Do not disturb my circles!

Dear friends,

As you may have noticed, this blog has been quiet for the last six weeks. This is not a reflection of the joyous learning, teaching and living that has been going on at The Berkeley School, but rather an inverted representation of my life this spring.

I have been juggling so many balls, pins, and knives (wrapping up faculty evaluation, interviewing for the Kindergarten, Learning Support, K-5 Spanish, and K-8 PE sabbatical positions, helping finalize next year's strategic program initiatives, developing a process for generating our CAIS accreditation action plan, and just this week launching the process for year-end progress reports and class placements for next year -- not to mention the regular ongoing work of student learning and growth) while trying to start spinning a few plates atop sticks (visiting Gateway School, informally meeting parents and family members, attending official Board meetings and beginning to get information flowing with various administrators -- not to mention finding and buying a house, and starting to pack up) that I simply haven't been able to keep this outlet going. Not that I've been casting about for content -- I've had dozens of topics to write about, and hundreds of iPhone photos downloaded onto my computer waiting to post.

However, now that it's May, and we're entering the season of year-end events designed to provide closure to children's academic and social/emotional lives, and to honor and celebrate the transitions that we all go through with the cyclical nature of the school year, with deep affection and sadness I am officially closing this blog. I've greatly enjoyed sharing my views into the Elementary classrooms, the inside scoop on admin discussions, revealing the thinking and processes that drive our school culture, and engaging with interesting topics in the larger field of education. Thank you for the many kind words and deeds you have given me over the last several years, both online and in person.

If you find yourself walking along West Cliff in Santa Cruz with nothing to do, please come knock on my door at Gateway and say hello. If not, as Archimedes reportedly said to the Roman solider who killed him, Noli turbare circulos meos.

With love and respect,

Zaq

30 Minutes on the Brain

Good playlist from Edutopia on the brain:

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A Lovely Note

Sent to one of our teachers yesterday from faculty at another East Bay school:

Mike,

Our 5th grade team so appreciates the time and effort you have made to connect with us.  Sharing your Stock Market Project has been incredibly helpful as we begin our unit on decimals, fractions and percents.  Not only have you emailed your materials and answered questions, you’ve taken the time to FaceTime with us to provide greater detail on the sequence and pacing.  As a teacher, time is always short and yet you’ve been upbeat and responsive to our on-going requests.  We really appreciate this!

We also look forward to sharing our tweaks as we roll this unit out later this month.  We feel very fortunate to collaborate with you and hope you’ll ask us questions in the future.

All the best,

Amy, Eric and Nicole

Community Training on Mindfulness

Jennifer DiBrienza at TBS tomorrow!

All parents and guardians are invited to our Family Education Night - How Children Learn Math on Tuesday, Feb. 25, 7-8p in the Depot. Come and learn from mathematics education expert Jennifer DiBrienza about why TBS classrooms feature discovery-based math and problem solving. We ask that you RSVP here. Childcare is available; please indicate childcare needs with your RSVP.

Dr. DiBrienza received her Ph.D. from Stanford University in math education, and has worked as an elementary classroom teacher, math staff developer, and writer for TERC Investigations in Number, Data and Space, the core of the TBS elementary math curriculum.

Mindfulness Training with Kate Janke

As dedicated readers of this blog already know, the K-5 division has been in the midst of a year-long initiative to implement mindfulness in our classrooms. After six months of meetings designed to help the teachers and staff develop our own personal practices of mindfulness and mindful meditation, last week we spent 15 hours across three days in an in-depth training on how to implement mindfulness in the classrooms.

Kate Janke's Heart-Mind Education curriculum moves through several distinct segments. We're already well on our way to understanding how to teach from presence, which is the first grouping. Next we learned about creating the container that supports children as they enter into mindfulness with physical and psychological safety. Lessons on cultivating connection with self and others mindfully came next, followed by lessons that teach simple regulation and attention skills. The last two clusters of lessons in the curriculum focus on how we treat, speak to, and care for each other, and then a series designed to go deeper into self-awareness and our understanding of perception.

The energy of the faculty at the conclusion of the day on Saturday was incredible -- especially considering it was a Saturday, the third consecutive Saturday working for some faculty, and the first day of February break! While no two classes will be implementing the curriculum in exactly the same way, every teacher has a concrete plan to begin regularly teaching and implementing mindfulness in the K-5 classrooms when we return from break. Be sure to check out your classroom blogs for more info in the upcoming weeks.

Interested in some reading on your own? Check out these resources, but please don't try to pre-teach mindfulness to your children at home -- we want to start with this as a "school activity" before we extend it into the home lives.

The Mindful Child by Susan Kasier Greenland

The Whole Brain Child by Dan Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson

Mindful Teaching and Teaching Mindfulness by Deborah Schoeberlein

The Mindful Brain and Mind Sight by Dan Siegel

The Best Way Out is Always Through

I feel like we've won the Olympics, if such a thing was possible!

Yesterday's CAIS accreditation visiting committee read-out in the social hall of Netivot Shalom was a cathartic and gratifying experience for the assembled faculty, staff, Board, and parent leadership. The preceedings began with each member of the committee giving a moving personal ancedote; one team member spoke about how being here at TBS re-connected her to the feeling of joyous possibility that she had experienced 15 years ago when her daughter first went to school, while another team member spoke about how he had carried a student's welcoming note in his pocket through the visit, which carried the values and culture of our community.

The committee then read through the six sections that comprise the main body of the report, identifying strengths, challenges and opportunities, and major and minor recommendations for the school to consider as we build an action plan over the next three-six months that will carry us forward for the next seven years. In the big picture, we were encouraged to establish a new narrative in which change is no longer such a powerful force, even though the school has the orientation towards self-improvement, and to slow down and let our roots grow. Some of the specific recommendations include linking the school's mission and learning outcomes more explicitly in our curriculum, developing a multi-year financial plan, and increasing our emergency response preparedness. As we have throughout this process, we'll make the committee's report available to our community once we've gotten a copy.

After the read-out, the committee immediately departed, and the assembled employees and guests moved to the Depot for a champagne toast and snacks to celebrate three years of hard work to reach this point. I'm so thankful to Sima Misra, Anne Buechner, Ann Baranger, and Natasha Distiller for their work on the Accreditation Leadership Team, and to everyone who worked to help the school move through this powerful process of self-reflection. As Robert Frost wrote, the best way out is always through!

Links and links and links

When I come across a good link, I drop it into a "links for blog" sticky note on my desktop -- and every once in a while, I push the list out to you, dear readers! So, without further ado, here's some reading for the new year, with a specific focus on topics that are already in discussion and action at TBS.

If I could go back in time, I'd become a neuroscientist! Here's Dan Siegel with a great explanation of how the brain works.

Don't miss Ramsey Musallam's great TED talk on sparking learning. I really like what he says about curiosity and the fundamental role that curiosity and inquiry play in learning, and in the relationship between teachers and students.

Want to be happier but need some pragmatic advice on what to do? The Huffington Post has answers backed by brain science! These echo many of John Medina's Brain Rules (this is a must-read!), but there are some interesting and important differences. I especially like #9.

Denise Pope at Stanford is one of the foremost researchers on what causes students stress (and by that I mean the bad kind of stress, not the good kind). In her recent book, she advocates no grades and authentic assessment. Hallelujah!

Speaking of assessment, here's an interesting idea about teacher evaluation.

Please, parents: don't ever say "I'm bad at math" to your children! Thanks to Julia Schaletzky for this link.

A public school in Sheboygan, WI has begun using mixed 4th/5th grade classrooms. They've recognized the benefits of a developmental mix and the deep student/teacher relationships that can form in multi-year classrooms.

Students need to learn how they learn in order to be their most effective. That's why critical thinking and metacognition are emphasized in our program.

This article on nature journaling echoes an element of our elementary program, especially at the 4/5 level, where students do "spot writing" by returning to the same spot in Strawberry Creek throughout the year to write and draw how the landscape changes.

In case you skipped the link above with the 10 ways to increase your happiness, here's a hint: children can learn to direct and maintain their focus with specific types of mental training.

So much of the discussion of the Common Core curriculum levels process attacks (not inclusive, says the left; too intrusive on local control, says the right; just right, says Arne Duncan). Here's one of the more thoughtful critiques I've read, and I especially appreciate that the author has proposed solutions as well. While I'm at it, let me add that we've attempted to address an over-emphasis on informational text and not enough literature in the new standards by adding in genre and author studies through all grades.

Important news for parents: if you want your child to improve his/her self-regulation, spend some time listening. Then ask him/her about the Zones of Regulation, which we implement K-5!

Here's a great reflection on a teacher wrestling with the utility and reality of homework.

This is a nice blog on one teacher's attempts to differentiate instruction in kindergarten.

Part blog, part store, Creative Star Learning has great resources for generating academic learning in outdoor settings.

We'll end with a little bit of serious fun:

POCIS conference at TBS on Saturday!

The POCIS Northern California annual Lower School Conference will be held at TBS this Saturday! Titled Building Blocks: Creating Community and Connecting Our Identity, participants will engage in interactive workshops and explore identity. Facilitators will utilize case studies, data, and personal narratives to construct restorative justice action plans. Workshops for adults and students alike! Interested? You can register here.

mindfulness videos

Yesterday after school we had our fifth hour-long mindfulness training with Kate Jenke. In honor of that important work (check out the article that ran this week on SF Gate about the power of mindfulness in schools), here's a great video about the mindful art of Thich Nhat Hanh. I hope the exhibit comes to the West Coast!

Parents are invited to join our new parent mindfulness circle on Thursday mornings from 8:30-9:00 in the synagoge adjacent to the University Campus.

What Do Oceanography and Empathy Have In Common?

Our K-8 assemblies really have been phenominal this year, and today's edition continued with that excellence. What made it so special was both the quality of the student sharing -- powerful and important subjects of both environmental and social justice were discussed -- as well as the deeply respectful listening that the audience showed throughout the event!

After a welcome from Mitch, Strawberry Creek (4th/5th grade) presented a two-part showcase of learning. The first segment drew on their recent unit on oceanography and marine biology to explain what happens when garbage winds up in the ocean (i.e. the Pacific Trash Patch) through a skit, direct conversation, and a movie the students made (I'll try to update this post with the video!).

The second portion of their presentation was a panel discussion on the perjorative use of the phrase "That's so gay." Students shared the history of the word gay, how it came be used as a slur, and the importance of THINKing before speaking.

Student Life Coordinator Kate Klaire then made an announcement about the upcoming No Name Calling Week curriculum block, which began today in K-5 and will continue for the next four weeks.

The Middle School continued the assembly with a wonderful presentation on the service learning projects they implemented the day before Winter Break. Below are just a few of the pictures from the slideshow, with the text of their presentations embedded along the way.

The day before Winter Break was the first of four Advisory Service Days in the 7th and 8th grade.  There are four very different organizations that we are partnering with this year and every advisory will have the opportunity to volunteer at each of them.  The idea is that we get a chance to try out different kinds of service, and experience helping all different kinds of people in different ways, so that we can figure out for ourselves how we might like to serve in the future.   It was a great way to spend the day before the holidays.

Norman’s advisory went to the mouth of School House Creek where it empties into the Bay along the Bay Trail.  The Middle School has officially adopted this part of the shoreline.   Our intention in going was to clean up the beach and record data about what we collected.  We picked up trash and sorted it depending on what it was.  The reason they record the data is to try and get an idea of where the trash is coming from so they can maybe do something about it.  For example Shorebird Nature Center helped to get plastic bags banned in Berkeley by using this kind of data.  We found 556 pieces of plastic plus tons more identifiable items.  We liked seeing all of the different things that washed up on shore because so much more than you think ends up in the Bay.   It made us all think about how if we keep on using so much plastic, how much there will be in the environment when we have children.

Craig’s advisory went to TBS’s Early Childhood Center.  We went to help the teachers make the kids feel happy, so the kids will know what it feels like to spend time with older kids and so that we get experience spending time with younger kids.  We traced continents for their map work, painted with them, read to them, did magic tricks for them and helped them build with blocks.  We liked how well behaved the kids were and noticed what great imaginations they have.  It was fun to play in that way again.   For some of us it was cool to see our old ECC teachers.

Kim’s advisory went to St. Paul’s Towers in Oakland, near Lake Merritt.  It is a senior facility that has different levels of care for elderly people.  Before we went we talked to a geriatrician and she told us about different things they do there, the levels of care, and some of the challenges we might face in talking to them.   We went to bond with the elders and help to make their holidays happy.  We brought instruments and prepared some songs to sing.  They have always wanted us to sing for them and it was cool that they sang along. We also decorated cookies with them which we liked because it was an easy way to bond with them.  Some of them have dementia or can’t hear very well so sometimes its hard to talk to them.  It wasn’t an easy experience, but it was valuable to connect with a different generation.  We got to learn about what their lives were like.  It is good to have another perspective on things that is not your own.

 

Tanya’s advisory went to Glide Memorial Church to serve lunch.  Glide’s goal is to alleviate suffering and break the cycle of poverty for people.   One of the ways they do that is through their meals program.   We took BART there and spent the day serving  600 people hot lunch.  The majority of the people that came through were elderly.  Some of them didn’t look homeless but down on their luck and in need of a good meal.  We always have our meals and our wonderful lunch program and so many take that granted.   Downtown San Francisco is right next to the Tenderloin and the fact that Glide is able to be right on that border and reach so many people is amazing.

The assembly ended with Owen (our K-8 music teacher) leading the school in The Empathy Song, by local hero Brett Dennan.