Archives for January 2017

January 15, 2017

Kim Markovich – Lower School Music Teacher, Mindfulness, After School Program

Kim Markovich, a native Napan, teaches Kindergarten – Fifth Grade music and mindfulness at Blue Oak School. A member of the founding Blue Oak faculty, she holds her Bachelor’s Degree in Music Education from the University of Northern Colorado and her Master’s Degree in Music from West Virginia University.

Kim has also completed her three levels of Orff Schulwerk certification. In her free time, Kim loves to meditate, garden, ride her bike, go to the movies, cook, read, eat delicious food, and spend time with friends and family.

A few of the many things Kim loves at Blue Oak School are that arts education is highly valued, mindfulness instruction is incorporated into the curriculum and Breakaway. She loves that faculty get to know students deeply and that exploring and pursuing one’s passion is strongly encouraged for both students and faculty alike.

January 9, 2017

Success

Dear Blue Oak Community,
As of late, I have been thinking about what it means to be successful. Society often measures success by material possessions, salaries paid, and degrees earned. In schools, success is typified by high grades, strong test scores, and awards and recognition. In the rush to achieve we can lose the whole child, paying attention to a two-dimensional view of success. A school I know has the following code of behavior: take care of yourself, take care of each other, and take care of this place. To be successful, a student must develop compassion and responsibility, wisdom and excellence.

At Blue Oak, we focus on the possibilities in every child, helping each to reach new horizons, growing toward the future. We value the inherent social and intellectual value all children carry within, the questions and smiles they will contribute. By creating safe classrooms in which students find their voices and learn how to learn, we foster deep thinkers and courageous doers. As Amy Valens states in the movie August to June, “good teachers welcome the whole child at the classroom door,” including curiosity, sorrow, hunger, creativity, friendship, inquiry, and a desire to be known and appreciated.

A friend of mine recently shared a poem with me that speaks to what we expect of our children.

Do not ask your children
to strive for extraordinary lives.
Such striving may seem admirable
but it is the way of foolishness.
Help them instead to find the wonder
and the marvel of an ordinary life.
Show them the joy of tasting
tomatoes, apples, and pears.
Show them how to cry
when pets and people die.
Show them the infinite pleasure
in the touch of a hand.
And make the ordinary come alive for them.
The extraordinary will take care of itself.

William Martin, The Parent’s Tao Te Ching:
Ancient Advice for Modern Parents

In the rush toward success, to achieve the extraordinary, we can unintentionally devalue the day-to-day events and actions of our lives. For it is in the ordinary that we lead our lives and loves, finding meaning, and impacting the world around us. Success lies not in reaching the destination, but in learning from the journey. Thank you for fostering the journey on which Blue Oak students become life-long learners and well-rounded people.

Dan

January 9, 2017

Minds, Hearts, and Hands.

Words From Our Head Of School – Dan Schwartz

A key aspect of a meaningful school educational experience is the commitment to engaging a student’s mind, heart, and hands. In paying conscious attention to the cognitive, affective, and kinesthetic areas of child development, we help our students grow into well-rounded human beings.

I want to explore how and why we attend to developing the affective arena – engaging a child’s heart. We are keenly aware that teaching students about social-emotional skills and awareness is important in our school community. In our classrooms, we help students understand that they should take care of themselves, take care of each other, and take care of our school. In creating such a community, we learn that our actions and words are interconnected, that what we do and say matters. In acknowledging the importance of social-emotional learning (SEL), the Illinois State Board of Education requires that schools follow SEL standards. These standards are designed to help:

“…children develop awareness and management of their emotions, set and achieve important personal and academic goals, use social-awareness and interpersonal skills to establish and maintain positive relationships, and demonstrate decision-making and responsible behaviors to achieve school and life success.”

An important report by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning considers the impact of SEL in schools. The report analyzes data from approximately 325,000 students across the country. In brief, the authors found that “SEL programs improved students’ social-emotional skills, attitudes about self and others, connection to school, positive social behavior, and academic performance; they also reduced students’ conduct problems and emotional distress.”

In addition, the report found that SEL programming improved students’ academic performance by 11 to 17 percentile points across all of the studies reviewed.[ii] It is clear that SEL benefits both students and the school community.

A progressive school’s experiential approach values a student’s mind, heart, and hands. Each have value and together help develop critical thinkers, courageous citizens, and compassionate friends. From time to time, a parent will ask why we take time away from the study of academics to talk about “fluffy” SEL material. It is clear from our own experiences and the research and standards from CASEL and the ISBE that paying attention to SEL helps both the academic and affective aspects of an individual’s growth and shapes the nature of our school community.

A number of years ago, in a previous school, an eighth grader spoke at graduation about our school community following the Columbine shootings. He said that while he understood the need for metal detectors, security guards, and other actions taken by many schools, he most appreciated what a caring school offered its students. In those schools, he said, we arm our hearts, creating a community in which we know about and are known by each other, care about each other, and trust each other. Through creating classroom constitutions, conflict resolution strategies, lessons about up-standers, and open and deep discussions about the world around them, our students learn to act with compassion. They build strong relationships and caring classrooms, which are the foundation of our school.

Centuries ago, Confucius had the following to say about the power of education:
If your plan is for one year, plant rice
If your plan is for ten years, plant trees
If your plan is for a hundred years, educate children.

Let us educate them well.