Today at ESSA

In our class at ESSA, "Brain, hands and the arts," we reviewed educational sloyd as a teaching method, and then got down to the fun part, whittling reading sticks, making paper sloyd models and then making owls inspired by the book Hoots and Toots and Hairy Brutes, concerning the adventures of a small owl named "Squib". That and a bit of interesting discussion filled our day. Tomorrow we will have more of the same, but the woodworking gets even more fun as our skills grow. Evidence of learning from paper sloyd is shown above, making owls below.

I have been invited to a hands in learning conference in Dearborn, MI on Friday and Saturday, July 30-31 where I will meet with a number of other hands-on learning enthusiasts. Would it be proper to say that when it comes to the hands, change is afoot?

Also, here is a link to an assessment of Finland's school success, which reiterates some of the earlier comments in the blog...