A beloved TKG Tradition is our Celebration of Learning. Our community gathers, as a show of deep support, to celebrate students and create value for their ownership in the process of learning. It supports our mission to offer an interactive and collaborative approach to education.
The projects, or examples of work, will reflect your student’s personal growth and process and should be celebrated for the effort. If you see an opportunity for your student to deepen or expand their work, encourage them to stick with it! Teachers create the environment for students to plan and prepare for a Celebration of Learning and beyond – by encouraging positive relationships to learning and challenging students to reach for more. Sometimes students will start and stop a project – possibly to a point where it looks unfinished. In this case, as a Triangle (parent, student, teacher), we can take perceived failure, set-backs, and differently paced perseverance as opportunities to have meaningful conversations about learning and community values.
We strongly support bringing families together for regular events because we believe that a close extended community is a network of support and safety. As children strengthen relationships with peers and their parents, they extend the places where they can go for care and comfort. Don’t we all want a neighborhood like this?
There are many ways that you can support the student’s learning and confidence building at a Celebration of Learning:
- Ask students to share their project. Listen to understand rather than offer suggestions.
- Inquire about the collaboration that may have happened in completing the work. Sometimes people think they did it all alone but there are usually helpers along the way – even if they were unknowing participants!
- Study their documentation or the representation of their process
- Ask about their challenges and how they overcame set backs
- Ask them if they plan to continue the project or if they have any questions about what comes next
