At Portfolio School, we utilize Project-Based Learning to fully immerse and engage our students in their learning. One of the most beneficial processes we use is the collaborative fusion of cross-disciplinary projects that span core academic disciplines, thematic unit work, and fundamental special skills such as computational thinking, art, and making.
Thank you to the team at HundrED for inviting us to present at the LEAPS Summit. It was so wonderful connecting with educators from around the world interested in learning about our school…Watch our pre-recorded panel discussion.
Imagine you have an idea. Something you’re passionate about or some solution you think will help people deal with a problem. The next step is to figure out how you’re going to implement it. And that can be daunting…
To say we have a “Social Emotional Learning” curriculum is not completely accurate. At Portfolio, it’s more like our Social Emotional Learning is infused in everything we do.
Check out Portfolio co-founder, Doug Schachtel, on the “Learning Unboxed” Podcast.
As a school team we recognized a desire to utilize technology in a way that not only allowed us to stay organised and collaborative, but most importantly allowed - hopefully even insisted - students take increased ownership of their learning experiences. After an exhaustive search, we ultimately landed on the Altitude Platform.
Understanding the differences between traditional, progressive and project-based curriculums may help in navigating an unknown future.
Listen to a podcast featuring Portfolio co-founder, Babur Habib…Everyone deserves the best possible education, yet our current traditional one-size-fits-all educational model born during the industrial age is not meeting the needs of our new, rapidly evolving knowledge-based economy. The next generation deserves a personalized educational experience that better equips them with the skills, values, and knowledge they need to thrive in a new modern world. We got to chat with two leaders pushing to revolutionize education, Orly Friedman, co-founder of the Red Bridge School, and Babur Habib, co-founder of the Portfolio School. Both share priceless insight and stories that highlight the challenges of helping children better prepare for a new modern world.
I want to take you through the steps of a fun, woodworking project: the making of a simple wooden wall sconce. This is a lamp that hangs on the wall and provides soft, diffuse light from behind a sculptural shade. The shade is built from a wooden frame with translucent fabric or heavy paper stretched over the center. These lamps can be abstract or representational. Depending on the wattage of the bulb they can be a serious source of light or a nightlight.
At Portfolio every day is maker day. However, we are always searching for ways to provide our students with even more opportunities to learn and apply design and making skills. To expose them to a wide panorama of making possibilities – from woodworking and welding to cooking, sewing and robotics. That way, they can apply these skills to their everyday work, individual projects, and inquiry-based unit projects.
…my great-grandfather and my grandfather were both optical scientists, so there is a tradition in my family of being able to make anything. My grandfather worked for Kodak, and he invented one of the first pacemakers. He and I spent many afternoons building things together!
David is a great fit for Portfolio, with extensive teaching experience and excellent fabrication and design skills. He is an incredibly student-centered and collaborative teacher.
Screentime is a fundamental aspect of raising children who can engage with an increasingly complex world, but it’s fair to ask, “How much is too much?” In advance of our panel, hosted by the Portfolio School, we’ve asked our guests to respond to this question: What do you think is most misunderstood about kids and screens, and why?
The super thinkers got the opportunity to visit the quantum engineering lab at NYU. Quantum computing is an exponential jump in computing from even the best supercomputers that exist today. It's the next holy grail in computing and a number of academic labs, and companies have been working on it for the past few decades. Google just announced a big milestone in this area and here's a video of it if you're interested.
It's very nicely tied to our ice unit as well. The quantum chips have to be cooled to VERY low temperatures (colder than space!) to operate them. The 'fridge' for it works with liquid Helium which has a temperature of just a few degrees above absolute zero.
Joe Yuan a PhD student at the lab gave us a tour of 3 things:
1) The Molecular Beam Epitaxy machine where the wafers for the chips are made. In this machine you can deposit semiconductor material one atomic layer at a time!
2) An extremely cold fridge where this group studies some fundamental properties of the semiconductors to design quantum chips. These fridges can cool the quantum chips to a fraction above absolute temperature of -459.67F
3) A cool experiment with superconducting material that can levitate on top of magnets when cooled to liquid nitrogen temperature. About -320F.
Ava was our photographer. She took some amazing pictures and videos. Here they are
It has been an exceptional first month of school at Portfolio, with everyone buzzing with thoughtful and joyful energy! We have embarked on a new school year in a wonderful new space, and we are immersed in our innovative approach to heart, hands, head, and body.
How much can kids learn about Artificial Intelligence in one week? At Ai Camp, our campers learned to express themselves through Ai creations while learning foundational concepts such as computational thinking, seeing the world through sensors, and machine learning. Here are some highlights…
I am very excited to welcome Susanna Block as our Curriculum Development/Implementation Specialist for next year! Susanna is an exceptionally thoughtful and student-centered educator, who brings more than a decade of experience as a teacher and administrator to this role. She has served as both a teacher and leader, and has led efforts to shape curriculum at both the lower and middle school levels.
Through Project ScaleUp teachers will be able to search for project “maps” according to different topics and grade levels, and even modify them for their students. The library of quality project maps will thus grow as each new customized project (which has been successfully implemented) is uploaded to the platform.
I’m thrilled to introduce the Portfolio Community to another talented educator joining our team in the Fall, Katie Cheek. Her expertise, deep commitment to project-based learning and teaching, and student-centric approach are abundantly clear and impressed us in her hiring process. She is also warm, highly creative, and has a great sense of humor.
We are very excited to welcome Molly Brown as our new Lower School teacher! Molly inspired and impressed us during her candidate visit to Portfolio with her warmth, expertise, and the connections that she made with our students. Her demo lesson engaged our students in a hands-on, inquiry-based activity, and her conversations with us reflected her passion for experiential, maker-centered learning and teaching.
