversations that fly between the "gamers" as they discuss and share the intricate strategies involved with catching Pokemon.  Most of the gamers rely heavily on one of the oldest students, who has an almost encyclopedic knowledge of Pokemon gaming.  I've also watched a student teach herself how to play ukelele  in a very short amount of time by watching youtube videos.  She had only been playing for a few weeks, but she had the whole art room singing, "...Let's get rich and build a house on a mountain making everybody look like ants..."  This led to a discussion about how we really needed to do a talent show this year to utilize the stage we have in our new building.

Another activity I've been involved in is the Tallgrass Cafe, a concession that first operated two years ago.  It was inactive last year, but was started up again this year.  A group of five students takes turns working the cafe.  On the menu?  Mocha, hot chocolate, and chai tea, cafe au lait, and occasionally, baked goods.  As a staff member, I helped the students learn how to make the drinks, figure out how to organize the cafe, purchase the supplies, price the drinks, and divide up the earnings.  Twice a week students set up, take orders, make the drinks, collect the money, and clean up afterwards.  Running the cafe meant a fair amount of work on my part when it first got started, but now the students have become so self-sufficient they need me less and less.  In fact, more often than not, I help them get started, then move on to something else, and the next thing I know, the hot drinks have been served and everything has already been thoroughly cleaned up.

Time passes by very quickly, and usually before I realize it, chore time arrives.  A whirlwind of cleaning takes place at the end of the day as everyone cleans up their personal items and does the chores they have signed up for.  Students leave to catch their train or meet their parents when they arrive to pick them up, signing out on the attendance sheet before leaving.  One of us staff members goes through the closing procedure, and another "typical" day has come to a close.

When you visit our school, it may look like nothing is happening, everything is happening, or complete chaos!  There is no way to predict what might be happening on a given day.  But one thing is for certain, you will get a glimpse of what it looks like when students are in charge of their own education.