News + Media
Ten Lessons in Ten Years at Magnolia (Public School Montessorian)
This year marks ten years since we opened the doors to Magnolia Montessori For All—Austin’s first free public Montessori school.
We’ve faced a lot of challenges along the way—such as nearly closing down due to state accountability issues, losing high numbers of staff members during particularly difficult years, receiving lawsuit threats because we put a mask mandate in place during COVID, continuous flooding and relentless plumbing issues, and struggling with limited funding.
Luckily, the honor of serving children and their families in one of the city’s most racially, culturally, and socioeconomically diverse communities outweighs all the struggles.
A Beautiful Public Montessori School in Austin, Texas We All Wish We Could Attend (The Montessori Notebook)
I’m super excited to share with you today an amazing public Montessori school in Austin, Texas. It’s been a while since we did a school tour around here and so important to highlight that there are many great programs making Montessori accessible to all.
Disasters—and Bad Architecture—Can Affect Human Happiness and Productivity (Metropolis)
On April 4, Susan S. Szenasy, Metropolis’s director of design innovation, moderated a panel at the downtown offices of Page architects on this complex topic.
The increasing regularity of major climatic events like Hurricane Harvey has led to meaty discussions among architects, planners, and developers about how best to prepare vulnerable urban communities. This preparation should not be limited to times of emergency, however, but should be anchored to a long-term project of resiliency involving community support, education, and public space. On April 4, Susan S. Szenasy, Metropolis’s director of design innovation, moderated a panel at the downtown offices of Page architects overlooking the crown jewel of Austin’s urban fabric: Lady Bird Lake and its hike-and-bike trail.
Moderator Susan S. Szenasy leads the discussion at Page’s office. The panelists, from left to right: Sara Cotner, founder and CEO, Magnolia Montessori for All; Sue M. Cox, executive vice dean for academics, Dell Medical School, the University of Texas at Austin; Sam Gosling, professor of psychology at UT Austin; Adam Nims, managing director, Trammell Crow Company; Wendy Dunnam Tita, principal/interior design director, Page; Larry Speck, senior principal, Page. Courtesy Leonid Furmansky
Diverse-by-Design Charter Schools (The Century Foundation)
In San Diego, a former carpentry teacher imagined a high school where students of all backgrounds and abilities would engage in project-based learning without academic tracking. In New Orleans, a group of parents concerned about the shuttering of their local school after Hurricane Katrina rallied together to create a new school that would reflect the diversity of their racially and economically mixed neighborhood. In Rhode Island, the mayor of an affluent suburb led the charge for a new regional school model that would allow children from his community of Cumberland and those from the bankrupt city of Central Falls to go to school together. These educators, parents, and policymakers all helped to open charter schools, and at the center of the creation of each of these schools was a shared vision: to use the flexibility of the charter model to incorporate diversity into the design of a school.
How Self-Directed Field Studies Can Build Future Leaders (Education Week)
Three 3rd graders were on their way back from PetSmart with their class’s new gerbil (later to be named “Captain” during a community circle). To raise money for the purchase of their pet, the class had hosted a snow cone sale. Mae, Caleb, and Chiara were the ones tasked with planning a Field Study to take the class’s money to PetSmart and purchase the gerbil.
Unfortunately, they hit a snag on the return trip when they tried to board the city bus with the gerbil in hand. They quickly learned that rodents (and all other pets) are prohibited on mass transit in the city of Austin. They did the only thing possible in the situation: they sweet-talked their way onto the city bus with the rodent in tow.
Building Young Entrepreneurs For Change (Education Week)
Almost every school aspires to build leaders of the future. You’ll find it written in our taglines and mission statements and bumper stickers: “Building Tomorrow’s Leaders Today.”
And yet how many of our children’s daily experiences align with true preparation for a future we can only begin to imagine? Our children frequently sit in rows, talking only when called on, doing the same thing at the same time. Our schools look more like factories than 21st century workplaces.
What Do a Dead Guinea Pig and a Lemonade Stand Have to Do With Real Learning? (Education Week)
It was hard to miss. All the flowers and the multiple tombstones were quite conspicuous. Upon closer inspection, it became more clear what I was looking at: a student-built gravesite for a guinea pig named Cocoa. There was a drawing of Cocoa posted along the fence right near the grave and profuse words of affirmation and appreciation.
To the left, another group of children was taking full advantage of the attention-grabbing nature of the grave by posting a sign of their own: an advertisement for an upcoming lemonade sale fundraiser they were putting together.
4 Critical Personalized Learning Questions, Answered (Education Dive)
Now that it’s regularly used in marketing, defining one of the industry’s hottest buzz phrases can get difficult
Among the most popular buzz phrases in education over the last several years, “personalized learning” is also one of the K-12’s most promising trends as the sector works to move away from the “factory model” of the past century and toward what some have called “School 2.0.”