Jenny Krystopowicz: You did all the measurements so you know exactly? Awesome. And then describe–

Cynthia Robinson-Rivers: As educators and we all see the same thing right now, a presentation of mental health and emotional needs from kids that is more intense than in my 20 or so years of working with students. When kids are able to tinker around with things in an open-ended, non-confined way, when they are able to have some ownership and responsibility, it’s therapeutic.

Girl: Yes, yes.

Robinson-Rivers: Van Ness is a public school in the southeast area of Washington, D.C. We have pre-K 3 through 5th grade students. We have three primary design anchors when we think about our school model. One of them, and the most important of them, is student wellbeing. Second is maker-centered learning. And then lastly, student as autonomous learner.

Girl: Two, 4, 6, 8.

Robinson-Rivers: When you give them autonomy and choice, they are so much more motivated to engage in the learning. There is a Maker Space in every classroom. It’s the part of the room where kids can go and tinker and create, they can respond to challenges. And it is the place where all of our ideas around getting kids into a growth mindset where they’re understanding that mistakes and failure are opportunities to learn and grow, they actually experience that in the Maker Space.

Krystopowicz: The revision part, you know what would be really cool? To add the lights, the LED lights from the–

Krystopowicz: It’s a living environment. Every year it’s changing. I’m adding and tweaking. We’re in such a stressful time right now where students are experiencing more trauma in their lives that I kind of have to build on just more simple, like, joyful moments in the classroom. Playful time is such a great opportunity to build in those social-emotional components. A lot of times I’m noticing, like, a happy moment for them or a struggle, and that’s a great time just to get them to think, like, well, what are you feeling in this moment when you are making and it didn’t turn out the way you want it to be? Or you literally just threw everything out because you thought it was just horrible? And now let’s go back and think about how we can change that opportunity, what fixes are you going to make? It’s not the end, you’re just, you know, you keep trying.

Boy: It, that means Jake needs to finish up the script.

Krystopowicz: So three boys that love the Maker Space came to me asking to do more projects with the 3D printer. They decided they wanted to make props. They like to write and they wanted to create a play. That was all their choice.

Boy: We’re making a play.

Boy: It’s like a light and dark balance play.

Krystopowicz: So they got their peer feedback today from two other students who are really helpful.

Girl: When you give all the back stories on every character, that’s really smart.

Krystopowicz: And that’s part of the process. We always try to phrase it as being helpful, kind and specific. And then it takes practice.

Girl: Suggestion. Maybe spend a little bit more time on how Apollo broke his sword or–

Krystopowicz: There’s so much laughter just seeing them be silly with each other. They’re still doing it in a structured way, like they’re typing, they’re editing, they’re email me <laughs> their papers. They’re getting feedback. So even though it is a formal process, there’s still that creativity spot where they can come up with their own play. Seeing those moments and examples definitely indicate that there’s joy in this and that it’s something that they look forward to.

Schools That Work

Van Ness Elementary School