Practical Life in action

At the end of next week, Sweet Briar Creek (2/3) and Temescal Creek (2/3) classrooms will hold their annual Family Tea events. A huge amount of effort and preparation goes into putting on these lovely celebrations of family and community, one small strand of which is simply preparing the invitations to family members. This is a great opportunity to learn about -- and put into action in a project of relevancy to students' real life -- the different parts of letter writing, and there is so much to learn:  the location of the date, drafting and finalizing text, creating the salutation and closing, preparing the visual presentation, figuring out how to folder the paper to get it into the envelope and how to arrange the letter, RSVP card, and any other elements in the envelope, and getting the address accurate and using proper postage.

A template for the letter provided by teachers

A pair of draft letters

An ornately decorated final copy of a letter

Folding a letter to fit in an envelope take practice

Finished letters await their stamps

Exploring the Poles with the U.S. Coast Guard

This morning Dr. Phil McGillivary of the U.S. Coast Guard visited TBS and gave fantastic presentations to Sweet Briar Creek and Cerrito Creek students on the environment and wildlife of the Antarctic and Artic, and the lives and culture of Inuits and other native Alaskans. He began with a powerpoint presentation showing what how the ice moves in both locations, what sorts of animals live there, and how humans have adapted to the polar environment.

Next came a video of various dances, shot in the late 1950s. He explained the symbolism of the masks, clothing, and movements, as well as the singing and drumming that accompany the dances (which were dances for good luck with fishing, or retelling the story of the seal hunt).

Phil also brought a tremendous collection of artifacts for students to explore, including mittens, fishing equipment, shamanic amulets and artifacts, oil lamps and other household objects. For me, the highlight was a 10,000 year old whale bone tool used to smash the bones of whales and walrus; holding that instrument transported me through space and time (in my imagination, anyway)!

Readathon Week author visits

Yesterday and today saw three terrific literary-based presentations, in our run-up to tomorrow's Readathon.

 First, Olivia Hackett-Shaughnessy wove stories together for our 2/3 and 4/5 classrooms. I was lucky to catch the first session; she began with a "pourquoi" creation story from Africa featuring an unlucky rabbit, the character of which she then connected to the Brer Rabbit stories of slaves in the American south. Next came a Brothers Grimm version of Rapunzel, followed by a Chinese ghost story from the California gold rush, and the concluding, at student request, with another scary story about Coronado and the search for the Seven Cities of Gold. Students and adults alike were captivated by the way she dropped into characters, switched out into narration, and pulled even further out to ask comprehension questions and give thinking prompts. Olive also sent us this lovely note afterwards:

I always wish I had said something after I leave a performance. Never fails.
  This time it was to your students and teachers--and you.
  The measure of kindness the world around is how a community welcomes a stranger. By that measure,
you and your school are a shining example of community. Please share that with all.
  What a delightful experience.
  Sincerely, Olive

This morning, local author and illustrator Elisa Kleven stopped by to read and speak with the K/1 students. She read from her work, shared the process by which she writes stories, and answered student questions about her art. Elisa visited as part of our Readathon week run-up two years ago, and like then she stuck around to sign and write individualized inscriptions on copies of her books for students.

The Middle School was not bereft of an author visit, either: long-time TBS parent Lillian Howan (two children are graduates, and the third is in 8th grade) read two of her stories and hosted and Q&A with students as well.

Finally, many many thanks to the parent volunteers - chiefly Jean Marstens, Brigitte Durell, and Chrisy Ponte, though others helped too - for pulling off the third annual TBS Book Swap today!

On the Oregon Trail with Cerrito Creek

As part of the year-end Performance of Understanding to wrap up their cultural studies curriculum, students in Cerrito Creek are using real woodworking tools and skills to build scale versions of pioneer wagons as props for the plays and scenes they are writing. The pictures tell the story!

Math club

From Sima Misra:

Today in Math Club, we had lively problem solving in action with a magic card trick.  Most students discovered it helped to work backwards and record their attempts to figure it out--some will still be working on it over spring break!  Others explored symmetry and area with the Part & Whole problems, or worked on some challenging puzzles.

Remembering Janet Stork

Former TBS HoS Janet Stork with Howard Gardner at HGSE's Project Zero Summer Institute in 2009 (photo by Julianne Hughes)

On April 5th, 2010, former TBS Head of School Janet Stork passed away after a seven month fight with cancer. In her 3+ years here, Janet transformed the school in so many ways, from our understanding of child development, to what it means to be a professional learning community, to how the Board should function. Janet was a champion of professional development, a voracious consumer of research, and a fearless advocate for children. Under her leadership, the school began the process of re-invention and transformation that lead to our current mission and school name. Janet and I didn't always agree on what to do about certain issues, but she was always willing to listen deeply and push me on the rigor of my own thinking. As a student of leadership, she truly modelled how to be a visionary leader who worked in service of others. Thank you, Janet, for our time together.

From left, Frida, Paula, Javanne, Tanya, Janet and Sheila at a staff party in the fall of 2009 (photo by Tanya Madrid-Campbell)

Making Learing Visible

We had three great presentations of student learning in the last 12 hours at TBS!

Last night the students in Strawberry Creek (4/5) shared their Famous American research projects with the community. Each student stood by his/her display and essay, and answered questions from parents and visitors. The room was alive with a joyful buzz. As a parent, I was thrilled to watch my child speak confidently to other adults about what she had learned, and the choices she made creating her project.

At the same time, the students and families in Wildcat Creek (6th grade) gathered for a class feast in the depot, where a student band performed.

Finally, this morning the students in Blackberry Creek held a publishing party. The event began with a class performance of "Octopus' Garden"; children and families then split up into groups, and each child presented and read from his/her "All About" book on a marine mammal. The event finished with a gallery walk of the great animal models that were hanging around the room.

Inside a K-5 Division Meeting

Today's K-5 division meeting began with a pop quiz group recall of our groundrules: everyone participates, different opinions are welcome, limit side conversations, respect time, and maintain your sense of humor. This last rule was in full effect as people suggested some rules that aren't part of our list!

The second agenda item was work in the Zones of Regulation curriculum, led by Social/Emotional Coordinator Kate Klaire. She began this three-part sequence began by walking us through a lesson on "Triggers", which included an art/writing activity to link actions of others with zones we experience. Next, Claire and Lisa presented a lesson on "Size of the Problem" they had done with students in Blackberry Creek (K/1), which helps children consider whether how they are reacting to a problem is in line with the seriousness of the problem. Finally, Kate shared a lesson called "Stop Opt Go", that helps children slow down their thinking and make choices about how to care for themselves before trying to respond to problems or situations.  

The third part of our meeting was taken up by some housekeeping - last minute planning for today's visit from the Marine Science Institute, and planning for next week's Readathon.

The meeting then moved into a professional development portion focused on math, led by Sima Misra, our Differentiated Curriculum Specialist. Sima presented two activities: number talks and math warmups. Building on a presentation from last month by Lisa Chung (k/1), Sima had the faculty do some quick number activities (ex: show how many ways you can create 56 in two minutes), emphasizing ways to have students effectively share their thinking and strategies with each other. For math warmups, Sima taught us the whisper/shout/move technique for learning skip counting, and had us practice it.

The meeting ended with a discussion about next year's calendar of program events. We've got some amazing traditions, such as the Art Show, Winter Sing, Math Night, Readathon, and Walkathon, and we also want to find a way to integrate student-centered performances of understanding about the other academic areas of our program that we don't yet cover on a division-wide basis (science, cultural studies, Spanish, and PE).