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