ANNOUNCEMENTS, NOVEMBER 11, 2007

§ FALL PRESENTATIONS AND NOVEMBER PARENT MEETING:

At 3 pm on Wednesday, November 28th, our students will be sharing presentations of their organ system reports. They will be divided out into two spaces, depending on their hands-on illustration work. The model-builders and poster-makers will be presenting in the classroom, and the PowerPoint Slideshow designers will be in the Computer Lab. We suggest parents divide themselves into two groups and take half-hour turns in each space. At around 4, we will call a shortened Parents' Meeting to order.

§ CLEARING SPACE IN GYM:

We need a small army of parents (ATTENTION ALL DADS) to help us, under the supervision of our custodian, Dan, to move several large crates containing the white boards for the new building, from their present location in the gym to the office space in the new building. Gloves, muscles, and several sturdy flatbed dollies will be necessary. The frred up space in the gym will allow us some room for a few furniture building projects in December. Please contact Andy by email, fremont63@msn.com and let him know when would be a time or two during the week that you could help, and whether you have a flatbed dolly to lend.

§ HAMLET AT SCT:

A parent in the elementary class has offered to be a liaison for us with Seattle Children’s Theater, in case a group of our students would like to attend a school performance of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. (For ages 11+)

Details below:
Seattle Children's Theatre is performing Hamlet from Jan 25 - Feb 24. Tickets are $10.50 each and a minimum of 10 people are needed in order to qualify for school group pricing. School shows are offered at the following days/times:
§ Tuesday, 10:30 am
§ Wednesday, 10:00 am
§ Wednesday, 12:30 pm
§ Thursday, 10:00 am
§ Thursday, 12:30 pm
§ Friday, 10:15 am

If interested in attending, please e-mail/call Sarah Rosenbloom at sarahrosenbloom@yahoo.com / 425-890-4164. Please include your preference for day/time when e-mailing. She will contact everyone interested with a specific date and time after tickets are requested and confirmed.

§ ASSIGNMENT CALENDARS:

HISTORY OF HUMANITY

ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS STORY CALENDAR:
(This is a back-up copy of information already shared.)

Stories should be from the time period that stretches from the beginning of writing (around 3000 BC) to the establishment of the classical civilizations (beginning around 600 BC).

The reason to do the research is to share with the whole group the aspects of ancient human culture that interest us as individuals. Learning alone, we learn according to our own scope and vision and patterns of thought. Learning together as a community, we can learn more, we can learn faster, and we can challenge our minds to see things in new ways. And our way of seeing things can challenge others to grow as well.

Each person is responsible for writing up three stories in their own words.
-Stories may be researched alone or in small groups, but each group member needs to do their own writing.
-Stories may be presented alone or in small groups.
-Group presentations should include the input and voices of all group members.
-Each written story should be at least a paragraph in length and should include the following:

1. A topic sentence, summarizing the main point of the story. Topic sentences can be at the beginning, middle, or end of a paragraph, as long as their placement within the paragraph makes sense.
2. An organized sequence of information. A good story has a clear beginning, middle, and end, and the sentences should flow smoothly from one to the next.
3. Necessary info: WHAT is this story about?
4. Necessary info: WHO is this story about?
5. Necessary info: WHEN did this story take place?
6. Necessary info: WHERE did this story take place?
7. Necessary info: WHY is this story an important one for us to remember?
8. Interesting additional info: HOW did this story change humanity

-Stories can be illustrated:

1. with timeline cards (see Andy’s “Phoenicians” examples)
2. with pictures
3. with objects created by students (If a student spends a long time with a particular handmade object, that student can research and write three short stories related to the one object. For example, one could easily tell three stories about what pyramids were for, who built which ones, and how they were made, using the same detailed pyramid model as an illustration.

-We will use classroom time in November to get our stories written:

• Story #1 typed and handed in by the end of week 5th - 7th November.
• Story #2 typed and handed in by the end of week 12th - 14th November.
• Story #3 typed and handed in by the end of week 26th - 28th November.
• All illustrations/ hands-on objects are to be completed by Wednesday, 28th November.

Andy will gladly help you with resources, questions, story writing, hands-on work, presentation practice, etc., IF YOU JUST ASK HIM!!!

Story presentations will be shared amongst the whole class in early December. Some of you may even want to share stories with some elementary students as well.

PORTRAIT OF A CLASSROOM

A delicate drawing of fall gourds inches into view across a rectangle of white paper; a short poem or prose piece read aloud holds a circle of listeners in its spell; a cardboard model or clay pot takes shape under patient hands. There is a flurry of activity in one corner of the School Commons as overhead projectors flash on and many hands pitch in to render the sleek musculature of a human form, or the complex networks within a patch of skin tissue; math circles spontaneously gather at round tables, then as mysteriously disperse; a recumbent figure sprawls across a couch, deeply absorbed in a science fiction saga, while across the room a voluble cluster of experimenters creates homemade litmus paper strips from a stinky but gorgeously purple vial of cabbage juice; a raucous melée of wigglers and gigglers attempts to respond to the command en français, “DANSEZ!”

Just a sample, in the form of a word collage, of what you might observe as our Junior High students engage in their three-day week together. They are mostly busy, except when they are not, and they seem to be enjoying each other a great deal, even though there are times when they are not enjoying some of the challenges of research, note-taking, and report-writing, or the physical challenges our crowded, noisy space imposes.

You may visit the classroom to take your own core sample of student activities, but we ask that you call or email beforehand and make an appointment to do so. We have a set of guidelines for your visit that we ask you to follow—the same guidelines set by the lower and upper elementary classrooms. (See guidelines below.)

We two guides are continuing to establish the academic program as we observe and at times referee the social program. Our community meetings are often labored, but we are encouraged and inspired by flashes of insight and maturity. Adolescence, to borrow from the title of one of my favorite books on this developmental stage, is a Lost and Found time. A “season of mists" suddenly dispersed by sunbursts of elation, enthusiasm, focus, and clarity. We are taking it on faith and experience that this time in your children’s education is a time for us as adult guides to raise the bar a little, to begin to challenge them to engage their gifts and curiosities in deeper, project-oriented work. It is also a time for stepping back, in awe at the energy produced, expended, well-directed, misdirected, or out of respect for the fragility of forming personalities. We know how much further we still need to travel towards each individual student, building trust and providing just the right kind of support.

So, our fall trimester is coming to its completion, and with it, the core curriculum Study of Nature report on human organ systems. By the end of November, students will also have collected and written up three short narratives—in their own words—about some aspect of ancient civilizations, for our core study of the History of Humanity. In three weeks, on Wednesday, November 28th, from 3-4 PM, we hope to have all our families gather for an hour of presentations of students’ organ system report work, in the classroom and in the Computer Lab. Afterwards there will be a shortened parent meeting in the classroom.

PARENT / STUDENT CONFERENCES:

We have many families signed up for parent/student conferences during workshop week. There will be a regular full day of classes on Monday, November 19th, but then a schedule of conferences lasting a half-hour each on Tuesday and Wednesday, the 20th and 21st. These conferences will be an opportunity for students to share their work with parents and to set goals for themselves in the second trimester (December 3rd to March 12th). Some of you have not yet signed up, but we have free slots available on those two days, as follows:

TUESDAY, 20TH:

1. 11:30 AM - 12 NOON
2. 2:30 PM - 3 PM

WEDNESDAY, 21ST:

1. 9 AM - 9:30 AM
2. 2 PM - 2:30 PM
3. 2:30 PM - 3 PM

CLASSROOM VISIT GUIDELINES:
You are welcome to visit us! By following the four guidelines below you will be able to observe the students undisturbed as they pursue their normal daily activities.

1. Please remain in the visitor's chair.
2. Please refrain from initiating interaction with the students.
3. If the students approach and introduce themselves, please tell them your name. Use a quiet voice. Refrain from lengthy conversations.
4. At the close of your visit, please exit the room quietly.

If you are a parent of a student in the classroom you may or may not observe a normal day of activity for your student. It is difficult for some students to manage their emotional attachment to you and sustain their independence in the classroom simultaneously. Adolescents can be particularly self-conscious when parents and peers are in proximity.

Here are some aspects of the Montessori environment you may wish to watch for:

• Observe students' response to the total classroom: people, materials, etc.
• Notice how they initiate activities (independence).
• Note how the ability to concentrate and to be absorbed varies from student to student, and from material to material.
• Note how certain activities can serve to focus a student's attention on an isolated stimulus.
• Notice how some children, even when distracted, can return easily to their work.
• Look for spontaneous gatherings in small groups around new activities, discoveries, stimuli, etc.
• Observe the variety of small group work vs. individual work.
• Watch the interaction between students. Is there courtesy, teamwork, dialog, negotiation, etc.?
• Observe how the guides present lessons, and how students may react differently to a given subject matter.

If you would like to talk with one of the guides about your observations, questions, and discoveries, please call or email us and set up a time outside of class hours to do so.

ENTRY, October 25th, 2007

Dear students and parents of SVEC MJH:

After a blog hiatus, we are back, with some announcements, and a review of our first parents’ meeting. We need help transferring our blog to a new school online tool called MOODLE. Any student or parent webmasters who are interested in getting us set up with this communication tool, please contact Andy or Cynthia!

FIRST:
Here is a heads-up on our expectations for work to be completed for the week of October 29-31. (NEXT week.)

Monday, 10/29
FRENCH: Practice your conversational phrases and numbers, and your first vocabulary words. Use each other as practice partners!

“ENDERS SHADOW”: Group meets 11:45-12:30 to discuss through Chapter 16 (up to page 303).
Quinton has agreed to be the discussion leader.

STUDY OF NATURE TERM PROJECT: Bring your organ system notes and outline to school. Be prepared to discuss what you have learned about its parts, its function, and how it works, with your classmates who are studying the same system.
NOTE: Everyone should have completed their notes (in their own words) and an outline by now. If not, complete that work by Monday!!

Tuesday, 10/30
WRITING GROUP: You can pick up the next list-sentence writing challenge from Andy on Monday. We will be looking at this exercise in class on Tuesday.

“GATHERING BLUE”: Book review (critique) or epilogue (your thoughts about what could happen next) due today. We will also finish our book discussion.

Wednesday, 10/31
STUDY OF NATURE TERM PROJECT: Visual aid check-in with Cynthia or Andy. Visual aid to be finished the following Wednesday, November 7th.

MATH: Check in with Cynthia. Plan for at least 2 hours of math work a week.

DRAWING SKILLS CLASS: Keep developing any of your unfinished exercises: grey scale landscape drawing, line-pattern drawing, or paper-clip drawing. Can you think of a drawing exercise that applies the concepts we have been practicing so far? If so, the materials await your itchy fingers!

SECOND:
PARENTS’ MEETING#1:
Our parents meeting on the 17th of October was well attended. Minutes were graciously kept by Kim Olszewski, Kennedy’s mom.

We shared our assessment of the challenges (cramped quarters, lack of adequate storage space, noisiness) but also some of the successes so far. The community of adolescents seems to be forming well. We have a great and very lively group, led by four focused and mature ninth graders.

We shared an overview of the still-developing weekly schedule. Our core classes, the study of nature and the study of the history of humanity, are up and running.
The fall classroom project is a biological investigation of human organ systems. Students will have their presentations ready by Workshop Week in November.

Our fall Festival of Stories at the end of November will be a practice run for the History of Humanity project in March. For the time being, students are researching ancient civilizations from the time of the dawn of writing, and will write short stories to share with each other about those long ago and far away people. This year, the History of Humanity work will track human progress from the invention of writing to the invention of the printing press.

We listed the fall trimester electives that had begun:
~French and Hands-on Science on Monday afternoons
~Creative Writing on Tuesday afternoons
~Two book discussion groups: one Tuesday PM, one Monday lunch
~Math and Drawing Skills on Wednesdays

We spoke to our needs for parental involvement in areas such as our Occupations, Field Trips, kitchen oversight on Pot Luck Days, etc., and passed around a sign-up sheet with some requests for parent help.

We shared some further specific requests:
~Some students may need help organizing their work weeks to get done at home what is not completed at school.
~Some students may need some home help in various aspects of research, writing reports, finding appropriate resources at a local library or online, creating hands-on visual aids.
~All students need to have a personal calendar, in book, pocket, or palm-pilot form, to track their own work goals and completion targets.
~Many students need help making healthy nutritional choices for themselves at lunch time and throughout the day. Sugar, rich and fatty foods, additives in snack food, and caffeine can all combine to promote restlessness and hyperactivity.
~Many students need support in finding a healthy sleep schedule. New studies suggest that lost sleep cannot be made up adequately, and that too little sleep impairs brain development. Adolescence is a crucial period for adequate sleep. Check these links to recent sleep articles:
http://nymag.com/news/features/38979/
http://nymag.com/news/features/38951/

Please let us teachers know as soon as you are able to do so when your child will be absent, by phone or email. [Andy’s cell: 206-446-1708; email: fremont63@msn.com; Cynthia’s email: cyostnwm@hotmail.com] It helps us plan our days, and relieves our worry about missing students.

We ended with some parent questions and concerns:

~A request has been made that we end our day at 3:20, with the rest of Sky Valley, so that people with longer commutes can beat the traffic. Henceforth students will be released, provided they have completed their classroom care responsibilities for the day, at 3:20 PM.

~There was a discussion about fundraising, carpeting, and other issues related to the new space we are moving into. Messages relating to these issues will be ongoing. Dana Strickland, Avery’s mom, has graciously agreed to be our liaison for the Montessori Parents Committee now forming. She has called our attention to a new bulletin board with items of import for all Montessori parents, posted outside the entrance to the Lower Montessori classroom.

~There are parent sign-ups in the Junior High classroom for:
Parent/Teacher conference times during November Workshop Week.
Community Service options and ideas parents might be willing to facilitate.

~Our classroom wish-list: (Needed Item not on list—a used but functioning toaster oven for baking students’ projects in Sculpy Clay.)


Please call us with your concerns. We are happy to meet, when we can, either before or after our school day. (8:15-8:45 AM; 3:30-4 PM)

A New Posting from Cynthia. Week Two: Onward and Upward!

Our first week was a bit chaotic but we have begun to settle in during our second week. Our students are a very energetic group, but an exciting group to be with. We look forward to our year together. It's a steep learning curve, but each day we get a little further, a little closer to where we need to be.

MONDAY

Our Monday field trip to Jim Creek was a great experience.

It was a mix of teambuilding and independent challenge adventures. Our wonderful guide, Mike, was assisted by five marines who were very helpful and patient with us.

Sadly, “back to school bugs” had caught up with several of our students so they couldn’t attend. We missed them! A special thanks to Dana Strickland for hooking us up with this outfit. (Dana, too, had a bug and couldn’t join us.)

Belay on, and up we climb!

At the summit!

And down we rappel!

It takes a team to help each member...

SWING!!!!

TUESDAY

Tuesday we presented our first core lessons, on the study of Nature (CY), and on the development of the Montessori method (AR). We also took people's preference sheets for afternoon electives and worked out a trial fall schedule. They are as follows:

Monday afternoon there will be a French group with Andy and a Hands-on Science group with Cynthia. We will be trying to time these for different hour-long periods, so it is conceivable that someone could take both.

Tuesday afternoon, Cynthia will be offering a book discussion group, with Lois Lowry's book "Gathering Blue," and Andy will be meeting with a writing group.

Wednesday there is a fair amount of coming and going to and from outside classes, so we will be present all day in our capacity as math guide (CY) and art guide (AR). Sometime on Wednesday Andy might offer a focused hour class in a particular medium or art expression, and Cynthia may also offer a math group lesson of some kind. Otherwise we will be present to support any one working in either area. Of course, students are not required to spend the entire day on Wednesday doing math or art. They can also use their time to work on Occupations and other personal or group projects.
Andy will also try to fit in a sci-fi fantasy book group at some other point in the week, starting with Orson Scott Card's "Ender's Shadow".

Your students have all signed up for their electives and we have asked them to review their choices with you. Please note that the science, math, writing electives are in addition to the science, math, and writing that will be a part of our integrated studies. Electives are one way we thought that we could allow students to pursue their ‘great work’ in depth within a three day program. Don’t hesitate to contact us or catch us after school if you have any questions.

Andy and Cynthia

ASSIGNMENTS:

FOR EVERYONE (DUE MONDAY): Bring a written description of your first two week's experience all together at SVEC Montessori Junior High. This is raw material for a demonstration on being a historian and the nature of history.

HANDS ON SCIENCE (MONDAY): If you have any science experiment books at home, please bring them in to share with your classmates.

FRENCH (MONDAY): Bring in a sentence on Monday that you use frequently at home that we might translate in class.

WRITING GROUP (TUESDAY): Bring in for Tuesday a favorite excerpt--a paragraph, or a sequence of sentences, or a verse or a short poem--by someone else. An example of writing that has excited you as a reader. We'll be looking together at how the writers we admire make their ideas come alive for us on the page.

BOOK GROUP WITH CYNTHIA (TUESDAY): Please check out a copy of “Gathering Blue” by Lois Lowry from the library if you can. Cynthia will be checking in with students on Monday to see who doesn’t have a copy of the book yet. One of our book group members checked out this book on Wednesday and said that there were a number of copies available.

BOOK GROUP WITH ANDY (DAY TBA): Please check out a copy of “Ender’s Shadow” by Orson Scott Card from the library if you can. Andy will be checking in with students on Monday to see who doesn’t have a copy of the book yet.

ART (WEDNESDAY):Bring in something you have made with your hands: painting, drawing, sculpture, knitting, woodwork, clay, jewelry, etc, etc....we will share our different experiences of creating something as we begin to look at the amazing human phenomenon of art.

MATH (WEDNESDAY): No assignment this week. We will start with a general math review and work towards creating individual goals for the first trimester.

First week!

I hope everyone is having a restful Saturday. I congratulate all of you in getting through our first hectic week together. What we are trying to do, all at the same time, is a very big thing. Build a learning community. Build a learning environment (and furniture!). Build this year's curriculum. Build a schedule into which all of these other "buildings" can fit. I am very impressed with the energy and creativity and friendliness and patience and willingness to jump in and participate that I have witnessed in our circle. I am also feeling a little overwhelmed. A word that means "turned upside down," or "swamped," or "rolled over by a big wave at sea." As in the Japanese printmaker's image below:

His name was Hokusai. That's Mount Fuji in the distance.

Actually, for me personally, this picture may be closer to the truth:

Funny coincidence: my last name, Rosane, when pronounced with a French accent, sounds like the French words for "pink donkey." So, here's me, just hangin'out.

But there's so much to do!

I'll confess to you now. I am an introvert. That means that although I love people and am fascinated by people, I gradually lose energy when I'm with people. To recharge my batteries I need some peace and quiet and solitude. That's why my favorite activity as a younger man was to be outside alone at dawn or dusk or in the middle of the woods at noon, painting the sky and the ground and everything in between. Occasionally a doe or a woodpecker or a fox would wander by...

An extrovert, on the other hand, is someone who recharges his or her batteries by being with people. I've got a feeling we have both extroverts and introverts in our Junior High group. So one of our big interior design issues in the new space will be how to provide a space for groups to gather and converse and also provide a space where individuals can read or work in quiet. I was encouraged to hear the design Occupations team already beginning to think about how to separate out those two needs and accomodate both styles of learning.

These last few days I've been thinking about stories and curriculum for our next few weeks. Cynthia has tabulated all your choices for afternoon electives. She has also been back up to Monroe and has ordered in more storage space for all of you and our materials. We'll be discussing electives and other matters later this weekend.

I look forward to seeing all of you on Monday. We're going to have a great experience there at Jim Creek. Thanks again to Dana Strickland for setting it up. Remember, what we're focused on there are the team-building exercises on the ground. The tower and swing challenges are entirely optional. We need as a learning community to be able to work together collaboratively. We also are called to follow our own challenges where they lead us. I'm expecting that our adventure on Monday will be a good place to begin putting those linked objectives into practice.

In spite of being born an introvert, I want you to know what a thrill it is to get to learn with you all this year. ZOOM!

Andy

September Letter:

Dear families of Junior High students:
We are looking forward to meeting with you all individually for SLP meetings in the coming two weeks, and then of course we are very excited about the first gathering of our student community on Monday, September 17th. Our projected move into new space in an adjacent building in November provides us with some ideal opportunities for Occupations, or work projects, both indoors and out. We have begun to receive student interest forms back from some of you and are starting to get a feel for what you will be interested in pursuing in the coming year. (For those who haven’t sent those forms in—we await them eagerly!) We are beginning to wrestle the current SVEC Library space into some kind of interim classroom. We are also finishing up our summer-long course with Jenny and Polly on the Montessori Elementary curriculum, which has been fascinating, and very well facilitated.

We’d like to give you all a heads-up about what we are planning to provide in terms of curriculum. We do this with the understanding that we do not know yet now where the students’ individual and collective interests might lead them over the coming year. There are so many firsts for all of us this year that we will need to proceed slowly and cautiously. However, we do have an academic plan, outlined below, based on our Montessori Adolescent Syllabus (reproduced at the end of this communication).

The following plan we call Stage One, which encompasses our time away from our new space. This period may last until Thanksgiving. The schedule below is for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. But we encourage you all to think of the whole week and the whole Syllabus as we make our plans together.

Communal work in AM: Three hour work blocks in AM: 9-12 AM:

I. The beginning of a two year cycle, The Study of Nature, which proceeds from Self to Cosmos. This includes:
A. Self-study (human needs, human physiology, learning styles, nutrition)
B. Land study (biology, chemistry, geology and history of Monroe, its watershed and ecological profile; developing plans for outdoor Occupations)

II. The beginning of a three year cycle, The Study of the History of Humanity. This year we will proceed from the beginning of Human Writing to the Invention of the Printing Press. (This will be a lesser component until we can move into the new space and develop our library and other resources.)

III. Occupations: Indoor environment projects (decoration, interior design, furniture design and construction, etc.) Outdoor projects (landscape design, gardening, design of recreational space)

Individual and group pursuits in PM: 1-3:30 pm
Electives offered by guides, or individual work: 1-2:50
clean-up: 2:50-3
journal time: 3-3:30

CY electives for first trimester:
§ Montessori Key Lessons in Science
§ Math learning group (tutorial?)

AR electives for first trimester:
(the top three choices will be offered, based on interest):
§ writing group (creative writing with some writing skills exercises)
§ reading group(s)
§ visual art group
§ philosophical dialog group

Indoor and outdoor occupations work: (This may require a rotation of parent supervision in the afternoons.)

We can review these offerings in Stage One during your SLP meetings, and we will be looking at them again with the whole learning community when we gather, starting the 17th.

Parent Meetings: we have heard from some but not all of you about your preferred monthly parent meeting times. Please remember to bring your preferences with you to the SLP meeting. These are times for moms AND dads, by the way, so let us reiterate that we are willing to stay in Monroe into the evening once a month to ensure maximum participation. So far the third Wednesday afternoon option is the most popular. These meetings will begin in October.

See you soon!

Andy and Cynthia

THE ADOLESCENT SYLLABUS

Maria Montessori first published her thoughts on the syllabus in 1948.

Self-Expression:
Music
Language (Creative Writing And Drama)
Dance
Athletics
Visual Art

Psychic Development:

Moral education
Mathematics
Language(s)

Preparation for Adult Life:
The Study of Nature (The Earth and Living Things)
(geology, geography, biology, cosmology, botany, zoology, physiology, astronomy, comparative anatomy)

The Study of Human Progress and the
Building Up of Civilizations
(physics, chemistry, mechanics, engineering, and genetics integrated into the history of science and technology—“supranature”)

The Study of the History of Humanity
(scientific discoveries, geographical explorations, relation of humans to the environment, contact between different peoples, war, religion, patriotism, a detailed study of one period, a detailed study of the life of one person, the present day and nation, law and government, literature and the arts)

SVEC Montessori Junior High
Requested Supply List for Shared Classroom Supplies
2007-2008

We invite families to help build up our store of classroom supplies as follows, to be brought in by students on September 17th:

1 dozen #2 pencils with erasers
1 dozen black pens (erasable or not, depending on your preference)
2 packages of lined 3” x 5” index cards for note-taking
1 package of five 3-ring binder subject dividers
1 package of Pink Pearl erasers
1 package recycled college-lined 3-ring binder paper
1 package glue sticks
Several report binders/covers for storing completed work

Requested Supply List for Individual Student Supplies
2007-2008

We request that each student provide for him or herself, beginning Sept. 17th:

1 reusable water bottle
1 journal for recording daily and weekly work, and for journaling
1 personal 3-ring binder for storing current work (2” recommended)
(Optional) pocket calendar for planning long term work and keeping track of assignments.

We assume that every student will come each day with a healthy lunch prepared and stored in a conveniently stowable lunch box or other container. We will be examining what a healthy lunch might consist of during our fall nutrition unit.

We will have an additional voluntary sign-up sheet with requests for other classroom supplies, including art supplies, kitchen supplies, and cleaning supplies, at the SLP meetings.

An Invitation to the Present Moment

Dear Angeleah, Avery, Bailey, Bethany, D’Marco, Emerald, Erin, Gabe, Haley, Hannah, Jessica, Kennedy, Kyanna, Lindsey, Marissa, McKayla, Megan, Mical, Miekayla, Monica, Rachel, Talia, Taylor, and Tyler,

Wow! There are 24 of you. Surprised? I am, seeing as the class size in the final year of our middle school program in Seattle was only 5 students.

Cynthia and I are getting ready to be with all 24 of you, by doing the following:

• We enjoyed our time beachcombing with the Montessori elementary families at Fort Flagler. What a warm and welcoming community! Those of you students who will be "new" like us are in for a treat.



• We are also spending time at Sky Valley this summer, learning from Jenny and Polly about the materials and methods of the elementary classroom.



• Together with Cynthia's husband Peter Donaldson we are teaching a class of fifteen middle schoolers at the University of Washington Summer Program.



• And I'm spending some of my time this summer pondering three words: education, adventure, and sustainability.

EDUCATION:

What thoughts or feelings come to your mind when you hear that word? Some of mine are frustration with too much sitting indoors, or the feeling of being defeated before I’ve even begun because of the long list of “have-to’s” keeping me from my own secret personal list of “want-to’s”, or better yet, "dream-to's." The Irish poet, William Butler Yeats, warned us about how we use the word. Educare in Latin means to lead out of. But out of what? Ignorance? Poverty? Childhood? All those uses of the word suggest to me that somehow I'm not good enough for the world. That I'm lacking something. That I'm empty of value. But Yeats paints a different picture. He said, “Education is not the filling of a bucket, but the lighting of a fire."

I appreciate his image. It suggests that each of us has some precious gift--our passion, our unique perspective--to bring to the world. It also reminds me of what Maria Montessori had to say about human beings as learners, how we all have an inner guide, the Teacher who is within. Have you sensed your own inner fire? What kindles it? Have you heard the voice of your own inner guide? What has that voice called you to, in your life so far?

ADVENTURE:

So, what about that word? Is it a cliche, especially when used to describe a learning experience? What I'm thinking of looks something like this:

Does this mean that I'm feeling a bit "at sea?" Not exactly, although there are a lot of new things to think about. The word adventure comes from the Latin verb advenire, which means to come to, or to arrive, or to happen. So for me, adventure is what is happening right now, right at the borderline between the present and the future. If I were an icebreaker, one of those ships that plow through polar ice, then adventure would be the sound of ice crunching and cracking and the spray and pattern of ice pieces scattered to either side of my prow. Adventure in this case would not be recklessness. It would be alertness. It would be my careful progress forward through the ice, keeping my eyes on my nose (without going cross-eyed.) And on the horizon, and on the sonar screen for what’s below the surface, and on the cleared trail behind me. Looking at life as an adventure means learning to live in the moment, to be aware, awake, paying attention to what is happening, to what is arriving, to what is coming at me. Looking at life as an adventure means lighting a fire inside and taking care to make sure it doesn’t go out. I'm trying to tend my fire. I'm trying to stay alert, and pay attention. How is your fire doing? What is happening in your neck of the woods? What is commanding your attention this summer?

SUSTAINABILITY:

We live in a global consumer culture. What this means to me is that when people all over the world decide they need something, they go somewhere outside of themselves, outside of their own homes, or property, or land, or region, or country, or continent to get it. And I don’t mean just get it. I mean consume it. To devour it from the bottom up, utterly. You eat just the raspberries picked from the bush and more will grow next year; you eat up the whole plant, roots and all, and the world has one less source of raspberries come next spring.

If I want to sell something in a global consumer culture, I need to learn how to advertise it on a large scale, so that all over the world people will learn what it is that they need. As an advertiser, I have to be very smart, because I need to persuade people that they need something—my thing—enough to be willing to leave home to get it (consume it). This means lots and lots of money spent on advertising, and on lots and lots of labeling and recognizable packaging, and on lots and lots of traveling back and forth—of people and products. Which means lots and lots of gallons of fuel.

Of course, in some places there is now ordering over the internet, and overnight shipping, so that some of us can pretend we don’t need to leave home to get (consume) what we need. We can pretend we aren’t responsible for all the energy it costs to get that item to arrive at our front door from halfway around the world.

To put it in a nutshell, there’s a lot of waste that goes into a global consumer culture. In fact, there’s enough waste to fill many nutshells. And the evidence suggests that all this waste is catching up with us. So much so that it threatens to overwhelm us, and the rest of nature along with us. To cram one more thing into my last nutshell, there's enough waste in our global consumer culture to damp the fire inside of ourselves. There probably aren’t enough squirrels in the world to provide us with the nutshells we’re going to need, unless...

...unless we can learn how to become a global sustainer culture. (Here's a clue: we should pay more attention to squirrels.)

To sustain has the Latin word for hold and the Latin word for under in it, and describes the action of holding something up from underneath, the way a foundation holds up a house. Sustaining means understanding first principles, the foundations of how things are, and then supporting those principles. Living by those principles. To live by the principles, we need to learn about them, to pay attention to them, as they are revealed in nature. Ranger Rob reminded us at Fort Flagler that without crabs--aquatic janitors and sanitation engineers--scuttling across the floors of the world's oceans, we would be buried in the litter of sea life. We'd suffer the same fate on land (buried alive!) if not for all the slugs, snails, beetles, worms, and microbes that make up the family of mostly invisible sustainers we call the Decomposers. That's good news, to me. What's good news? That nature has already figured out how sustainability works. If we can just pay attention, nature can show us the way.

I'm still at the beginning stages of understanding all this. Probably some or all of you are already well on the way to figuring this sustainability thing out. As a geezer-in-training I'm not as flexible as you springy young whippersnappers, and my habits are more established. But the challenge of learning a new way to be in the world has definitely kindled my inner fire, and I feel that trying to live and work and learn sustainably is an adventure worth embarking upon. The good news is our global consumer culture is going to have to change into a global sustainer culture in the next thirty years, and your generation will be involved in a major way in creating a new civilization. I wonder what amazing sustainable solutions you will come up with?

Our first assignment as a new learning community at Sky Valley is to plan how we can create a school environment and culture that is as green, as waste-free, as sustainable, as possible. As we go about planning our Occupations for the coming year, our constant guiding question will be: "What is the most sustainable way that we can accomplish this task?"

In the next week, you'll be getting an Occupations questionnaire from Cynthia and me in the mail. Please fill it in and send it back to us as soon as you can, to help us in our planning. Eventually, no doubt, you will be teaching me how to do all of this kind of communication paperlessly, online.

I look forward to the EDUCATION.

Or should I say... ADVENTURE ?