5th and 6th Graders Immersed in 17th Century Life
When Chris Sanborn’s fifth and sixth graders at the Greenfield Center School in Greenfield, Massachusetts study Colonial America in his classroom, “they don’t just pick up a textbook and read about the seventeenth century, they’ll experience a bit of the seventeenth century.”
Chris will use his love of woodworking and his knowledge of colonial crafts to give students the chance to carve their own spoons and trenchers from native wood. In Sanborn’s classroom, children explore learning themes in-depth, and teachers integrate the arts and social and ethical issues into studies.
Chris focuses not only on nurturing the intellectual growth of his students but on nurturing the social and emotional growth of his students as well.
He credits Antioch’s Teacher Certification Program, specifically Professor David Sobel’s Conceptual Development class, with teaching him the skills he needed to be able to design a curriculum that is developmentally appropriate for his students. “I apply all of that teaching in my daily and hourly work!it really helps me meet kids where they are so they can maximize their learning,” says Chris. “The ability to look through that developmental lens has been enormous! everything I learned in class [at Antioch University New England] I can apply here.”
