Friday
October 10
No School
PNAIS In-Service
Wednesday
October 15
Board Meeting
6:30pm
Friday
October 17
Spirit/Pizza Day
Thursday
October 23
WPO Meeting 6:30pm
Cyber Safety
Friday
October 24
School Pictures
Saturday
October 25
WPO Halloween Fest 12-4pm
Thursday-Friday
October 30-31
No School! Parent/Teacher Conferences
Childcare Available Sign-up Online (available Tuesday, OCT. 14 for contracted students, available to everyone Friday, Oct. 24)
October 9, 2008
PNAIS Conference Tomorrow
Picture Day
Parent/Teacher Conferences
WPO Meeting Oct. 23
Ve Vant You to Volunteer!
From Jo Ann - Gifted Education, Part 1
Greening Westside
The Topic is Listeining
Analyzing Big Ideas
Teachers at PNAIS Teacher Conference Tomorrow
October 10 is a teacher in-service day. These days are important to our teachers because they give them an opportunity to attend professional development activities. Our fall in-service day is traditionally coordinated with the PNAIS fall educator conference on learning; this year’s conference is held at Lakeside School in Seattle. In addition to the speakers and focus group opportunities, it is a also a chance for affinity groups to network together. Twelve of our staff will be participating. Some of the topics that educators will choose from include “Coming to Grips with Boy Underachievement” presented by nationally renown author and psychologist, Michael Thompson, PH.D, and “Current Brain & Gender Research: How It Informs Teaching and/or Parenting.”
Did you know that our teachers need to have thirty clock hours each year in continuing education to maintain their certification? In addition, our staff working under DEL (day care licensing) needs ten hours of credits as well. This conference provides credits to meet these goals.
Picture Day
is Friday Oct. 24
Check your take home folder for picture order forms. Picture day is Friday, October 24.
Parent/Teacher Conferences
Parent-teacher conferences are October 30-31. This discussion of the educational program and the progress of the child brings into closer relationship the teacher and parents for the success of the child. One of the objectives of this first conference is for teacher and parents to share their goals and expectations for the student. Childcare for the length of your conference only is available free of charge.
WPO Meeting October 23rd at 6:30pm
Cyber Safety with Mark A. Shagren
By Kate Petrich, WPO President
How’s your tech-knowlogy?
Tech-savvy as you may be, we parents have been described as “tech immigrants” compared to our “tech-native” children born and raised in the cyber-age. We are, or are likely to become, no match for our little natives and the new risks that they will encounter, especially as exposure to social networking sites like Facebook and My Space and other problems like cyber bullying increases. Also, as access to the internet becomes increasingly easier via cell phones and away from parent supervision, we are no longer able to monitor over our kids’ shoulders on the family computer. Come learn how to navigate the new issues that come along with children and the Internet.
For those of you who have younger children, and don’t have Internet safety on your radar yet, please know this talk is geared to you as well. Besides cyber safety issues, our speaker, Mark Shagren, will give parents of children of all ages a framework for keeping children safer in situations now and in the years to come.
We are thrilled to be able to offer you Mark Shagren’s expertise on the issues. Mark has been employed at Pierce County Juvenile Court for over 15 years and is currently serving as Guardian ad litem (which means he advocates for abused and neglected children in court (ages 0-18) whose parents have been accused of abuse or neglect). He also teaches “Conscious Fathering” (consciousfathering.org) to first time fathers in the Pierce County area. Mark has been married for 25 years and has four children ages 13 to 20 years of age. He has been speaking to churches, schools, and community groups on Internet Safety for the past 5 years, as well as on issues of guy-girl relationships and parenting.
Babysitting is available for Westside students only. Please email Kathy (kathyw@westsideschool.org) to reserve your space.
Ve Vant You to Volunteer!
By Halloween Chairs Angie Graves and Tracy Beck
Thanks so much to all you Spirited Moms, Dads and faculty who have signed up to help make 2008’s Halloween Fest the most successful one yet! We still need about 40 people to volunteer your lives away. So, are you the kind of Mummy who lurks around eerie Duck Ponds or are you a Daredevil Dad who can keep reins on trick-or-treaters tossing rats and spiders at Haunted Puppets?? Please make this very grave decision and sign up by clicking 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!
For those of you not familiar with our online sign up system, put “1” for you in the time slot for the activity you are interested in. You will have the opportunity to fill in your name and other information at the bottom of the page. If you’re not available on October 25th but would still like to help, please let us know – I’m sure we could find something good and frightening for you to do…
Questions/Comments? Contact Angie Graves add113@clearwire.net or Tracy Beck tracy@beckstailoring.com.
From Jo Ann
Gifted Education- Part 1
Installment 1 – Is my child gifted?
Several times a year, a parent will make an appointment with me to discuss how their child is doing in the classroom. Often, parents come to talk about a highly successful child, and they are wondering if their child is “gifted.”
These conversations are very important. Good communication is directly related to how you, our parents, understand what Westside does and why we do it. These conversations build a common understanding of the educational philosophy behind what it means to have a Westside education. Eventually, I will redirect you, the parent, back to your child’s teacher. Your child’s teacher knows exactly what is happening in the classroom and how your child responds to the various activities.
Helping parents to understand whether they have a legitimate concern is the toughest job that I face, and one that many other private elementary schools encounter. Parents see their child doing things which they never did at that early age! Or sometimes, they do see themselves and identify with the opportunities or lack of opportunities they had or didn’t have in their educational experience. These concerns are valid. I know the parent is seeking affirmation about their child’s experience; I help parents understand, and affirm, that Westside strives to provide the best for all children.
If the parent has identified their child as “gifted,” they are questioning if the school appreciates the challenge of helping their child meet their “full potential.” Indeed, Westside children have incredible potential and are capable of learning and doing incredible things. We have great aspirations for our children; however, learning to support our child to become an independent human being, in my opinion, is one of the most challenging parts of parenthood.
So our dialogue begins. I find out how their child has been assessed and what information that gives us. Our teachers assess children using both formative and summative assessments. The teacher’s conferences will give the parent specific information on performance and the ERB test will identify highly capable children. For whatever reason – impatience with getting ERB results or doubting the evaluation of the teacher – some parents decide to go outside the school to have their child “tested.”
At the very end, together we come to an understanding of the educational options to support those assessments. In the course of this dialogue, I explain how Westside School supports students’ individual strengths and weaknesses. The final decision is not so black and white. (To be continued: Article Two “Definition of Gifted and Meeting Their Needs”)
Greening Westside
By Tara Potter, 3rd Grade Assistant
From carpooling, and composting to using less paper, and sending lunch to school in those insulated reusable lunch sacks the spirit of sustainability is part of our school and our families. This month the Seattle Bioneers conference will be an opportunity to connect with the broader Seattle community, discuss sustainability on global and local levels, and return home energized and inspired. The conference will be held Friday Oct 17th through Sunday Oct 19th downtown at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center. Kayoko and I will be attending and we’d like to invite anyone interested to attend Seattle Bioneers with us. We hope to return to school with new resources and ideas to continue greening Westside.
For more information about Seattle Bioneers or to register online visit http://www.nweec.org/seattlebioneers
Please email me (tarap@westsideschool.org) if you plan on attending so we can arrange a meeting spot at the conference and/or carpools.
Shhhhhh….The Topic is Listening
By Cathy Chutich, Music Teacher
While writing this I discovered that the topic is listening. In music class we listen to sounds in the room (including instruments), the sounds outside, and how we use our voices. We even listen to silence because silence underlies all sounds. Music grows out of silence. This year we are doing more varied listening as I take them on a whirlwind tour of Western music.
We have had a great start to the year. When I ask classes what my first rule is (“do your best”), someone will unfailingly answer, “Have fun?” I’ve spent little time going over rules simply because everyone seems to remember what to do. Hurrah! So we’ve moved right into singing, dancing and playing.
Our second week of school brought the marvelous One World Taiko, a Japanese drum ensemble, to play for our first assembly. What a powerful experience to not only see and hear the Japanese drums but to feel them through our bodies from our feet up into our chests. Don, don, don, sa!
This gave me the chance to pull out one of my favorite books, The Drums of Noto Hanto. The book tells the true story of how, back in 1576, a village kept an invading warlord and his samurai from conquering them by using their drums, masks, and most importantly, their wits. If you heard mutterings of “don kada ka ka” or had drummers in your house a few weeks ago, that was why. If you want to revisit this tale with your child, the author is J. Alison James. There is also a marvelous recording of Taiko called Kodo: Heartbeat Drummers of Japan (http://www.amazon.com/Heartbeat-Drummers-Japan-Kodo/dp/B0000009FE).
I’ve also been playing recorded music while the kids enter and leave the room, beginning with Gregorian chant, the earliest written Western music. This leads into all kinds of questions about what life might have been like 1000 years ago. There are many lovely recordings of Gregorian chant that are easy to find. One example is The Origin of Fire: Music and Visions of Hildegard von Bingen.
What’s coming up? Well, October has a holiday that all kids love. You can find a couple of recorded compilations of classical pieces that are often linked to Halloween. We’ll be listening and talking about some of these. A few years ago we listened to Edward Grieg’s In the Hall of the Mountain King, and I still get requests to play it again. If you’d like to carry the conversation further, have a look at these at your local library, music store, or online: Classics from the Crypt, and Fright Night: Music that goes Bump in the Night.
Please have a look at my website, where I’ll post more information on what we’re doing, as well as links to interesting music sites. And of course, please let me know how things are going for your child.
Analyzing Big Ideas
By Linda Turner, Fifth Grade Teacher
Throughout their Westside experience, students continually engage in decision making and critical thinking. As they exit Westside, they have solid critical and analytical thinking, and are able to articulate their thoughts. So it is this school year. During current events, students are learning about the election process, including what the “electoral college” means (not a place of higher education).
We started with the three branches of government, with time spent on the Legislative branch. The conversation went on to the Executive and Judiciary branches as well, and then on to the notion of “economy.” Being as much a learner as the kids, “the economy” is a large notion needing succinct definition.
The fifth graders came in the other morning after the presidential debate, and talked about how the candidates addressed alternative energy. They said they “picked up” on the words because class has begun an electricity investigation along with the fourth graders.
The class conversation turned to all the issues that we adults are watching too—taxes, spending, war, energy etc. Though they don’t have in-depth experience or understanding, they seemed more informed than some adults. They took ideas and analyzed them, and added on to other ideas, then articulated positions of their own, not just the positions of their parents. These kids can vote when they’re 18, and they are practicing problem solving and critical thinking right here, each day.