This year marks a lovely anniversary as it was four years ago this past summer that we had our first AMSAP (Alcuin Montessori School Adolescent Program) graduation. Jonah Adelman-Cabral, Timothy Arfa, Jacob Edwards, Sarah Jordan, John Vargo and Madeleine Woodworth went on to attend various high schools including: Chicago Academy for the Performing Arts, Georgetown High School in Texas, Oak Park River Forest High School and the Kirov Academy of Ballet.
We received some updates from a few of our graduates letting us know what they have been doing after graduating from Alcuin. Jonah Adelman-Cabral is a freshman at Knox College in Galesberg, Illinois, with an interest in Political Science. Though not at this point intending to be a music major, he successfully auditioned and is a member of the Knox-Galesburg Symphony, a professional orchestra with some participation by selected Knox students. He is a violin and viola player. He is really enjoying being away at college and enjoying studying and playing Ultimate Frisbee on the Knox Team! Jacob Edwards graduated from Georgetown High School in Georgetown, Texas with a 3.9 GPA and 16 college credit hours. Jacob played on the varsity basketball team for three years and also worked part time at a local pizza place. Jacob is currently attending Texas Tech as an honors college student and a student in the media and public relations school. With a strong background in Spanish, he will minor in Spanish and plans to study abroad his sophomore year. After graduating from Alcuin, Madeleine Woodworth attended the Chicago Academy for the Arts, where she majored in music, giving senior recitals in both piano and pipe organ, and graduating in June, 2014. Madeleine is currently matriculating at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY, where she is pursuing a Bachelor of Music degree in pipe organ performance with Nathan J. Laube. Madeleine’s intense schedule includes daily classes in Honors Music Theory and Honors Aural Musicianship, piano lessons, and singing in two choirs. She reports that the program at Eastman is extremely challenging, but she loves the classes and the professors and is having a wonderful experience. Madeleine was elected Secretary-Treasurer of the Freshman Class Council and has been invited to attend a leadership seminar focusing on student government. Alejandra Valera Director of Advancement October
Day of the Dead Presentation y Calaveras de Azúcar Mrs. Rita gave a presentation about Halloween and the Day of the Dead. Students learned about the historical origins of the holidays and their transformation into the celebrations of today. Through video, PowerPoint, and hands-on activities the students were able to investigate and compare aspects of each tradition. Ana, Emilia and Andrea’s mom, kindly volunteered to organize a Sugar Skull-making experience with the Elementary and Extended Day classes. Gracias! Middle School Field Trip to Pilsen Students had the chance to visit an area where the culture thrives – the Chicago neighborhood of Pilsen! With Ms. Sophia as a guide, students explored the many murals that have blossomed in the most unexpected places — on the fronts of homes, along railway overpasses, and wrapped around train platforms. Ms. Rita led the visit to the National Museum of Mexican Art in which the offerings/ofrendas displayed were admired and studied by students and teachers. The trip ended at the wonderful and unique restaurant MeztiSoy. In addition to serving authentic and fresh Mexican food, they also offer a variety of vegetarian Mexican meals and fresh fruit juices. Chef Raul directs the kitchen; he cooked for us and explained some secrets of the Mexican cuisine to our students. More Culture: Ofrenda making - students created ofrendas/offerings to those who were special in their lives. This activity provided a chance for students to share their history and to learn more about a family member, friend, or in some cases, a famous personality. Through this work students were invited to discuss their own ancestry with family members, or to research the lives of celebrities. When the ofrendas were complete, students shared information with their classmates and teachers while using Spanish vocabulary and grammar in both past and present tenses. November Community Event (book donation) On November 14th, Ms. Sophia and I collaborated to put together Alcuin’s All-School Community Event. In art class Ms. Sophia was working on the Monarch butterfly migration to Mexico, and for Spanish I was working on the Day of the Dead as celebrated in Mexico. We set up reading corners with cultural and Spanish books, and invited the Middle School students to read in Spanish to the younger children. The books were then donated to the Montessori School of Englewood. Also a card in a shape of a Monarch butterfly was created, signed by students and teachers, and sent with the books. Thank you all for the donations! Doy Gracias Por (I Am Thankful For) Extended Day students created a book for Thanksgiving, “El libro de Día de Gracias” using familiar and abstract nouns. On November 25th during the Extended Family Day, the Extended Day students read their book to their families. Students expressed gratitude for many things:
December Visit to the Montessori School of Englewood Middle School students and teachers visited the Montessori School of Englewood to give the Spanish and cultural books donated by the Alcuin families. Once there, students shared stories, songs, and read books to each other in Spanish and English. Ms. Barksdale and the staff were very welcoming and warm – we were received with big smiles and much kindness. Senior Elementary Spanish Plays On December 17th Senior Elementary students in Spanish 1 & 2 presented plays based on their interpretations of “Little Red Riding Hood” to the Alcuin community. The Spanish classes wrote the scripts, built the props, and designed the invitations. The activity began in November when students first heard the Spanish version of the tale. After participating in listening, speaking and writing activities, students decided to organize a play.
Please watch their wonderful performance on the Senior Elementary website. Wishes for 2015 Extended Day students were offered a list of positive wishes/values: Amistad (friendship), Paz (peace), Amor (love), Union (togetherness), and Felicidad (happiness). They were then asked to choose the one that they most wanted for their family and friends in 2015, and to create a symbolic representation of the wish in the form of an ornament. The same work was introduced to the Middle School students; but they were invited to generate a more comprehensive list based in their understanding of personal values and the difference between needs and wants. Looking Ahead to January The Spanish Language Acquisition Program at Alcuin is thriving!
This past year has been filled with various peace promoting exercises from peace-building activities in the classrooms to making blankets and hats for those in need, to joining a worldwide peace art project. Sophia Lyman, our art teacher, began working with the Middle School students on a special project for the Global Art Project for Peaceprogram.
This program pairs up schools from around the world to exchange gifts of peace each year so that there are many gifts of peace being sent to various locations all around the world. The Middle School students worked hard on an artists’ book to send to our partner school. They had much fun in the process as well as much discussion about peace, diversity, and differences throughout the world. Our school was paired up with Choirokoitia Primary School in Larnaca, Cyprus and they sent a lovely gift of peace-themed matching cards. Each has a unique, student-made decorated box for safe keeping, and contains about 8 sets of hand-drawn matching cards. The school made enough for each of our classes to have at least one set! Although the exchange occurred late in the year, this did not diminish the students’ excitement about these beautiful materials. We had wonderful discussions about how each card was drawn by a student and also looked on the map to see where that student lives. Cultivating peace and understanding is very important in our community and our students thrive in learning about people around the world. This fall also marked an additional school-wide peace event with the addition of a peace pole and officially making our school an International Peace Site. This celebration coincided with International Peace Day on September 22. We hope to make this another annual tradition and start off the school year on a peaceful, positive, and community minded note. Finally, this school year we have transformed our All School Community Events (first Fridays of each month) into more focused and specialized community giving projects. We would like each event to incorporate a community spirit as well as develop a culture for giving and looking out for those in need. We are looking forward to another wonderful school year with a chance for our students to grow even more into their roles of peacemakers in our school and our community. Amanda Sanderson Primary Teacher The Middle School students and Mrs. Rita have been exploring strategies that would allow us to use the Spanish learned in class in different environments. To that end, two of the Middle Schoolers visited a Primary classroom, and gave beautiful lessons to small groups of children. Within their role as Spanish teachers, the girls wrote a lesson plan, and used their Spanish skills to support the younger students. The lessons consisted of working with flashcards and reinforcing the Primary students’ learned vocabulary by matching and/or reading.
The Middle school students not only achieved their goal of speaking Spanish successfully in a different environment, but also learned a lesson in leadership, responsibility, being role models, and building bridges within our Alcuin community. The language acquisition for the Primary students’ was also enhanced by their interaction with new people using the target language. It was a wonderful experience for everyone involved! Rita Cassiano Spanish Coordinator Every fall, the Senior Elementary visits Nature’s Classroom Institute, in Wisconsin, for a five-day residency. It is more than a week of interactive outdoor exploration -- it is the ultimate community building and personal growth experience. The timing of this adventure provides many benefits for our Senior Elementary community. As it is a shared experience early in the school year we have a common bond to relish throughout the year, fostering a natural and wonderful tradition of community storytelling, “Remember at Nature’s Classroom when…”
The most prevalent personal growth experience at NC is learning how to appreciate, and then overcome, homesickness. In anticipation of the stress of homesickness (both the parents’ and child’s), Geoffrey Bishop, the founder of the NC provides some practical common sense advice for parents. These tips put the experience into perspective and guide parents so they can plant the seeds of resilience for their child. When homesickness does overwhelm someone the whole community empathizes and openly share their experiences of conquering homesickness. The level of caring and extreme patience is mind-boggling. Essentially when one person is tapped out trying to support the homesick casualty, another person offers their support. During break periods between meals and activities, everyone has time to hang out in the lounge to share stories, jokes, imaginative games, write letters, play sports, take naps, and get ready to serve the community as a Waitron – volunteers who set up the tables for meals and then serve and bus them. Co-existing in a small shared living space presents many opportunities to talk about, and practice, Grace and Courtesy. We use these encounters to learn more about ourselves as individuals and as a community. Often we have to examine our actions and beliefs to really think about real-life relationship questions such as, “What does it mean for me to live with others? How can we have the freedom to have fun and still be respectful of everyone sharing our rooms?” Along with establishing healthy school community mores, every morning the children meet with their field groups (groups of 7 – 8 children and one guide) for 2 hours. Some of their daily activities include maintaining the compost pile, tending to farm animals, removing invasive species, leaping over mud pits using a rope swing, etc. Within this group they are learning to work together with new peers from Chicago and Wisconsin. Finally, NC is a safe place for children to take on various challenges and try new things including frog dissections, making campfires, learning about different cultures, studying plants, animals and insects, etc. The class offerings are quite extensive and always peak one’s curiosity. Another key component of the magic is large team building activities and extensive simulations in the evenings. These powerful experiences are always wrapped up with a sharing of experiences and an educational component, for example comparing a feudalistic society to modern day American society. Senior Elementary teacher, Steve Thorpe, wrote a journal of what their week at Nature’s Classroom looked like. Day One The Senior El crew hit the ground running at Nature's Classroom after a ride up that was fun and full of anticipation. After a safety orientation and fire drill, the students quickly moved into their rooms and started making their beds and marking out their territory --- quite a team effort. Then everyone was headed for spaghetti lunch and further orientation. Everyone was refreshed with the ORT report and the associated song with interpretative dance. The ORT report happens after every meal where we weigh the about of uneaten food left on everyone’s plate. As a community we are being challenged to only take as much as we need before asking for seconds, or to only try a little first before heaping food on our plates, only to discover it wasn’t to one’s liking. This ORT report is a long-lived tradition of Nature’s Classroom. After everyone picked which meals they were going to be a Waitron everyone signed up for the afternoon classes which included: plants' use of camouflage; deductive reasoning to solve a crime; role play of children in ancient Egypt; hands on chicken care; exploring the lives of wolves; and playing Frisbee golf to introduce compass and map skills. The best part about the day was seeing how supportive they have all been towards each other and how much fun they are having breaking out of the habitual social patterns and roles that they have become accustomed to in our classroom environment. New friendships are forming, new alliances are being made, and they are seeing a different side of themselves and each other. Day Two The afternoon had two breakout sessions of smaller classes. For the first class, students choose from the following options: baseball in American history; the lives of medieval knights; the study of frogs; New Zealand biology; and famous fictional characters. The second set of classes included: graffiti past and present; learning the skeletal system of deer through taxidermy; making campfires and using them to cook; socialization and communication of ants; using eggs to investigate gravity; and puppetry. If you notice, those class choices cover a tremendous breadth of curriculum; biology, physics, anatomy, history, sociology, practical life, art, theater, literature, and more. Each 90 minute class has a narrow enough focus so the students can explore a topic in significant depth. And the counsellors are excellent educators who make the learning hands-on and student-driven. Learning is both interesting and fun as always. Day Three The barracks fell silent earlier last night, probably due to a combination of increasing familiarity and exhaustion from non-stop activity. Tuesday morning the silence was broken at 5:40 by students wandering the hall, “whispering” loudly enough to wake a sleeping dragon. This morning we were getting them out of bed at 7:30 to get ready for our 8:00 breakfast. Much of our activity at Nature’s Classroom is in direct contact with nature. Yesterday, they spent at least five hours outside, not counting gym time. Today was the same, but "outside" at Nature's Classroom does not mean the park or the playground. Outside means the woods, the farm, the ponds, and the rest of the sprawling natural environment. There were two blocks of classes today. The first had some interesting choices on offer: canning jelly using some foraged ingredients; surviving in the Antarctic, practicing yoga; concocting Eco-friendly cosmetics; dissecting pigs; and reenacting a Civil War battle. The second round of classes involved the exploration through role play of predator and prey. The role play engages the students at a deeper level than reading or lectures as the role play is inherently interactive and imaginative. The staff did a magnificent job of explaining the role play by defining the parameters of the game. They then gently lead, or redirect the role play, but not from outside or above. The staff is active participants, and so interact with students from within the role play without breaking character. Afterwards the role play is processed by the group and thoughts are shared. The learning can continue long after, however, as the students reflect on their own experiences. They came back from this activity glowing from the fun and explaining how many times they had been both pray and predator to different animals in the food chain. All in all everyone is settling in and feeling more comfortable and are really enjoying the new activities and each other. At first they were asking how long our trip was because home seemed so far away, now they are asking because the week doesn't seem quite long enough. Day Four The frost on the ground was invigorating this morning. We have fallen into a comfortable routine which has helped the students acclimate. The schedule and tasks are becoming familiar but there are new curriculum challenges each day. Today's morning classes included: planning a farm to table meal using what is in season at the farm on the grounds; investigating the origins of Halloween; creating art based on Australian examples; inventing and re-inventing; fishing; engineering bridges; and exploring Samurai culture. There are two role plays today. First a wilderness rescue scenario and then the culminating "big one" in the evening. This year the simulation is "The Underground Railroad." This semi-realistic reenactment was quite powerful and we had a long and thoughtful group debriefing afterward. Tomorrow's schedule will be abbreviated due to our noon departure. Before and after breakfast there will be some serious packing happening. A final Field Group nature hike will wrap things up before we eat lunch and get on the bus. And we must thank each and every one of you for trusting and supporting the Nature’s Classroom program and for appreciating how this adventure aligns with the developmental needs of your child as they become more independent and start defining their roles in society. As they say often at Nature’s Classroom, it is all about making good choices, when given the freedom and responsibility to make choices. Steve Thorpe and Barbara Beyers Senior Elementary Teachers |
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