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Donate
Annual Fund 2024
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Folder: About Us
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Our School
Our Story
BWX Video
Our Staff
In the Press
Our Location
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Employment
Contact
Folder: How We Learn
Back
How We Learn
How We Learn
The Arc
Early Elementary
Elementary
Middle School
High School
Aftercare
Folder: Join Us
Back
Get Started
Admissions Process
Rolling Admissions
Tuition & Aid
Upcoming Events
Self-Guided Open House
Folder: Our Community
Back
Updates
Calendar
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
Before & Aftercare
Parent Involvement
Head of School Welcome
Folder: Support Us
Back
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Annual Fund 2024
Human Library

Brightworks Blog

Brightworks is a flurry of activity and we are thrilled to share peeks into the lives of the students, our school and the community.

Featured
Carving Club Starts! Monday afternoons
Carving Club Starts! Monday afternoons
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Embracing Nature: Have you seen our Playground?
Embracing Nature: Have you seen our Playground?
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Summer - The San Francisco Library
Summer - The San Francisco Library
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Learning Naturally
Learning Naturally
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Welcoming our New Head of School
Welcoming our New Head of School
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Gender Expression & Expansiveness
Gender Expression & Expansiveness
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Immersive Multi Day Event
Immersive Multi Day Event
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Earth Day Clean-Up
Earth Day Clean-Up
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May: Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month
May: Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month
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Planning for Next Year
Planning for Next Year
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Mixed-age Classes
Mixed-age Classes
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Reimagining Education to Honor Children and Childhood
Reimagining Education to Honor Children and Childhood
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Spring Gathering & Updates from Leadership
Spring Gathering & Updates from Leadership
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How do we measure success?
How do we measure success?
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Spring Celebrations
Spring Celebrations
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Follow along on social media too!

Students who feels safe, seen & valued learn better and use their creativity in the process! That's why we spend the first few weeks every school year on a mini Community Arc! 

Building friendships, establishing bands & rules of interaction,
School is back, our students are already deep into our introductory Community Arc, the vibe is exciting and we are literally buzzing! And as a community we found time to come together and celebrate our newly appointed head of school! Waffles & co
✨ The crew is back! ✨

This week our incredible Collaborators have returned to campus — reconnecting, recharging, and getting ready for a new school year full of curiosity, creativity, and community.

As part of our kickoff, we had the opportun
Summer may still be in full swing, but here at Brightworks, we’re already dreaming, building, and getting ready to welcome our community back to campus!

From refreshing our spaces to planning provocations and projects that spark curiosity, our
While we are out on summer break our buildings are still a hive of activities! @tinkeringschool is already in full session and they will keep it going with their summer classes through August 8th!

While these teasers cover the Big Builds they are pl
Let's celebrate our 8th grade graduates this year! 

While all of our learners got a heartfelt recognition for all their accomplishments and contributions at our last day of school, we do want to especially celebrate our 8th grade graduates! 

Some o
We kicked off Pride Month by inviting Drag Queen, storyteller and author Lil Miss Hot Mess, @lilmisshotmess to read from her own work! And our kids loved it! 

Take a peak at these cute snippets and see what this playful and imaginary approach can do
brightworks Melissa Nocero 3/4/18 brightworks Melissa Nocero 3/4/18

Exploring Neighborhoods and Enjoying Some Food

 We began our exploration of neighborhoods and streets with an exercise in mental mapping. Working step by step, we drew from memory the streets radiating out from our homes, then layering on information including street names, homes of those we know, businesses, green spaces, and stop signs. Throughout the activity, we began to recognize what it is we find special and valuable about the neighborhoods we live in. We finished off the activity by thinking about a memory we experienced in a location somewhere on the map we had just drawn, such as where we learned to ride a bike, where we witnessed a car accident, or where a friend who has moved away once lived, and illustrated the memory within our maps.Thinking about our iconic hilly streets of San Francisco, we launched an exploration of grade (also referred to as slope). We took to the streets of nearby Potrero Hill with levels and measuring tapes in hand to record the rise and run of a number of streets in order to calculate the grade. Calculating the grade of a street requires the understanding of a number of math concepts and skills including rise and run, division, decimals, and percentages. Using the data collected and the calculated grades of the streets, the students later worked with Rich on graphing their slopes and changes in slopes, before moving onto replicating streets with 3D cardboard models.In an effort to get to know neighborhoods in San Francisco we might not spend much time in but have been major players in our iconic history, we walked over 6 miles from the Ferry Building to Ghirardelli Square, up Hyde and down Lombard, through North Beach, Chinatown, Union Square, and to the Old Mint to bus back to Brightworks. We discovered a number of connections to history through food, especially our famous San Francisco sourdough and it's starter, along with the names of neighborhoods such as North Beach having actually been a beach on the north end of the city.Taking a bit of food history home with us from our walk through Fisherman's Wharf and North Beach, we researched the history of cioppino, a tomato-based seafood stew that was invented by the San Francisco Italian fishermen of North Beach in the late 1800s using whatever seafood was left over from the day's catch, before learning to cook it. Connecting the San Francisco food traditions, we soaked up the broth of our cioppino with San Francisco sourdough.We rounded out our week of neighborhood exploration with an exercise known as "Question Formulation Technique" to prepare us for our neighborhoods and community creative project using the Glowforge laser cutter. Using the prompt, "We desire to live in neighborhoods that fulfill our needs and wants," the students worked in groups to brainstorm as many questions as they could that will provide them with answers that will inform their designs. They will individually be narrowing down this list to three driving questions to guide their designs of a neighborhood layout, community building or resource.We also invite you to follow us on our exploration of 'City' on our new Google Site.

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Get In Touch: 682 Schofield Road, San Francisco CA 94129 // (415) 701-8700 // Office Hours: 8am-6pm // School Hours: 9:00am-3:30pm (MTThF); 2:30 (W)

Brightworks is an innovative K-12 project-based school and a project of the Institute for Applied Tinkering, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Brightworks holds diversity of opinion, lifestyle, ethnic origin, religion, gender, sexual orientation, and race to be the cornerstone of our school community. Brightworks does not discriminate in its services, programs, or admissions on any of those above criteria.

(c) 2025