By Steve Barrett, Director of Outreach Wildwood School directly serves about 750 students each year. However, Wildwood’s influence extends far beyond our walls through the Wildwood Outreach Center—shaping teaching, learning, and school reform here in California, across the United States, and around the world. Wildwood’s reputation as an institution at the leading edge […]
By Steve Barrett, Director of Outreach This week four veteran Wildwood teachers embarked on an important adventure as the inaugural mentors to four graduate teaching candidates from the USC Rossier School of Education. A year of conversations about this exceptional collaboration led to this initiative that brings together carefully selected teachers-in-training with classroom […]
By Steve Barrett, Director of Outreach Every student in Wildwood’s middle school begins each day with advisory. Advisory is a time and place intentionally positioned to provide a bridge between the school day and students’ lives outside of school. That sounds simple, even obvious, and Wildwood’s middle and upper schools were founded with […]
By Steve Barrett, Director of Outreach Wildwood Division One math teacher, Drew Brody, is helping 6th graders change their minds—literally—about their mathematical abilities. Strong or weak, confident or reluctant—students have various descriptions of themselves as math learners. Mr. B., as he’s known to students, understands how those self-perceptions work on many levels, […]
“Good schooling is built on the oldest idea around: you learn by the company you keep.” ~ Deborah Meier, Founder Central Park East School & Professor, NYU Steinhardt School of Education When students and teachers keep good company together the benefits are clear for all—higher academic achievement for kids and higher job satisfaction for adults. It’s […]
By Steve Barrett, Director of Outreach There’s a Wildwood tradition that’s a familiar rite of passage on our elementary campus, and fairly unique almost everywhere else. Every Friday, it looks something like this: An 11 year-old stands on a lighted stage, the sole focus of a crowd of over 400 people. She’s there […]
“Good schooling is built on the oldest idea around: you learn by the company you keep.” ~ Deborah Meier, NYU Professor of Education & Small Schools Reform Advocate One mantra in my work as Wildwood’s Outreach Director is “Advisory is Essential.” Those words emphasize that caring, positive relationships among students and with the caring […]
By Steve Barrett, Director of Outreach Wildwood’s 5th and 8th grade social studies students have become (digital) pen pals— connecting with each other about what it’s like to be in middle school, as well also sharing their deeper knowledge of a more serious topic they study in common: slavery. The teachers hatched […]
By Steve Barrett, Director of Outreach. On one of this week’s rainy days I spend some time visiting a selection of the specialist classes at our elementary campus. Through the visual arts, technology, and PE, I get a peak into how our specialist teachers enhance our students’ daily experiences that are part of The Wildwood […]
“What the best and wisest parent wants for his child, that must we want for all the children of the community. Anything less is unlovely, and left unchecked, destroys our democracy.” – John Dewey Progressive educator John Dewey’s century-old sentiments are as timely as ever—and alive and well in the Wildwood Way. Dewey’s […]
Wildwood School cultivates reflective scholars, bold innovators and compassionate leaders equipped with the skills, ethics and inspiration to transform their world.
