Thursday
October 15
WPO Meeting
Talking with Kids about Sexuality
6pm
Friday
October 16
SPIRIT/Pizza Day
Wednesday
October 21
Board Meeting
6:30pm
Thursday
October 22
Admission Tour
9:15am
Friday
October 23
School Pictures
Wednesday
October 28
Admission Tour
9:15am
Thursday & Friday
October 29 and 30
Parent/Teacher Conferences
Saturday
October 31
Halloween Fest!
October 15, 2009
WPO Meeting Tonight
So You Want to Be a Pioneer?
Did You Know?
Fundraising at Westside
Free Choice and Recess
What Do You Think?
Ve Vant You to Volunteer!
Conference Childcare Available
Congrats!
Afterschool Enrichment Update
WPO Meeting Tonight, 6pm
Talking with your Kids about Sexuality
Don’t miss this chance to learn how to talk to your kids about sexuality. The experts say the dialog needs to start now, so come and learn all you need to know about these conversations. Tonight’s meeting will be held in the gym. Hope to see you there!
So You Want to Be a Pioneer?
By Stuart Scolnik, 3rd Grade Teacher
It’s 9:00 pm at Pho Tai, I stare down at my soup. Only 12 hours until I enter the abyss. Joe has 32 kids, 12 parents and two teachers scheduled to experience life as a Pioneer. Life as a Pioneer? What exactly is that? Joe says it will be great, with one room and no electricity. David B. says don’t bring lip gloss into the cabin or I might get a mouse up my shirt. I don’t have lip gloss plans, but I thank David. Others warn about the outhouse. The outhouse? Isn’t there more than one? Maybe I should bring a Porta-Potty? For many kids it will be their first night away from home without parents, so they are naturally nervous and excited. Joe is calm, cool and collected. He’s done this before. I’m worried, but at the same time confident; we’ve planned and checked every detail. We printed directions, prepared emergency forms and re-confirmed with the Pioneers. What could possibly go wrong?
Perhaps if I had remembered that I lent my sleeping bag to a friend, my morning would have gone better. Then I wouldn’t had been 30 minutes late with the food. Bad start. But at least I found the place, tucked in a remote valley carved with sweat, muscle, hopes and dreams. A farm community in a valley prone to floods, volcanoes and pain. We are greeted by “Mother”, wordlessly in charge of everything around her. Broad brown leather hat, a durable shirt and no nonsense skirt convince you that it’s not a costume. We get the rules... we’re off to the school house, a real deal one room, big porch, one door, 12 rows, two aisles, and an Educator with more rules. We follow the teacher in slowly and quietly, ladies first, boys second. Mother comes in last, and sits knowingly next to the pot bellied stove.
Our schedule for the next 24 hours is detailed with Pioneer precision. Barn life and chores: milking the goat, feed the chickens, tend the cow and pig, clean the stalls, lay hay, fetch water, split wood, and on it goes. There will be my favorite; carpentry, where kids will drill, use block and tackle, make tool handles, manage a saw, and strip bark. A fully functional blacksmith shop where they’ll heat, pound and quench horseshoes. A 2 hour nature walk, where our knowledge of rocks and minerals will impress our guides. Intense games of Kick the Can, once we learned patience, would thrill and delight. An hour and a half of lessons in the school house: lessons on manners, public speaking, and how to use their slates. Nighttime stories by the fire that do not scare, but enlighten with recollections of ancestors crossing a new country. Encounters with natives, and tales of struggle, joy and loss. Stories that must have been told hundreds of times, but told with the passion as if they just happened.
Sleep? - in the same room. All of us, together, on the floor, together, with one outhouse and not an inch of space, TOGETHER! It’ll be a long, long night for all, especially the teachers, who’ll help each child throughout the night find the outhouse and answer the call of nature. In the end, tired, dirty and hungry, we’ll compare and contrast our lives, but not with a cursory glance, but with depth and insight of one whose family has been doing this for generations. We’ll receive sage wisdom to put our experience in perspective and leave us thinking:
Choices, so many choices. Sometimes it’s hard for kids today with so many choices. It can make it hard to know what your role is. Sometimes it’s hard for adults, too. Pioneers, well, they didn’t have so many choices... ~Mother
Slowly, her voice rolls down the Pioneer trail... Pioneer Experience Days with Joe and the 3rd grade: for me an experience that made me a more aware person and a better teacher. For the kids: an irreplaceable experience that gives history meaning by making connections and comparisons to their own lives. For Joe: a labor of love. For the Parents: priceless moments.
Did You Know?
As part of our PNAIS accreditation, Westside is required to go through an audit every year?
Teachers need 30 hours of continuing education credits every year? Last weeks PNAIS In-Service workshop helps them meet this requirement.
Fundraising at Westside School
Our community supports Westside School in a lot of ways…. by volunteering, by spreading the word to potential families, and by participating in our fundraising efforts. Participation in all of these efforts is important, and shows your support of our school.
Gifts to annual giving and to the auction (other than fund-a-wish gifts) go directly to the operating budget, supporting costs such as salaries and benefits, teaching materials, facilities maintenance and financial aid. Whether your gift is $10 or $10,000, it makes a difference. Your financial partnership protects your investment in Westside and in your child’s education.
In the coming weeks, you’ll start to hear about our annual giving campaign. We have identified some matching opportunities that will make your gift count for even more. Please stay tuned for more information, and save the date for our annual giving kick-off breakfast, Tuesday, November 10th.
Free Choice and Recess
The path to highly successful students
By Marsha Lovely, Kindergarten Teacher
Free choice and recess send a message of joy to every early learner at Westside School. It is the most important activity of the day! What?
Play is more important today than ever in the world of intellectual development in children. Through years of research, we have come to the conclusion that play is to early childhood what gas is to a car. It is the fuel of every intellectual activity that our children engage in. Researchers are in universal agreement that play provides a strong foundation for intellectual growth, creativity, and problem solving. It also provides emotional development and the development of essential social skills.
In the 21st century, creative problem solvers, independent thinkers, and people with strong social skills are the ones who will surpass those who have simply learned to be efficient at getting the right answers. Yet, free play time has diminished by 40% since 1981. Some schools have eliminated recess completely due to concerns about higher achievement. It is having a devastating effect.
If you give your child wooden blocks and matchbox cars, they will build roads, garages, small towns. They will learn that eight blocks are as long as one big block! Math concepts at their best.
Think again before you schedule your child for yet another after school activity that takes them from free play. Resist the urge to compete with other parents who are compelled to make their child “smarter” by putting them into yet another class.
When I was growing up, I would leave on my bike with my friends, go build a fort somewhere, create games, and generally stay away from home for the entire day until dinner was ready. Today, children have their entire day, week, month, and future scheduled. The time for free play has dwindled down to nothing, considering children can’t venture away from home without adults being on site. When you go to the playground, watch the adults as they intervene on safety issues, playground disagreements, and ideas for what the child could do. Where is the child developing? here is the problem solving, the risk taking, all the things children need to develop. Instead they go off to another structured activity.
What would happen if you did stop all those “enrichment activities?” What would happen if you gave your child some cardboard boxes, wooden blocks, and paints. Are you willing to take that risk and see what develops?
What Do You Think?
Does pushing students to work harder and do well in school undermine their interest in learning?
What do you think? The keynote speaker at last Friday’s in-service day was Alfie Kohn, author of The Schools Our Children Deserve and The Homework Myth. He has appeared on the Oprah Show and CNN, and, as you can tell, his ideas on education are thought-provoking and at times controversial. He stated that “there is no better way to undermine students’ interest in learning – or the quality of their thinking — than by pushing them to work harder, get good grades, and score well on tests.” He went on to say that many schools that pride themselves on their commitment to high standards and achievement have created a climate that really isn’t about learning at all, and believes that many schools rely on traditional practices and a mistaken belief that what is harder (more “rigorous”) must be better. “When the point is for students to prove how smart they are, they become less inclined to engage deeply with ideas, to explore and discover.”
Was he on the mark? Way off base? What do you think? Click here to visit our blog.
Ve Vant You to Volunteer!
Thanks so much to all you “Spirit”ed Moms, Dads and Faculty who have signed up to help make 2009’s Halloween Fest the most successful one yet! We apologize for the wee troubles we’ve had with the sign ups but all’s good now so please try again.Click here. We still need about 40 people to volunteer your lives away. So, are you the kind of Mummy who lurks around the eerie Pirate Treasure Chest or are you part Gypsy just aching to do some fortune telling?? Please make this very grave decision and sign up here for just one hour (we don’t really need your whole life) and help make this event fun and safe for our little ghouls and monsters!
Please remember to use the following browsers when signing up:
- PC/Windows: Mozilla Firefox 3.0 or higher, Internet Explorer 7.0 or higher
- Mac: Mozilla Firefox 3.0 or higher
If you are unsure of your browser, please contact Jana at 206.631.8502 or email janar@westsideschool.org.
Still not sure if you’re signed up or have any other questions?? Contact Angie Graves add113@clearwire.net or Krista Wassermann krista8everything@yahoo.com. We’ll make sure you’re haunting the right house…
Childcare Conference Registration Available
Conferences are scheduled for Thursday and Friday, October 29 and 30. Childcare is available free of charge to you during the time of your conference only. If you need care beyond that, please register for all day care. It’s now open to all families, and costs $42 per child, per day. Click here to register.
Congrats!
Congrats to the following families for their newest additions!
Congratulations to students Michael in Marsha’s class and Danielle in Stuart’s class. Their sister Alyssa Marie was born September 23.
Congratulations to Kyle in Claudia’s class. His brother Clive William was born October 5.
Congratulations to Lucy in Marsha’s class. Her brother Silas was born June 18 and is participating in Roots of Empathy.
Congratulations to Emma in Nancy’s class, her sister Audrey was born June 3 and is also participating in Roots of Empathy.
Afterschool Enrichment Update
Next week is the last week of this session of afterschool enrichment. We hope your children had fun.
Look for new classes after the first of the year!