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)