Charter News • October 19, 2018

“Life is a tightrope walk. One has to balance the do's and don'ts.”

~Haresh Sippy

 

Dear Charter Families,

 

The use of technology and the impact of social media on students and adults alike has become an issue that is near and dear to my heart. Personally, I think I am on screens too much..especially when I am with people whom I love and care about my relationship with. This year, I have made a strong commitment to monitor the amount of time I spend to review and send emails.  In my work, like many others, emails can be a 24/7 task. Looking at them, reviewing, replying can attract my attention nearly every minute of every day IF I let it. This year, I am committed to having at least 24 hours each weekend without any emails or online media input. I am committed to stopping sending emails after a certain time each night.

 

That sounds like it should be an easy task but it is not. What makes it easier to accomplish is if I fill the time doing something more rewarding and family or self-care oriented. I have dedicated more time to walking, reading, gardening, and cooking more. I remind myself that limiting my screen and email use is better for my health, better for my relationships with friends and family, that I am a role model for others, and that it actually makes me more productive for the coming week. And it is still hard to limit my use!

 

Remember, you are the primary role model for your children and their screen use. I see more and more adults and students with eyes glued to their screens as they are walking along or sitting with a friend or family member. The first step to any change is to be conscious or the situation. How often do you use technology when you are with family? Do you feel comfortable with how often you are on ‘screen time’? Can you hold off on sending a text and wait for a more opportune time to send it?

 

In our programs, we do allow computer, Chromebook, and sometimes phone use in the classroom for educational purposes. We teach the students Digital Citizenship throughout the year to give them tips on how to use screens and media as a tool and in a responsible manner.

 

And we also have a no cell phone for personal use during school hours agreement as well. That means that if you send your child a text, it would be best to wait until after school hours to send it. Students may check their phones during lunch for messages, but we want to encourage students to think about their school work and the friends and peers that are physically around them during school hours. If you need to reach your child during school hours, please contact one of our offices (or CRHS phone for our High School students) and we can get a message to them.

 

I subscribe to ‘Tech Talk Tuesday’, a weekly email blog from the Screenagers' Filmmaker Delaney Ruston, MD. It is a great way to keep informed of the various ways screen time can impact our lives. I will be sharing come of the ideas from the blog in the Charter News throughout the year. Here is the link if you would like to sign up for Tech Talk Tuesday yourself.  www.screenagersmovie.com.

 

Thanks for sharing your children with us!

~Rhonda

 

Upcoming Events

PARENT ADVISORY COMMITTEE: Please come: Wednesday, November 14 from 3:00-4:00 pm.  Now that we have reviewed the LCAP, we will be delving into priorities for the current year and into next year. To view the LCAP review for Charter click on the link below:  LCAP Review.  Please note: the slides do not contain the notes to the presentation, which included the small class sizes that impact the test scores (reliability as the sole indicator of students ability). Additional conversation added depth and understanding to the slides.  If you would like to learn more, please feel free to contact me directly. [email protected]

 

The Parent Advisory Committee is a critical component to ensure that parent input has a consistent say in the development of our programs that make up the Charter school. Please come to this meeting: learn more about the Charter and tell me what is important to you. I would like to have representation from every program on the Parent Advisory Committee.

 

PERFORMING ARTS AFTER SCHOOL EVENTS OPEN TO ALL CHARTER PROGRAMS!

Don’t miss out on these fabulous opportunities.

Thrill the World! 2018 (Michael Jackson's "Thriller" Event)  

 

REHEARSALS HAVE BEGUN

When: Fridays Oct 26 from 3-4:30pm

Where: Multipurpose Room on the Quail Hollow Campus (up by the Charter Office)

No need to sign up ahead of time. Just show up..to as many as you can!. Preparation and counting down worldwide is part of the fun, but the feeling of being connected to others and dancing together as one is a Thrill like no other!  

This year the event will be held in Santa Cruz on Saturday, October 27, 2018, at the Louden Nelson Center lawn at 3 pm sharp. There is also an option to perform in a flash mob on Halloween in Ben Lomond.

 

 

 

All Charter Musical: Into the Well!: An original rock musical

What a wonderful turnout!  Auditions began this week and will continue next week.

 

This year the play will be, "Into the Well". Once again, it will be an original script written by Janinne Chadwick, which Amber directed and choreographed in 2008 with LPRT (Little People's Repertory Theater.) This story incorporates fairy tale characters from many different stories such as Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White, The Frog Prince, Goldilocks, Jack and the Beanstalk, and many more.  Songs and scenes include a giant singing Bob Dylan tunes, punk-rock huntsman, and runway models gone awry! Music ranges from Motown, funk, pop, punk, and good ole' rock n' roll.

 

Auditions: 3-5:30 pm, Mondays/Tuesdays, 22, 23 in the multipurpose room on the Quail Hollow Campus   Rehearsals: 3-5:30 pm, Mondays and Tuesdays

Performance Week: February 4-9

If you have any questions about any of these dates, feel free to email me at  [email protected].

 

I look forward to sharing my love of performing arts with your students!

~Amber Walker

What’s Going on in Our Charter School?

...little snippets of some of our programs

 

CRHS: Harvest Festival Monday, October 29th  2:30-5pm *free pumpkin painting leaf pressing, leaf pile, scarecrow building, wear your costume and more! Garden Sale - All Proceeds go to the SLV Charter Garden Programs Lots of things to buy: beautiful succulents, fall veggie plants and seeds, raffle tickets, milkweed bombs and more! *see attached flyer for more information.  Many students have signed up to goto the Ashland Shakespeare Festival on April 22-24. This will be a joint field trip excursion with students from CRHS and 8th graders from our QHIA program.  Amber and Kay are working together on this rich and exciting trip. An initial parent meeting is planned for November 6 at 6 pm for CRHS parents.

 

 

CRMS: We analyzed the list of all the parts of amusement parks that we brainstormed before to look at the bottom line: why is each part included? The answer, we found, was to make money, and kids were able to make the connections between each part and the financial gain.  In the afternoon, Robyn helped the kids glaze their clay tumblers. Writing is continuing, with most kids done with their partner bio and analyzing poems like champs. Seventh graders gardened with Melanie while others labeled the recent batch of lotion. They did 2025 cooperative math game on proportions. Students made scale drawings and drew houses, part of a housing design project. Eighth graders did Legacy Project planning with David Blavin. Thank you, David!!  11/1: Tech Museum Field Trip.

 

Nature Academy: 6th, 7th, and 8th grade: Thank you to all who helped out with the Big Hike last Friday we had an amazing hike with perfect weather. We are planning the Roller Palladium Extravaganza!! for Friday, October 26. 6th graders are starting our Mask elective. Ongoing activities: Mesopotamia Map: Due Monday, October 22nd. Country Report: Facts in Brief Due November 13th. November 16th: 6th Grade trip to the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum. 7-8th graders are continuing their studies on the middle ages and are completing their Time Bank project.

 

Quail Hollow Integrated Arts (QHIA): Hunter is back teaching Improv. He is truly gifted with this age range, and the kids learn so many life skills through these theater games. Marie’s history group researched, took notes and began their poster presentations on ancient civilizations. Amber’s group finished up the Revolutionary Period (with a rousing “Yorktown” from the musical Hamilton) and are on to a unit on the New Nation, completing a “Constitution Scavenger Hunt” reading through our actual constitution to solve answers. We had our first Digital Citizenship workshop, discussing the many ways media devices are used in our lives and how that makes us feel. Melanie continues to teach the Jr. Master Gardener curriculum with each grade level (they really look forward to their time with her.)  Amber’s group

 

Quail Hollow Homeschool: Please join us for a guided Monarch Walk at Natural Bridges State Park this coming Wednesday. You can expect the tour to last about an hour and include lots of fun information about the butterflies, their journey, and why they choose to over-winter in our area. The walk is stroller and wheelchair-friendly. 1,3: We practiced moving around keeping to our personal space with bubbles as we moved around the room. We started a review of place value In smaller groups, 4-5: We introduced our Travel Journals - students gave a description of Travel Buddy (name), interests, favorite way to travel, favorite place, etc. After lunch and recess, Melody Burgess took our 1st and 3rd-grade friends out to our garden. 4th and 5th graders had a Mystery Science lesson: How Does Your Brain Control your Body.  We did a couple of activities to test ourselves and see how our brain receives information from our bodies.

 

Fall Creek Homeschool: The 5th grade added day glow accents to their cross-section of the Earth. Robin Bates, our school psychologist, had a session with the kids on the idea of self-identity. They then made timelines of their own life story and the highlights that help to inform their self-identity. We talked about our field trip and why we’re going to a museum and a lighthouse. We saw a video on the top 5 coolest rocks ever found. We listened to the book Keep the Lights Burning Abby about a lightkeeper family in the days when the lighthouses were still flame lanterns. We did an experiment turning sugar crystals into a new form after applying heat and cold. We wrote about metamorphic rocks in our rainbow books. We ate the transformed crystals – they were like sugar glass. Third grades went to the garden with Melanie.

 

Mountain IS: It was another great week with the children! We are really digging in (no pun intended - hehe :) to the crust of the earth now. We've explored how our energy source, the sun, has not only produced our perfect little planet and is siblings/other planets, but directly affects the life on the crust with its unequal distribution of light. We're becoming familiar with the globe and its zones, which will help us lay a good foundation for understanding the interconnected life within the world's biomes. There is also a lot of independent work involving the study of magnets, magnetic fields, and earth as a magnet. Sun's rays hit the earth in different ways. Art: Dream Catchers Music: Austrian folk songs and dance What Kind of Kindness..song Pass the Energy Please! (food chain) PE: Pass the Energy Tag Individual Work:

 

Community Opportunities: