Lara, who is in her thirteenth year at Hillbrook, shares about how she learned about and fell in love with this place in this week’s feature.
When you think about the students at Hillbrook, what’s the one thing that stands out to you?
What stands out to me about Hillbrook students is their curiosity about the world around them. Many of them are fearless investigators, digging deep into their intrinsic wonderings.
What is your favorite unit or project and why?
There are so many units that I love, especially when we are learning outdoors, such as with the mud kitchen and plant potions. My most favorite unit is the study of rocks and minerals with 2nd grade. I love to see the amazement in their eyes as they learn about how rocks are formed and changed over time and they start noticing cool rocks all around them. Some students even meet me at the local Rock and Gem show with their families and then I know they are hooked.
What made you choose to teach at Hillbrook?
I first learned about Hillbrook from a general contractor that was working on our remodel. I was subbing around at various schools trying to find one that was a fit for my teaching philosophy. He told me about Hillbrook and his eyes lit up when he was explaining how unique it was. I took a sub position at the school and then came on part-time in science while my kids were still young. During that time I fell in love with Hillbrook…the campus, the teachers and staff. I appreciated working in an environment where I could listen to children and follow their curiosity. Many schools have scripts for teachers to follow and students are very limited in their opportunities to explore creatively. Over the past 13 years I’ve fallen even more in love with this place…especially the raw nature that surrounds me every day and my amazing science team that supports, encourages, and collaborates together in such a positive way.
What are you most looking forward to at Hillbrook in the next few months?
I’m looking forward to the opening of the Hub and exploring opportunities for our youngest learners to more integrated making experiences there. What is the last place you visited/traveled to or book that you read? I’ve just begun reading a historical novel called The Huntress by Kate Quinn that is very engaging. I also discovered a book this week called The Lost Words by Robert Macfarlane. It’s about 40 words that were cut out of the Oxford Junior Dictionary in 2007 because they weren’t used frequently by children and they were replaced with 40 technology words such as broadband, blog, and cut-and-paste. The words that were removed were nature words like acorn, bramble, heron, and lark. This book is a page of eloquent poetry for each of those words and is beautifully illustrated. This book belongs at Hillbrook where nature and technology are equally part of our vernacular. We hope you enjoyed learning more about (and from) Ms. Blom!
