Continuing one of our longest-held traditions, the entire Rainbow Mountain community gathered this morning to ward off evil spirits in a variety of creative costumes worn by students, teachers, and parents. The public is invited to campus tomorrow for the Halloween Harvest Hoedown from 12noon to 3pm.
Yesterday, Kinobe, came to Rainbow. He spent time with first, sixth and fourth/fifth grades. Saturday he will play with his band at Rainbow’s Halloween Harvest Hoedown. Show starts at noon.
Here is a terrific lecture with animation that talks about where public education is today; how it got there, and what needs to change.
Interestingly, all of the solutions are exactly what we already do at Rainbow Community School!
(This is an 11 minute video. If you want the whole 55 minutes lecture, you can find it on YouTube under “Sir Ken Robinson; Changing Paradigms.”)
When I dropped by our second grade classroom this morning, I was invited to stay for Centering. For a moment, I hesitated to accept the teacher’s invitation, then did. Slipping off my shoes and sitting down between two children, I noticed the wall clock read 2:00, not the appropriate 8:45. “I’ll have to bring her some batteries,” I thought.
But as we closed our eyes and took our first slow breath together, I found myself offering an appreciation for that little clock. “Oh good,” I thought. “Since I won’t know the time, I won’t feel rushed to get back to the office. I’ll be able to relax and enjoy this!” Inhaling and exhaling together for the second time, I smiled to myself, realizing I’d just been given a gentle reminder. A reminder to stop, breathe, and be – existing totally in the present moment.
On our third in and out breath, my appreciation shifted from the clock to our teachers – my own son’s teachers. Over the past eight years, their ability to be present to him and to all our children has been one of the things I have been most grateful for – something I’m sure doesn’t appear on any of their resumes. “I need to tell them this,” I reminded myself as I became present to the teacher’s words.
Slipping my shoes back on and hugging a few children goodbye as I left their classroom, I found myself wanting to leave that little clock just as it is. ~ Carole
Here are the videos from Rainbow’s 2010 graduating eighth graders, all six of them. We miss them but are so excited to see them flourishing in high school.
