In 1993, inspired by a city wide interest in Berkeley's "lost creeks" and a grant from the Nature Company, the school set out to reclaim Harwood Creek. Today, the creek serves as the cornerstone of a rigorous, school-wide science curriculum that begins in kindergarten, when students go collecting along the creek then categorize their findings into living and non-living in order to explore what constitutes life. The projects increase in complexity with each grade. Thus, fourth graders learn to read relief maps and to understand estuary environments in order to trace the pathways of urban run-off into San Francisco Bay. They then apply their learning to their own creek, surveying neighborhood storm drains to determine the threats to Harwood. As always, the project culminates in an action activity, which might be creating posters for local stores reminding residents not to dump pollutants, or perhaps stenciling warnings on storm drains. "In their six years at John Muir students become scientists," says Principal Robetta Mack. "At the same time they develop an enduring appreciation of their environment."
Cooperation is an important value at John Muir. Kindergartners learn through "partner practice," as a pair of partners moves through a dozen activity "stations," learning the activities and also learning how to share and take turns -- a lesson that includes the fine art of putting away! The same cooperation is reflected in the weekly poems the children study, discuss and dramatize. Students learn to recite together and take great collective pride in their growing repertory.
At John Muir children learn that mathematics is a wise and valuable friend, one that can not only help them solve everyday problems, but can also make life more beautiful. Third graders, reading Little House in the Big Woods, use their math skills to work out the geometry involved in cutting and sewing a vivid classroom quilt. Fourth graders read a book about a boy who finds a dollar and manages to fritter, lose and otherwise squander every penny of it away. They are then asked to write a story about how they would spend one hundred dollars. Using newspapers and books to find actual prices for the items they intend to buy, the students must keep a running tally of their purchases and also explain their reasons for spending as they have. "On the surface they are performing simple subtraction," a fourth grade teacher explains. "But at a deeper level they are developing a strong 'number sense.'"
Learning and communication go hand in hand at John Muir. "We encourage children to listen to each other," says Principal Mack, "just as they learn to 'listen' to nature in their ecology work." Those communication skills include school-wide weekly sign language instruction taught by a sign language specialist. The school community includes two hearing-impaired classes, made up of children from pre-K through fifth grade.
If John Muir, the Great Naturalist himself, could be invited to visit the school, he would be proud to see how students are learning from their environment. He might visit the beautiful library, where historic murals, including a picture of himself, have been lovingly restored. No doubt, John Muir would find inspiration in the teaching and learning that goes on daily at John Muir Elementary School.