Images from the K-5 classrooms

In Cerrito Creek (4/5), students brainstormed "writing territories", or topics that they might want to write about for their next piece of short fiction.

In Sweet Briar Creek (2/3), students turned their recently finished poems into holiday gifts by adding them to hand-painted canvases.

In Temescal Creek (2/3), students used a work period to paint holiday gifts...

...work on addition and geometry...

...and build models of molecules.

In Laurel Creek (K/1), students used a literacy workshop period for projects related to their study of author Jan Brett, including writing and illustrating stories...

...contributing to a class mural of events in Trouble with Trolls...

...and sewing giant mittens as in The Mitten.

Finally, in Strawberry Creek (4/5), students worked in small groups to read the Declaration of Independence and come up with laws that they felt would directly arise from that text.

Letter from Mitch about tragedy in CT

Dear TBS Families,

As most of you will have heard by the time you read this email, a tragic and awful shooting took place today at an elementary school in Connecticut.  News like this stops all of us -- families, teachers, staff, and administrators -- in our tracks, and calls forth a range of powerful (and often surprising) emotional responses from us.  When that tide recedes, we all begin to move into "action mode," as we try to reassert some degree of certainty into our lives and into our hopes and dreams for the children whom we love.

Accordingly, we want to give you information about our own actions (ongoing, present, and future), and also share resources and ideas with you that may inform your own course of action with your children over the weekend.

First, I want to assure all families that we have thought a great deal about preventing such events from occurring on either of our campuses.  That starts at a fundamental level -- we work hard to create physical and social campus environments that model respect, emphasize inclusion and peacemaking, and help build and maintain community connection. Beyond that, both our campuses have key-code, locked entry gates that are visible from multiple windows, and security cameras on our larger University campus show live feeds of every exterior part of the campus on a screen visible to our receptionist and also via a secure internet link.  Finally, all our staff are trained to approach unfamiliar visitors with a cheerful and proactive greeting.  If you step onto our campuses, we'll know who you are and why you're with us very quickly.

We also engage in regular "Stay in Place" drills at the University campus:  drills designed to provide maximum safety in an "intruder on campus" situation.  Doors are locked, curtains and blinds lowered, and children are taught to shelter out of sight:  communications protocols also are enacted to keep communication flowing.  We just completed our most recent drill last month, and while we wish that the need for these drills didn't exist, we will continue to do them as a regular part of our emergency readiness plan.  We consult with the Berkeley Police Department and other authorities to ensure that our practices are appropriate and effective.

In my experience, many of us will want to know how to talk about these events with children.  Here are some guidelines and suggestions to keep in mind.

Should you bring this up with your child(ren), or should you wait?  

In general, we think this depends on the degree to which information about world events flows into your child's environment at home or in the transition from school to home.  Our sense today is that none of our children have heard about the shooting, and we've worked hard to limit their access to that information.  In general, we think limiting their access to this information in developmentally appropriate ways is key for families as well.  However, going into the weekend, match what you know about your child(ren) with what you know about your child's weekend social environment and cohort, and let that process be a guide.  If you think it's likely that your child will hear about this news or see it, you may want to bring it up first so that you can give it appropriate context.  

Will teachers be discussing this event with children on Monday?

This is a level-dependent question.  In general, the younger the children, the less likely that teachers will bring things up proactively -- but our faculty know our children well and will rely on that knowledge, their own deep knowledge of child development, and any information that you share with them to make their plans.  Your child's teachers will let you know before Monday if they see a need to take proactive action -- and if so, they'll let you know what they will say and follow up with information about how things went.  

What should we keep in mind if (or when) we talk to our children about this event?

Often, younger children may believe that events like this happened nearby, are continuing to happen, and/or are happening in multiple schools.  Consequently, it's crucial to establish concrete details and take nothing for granted.  Showing a child a map that includes Connecticut and California can be helpful.  Being very clear about time frames is helpful.  And giving them information about resolution (i.e. the shooter is no longer alive) can help as well.

Be careful to answer any questions that you are asked appropriately:  it's very easy to give children information that doesn't match what they wanted to know.  Listen carefully to their questions and, if you're not sure what they want to know, ask them directly:  too much detail may be overwhelming or frightening to children who (fortunately) lack a frame of reference for such an event.

Offer a great deal of reassurance.  Make sure they understand that families, schools, and people in the wider community all work together to make sure that events like this do not happen.  If your children need it, make more time to be with them physically and mentally.  

Remind them that the school practices drills for emergency situations, and that they know what to do if when unexpected emergencies happen.  Praise your children for always taking our practice drills seriously and tell them that as parents you too have copies of our school plans, and know what good care the teachers and administrators will take in keeping them safe while at school.

Are there any other resources that we can access?

Here are four links that CAIS schools are recommending:

http://www.childrenscolorado.org/news/inthenews/2012-news/talking-to-kids-about-school-shootings.aspx

http://www.apa.org/topics/violence/school-shooting.aspx
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15109195/ns/health-childrens_health/t/how-talk-your-kids-about-shootings/#.UMt_9qUWHzI

http://www.nasponline.org/resources/crisis_safety/terror_general.aspx 

Thanks for your ongoing support and for partnering with us in helping children navigate through these troubled, but teachable, times -- and best wishes for a good weekend.

Take care,

Mitch

All hail Julianne!

TBS K-5 Teaching Artist Julianne Hughes has done a pair of special projects with the K/1 students recently, in addition to the twice-weekly art classes she teaches those students. In Blackberry Creek, she helped students create a "button pillow" as a goodbye present for Shannon, while in Laurel Creek she helped students sew a soft quilt for Cate's soon-to-arrive baby. I feel so lucky that we have people like Julianne at TBS, who take the initiative, time and effort to care for each other so deeply! Enjoy the pictures below.

K-3 staffing for 2013-14

 At last week's internal step-up tour for parents of current K, 1, and 3rd grade students, a great deal of interest was expressed in how we're creating staffing assignments for the K-3 classrooms in 2013-14. In response to a suggestion made at the Q+A at that event, I want to share our process for this, which I outlined to faculty in a letter in late October (which you can see by clicking on these images).

Our first goal is to create strong teaching pairs that will ensure the academic, social and emotional success of all children; our second goal is to ensure institutional stability through this change; and our third goal is to make all faculty feel that their input and reflection was heard and considered in this process. Our intention is to begin talking with faculty about tentative placements before we leave for winter break, finalize those in early January, and announce that to our parents at that time.

Over the last two weeks, I have been meeting individually with each K-3 faculty member for an hour+ conversation. I've asked each teacher to bring a completed Faculty Gifts and Challenges reflection tool to the meeting, which we go over in depth (see the images in this post for details on that device). This tool is neither evaluative nor supervisory; it is a structured way to have each teacher reflect on his/her practices, and areas of relative strength and opportunities for growth. I ask questions and probe for more information based on what the teacher says, but I do not offer an alternative/contradictory view of anything said, as my goal is to try to understand how each faculty member views him/herself when looking through this lens.

The second half of the discussion is forward-looking: each teacher discusses the pros and cons s/he sees to teaching in each of the grade configurations next year (K, 1/2, and 3), and ranks the options in preference order. That conversation is then repeated, with the other K-3 staff at the center of the conversation - what are the pros and cons of working with each of the other faculty members, and who are their preferences?

So far I've interviewed six of the eight faculty, and I have enjoyed all of the conversations. It's rare and precious to spend an hour talking deeply with a faculty member in this way - our conversations are usually so targeted to student and parent needs, curriculum and instruction, or administrative tasks, that being able to simply check-in with each teacher in this way has been a very special experience.

This week's field trips

We had some pretty darn cool field trips happening this week at TBS! In K/1, Blackberry Creek spent the day at the Hiller Aviation Museum in San Carlos, as part of their emergent curriculum unit on flight.

In 4/5, Cerrito Creek spent a soggy day at the U.C. Botanical Gardens and Tilden Park, doing field work to extend their Lewis And Clark cultural studies work...

...while Strawberry Creek spent a sunny day in San Francisco at the Exploratorium, learning more about their current science studies of electricity and magnetism (as well as all the other fun exhibits, like cow's eye dissection).

Photos by Youval Dar, Katy Grannan, and Jeff Grether.

December's K-8 Assembly

This morning we held a monthly assembly in the Depot. We began by having each of the administrators introduce themselves to the students - an activity that was suggest by the Student Council, as there are many kids on campus who don't regularly interact with the adults in the office, and may not even know their names, let alone what they do.




This was followed by a presentation by two members of the Student Council on the recent penny drive that the students have been doing.  This community service fundraising is raising donations for Literacy Lifeboats, an initiative by Lucy Calkins and Teacher's College in New York that is serving schools hard hit by Hurricane Sandy. The reps reported that the K-5 students raised $363.61, and the 6-8 students raised $453, totaling $816.61.

Cerrito Creek then presented a Showcase of Learning on their recent work with electricity and magnets. Students were enthralled by the video, and I'm sure you will be too, as the 4th and 5th grade students explain their understanding of how magnets, motors and coils work.

Finally, we ended with a full-throated sing-along to What A Wonderful World.

Leadership as service

While I'm extremely leery of the politics and evangelism of the organization for which he works, I strongly believe in the ideas that Mark Miller offers in a recent post on SmartBlog on Leadership - that to truly lead, we must approach our work as service to others. Earlier this fall I wrote a Statement of Educational Leadership and Philosophy, and this concept is the note I chose to ring out in my final sentence (click here if you want the whole document):

I believe that people work hard and are motivated when they feel they are doing important, good work. For me, there is no greater or more important work than fostering the self-transformation of the next generation of citizens. I approach my work as a position of service to others, and as an expression of my own commitment to improving our society.