Park Day School

Temescal Learning Community

Oakland’s Temescal neighborhood schools have come together with Park Day School to form the Temescal Learning Community. The schools involved are:

• Oakland International High School, opened in 2007 to serve Temescal’s changing immigrant population
• Emerson Elementary, a 300 student K-5 public school
• Oakland Technical High School, a 1200 student school

This consortium is committed to working together to improve the education for their students and professional development of their teachers.  In a multi-year study, teachers from all four schools are working with Project Zero at Harvard University and the Abundance Foundation to examine the impact of design study in the classroom. Not only are the teachers working together on a monthly basis in Oakland, but they also traveled together to Boston for a week-long course on design thinking, the maker movement and thinking through tinkering.  You can read about their experiences here. 

Volunteering in schools

Park Day School collaborates regularly with schools in its neighborhood including Emerson Elementary School and three autonomous schools; The Rise Community School, Reach Academy Elementary and Sankofa Academy. Park Day students along with students from these schools meet regularly in the classroom for educational enrichment activities. Second graders read to preschoolers, 5th and 6th graders work weekly in after-school program, assemblies are shared and enrichment classes (art and music) are offered weekly.  In addition to the direct interaction with the students, the partnerships extend to the teachers who also visit each other’s classrooms and share educational ideas.