facultynewsletter SPRING 2009 Adat Ari El Day School All Saints’ Episcopal Day School Alverno High School The Archer School for Girls Archway School Army and Navy Academy The Athe- nian School Barnhart School Bentley School Berkeley Hall School Besant Hill School Bishop Garcia Diego High School The Bishop’s School Brandeis Hillel Day School The Branson School Brentwood School Bridges Academy The Buckley School The Katherine Delmar Burke School Calmont School Calvary Chris- tian School Campbell Hall Carden Arbor View School The Carey School Carlthorp School Castilleja School Cate School Cathedral School for Boys Center for Early Education Chadwick School Chandler School Chatsworth Hills Academy The Children’s School Children’s Day School Chinese American Inter- national School Clairbourn School Clare Cherry School The College Preparatory School Contra Costa Jewish Day School Cornelia Connelly School of the Holy Child The Country School Crane Country Day School Crestview Preparatory School Crossroads School Crystal Springs Uplands School Curtis School Drew School Dunn School The John Thomas Dye School Echo Horizon School Ecole Bilingue de Berkeley The Family School Flintridge Preparatory School Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy Foothill Country Day School French American International School French American School of Silicon Valley Gateway School Georgiana Bruce Kirby Preparatory School The Gillispie School The Girls’ Middle School Golden Hills School The Gooden School The Hamlin School Harbor Day School The Harker School Harkham Hillel Hebrew Academy Harvard-Westlake School Gideon Hausner Jewish Day School Head-Royce School He- schel West High Point Academy Hillbrookthe School Hillcrest Academy Hollywood Schoolhouse Idyllwild Arts Academy Immaculate Heart High School Interna- tional School of the Peninsula Julia Morgan School for Girls Kadima Hebrew Academy Kehillah Jewish High School Keys School La Jolla Country Day School Laguna Blanca School Laurelcrest School Laurence School Lick-Wilmerding High School Live Oak School Los Encinos School Lycée Français La Pérouse Mai- monides Academy Marin Academy Marin Country Day School Marin Horizon School Marin Primary & Middle School The Marin School Marlborough School Marymount High School Marymount of Santa Barbara Marywood-Palm Valley School Mayfield Junior School Mayfield Senior School Menlo School Mid-Pen- insula High School Midland School Milken Community High School The Mirman School Morasha Jewish Day School Mount Madonna School Mount Tamal- pais School New Horizon School New Horizon School Westside New Horizon Elementary School Irvine New Roads School The Nueva School The Oak Grove School Oakland Hebrew Day School The Oaks School Oaks Christian School Oakwood School Ojai Valley School Pacific Hills School Francis Parker School The Pegasus School The Peninsula Heritage School The Phillips Brooks School Pilgrim School Polytechnic School Presidio Hill School Prospect Sierra School PS #1 Elementary School Redwood Day School Ring Mountain Day School Rolling Hills Preparatory School Sacramento Country Day School Sacred Heart Schools Sage Hill School Saint Andrew’sright School Saint James’ Episcopal Day School St. John’s Episcopal School St. Margaret’s Episcopal School Saint Mark’s Episcopal School Saint Mark’s School Saint Mark’s School St. Mary and All Angels School St. Matthew’s Episcopal Day School St. Matthew’s Parish School St. Michael’s Episcopal Day School St. Patrick’s Episcopal Day School St. Paul’s Episcopal School Saklan Valley School San Diego Jewish Academy San Do- menico School San Francisco Day School San Francisco Friends School The San Francisco School San Francisco University High School Santa Barbara Middle School Santa Catalina School Schools of the Sacred Heart Sea Crest School Seven Arrows Elementary School The Seven Hills School Sierra Canyon School Sinai Akiba Academy Soille San Diego Hebrew Day School Sonoma Country Day School Sonoma Academy South Peninsula Hebrew Day School Stevenson School Tarbut V’Torah Community Day School Tehiyah Day School The Thacher Schoolmix Town School for Boys Trinity School Turning Point School The Urban School of San Francisco Valley Beth Shalom Day School Valley Preparatory School Viewpoint School Village School Walden School The Webb Schools The Wesley School Westerly School of Long Beach Westland School Westridge School Westside Neighborhood School Wildwood School The Willows Community School Windrush School Windward School Woodland School Woodside Priory School Ronald C. Wornick Jewish Day School Yavneh Day School York School From the Editor... Inside: Usually I find, without having to force the the linkage too much, that the articles we receive after sending out a Call for Articles cluster around a particular theme. This year - not so much. Still… 2 Teaching and Learning as a Migratory When describing to someone unfamiliar with CAIS who we are and how all of Journey: How a Yearlong Theme Connects our schools are private and independent, as opposed to just being private - i.e. non- Students, Teachers, Content and Purpose public schools, I often add - “and the operative word is independent.” I am proud of the fact that I work for an association that includes religious schools (of many faiths 5 and creeds) and secular schools, traditional schools and progressive schools - even Be the Change: Our Book Drive and the a military academy. Recently, in conversation with another teacher who has, as I do, Impact of Service Learning both public and non-public school teaching experience, I realized that in comparing the diversity quotient of teaching assignments in an independent school and a pub- 8 lic school, the independent school where I was on staff had a more diverse student Wilding the Tame Corner and parent body than the public school did. In this issue, for instance, we have an article written by a teacher from Mount 10 Blast Off to the Future Madonna School, a school set within an intentional community inspired by Baba Hari Dass and the practice of yoga. There is another written by a teacher from a 12 Jewish day school, one from a Catholic high school teacher and others from schools The Civil Rights South: In the Footsteps of the seeking to provide the widest possible mix of religious, cultural and economic diver- Movement with Julian Bond sity, and a school founded originally for a beloved son and his friends. There is after all, though, a common thread - connecting not just CAIS teachers, but public and 15 non-public school teachers as well. We are all passionate about learning, and about Every Vote Counts: A School-Wide sharing that passion and that learning with others. Following are articles written by Multidisciplinary Unit on Citizenship and people who are passionate about teaching and learning. Democracy Enjoy the mix! 17 — Sandee Mirell “Ment” to Be: Reflections from a Mentee and Mentor FACULTY NEWSLETTER — SPRING 2009 2 Fourth grade teacher finds a way to teach thematically and articulates her Teaching and Learning as a Migratory Journey: How a Year-long Theme Connects Students, Teachers, Content and Purpose By CARRIE SYMONS • 4th Grade Teacher • Mount Madonna School • [email protected] “Learning is aided by experiencing wholes, not just bits and pieces. Who are we? We need to experience the big picture in order to make sense of all Where are we going? the little detail.” (Peterson, 1992, p. 5) How do we get there? What do we bring? In years past, I tried to teach thematically. I knew that These essential questions are driving my curriculum this year. learning was about making connections, but my curriculum was They are the underpinnings of my yearlong theme: migration. My always chopped up and didn’t connect back to the bigger theme. students and I launched our year with these questions, and we I had been unable to make the yearlong theme large and complex continue to return to them. Not only do they remind us of what we enough to span the standards I was required to teach and beyond. value, they frame our exploration of the inner terrain, to one an- And my smaller units of study were meaningful, but often were other, to content, to concepts and the greater fabric of life beyond not planned in a way that helped me see the connections between the classroom as our theme of migration serves as the connective them. As with many best practices, thinking and teaching themati- tissue. cally fostered good intentions, and failed attempts. Until this year. Last year, the word “migration” came to me, but its potential Who are we? as a theme was not clear. I simply wrote the word “migration” on a If we view teaching and learning as a migratory journey, and small sticky note and stuck it to my printer. the people in our classroom community as our fellow travelers, we Months passed. Summer pressed on. Fall was right around need to know one another and ourselves before we depart. We have the corner and so were the new students. I brainstormed a list of a long journey ahead and I want to know with whom I am travel- ideas based on the theme of migration, but I still had yet to find ing! the anchors or points of purpose greater than the content itself. After a brief introduction to our yearlong theme and our es- I pulled out a large piece of white paper, and wrote the word sential questions, we began the year with a “heart map” project in Migrations at the top. I knew Migrations could serve as a fulcrum which each student constructed a three dimensional representa- with multiple conceptual entry points: internal transformation, tion of their heart - of what they cared about most. This auto- cultural migration, animal migration, movement of the earth, and biographical art, accompanied by personal identity poetry, not even our evolution as a community of learners. I I positioned small only addressed our first essential question, but it introduced the pads of sticky notes beside me, and I asked myself, “What are the students to thinking metaphorically, a disposition they would need essential questions here?” And they emerged, each one a different to become accustomed to under a thematic structure.