My goal is the development of students with a life-long interest in learning, with solid experience in self -direction, goal selection, and community membership, equipped with the requisite basic skills and confident in her/his capacity for success because she/he has experienced success. The following are tenets of my philosophy which support these aspirations :

1. Shared responsibility for the development of the curriculum and educational environment
      a. Active parent participation in the educational program brings about an integration between home and school. Children experience education within an "extended family" network and come to perceive learning as a life experience in which all ages are involved all of the time.
      b. Shared decision-making between parents and teachers keeps the program viable and flexible to meet with changing populations and changing needs.
   2. Experiential Learning
      The emphasis is on learning by doing. There is a de-emphasis on lecture and rote-centered learning. Children learn best when participating in concrete experiences where they are manipulating things and when ideas are tied to those experiences. For example, observations and record keeping while visiting the Ashland Pond over the course of more than one year.
   3. Integrated Learning
      Children learn best when that which they experience is connected as a whole. Reading, writing, computation are skills that should be used to give form to ideas and feelings but should not be divorced from the experience for then they become meaningless. Keeping a record of the growth of our salmon includes reading, writing, drawing, measuring and calculating, all essential skills but all integrated into a whole.
   4. Multiage Grouping and Looping
      A variety of ages, working with other classes and looping of the class for more than one year facilitates peer teaching, proximal learning, varied social interactions and acceptance of differences. It also provides a unique advantage for the teacher of being better able to know the needs of the children since they can remain in the learning community for more than one year.
5. Non-Graded Evaluations
      Evaluations of the child’s learning are done by the teachers, child and the parents through examples of her/his own work at her/his own unique pace rather than on comparative norms.
   6. Affective Education
      How a child feels about her/his experience is as important as the experience itself. Development of a positive self concept within each child, the clarification of moral values and the development of appropriate social skills have as much importance in my curriculum as the basic academic skills of reading, writing and mathematics. It is my belief that this "holistic" approach to education not only produces a well-rounded personality and productive member of the community but also facilitates the learning process further through the mechanism of self-reinforcement. Blended together they become interactive and interdependent.
7. Fostering Community Service
It is my belief that children need opportunities to be “in-service” to the class, school and greater community. Taking responsibility for their environment and being “stewards of the earth” is an important element of the curriculum. Community service, caring for the school, working on trails or volunteering work to the parks are relevant and foster a sense of caring.
8. Promoting Physical Fitness and Healthy Lifestyles
    Healthy activities and nutritious food are keys to fitness and longevity. We believe in promoting physical exercise through weekly walking fieldtrips and hiking. We believe in promoting healthy and nutritious school snacks and lunches.