O+March+2009

School Life Committee – March 2009  CHES  We have had a week of our fire alarm going off during naptime and lunchtime (with unknown cause) and kids nerves being frayed, but I'll try to get down a couple things for the report.  One question I have for School Life Comm. is: How is the progress on Mike and Marcia Green's workshop? Have enough parents registered to fill it up?  CHES had our ECERS (Early Childhood Environmental Rating Scale) visit. This is an evaluation we undergo every 3 years in order to maintain our 5 star license. It is a painstaking process for all and we are still awaiting the results of their evaluation.  Hallie Cherry and Barbara Conger attempted to attend an Early Childhood Conference at Pendle Hill this week, but the conference was cancelled due to snow in Philadelphia. It has been re-scheduled for April. I hope we can report about it during our May meeting since we will get to take a fieldtrip to 4 different Early Schools in the Philadelphia area (including Westtown).  The Dragonfly class (Kindergarten) is beginning their unit learning about various artists. They will have a presentation for Grandparents Day as well as a gallery of their art.  The Bees (3 - 4 yr. old class) have transformed the dramatic play area into a Post Office. Sue's husband, Dave, who is a retired postal carrier, visited the class and the kids have been writing letters to each other, addressing envelopes and adding stamps before delivering them to individual mailboxes.  <span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-bidi-font-family: inherit; color: black;">I hope this will do...I have to get back to the kids. <span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-bidi-font-family: inherit; color: black;"> <span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-bidi-font-family: inherit; color: black;">Barbara Conger <span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-bidi-font-family: Geneva; color: black;"> __ Lower School – thoughts at the beginning of March __ We’re in the roller coaster season – just when you think you’ve settled into a routine, along comes a change and whips you around a corner, down a hill, over the moon. Some changes are predictable: staff development days, our celebration of Dr. King, parent conferences, Valentine’s Day, mid-year changeover of movement classes with Annie. Others changes come like snow days – hoped for (by some), dreaded (by some), surprising, always exciting. A shriek rings down the hall, “I saw a snowflake!!!” and the building tips as everyone rushes to the window. Lower School children thrive on stability of schedule. Their time horizons are just beginning to be able to stretch more than a day. By this time of the year, we hope that they have internalized a good bit of the weekly routine – knowing to bring gym shoes on Mondays, library books on Wednesdays, homework packets on Fridays, etc. The youngest students seem to feel their day as a succession of events; they’re not sure what __time__ Meeting for Worship is, but they know it comes after snack recess, and that they’ll be off to language groups after Meeting. Some students move more easily than others between the different schedules of home and school. There were many bleary eyes on the Monday after conferences – most students admitting that they’d stayed up late during the time off and had a hard time going to bed Sunday night. For a few of our youngest students, 5 days away from school was enough to send them back to early fall in terms of their ability to remember appropriate behavior and expectations of the daily routine. In the 9 weeks since winter break, only 4 weeks have been “regular” 5-day weeks. //(5 weeks if you count the week of Valentine’s, but in Lower School…….)// But the roller coaster always goes up as well – and the winter miracle of students in line to move to a new class or unit //(“There’s no way they’ll be ready!”)// has happened again. After the years of worry and fret, something shifts, and they __get it__, and a scholar arises from the cocoon. In the next three months they’ll fly through materials that were a mystery in November. Can’t explain it - wish I could bottle it for those children whose cocoon doesn’t ripen quite quickly enough. But I am thankful that it happens and renews my faith that our work will bear fruit if we continue to labor patiently in the vineyard. -- Kathy Schenley 3/3/09 <span style="font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-bidi-font-family: Geneva; color: black;"> <span style="font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-bidi-font-family: Geneva; color: black;"> <span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-bidi-font-family: Geneva; color: black;"> <span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-bidi-font-family: Geneva; color: black;"> <span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-bidi-font-family: Geneva; color: black;"> __<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-bidi-font-family: Geneva; color: black;">Middle School __ <span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-bidi-font-family: Geneva; color: black;">Middle School has been in a time of transition recently: the play, certain sports teams, and the trimester have all been finishing up, and we're starting to move into our final part of the year. It's been good, though hectic. <span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-bidi-font-family: Geneva; color: black;"> There has been a crimp put in the first few days of the trimester. Maybe more than a crimp. Last Thursday, Calvin Trisolini, a fourth year in the MS, had his wallet stolen. It was during a seventh period volleyball class that he'd laid down his wallet and i-pod. When he went to pick it up after playing, his i-pod was there, his wallet wasn't. Naturally, he and Christel, the teacher, looked under the bleachers and all around the gym but weren't able to find the wallet. After settling-out that afternoon the volleyball class was asked if anyone had seen the wallet or picked it up by mistake. A few people had seen it before leaving the gym, but no one knew where it was. <span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-bidi-font-family: Geneva; color: black;"> The next morning an announcement was made about the wallet and the money in it. Calvin told the MS about the incident and how he'd worked for the eighty-five dollars in his missing wallet. A few teachers made related anouncements about how this was a pretty perfect opportunity for someone to practice messing up, fessing up, and cleaning it up. Unfortunately, no one has taken that advice yet. Earlier today, the volleyball class had a meeting-for-business in the beginning of class. We -I'm in the class- discussed the money, how Calvin had earned it, and how to make a safe place where someone could step forward to say "Look, I was impulsive, I messed up, sorry.". CFS isn't all about avoiding conflict -though that would be nice- it's about figuring out how to learn from our mistakes and keep going as a community. <span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-bidi-font-family: Geneva; color: black;"> I think this particular incident upset the middle school even more than it normally would have because of how soon it's been since Mary Deborah had a hundred dollars taken off her desk. No one owned up to that, and it seems like everybody was just getting back on track in terms of how we think about each other and of our rules and agreements. This is tough, and I hope that someone will summon up the responsibility to step forward before too long. <span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-bidi-font-family: Geneva; color: black;"> On a happier note, Science Day is scheduled to be the Friday after next. We signed up for different workshops today, and most of them look really interesting. The teachers are all different kinds of people from around the Triangle -there are a few parents involved-, and they seem to have planed some fun science-y stuff for us. <span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-bidi-font-family: Geneva; color: black;">-- Clara Hazlett-Norman <span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-bidi-font-family: Geneva; color: black;"> <span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-bidi-font-family: Geneva; color: black;"> <span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-bidi-font-family: Geneva; color: black;"> <span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; color: black;"> <span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; color: black;"> <span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; color: black;">PSA: <span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; color: black;"> <span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; color: #06082C;">As of Tuesday, 11 families have signed up for the Parenting Workshop. With 15-17 participants (some families aren't yet sure whether both parents can attend because of travel and/or childcare issues) the series is definitely a go. This is a good number, but it also means that two more families can attend, possibly more (depending on whether they register as couples or singles) before we hit the 20 person cap. Marsha will be sending out "welcome" emails to the participants later this week <span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana; color: #06082C;">. <span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 8.0pt; font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; color: black;"> <span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 8.0pt; font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; color: black;"> <span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; color: black;">The events for the Community Read have begun and there are many opportunities for group participation. We were hoping to secure the author of Eco-Sinner for a group discussion but it does not look as if that will happen. Other events are still being planned. <span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; color: black;"> <span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; color: black;"> <span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; color: black;">In this month's meeting a new committee was formed to create an on-line directory of services offered by the CFS community. It is in the early planning stages but there is a high level of enthusiasm around forming this indispensable tool. <span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; color: black;"> <span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; color: black;"> <span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; color: black;">Work is being done to generate excitement about the BoxTops4Education program. We have the potential to earn $60,000 annually for the Afghan Sister Schools Project by simply encouraging households to clip the "coupons" from the General Mills products they already buy. Posters are being made for each unit and a letter will be going out to all families explaining the program. We are considering collecting Campbell's soup labels as well. This would generate money to purchase new technology for our school. <span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; color: black;"> <span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; color: black;"> <span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; color: black;">In April the lead story for the PSA newsletter will be regarding the expanded recycling efforts by the Eco-Chicos. A new recycling center was built by David Ikenberry for the MS. The unit was designed by David and the Eco-Chicos to meet the needs of the specific items they are collecting. This center will act as a prototype. With the help of the PSA the hopes are that all school units will have a similar recycling center in the near future. The goal is to help families recycle items that are not currently accepted by the local county programs. It is still undecided how the proceeds from these efforts will be used. <span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; color: black;"> <span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; color: black;"> <span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; color: black;">Lisa Hess <span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; color: black;"> from Charlie I spoke with Mike about the request we made to Friday Meeting regarding war games. He said that head teachers had a lengthy and productive discussion prompted by our letter. Cesanne took notes and is in the process of writing a summary of their discussion. I will share the summary when I receive it from her and maybe we can discuss it at our final meeting in May. I've also been working closely with Lisa Hess who has been the point person helping Marsha and Mike Green prepare for the parenting workshop. A special thanks to Lisa for being so available and helpful in bringing this about. The class will be taught in Lower School and all final arrangements have been made. Lisa and her husband will be attending the class, so I look forward to hearing about the experience from Lisa when the SLC meets again. Community Meeting for Worship: There were four people who attended our February worship. I'm hoping our numbers will increase as the weather gets warmer. Our next meeting is Wednesday, March 25. <span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; color: black;">