In preparation for MLK celebration...we have changed the date! Please join us on January 20, 2018!1/4/2018
Friday, December 15, 2017: The last day the Dome School will use this space as a classroom. How many decades has it been? When we return in January, Preschool and Kindergarten will move into the new southern classroom, 1st/2nd grade will move into the new northern classroom, 3rd/4th/5th grade will continue to learn in the Amethyst Room, and 6th/7th/8th/9th will continue to learn across the bridge.
Today we spiral gathered to say goodbye to the space as we have known it for so long. Looking back, looking forth, the edge of winter's solstice seems the right time to shift our space: One more webpage of our fledgling classroom website is complete! How We Go About It: Educational Approaches & Influences describes the inspirations that guide the Dome School elementary program. You can click over to the web page or read below (sadly, the graphics refused to copy-and-paste themselves below. You'll need to visit the web page for the visuals). How We Go About It: Educational Approaches and Influences
Our hearts, heads, and spirits are guided by the Dome School Philosophy and Mission, as shared on the school's website HERE. Over the last four decades, our philosophy has translated into curriculum via a variety of educational approaches and influences, each a reflection of the time. Currently the elementary program is shaped by the following: Small Multiage Classes with a Low Teacher-Student Ratio From its inception, the elementary class has been an intimate gathering space for children of different ages, from age 6 to age 12 or so. In a multiage classroom, children of different ages form friendships, older children learn to mentor and lead, younger children learn to receive guidance from their older peers, teachers and children form a longer-lasting relationship, and we become a close-knit family. Keeping our class size small has also helped facilitate an intimate atmosphere. The teacher-student ratio has ranged from 1:7 to 1:10 through the years. At times, all the children have spent the entire day with each other. Other times (when the group gets a bit big), the class splits into two learning areas. Currently the class is split, with 15 children in grades 1-2 gathering in the open classroom while 12 children in grades 3-5 gather with their teachers in the adjacent Amethyst Room. To learn more, read "Some Benefits of Multiage Grouping," by the Early Care and Education Center at the University of Wyoming. Emergent Thematic Learning In thematic learning, multiple subjects can be integrated into study of a theme, such as the themes of winter, Africa, or the oceans. Sometimes children will spend an entire day, week, or even multiple weeks focused entirely on a theme. We dive deeply into the theme, conclude our explorations, and then move on. Other times a theme will play a smaller part in the daily curriculum, coming in and out of focus over a longer period of time, like an undercurrent to our year. Although teachers may provide the initial inspiration for the theme, it is the children's interest that will guide the theme's development and duration, allowing the theme to organically emerge into its fullest form. The initial theme may lead somewhere completely unexpected, even to entirely new themes. Learn more about Thematic Learning. Social and Environmental Justice - Awareness and Activism The Dome School has a long and proud history of activism. Children and adults consciously practice a respect for all cultures, genders, and ways of living; for all species and for Mother Earth. We learn the histories of people whose stories have been silenced, and when we feel the call, students and families take peaceful action to heal our planet. Learn more through "Creating Classrooms for Social Justice" and "Six Elements of Social Justice Curriculum Design for the Elementary Classroom." Multiple Intelligences - Respecting Multiple Ways of Being The theory of Multiple Intelligences asserts that every human is intelligent and gifted, yet our strengths are diverse among eight categories of intelligence: (1) logical-mathematical, (2) verbal-linguistic, (3) musical, (4) visual-spatial, (5) interpersonal, (6) intrapersonal, (7) naturalistic, (8) bodily-kinesthetic. As we explore thematic learning and other learning in the classroom, co-teachers aim to appeal to a variety of intelligences, or ways of learning. Arts-Based Integration The newest influence to the program is Arts-Based Integration, specifically the method taught by veteran educator Gina Angelique, coordinator of the Illinois Valley Riverstars Performing Arts program. Arts-Based Integration incorporates the fine and performing arts into other curricular areas. And the Influences Never Cease... We've never stopped experimenting with learning at the Dome School, and we probably never will! So, even though we're mainly guided by the above educational approaches and influences, we can't help but also get excited about brain-based learning, Bloom's Taxonomy of Learning, the work of Bev Bos, Waldorf, reflective teaching, growth versus fixed mindsets, Elizabeth Byrne Ferm's Freedom in Education, Montessori, Reggio Emilia, Anarchist Pedagogies ... and the importance of awareness. We are here now. Save the Dates! Wednesday, November 29: Curriculum Night 3:30 - 5:00 p.m. (with supervision of children from 2:30 - 5:00 p.m.) Thursday, November 30: School ends at 12 p.m. followed by parent-teacher conferences. Friday, December 1: Parent-teacher conferences all day (no school). (Conference sign-ups will be posted on the bulletin board before Thanksgiving break). "Any questions?" "Yes!!! I have a few. So, um, what's Curriculum Night and what's going to happen and have we ever done this before and do I really have to go?" "Curriculum Night is new. The teachers recognized that Parent-Teacher Conferences have become, shall we say, LONG (60-90 minutes each!). Much of this time was spent discussing the curriculum in general to create the context for discussing each child's growth. We created Curriculum Night to answer the Big Picture questions, enabling shorter Parent-Teacher Conferences."
"But what exactly is Curriculum Night?" Curriculum Night is, more or less, like Back-to-School Night. It's a chance to learn what the class has been doing so far this year, and where we're migrating to next (just like whales, always on the move!)" "But aren't Parent-Teacher Conferences when we find out what our child has been learning, and how she/he/they is doing?" "Well, Curriculum Night will give you the big picture -- for example, you'll get an overview of the Explode the Code reading program and learn what phonics skills are covered in each book. We'll also discuss the history of the school, the educational approaches and philosophies that influence the curriculum, our conflict resolution principles and process, and how children are assessed academically, socially, emotionally, and physically. You'll also spend time in your child's classroom, taking a long look around, asking questions, and clarifying any concerns or curiosities (so bring a list of questions, if you like!)." "Is there a schedule for Curriculum Night?" Yep. (The schedule may change a bit as we move closer towards the day). 2:30 - 3:30 p.m. Teachers prepare classrooms (Children are supervised). 3:30 - 4 p.m. Grown-ups gather together for a short presentation and Q & A about the history of the elementary program, educational influences, and upcoming changes (Children are supervised). 4:00 - 5 p.m. Grown-ups divide into the Main Classroom (1st-2nd) or Amethyst Room (3rd-5th). Explore each group's curriculum through interactive dialogue with the teachers. Please ask questions, share any concerns, offer advice for the program, you name it ... we want feedback. Please come. There will be snacks. (In teacher/parent talk, we call that last sentence "bribery."). Hey grown ups, remember when you felt this giddy about dying leaves? From the ancient Celtic harvest festivals to trick-or-treating on Hanby Lane, the end of October has come 'round again! Celebrate Dome School style at the Halloween Potluck & Children's Party (Tuesday 10/31, 11am-2pm) and the Day of the Dead Fundraiser featuring Brownish Black (Saturday, 11/4, 8pm-late). Halloween Potluck & Children's Party notes: this isn't a regular school day, so please don't bring children until 11 a.m. (school staff will be busy setting up); bring a potluck dish if you can; please keep costume weapons at home. We're going to dance, play games for prizes, visit the not-so-spooky Haunted House classroom, eat, and have a great time! Day of the Dead notes: we need volunteers! We need help Friday afternoon to put the school away, help Sunday to put the school back, and help in-between with baking desserts and quiches, working the front door, helping in the kitchen, and more! Sign up at the school. What does it mean to "discover" a place? Specifically, what does it mean when a light-skinned European claims to have "discovered" a place that has been home to millions of people for thousands of years? Our 3rd-5th grade students have been considering questions such as these since October 9, which has been the federal holiday called "Columbus Day" since 1937. We received great help from the text, Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years, published by Rethinking Schools (with a focus on ideas for the elementary classroom). We wondered, we sang, and eventually, we put Columbus and his co-defendants on trial. (1) We wondered ... - Who was already living here? - Where did Columbus and his crew land, and where did they believe that they had landed? - What was he looking for, and who was paying the bill? Why? - What happened to the Tainos and how did Columbus' voyages play a role in the Transatlantic slave trade? - In more recent history, what has been the process for some American communities (such as Eugene, Portland, and Seattle) when people there decided to change the name of "Columbus Day" to "Indigenous Peoples Day"? Could we make a similar change here, and if so, what will it take? (2) We sang ... ...the song "1492" by Nancy Schimmel, from "I Will Be Your Friend: Songs and Activities For Young Peacemakers." If you're curious about the lyrics and tune, take a listen to the song on YouTube (with lyrics)... (3) Finally, we held a two-day trial ... ...to determine who was responsible for the mistreatment and murder of thousands, and perhaps millions, of the Taino people, who had lived in the Caribbean for approximately 13,000 years. (Fifty years after the arrival of Columbus, only 200 people from the Taino culture remained.) In our role play, the class formed four groups of defendants: Columbus, Columbus' Men, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, and the Taino people. Three students played the role of jury, and the jury and prosecutor (teacher Kaci) asked questions of each group. The groups were allowed to plead guilty ---and all but the Taino group made this plea--- yet those who pleaded guilty needed to name at least one other defendant whom they believed shared the guilt. Every student was allowed to make their own verdict of "percentage guilt," in which they were tasked to determine what percentage of guilt each defendant responsible for, totalling 100%.
Within the teachings, singing, and trial-making, there emerged spontaneous discussions and debates among the children. They held strong opinions about the nature of war and peace, whether the same tragedies would have happened if King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella sent someone other than Christopher Columbus, the role of the "System of Empire," whether we have learned from our past mistakes and, most tenderly, they wanted to share their opinions of forgiveness: if something terrible like this happened to my family, could I forgive? Our time with 1492 is drawing to a close, yet as we move closer to the next whitewashed American celebration, the day of turkeys and football that we call Thanksgiving, we will both practice the literal act of thanks-giving through practices of gratitude, as well as consider the long history of people who have lived on this land for thousands and thousands of years (and are not gone, but are alive, awake, and fighting for social justice). Whether traveling by map, instinct, follow-the-sun, or "Let's Get Ourselves Lost 'Til Somebody Finds Us!" ... at Fort Vannoy Farms yesterday, the children of the Dome School became the Children of the Corn (Maze). Maybe not the best reference to make? Hmm....anyway, watch these 15 seconds of noisy emergence!
1. Graded homework (from the Homework Station)
2. New homework (from the Homework Station) 3. Jackets, shoes, sweaters etc (from the coat hooks and cubbies). Thanks! Get yourselves hungry this Sunday morning and come on down to the Dome School for a pancake breakfast! Secondary students in grades 6-9 will cook and serve, both in the spirit of community service and also to raise some cold hard cash for the new Secondary Program. Pancakes + fundraising= fun!
Also, a reminder: do not come to school on Monday! We're meeting at Fort Vannoy Farms in Grants Pass at 11 a.m. See the original blog post for more details. Another page of the website is complete!
Grab 5 minutes to visit the Page for Panicked Parents of Pre-Readers, and do let us know what you think! If you're a one-click kind of person and just don't feel like clicking again, I copied the text below: The Page for Panicked Parents of Pre-Readers We feel compassion for your panic. The author of this website (Kaci) has two children, and she still holds a visceral, cellular memory of the panic when her eldest son wasn't reading at an early age. He wasn't reading, and neither was he showing a strong desire to read. The stress of our competitive winner/loser culture took hold, and she wondered and worried whether her son was falling behind, whether he would make it in life, whether she was a good mom. And then one day ... something "clicked." He was ready. What was it that made him ready? His teacher? His parents? His brain? The weather that day? Who knows; it was a mystery (as is life!). Suddenly her panic was gone, and in its place was trust. So now ... as the teachers of the elementary program ... We are asking for your trust. Trust that there are many ways to teach a human, and many ways that we learn. Trust that children are magical beings, and each child is ready to read when they are ready to read. Trust that the age your child learns to read has absolutely no bearing on her or his intelligence. Trust that more than four decades of a play-based preschool, play-based kindergarten, and thematic elementary program have worked for the children of the Dome School. The formal reading instruction begins in the first grade, yet even then ---even then--- we don't push too hard nor too fast. Our goal is to walk alongside the children, providing a balanced reading program that contains instruction in both the small parts (e.g., phonemic awareness, phonics, and decoding) and the big parts (such as whole language learning, prosody, and comprehension). We will walk alongside the children, and we will be there when their tide comes in, when they are truly ready to read. This is a stroll along the beach, not a race to a finish line. Our way isn't the only way that works -- but it works. Trust that the more we trust in our children, trust in our school, and trust in ourselves, then we will breathe a little deeper, a little slower, and remember that our fears and panic are only written in sand on the edge of the sea, waiting to washed away by the returning tide. And... Trust, too,that the way of our school is supported by research*: - "The Joyful, Illiterate Kindergartners of Finland." The Atlantic Monthly (October 1, 2015) - "Academic Play Versus Play-Based Kindergarten." The Cortex Parent (October 9, 2009) - "Crisis in the Kindergarten: Why Children Need to Play in School." Alliance for Childhood (2009) - "Reading Instruction in Kindergarten: Little To Gain and Much to Lose." Alliance for Childhood (2015) *note: these articles pertain to both kindergarten and elementary reading instruction, despite the titles' singular reference to "kindergarten." Last year our students made pen-pal friendships with a class of 5th grade students from Accra, the capital of Ghana. We wrote three letters, they wrote three letters. We asked questions, they asked questions. We realized that Ghanaian kids also played video games, they realized that some Takilma kids get to live in school buses! (We also realized that our Ghanaian friends were mostly quite wealthy --swimming pools, servants, chauffeurs --which helped dispel some of our stereotypes about Africans; our Illinois Valley lifestyles also possibly changed our Ghanaian friends' stereotypes about Americans.)
Yet we couldn't have forged these friendships alone. These friendships were coordinated by Yo Ghana!, a small Portland nonprofit that facilitates pen-pal relationships between children in Ghana and Oregon. Needless to say, about every other Oregon classroom is from the Portland area, providing Ghanaian kids with the perspective of city-dwelling and suburban-dwelling Oregonians. And then came us -- Oregon's only rural representation in Yo Ghana! (to the best of my knowledge). We had such a fun time that we're doing it again! Stay tuned for news of our first batch of letters --- our younger children who choose to dictate their letters, or write letters in their own spelling, will need grown-up help to type their letters and/or translate their spelling into conventional spelling. Please consider volunteering :-) Our community radio station KXCJ has discovered that people around here not only love to bake pies, they love to bid on pies! On the day before Bike-a-Thon, we baked an apple-cinnamon pie to support the 2nd non-annual KXCJ "Pie in the Sky" fundraiser at the Kerby Belt Building. (Little side note: we actually baked FOUR pies! One pie was donated to KXCJ, and the other pies were gobbled up at Bike-a-Thon).
Our new math program is a hands-on hit. This year we switched to Miquon mathematics, developed by the progressive Miquon School in the 1960s. Miquon introduces all four operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division) in the 1st grade, using Cuisenaire Rods as hands-on manipulatives, and the curriculum continues to challenge students through subsequent grades. You can download the complete Scope & Sequence HERE. After students learn through all six Miquon books, they will move to Investigations in Numbers, Data, and Space. Investigations uses a constructivist-based approach to learning mathematics and helping our children think like a mathematician.
Static art likes to sit there, while kinetic art likes to move! In honor of Bike-a-Thon, the 3rd-5th graders have been building gear-and-pulley systems, a kinetic art-science project that has taken over the classroom! (Come see for yourself!). Thanks to Blick Art for the idea.
On Friday morning, the 1st and 2nd graders were challenged with building a bridge using only two ingredients: (1) plastic cups and (2) popsicle sticks. Then they had to step towards this challenge: How many dinosaurs can walk across your bridge? We enjoyed the waning warmth of early Fall by building our bridges on the front porch!
(Updated information in bold). Our annual field trip to Fort Vannoy Farms returns! Meet at 11:00 a.m. on Monday, October 16 at Fort Vannoy, outside of Grants Pass. Our guided adventure begins at 11:15 a.m. sharp, and includes finding our way through the Corn Maze, riding the Cow Train, and riding to the Pumpkin Patch to pick-yer-own pumpkins. Bring a lunch and $6 per child. Click HERE for directions. We are also organizing a carpooling option from Coffee Heaven in downtown Cave Junction -- check the Bulletin Board next week for "Rides Needed" and "Rides Offered."
If you already completed your Volunteering Commitment, please visit our nifty, nerdy* new Parent Volunteer Binder, pick the calendar that fits your commitment, and sign up! (The binder sits at the Homework Station, just outside the Amethyst 3rd-5th grade classroom).
If you haven't completed your Volunteering Commitment yet, please do! Forms are next to the Parent Volunteer Binder. Remember, we're only asking for one hour each month helping your children and their friends in the classroom and on the playground. If homework works for your family, please visit the *NEW* Home-Work Station in the elementary classroom! (Located just outside the Amethyst 3rd-5th grade room).
Parents: flip through the Language Arts and Math binders to choose home-work for your child, make a photocopy, submit to the Homework Basket by Tuesdays and it will be returned on Wednesdays! Directions are written on the cover of each binder. Please collect Bike-a-Thon pledges!
(Extra pledge sheets are in the classroom, if you need a new one). We're leaving after lunch on Thursday! The four-letter word that terrifies teachers most draws not from the usual lexicon of banned words, but rather involves a culprit no larger than the tip of our fingernails, one who hatches its mayhem on our children's scalps.
Here, I'll just say it: L-I-C-E. On Friday after school, we learned that one of our kindergartner's siblings came down with a case of lice. When we returned Monday morning, parent volunteers inspected the beautiful heads of our children, and unfortunately had to send one 1st/2nd grade child home. The 1st/2nd grade class was checked again this morning, with nothing found from the lice-realm. Please check your children for lice, and make sure that our children don't share hats, combs, or bike helmets. To read about the myths and misconceptions surrounding lice, go here. Well, we cancelled the Bike-A-Thon when the smoky skies meant rough weather for the lungs of our young ones. Then the rains came. And parents complained. "Why risk losing this time-honored Dome School tradition?" they sang, and so we listened, and thought, and listened, and thought, and then we checked the Air Quality Index and begged Ariel Swatez to coordinate everything (with a newborn slung around her chest, no less!), and so now ... so long as the Air Quality Index stays in the safe zone (50 or below), Bike-A-Thon is good to go! The Bike-A-Thon letter went home today, along with a Pledge Sheet on the back side. If you need another copy of the letter, here you go: Busy bodies busting through concrete blocks on bikes between other busy bodies busting on bikes makes for big, big, BIG bumps.
Last year we had a pile of bike helmets stuffed inside the shed. Each day children spent many minutes searching for a helmet that fit their head, then adjusted (or needed help adjusting) the size, then complained that the helmet didn't fit their heads just right and so returned to step one, searching for another helmet to sort-of fit their head, and finally they used that helmet on their hopefully-free-of-lice heads to cruise around the playground slab, and when the bell rang to signal "Recess is over!" a big pile of bike helmets was either (a) tossed onto the slab in a crushing crunch of release, or (b) thrown back into the bike shed among the pile. It was a mess. But we will not give up! Never :-) Henceforth, our New Plan: One bike helmet per student! Bring a helmet from home, or use a spare helmet at the school (we have about 12 helmets to share). Label the helmet. Keep the helmet in the Bike Helmet Bin. And may our Bike Helmet Protocol be organized forevermore. (That was a joke). With only four days remaining before the 11th of September, the Dome School grown-ups have been swimming through the depths of our Takilma ocean, surfacing for air, submerging, re-surfacing, then diving deep again. Moon jellyfish drift by. Giant clams rest on the bottom of the sea. The tides roll in, then out again. This is the way the moon and Brookings' Pacific Ocean are communicating today, Dome School Orientation Day: Welcome back, families. The dive of the grown-ups has done much to ready our school for another year, yet there is one thing missing: your children. We are so excited for their return!
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