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Alison Pilon Nokes teaches art, among other subjects, at Huntington-Surrey High School in Austin. Her guest contribution here is adapted from her recent post on the school’s own blog . After about ten years in the visual art education world, I feel pretty strongly that everyone should take an art class—every year, if possible! Throughout my own educational and professional experiences, I have always felt freed by the opportunity for creative problem solving and exploration of visual media provided through the visual arts. I was, and still am, able to process many different parts of my life through an art outlet. And while I do, personally, as an adult, identify as an artist, I think the benefits of working through an artistic process—much like the experience of working with the scientific method in a science course—are worthwhile for everyone to experience as they venture through their education, no matter what they end up doing and becoming.  We are living in a rapidly c...

Meagan Welch is an AMI Montessori trained guide with a master’s degree in education who serves as the director of Julia’s Garden Montessori Family Learning Center . She has a passion for sharing the insights of Dr. Maria Montessori’s profound discoveries into human development with children and families. Below, she shares her candid thoughts and concerns on the emerging phenomenon of pandemic learning pods. The “pandemic pod” phenomenon has exploded with an immediacy never seen before in education, and things are getting strange. There are pods hiring lawyers to write up contracts with Covid-19 infection contingency plans. People are ponying up serious cash to hire teachers directly. Freelance teaching is now “a thing.” There are internet forums and websites functioning as ad hoc HR departments to help connect families with similar exposure levels. Strangers are attempting to create very intimate learning environments for children run by parents with no educational background at a...

Pam Nicholas is an extraordinary educator who serves as executive director of Huntington-Surrey High School . Below, she shares her candid thoughts and feelings about the challenges and uncertainties of the coming school year amidst the COVID-19 pandemic that is currently surging here in Central Texas. I, like many other parents and people in the education community, have been glued to any news or information about what school district plans are looking like for the fall. As both a teacher and an administrator for our small private high school, I have so many emotions running through me about the idea of returning to school in the fall.  I know that many kids learn best when they are face-to-face. I miss hugging my kids (okay, students) every day. I miss seeing them face-to-face, and I even miss going on my occasional Starbucks runs for them. It was hard to see them only online in the spring and to know that they too were emotionally struggling with so much going on in the...

Here at Alt Ed Austin, we always—but especially in these difficult times—find joy in shining a spotlight on educators and artists who are using their time and talents to meet the evolving needs of learners in creative and generous ways. This guest post, from MusicAlly ’s Caeli Smith, is music to our ears. On March 15, 2020, I played what would be my last performance for a very, very long time. I savored the time on stage at Miller Theater at Columbia University, performing with internationally renowned pianist Simone Dinnerstein. It was an all Bach concert, and I luxuriated in the music and the feeling of communicating with my colleagues on stage. With no conductor, we used our bodies and eyes to send signals to each other and play in tandem. The evening had a special gravity. We all knew what was coming. The next day, wham —my entire performance season was obliterated. I deleted everything from my calendar, too sad to remember what I was supposed to be doing that day. I spent a f...

Media Mondays are back. There is so much interesting and important creative work in film, books, podcasting, and other media related to alternative education these days, we’d like to highlight that for our Alt Ed Austin community. One project that is uplifting and inspiring us at the moment is a documentary film called 6 Weeks to Mother’s Day by Marvin Blunte, currently available to stream on Amazon Prime and Kanopy. The title doesn’t reveal the fact that the film documents a radical approach to education—a progressive, loving school in rural Thailand. The “mother” in “Mother’s Day” is the school’s founder, Rajani Dhongchai, known as Mother Aew.  Moo Baan Dek, often called Children’s Village School, has been around for more than 35 years and is run on a democratic model, inspired by the Summerhill School in England combined with Buddhist teachings. They grow much of their own food, use solar energy, and have few modern amenities. Most of the students Mother Aew and her staff ...

Bet your bottom dollar we work best under pressure. (Yo teachers, I wanna like THANK YOU!) Get your yoga pants set. Gotta earn that paycheck! On your mark, get set, let me go, let me Zoom! —Emily Glankler and Akina Adderley Zoom! A "Shoop" Parody for Teachers , Griffin School   We’re back again with more survey results from 35 Austin-area alternative schools. The first article looked at the broad topic of education in emergencies, and the second tackled social emotional education in this period of social distancing. This week we’re diving into the importance of creativity and play in many forms. The educators who contributed to our survey suggest that making space for creativity in the curriculum—and unstructured play with other students—is an essential component in their child-centered learning strategies. As a recent article by illustrator Louis Netter noted, we are all necessarily turning inward at this moment, “to the vast inner space of our thoughts and ima...

We have made the emotional health of our students the top priority in decision-making. —Chris Ready, Assistant Head of School Academy of Thought and Industry Learning to manage emotion s and maintain empathetic, healthy relationships in ordinary times is as important for young people as other kinds of learning—and it’s doubly important in times of stress and crisis. Education researchers call this aspect of education social-emotional learning, or SEL. It’s strongly tied to all kinds of supportive relationships schools build among students, educators, and parents. Most alternative schools make SEL a pivotal aspect of their curricula, offering programs like Austin Rising School ’s “Kids of Kindness.”  Social-emotional learning is the foundation all other learning rests upon for students experiencing tragedy or trauma. Even in families who are in the very best situation—without loss of life or income—most kids are currently experiencing some significant anxiety and disruption...

Photo by Glen Carrie on Unsplash Learning is a social phenomenon, and human interaction is a catalyst. Especially in emergency situations, learning is a social and emotional experience, so human relationships have to be a priority. —Nishi Andra, technology for education consultant, ICARE co-founder, and currently working with UNICEF It’s hard not to gasp when you read the stunning statistic that nine out of every ten children in the world who are normally enrolled in school are not in class at this moment because of the coronavirus pandemic. An event of this magnitude remains difficult for most Americans to comprehend, but there are precedents on a smaller scale that can help us understand COVID-19’s impact on education. Disasters—from hurricanes and fires to wars and terrorism—affect large numbers of students in specific locations every year. Think of Syrian refugees or the victims of ebola in Liberia or earthquakes in Puerto Rico and Haiti.  Prompted by a recent talk wi...

We are pleased to republish this thought-provoking piece by Antonio Buehler, which originally appeared on the Flying Squads blog . Antonio is, among other things, a co-founder, adult learner, and facilitator at Abrome . Abrome is a Self-Directed Education (SDE) community in Austin, Texas, that is now in its fourth year. As Facilitators (adult staff members), we regularly critique our approach to interacting with Learners and building community, as well as how the culture of Abrome is evolving. It was through this process, for example, that we recognized the benefits of working more closely with  Agile Learning Centers . Attending their trainings and bringing some of their tools and practices into our community helped us improve our skills as Facilitators and enabled us to better cultivate and protect an inclusive, non-oppressive culture that was building within our growing community.  However, we still face a variety of challenges that many other Self-Directed Educatio...