By Melinda Franke The faculty at The Downtown School wear a variety of teaching and administrative hats, an organizational aspect that makes our school truly unique. For the 10th grade fall intensive this year, I taught “Introduction to Digital Media” with humanities instructor Mari O' Meara and physics and math instructor Daniel Wicklund. With my background lying in Spanish language, it was no surprise I felt out of my element. While during those three weeks teaching the course I was aware of the new digital media skills I learned, it was not until recently—when I assigned a creative project ..read more

By Julia Grazioli-Keiter Unlocking a student's potential for mathematical thinking requires bridging the gap between abstract concepts and real-life experiences. Recognizing the importance of connecting students with their surroundings, experiences, and interests is a pivotal step toward helping them envision their own capabilities in mathematics. The foundation for this transformative approach lies in a teaching technique known as "Place-Based Education," an instructional approach that focuses on developing students’ sense of place and learning through exploring their environment. Throughout ..read more

By Nance Leonhardt (This is the second part in two-part blog series focused on how the theoretical framework of the Drama Triangle can inform our personal interactions. Make sure to check out the first installment from November 21 for a review of the dynamic). A couple years back, I attended a parent-education training held at my daughter’s school and learned about the work of David Emerald, social scientist and leadership educator. Emerald flips the script on the Drama Triangle in his 2005 book, The Empowerment Dynamic (TED.) In this parable, the Victim becomes the Creator, the Persecutor be ..read more

By Daniel Wicklund “Let me tell you a story, to help you make sense of the world.” Is there anything more ancient than the practice of storytelling? Well, yes, the Big Bang. And Quasars, certainly. Our Sun, the Earth.  But we can’t get away from our storytelling nature, even in a science classroom devoted to objective facts and truth. Stories allow us to identify with content and create meaning. Without stories and the spaces between them, facts would not instruct, and would soon be forgotten. But the stories are never complete, and they never will be. In A Different Universe, Nobel Laure ..read more

By Hudson Harper As schools make the decision to embrace the use of AI by students and teachers, there are naturally lots of questions about academic integrity and how it fits into student work. At The Downtown School, we are leaning into the power of AI as a tool to enhance student learning, so we’ve put a lot of thought into these questions. As we’ve talked with students about AI, they’ve had a few key perspectives. Some started adapting the use of AI into their work before we started thinking about it institutionally and have been ahead of the curve this whole time. Some have thought about ..read more

By Mari O’Meara The idea of our campus being connected to the city goes beyond traditional field trips. The Downtown School fosters partnerships with numerous community organizations in order to provide students with authentic and hands-on learning experiences. Located across Seattle Center from campus is a place where art, culture, and education converge to offer our students a truly immersive learning experience--The Museum of Pop Culture (MoPOP). Popular culture is a ubiquitous and transcendent concept--everyone, no matter age, race, gender, identity has some sort of connection to pop cult ..read more

By George Heinrichs Last Thursday, students in Ethics and Citizenship (11th grade) got to meet three researchers and Ph.D. students from the University of Washington and the Allen Institute for AI. The researchers talked about how to make ethical AI systems, and also how to use AI to research how humans see ethical situations. One of the most fascinating parts of the talk came when the researchers encouraged us to use one of their projects, the Value Kaleidoscope. As the site tells users, “Kaleido is a research prototype designed to generate pluralistic values, rights and duties that are relev ..read more

By Christopher Obenchain In the quest for higher education, some students are drawn to the built-in community that small colleges promise, while other students are drawn to the allure of large colleges’ “cornucopia of plenty.” With sprawling campuses, diverse student bodies, and a wide array of courses, clubs, and faculty, it's easy to assume that bigger institutions inherently offer more opportunities. However, a closer look reveals that the sheer size of a college does not always translate to enhanced opportunities for its students. In fact, the inverse can often be true. The assumption that ..read more

By Luca M.-K. (‘23) and Zoë P. (‘23) (The following is a transcript of the student graduation speech for the Class of 2023:) Zoë: Hi, I’m Zoë. Luca: …and I’m Luca. Welcome! We’re so grateful to all of the teachers, faculty, family, and friends who have helped us reach this moment and have come to celebrate it with us. Months ago, Zoë shared a document with me titled “Graduation Speech.” It included the following plan:  Zoë: Start with a greeting: “Wow, can you believe it’s been four years,” nostalgic anecdotes of our memories together, Luca quotes Tara Westover, the author of Educated ..read more

By Lupe Fisch (The following graduation speech was delivered to our Class of 2023:) I’m going to try to sound wise, as is befitting a person of my advanced age. Life comes with bookends, there is the big beginning  (which your parents are remembering fondly right now as they wonder what the heck happened), and there’s the big end. And in between there are innumerable small and medium beginnings and ends. All of you, brilliant, beautiful graduates, and I, venerable retiring teacher, are at one of those medium ends. En el umbral, on the threshold of a medium beginning. We have inhabited the ..read more