Kaleidoscope – September 2019

Kaleidoscope – September 2019

Kaleidoscope

A publication by Renee Owen for parents to get a better understanding of what’s happening through her perspective

I believe that every child should feel utterly special. That’s what we are aiming for at Rainbow. Therefore, in early September, when I found myself on stage for Rainbow’s opening ceremony, I told our students that we are all in a special place (Rainbow), and the reason Rainbow is a special place is because each of them is here. I also wanted them to know about their place. I explained that before us, a church “lived” on the spot of the auditorium for 60 years, and before that the venerable Dr. Orr had a “gentleman’s farm” that spread out over this part of West Asheville, and he lived in the Historical Building… and sometime before that the Cherokee stewarded this land for a long, long time. We thanked the Cherokee people for taking care of this land so well before us and we honored all native people. In particular, we thanked First Nations people for sharing some of their most important stories with us — stories to help us learn to live in harmony.

I told the story of the Warriors of the Rainbow who were prophesied by many native legends to be the keepers of the ancient wisdom who would help to heal the earth and unite humankind. I explained that these aren’t warriors of war, but warriors of the heart. The Warriors of the Rainbow would have incredible courage – the courage to tell the truth even when people wouldn’t believe them and the courage to love even when people were hateful.

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Warriors of the Heart

I hope we are worthy of sharing that vision with the native people who told the legend. I want all of our children to think of themselves as Warriors of the Heart, or Rainbow Warriors – confident, accomplished, and creative learners who are prepared to be compassionate leaders in building a socially just, spiritually connected, and environmentally sustainable world – as our mission reads. That may sound lofty, but that’s what we show up to do every day at Rainbow. It takes compassionate courage from all of us to be here.

The work before the work

At Rainbow, teaching is considered a spiritual path. Not only do our teachers have to be master teachers by traditional standards, they also have to be highly developed in all seven domains. That’s partly why we spend so much time in professional development, learning from one another and learning from experts. Even before students arrive in the fall, Rainbow teachers have spent many days together learning, prepping lesson plans and materials, and also preparing themselves for the deeply emotional and spiritual work of teaching. Parker Palmer calls this “The work before the work.”

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Wholeness

This year, to honor our school-wide theme of “wholeness,” I am leading the faculty in six training modules from my dissertation research. The training is called “The Path of Authentic Learning”, and the six modules are Connection, Aliveness, Mindfulness, Openness, Authenticity, and Meaning and Purpose. We completed the Connection and Aliveness modules before school started. This helped the teachers develop connections with one another and the natural world, and it helped them to build a sense of deep connection and aliveness within their classrooms. The goal is to develop a sense of authenticity, or wholeness, where each teacher feels their inner self is in harmony with their outer self. How do we develop authentic kids? With authentic teachers.

Learning through listening: A Response to the End of Year Survey

Were you one of the people who filled out the 2018-19 End of Year (EOY) survey in May? If so, thank you. The EOY survey is an incredibly valuable tool that helps the Administration and the Board gain a better understanding of family experience at Rainbow and how we can improve. We really analyze the results.

To view the quantitative results of the survey, you can view the preschool results, and the K-8 results. As you can see, the overall results are very positive. Not surprisingly the “Quality of teachers” is the highest ranking response. Right behind that are communication, opportunities for involvement, the Rainbow philosophy, and the quality of the educational program. Some of the lower scoring items were diversity and equity, facilities, and safety.

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The RCS Board

While Board leadership didn’t have any scores below “fair,” that item had the fewest “very good” scores. I would like to put in a good word for our Board. There is an old saying that “board leadership is a thankless role.” Our current Board has been through days of training and retreats. They are diligent, wise, and very dedicated. Look for some upcoming messages from the Board in Rainbow Reminders this year.

Appreciations & Comments

Besides the quantitative items, your comments were rich and informative. I spend a lot of time with the survey results and even informally “code” the responses to look for trends. The vast number of written comments are about teachers and an appreciation for the holistic curriculum, the academic program, the community, the emotional safety, character building, and general appreciation. For example, “Nurturing, genuine teachers with a passion for teaching advanced, fascinating curriculum!”

Other than those appreciations, the biggest category of responses was about diversity and equity – both multiple positive appreciations and multiple requests to please do more. Yes, yes, yes! Equity and inclusion will be an ongoing focus for years to come. It’s work that is never “done,” and this is work that all of us – every parent, board member, faculty, and student – is a part of.

Some of the facilities comments expressed longing for a gym. (Wouldn’t that be awesome?!) Also, there were comments about the need for more after school space and a proper space for art and music. There were several appreciations for the aesthetic beauty of our campus. There were a few requests for a high school and a request for improved security. (We agree, and our new security cameras will be installed soon, in addition to all the other safety measures we invested in over the last year).

Beyond that, most of the other comments were singular — many that seemed particular to the family, or particular to a teacher. The most helpful comments are the ones that provide some context.

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About the Calendar

There was one comment about the number of days off. While our total number of calendar days is right in range with the other private schools in Asheville, I know the student days off are incredibly inconvenient, especially for preschool parents. We heard you! I hope the new program for child care during some of those days is helpful for K-8 working parents (and we wish we had the space and personnel to offer it to preschool).

Also, I ask readers to please note the high quality of the teachers that is so appreciated is directly correlated with the amount of time teachers have for training, collaborative meetings, planning, and the time they have to meet with parents on all of our conference days, plus the work days they have to write narratives and prepare for conferences. We are trying to find a balance that works for everyone, while ensuring your teachers have everything they need to be at their very best every minute, of every day.

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Who is the Administration?

There was also one comment on the end of year survey about the number of people in Administration. The overall quantitative score for administration was mediocre in the survey. So, I thought it might be helpful to provide some more context:

The administrative team is here to serve families, students, and faculty. At Rainbow, we truly see our administrative role as one of service. Some administrative roles are very public, such as hosting events or providing direct one-on-one services–such as a Division Head helping a family navigate a child’s academic or behavioral challenges. These are the aspects of administration that are most visible.

However, most of our administrative work is quite invisible. This may seem counter-intuitive, but invisible is good. The Administration is most invisible when the school is running smoothly and everyone—teachers, family, and students—has what they need. We recognize that it can be puzzling to understand what all those “invisible” people on administration do, but I promise you, if they weren’t doing it, we would all notice it!

Of course, the teachers have the most visible and the most important role on the school staff. And behind every teacher is a host of administrative support—making sure campus is safe and clean, the bills are paid, equipment is working, marketing ensures enrollment is full, communication is flowing, technology is high-functioning, funds are raised, staff is well-trained and cohesive, events are effective, records are kept, laws abided by, staff are hired and evaluated, students and families are supported, materials are purchased, plans are made and disseminated, protocols followed, and on and on.

The administration does all of this so that the teachers can focus on brilliant teaching. To me, the teachers are rock-stars. Behind every rock star is a giant operation. The administration is the business, the promoters, the crew, and the entourage!

The most important thing? Rainbow’s number one top priority is for the children to have an extra-ordinary holistic learning experience. As a non-profit organization, my role as the chief executive officer is to write and administer a budget that uses all of our funds as efficiently as possible, while being fair and equitable and meeting our goals.

Our budgetary priority is for teachers’ salaries to be as high as possible and tuition to be as low as possible, while providing the highest quality of education and service possible. One way we do this is by keeping administrative salaries very low compared to other independent schools and public schools. (Also, about half of our administrative and non-teaching staff work part time.)

While every administrator would make budgetary decisions a little differently, and I certainly don’t expect everyone to agree with all our decisions, I appreciate the good faith the community places in the work we do as an administration in all of our behind-the-scenes service.

I wish I got to be in Omega Middle School!

Along with a rigorous curriculum delivered by the classroom teachers, Omega Middle School creates opportunities for our students to engage with diverse learning experiences that reinforce a holistic approach to education. This includes a dynamic offering of electives classes that are taught by our highly qualified teachers at Rainbow. These courses are designed so that students can dive deep into a topic that resonates with their personal interests and skills. It also provides an opportunity rich with inquiry and wonder as it connects to new learning and the Seven Domains.

I recommend reading the choice of electives for middle school, especially if your child is in third, fourth, or fifth grade. Personally, I want to take them all! Computer coding, inventing, gardening, social justice, facility maintenance, electronics, religious studies, plus all the great art, music, drama, Spanish choices, fitness choices, and much, much more.

Did you know there is a desperate shortage of blood?

When first grade teacher, Rachel Hagen, learned about the blood shortage recently, she couldn’t imagine the heartbreak of being denied urgent medical care due to a blood shortage. So she reached out to the Red Cross to organize the drive. Are you able to make the sacrifice and help?

What you need to know:
Blood Drive Info

You are invited: ZOOM at NOON Moved to October 4

Zoom at Noon was scheduled for this Friday, September 20, but that is when the Global Student Climate Strike is happening. So we moved it. Please click on the Zoom link at 12pm on Friday, October 4, or come to my office. We will discuss the value of social emotional learning and how it affects academic learning. Specifically, we will look at vulnerability. Vulnerability sounds scary! Let’s talk it through!

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What is the Student Climate Strike?

From the interweb: Since Greta Thunberg’s first school strike for climate a year ago, young people have revolutionized the way humanity perceives the scope of the climate crisis. On September 20, 2019, young people will kick off a worldwide week of action with an international strike. September 20th will be the largest mass mobilization for climate action in human history. This time, adults will be joining the youth-led call for climate action to demand world leaders take meaningful steps to address this crisis with the urgency it requires. Youth and adults will stand arm-in-arm in the fight together for the future of humanity.

Omega Middle School teachers and parents are supporting middle school students who want to strike. Many of Omega Middle School students will be attending the event downtown, where many local students are speaking. Click here for more information, or to join the event. I’m proud to honor the voices of our youth.

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A Sacred Invitation

Finally, we honor of our year-long theme of wholeness and the coming of autumn, we are holding a sacred fire on September 20. The fire will be in the outdoor classroom (next to the upper parking lot.) Feel free to stop by the fire to contemplate, celebrate, reflect, and simply “be.” The invitation:

as the wheel turns
  we come together
    and mark the time
reminding our selves
  of our connection to the rhythm
    of our presence in the story
      of our place within the whole

in humility in gratitude in love
we will hold fire

Friday September 20
from ~9 until school day ends
the space is open for all

Opening the Heart

Opening the Heart

Opening the Heart – Reflection and Centering

At a recent admin meeting, Cynthia shared a centering designed to bring awareness to, and open the heart. Renee asked her to share it on the Director’s Blog for others to enjoy, as well.

Point to yourself

Take a moment to close your eyes and relax into the rhythm of your breath. When you feel more relaxed, go ahead and point to yourself.

Notice where you are pointing. Chances are, you’re pointing toward your heart, or somewhere near your heart chakra.

This is on purpose. We humans point to the heart because we intuitively know our truest selves are not the brain, but the heart. The heart serves as a secondary brain and even has its own magnetic field.opening the heart

What we do with the heart

We do a lot with the heart. We have heart-to-heart conversations. When we’re happy, our heart swells. When we’re sad, we’re heartbroken.

In the presence of beauty, we say we’re heartened. When we like someone, we say that they have a kind heart. A trustworthy, well-meaning person has a heart of gold. Conversely, a cold, unforgiving person has a heart of stone. When we feel bad for someone, we say, “bless their heart.” When we experience surprise, our heart skips a beat.

When we see someone’s heartfelt actions, we know it’s them expressing their truth. Furthermore, we send heart emojis when we mean to send loving thoughts.

Some of us wear our hearts on our sleeve.

Caring for our “heart self”

Our culture values the relentless pursuit of knowledge. We feed the mind. We feed the brain. We spend decades educating ourselves. But how often do we remember to feed the heart? How often do we remember to care for our heart self?

When we focus on the heart, our communications improve. Our relationships flourish. Still, our hope for the world turns rosier, as if we put on rose-colored glasses.

Pink and green

The color pink is the representation of the heart and a symbol of romantic love. On the other hand, the heart chakra is green. It’s the opposite of rose. Green is a color of expansion, growth, openness and unconditional love – love for self and love for others. The heart chakra sits in the center of the chest, not at the heart as many believe.

As a centering, we can do a little care for the heart – the heart itself, and the heart chakra.

opening the heart

A heart-centered breath

This is a practice that you can do at any time: while going about your day, while meditating, while exercising, or wherever.

Sit with your feet flat on the floor, or in a comfortable position. Hands can rest on your lap.

Relax your body. You can keep your eyes open, capped (open half-way) or closed.

Bring your attention to the breath as you breathe through the nose. Feel the cooler air as you inhale, and warmer air as you exhale. Don’t control or regulate your breath. Just observe.

Focus your attention…

Now bring your gentle attention to the rise and fall of the chest. Gently move your attention to the heart. Visualize your breath moving in and out of your heart space, filling it with soft green light and exhaling that same green light into the air around you.

Move into silence for three or four breaths, with each inhale and exhale taking in the easy green light and filling your heart space. Your exhale fills the air with this same light.

If you notice your thoughts wandering, just bring them back to the heart, and the light. Be kind to yourself.

After a few moments, bring your attention back to the breath. When you’re ready, open your eyes if you had them closed or capped.

Repurpose and Reimagine

Repurpose and Reimagine

Freedom and Creativity

Summer is a time when folks often invite freedom and creativity back into their busy lives. Maybe they pick up a project that has taken a back seat, take a workshop, or reconnect with a lost skill, art or craft. Maybe they learn, read, or try something new. Summer is a great time to nurture the young inventor in each child.

The long days of the season allow more time to drop into open-ended, free and constructivist play. Making time for STEM concepts, for inventing and engineering can tap into imaginations, foster creativity and enhance problem-solving capacities. You can try offering this space to them by spending some time exploring, asking questions, creating and building. Allow for simple invention and engineering projects by providing tools and materials such as items found in a junk drawer, recyclables, or simple office supplies.

Once you have ignited their passion for inventing, try stretching their thinking with various books.

What do you do with an Idea? By Kobi Yamada

This is a great book a child’s brilliant idea to bring it to the world. After reading, you can begin by asking what an animal needs to survive. Then you might ask what more the animals need to grow and thrive. Continue the discussion by likening animal growth to “idea growth.” State that our ideas can grow, thrive, survive, and evolve by nurturing them. Follow up with a discussion about the author’s message: stick with your idea, follow it through, persevere and your idea could change the world.

Not a Box

Next time you read with your child, you can try reading Not a Box by Antoinette Portis. This is a fabulous book about a rabbit with a very BIG imagination. After completing the book, you can discuss with your child how imagination and creativity are magical elements of who they are. Talking about different perspectives allows children to see that showing and sharing are part of what makes them unique and special.

Next, lay out a box of recyclables or knickknacks and let your child choose one or more items to repurpose. Ask your child to reimagine how this ordinary object can become extraordinary. Encourage them to use their artistic skills to reimagine it by creating something new. You may also want to extend their learning by inviting them to use the materials and resources to create a 3-D representation of their new invention. Once they have finished, it’s always quite powerful to spend time reflecting about it together.

Implications of Your Work

Children appreciate “thinking outside of the box.” They thrive off of creation and love to deep dive into their own imaginations. They approach STEM activities, such as this one, in the most authentic way when they know that their learning environment is supportive and safe. Children are most creative when the learning environment highlights many perspectives, emphasizes process over product, and failure as opportunity.

Know Thyself

Know Thyself

Rites of passage are important, sacred ceremonies that highlight a transitional period in a person’s life.

In many cultures, tribes and soceities around the world, children engage in various rites of passage. Often these are times when a child is recognized for passing though the threshold toward adulthood. Graduation at Rainbow Community School serves as an integral rite of passage for our graduating Omega Middle Schoolers.

Preparation for this rite officially begins as they join the Omega program. Subtle and more obvious practices support each Omegan’s readiness. For example, each day that middle schoolers pass through a physical threshold. As enter the building, they pass under a wooden panel inscribed with “Know Thyself.” Additionally, their arrival is also marked with a sacred time called Centering; this time is used for grounding, centering, pondering life’s big questions. Lessons, activities and learning experiences throughout the day not only foster a culture of connectedness but support the work of nurturing the child to individuate- to

Know Thyself.

These opportunities, although grounded in the safety of community, encourage personal identity development, person spirituality and ultimately- wholeness. According to decades of research by Dr. Lisa Miller, head of clinical psychology at Columbia’s Teachers College, teens who have the benefit of developing a personal spirituality are 80% less likely to suffer from ongoing and recurring depression and 60% less likely to become substance abusers. To that end, it is reasonable to suggest that spirituality is indeed the cornerstone for mental health and human well-being. Intentional rites of passage are but one way to nourish that health.

To KNOW THYSELF is to answer these questions:
Who am I?
Who are you?
Why am I here?
What is my purpose?

Graduating Omegans write commencement speeches that reflect on their time at Rainbow and acknowledge their gratitude, growth, challenges, hopes and dreams. Each student, as part of the rite, share these speeches publicly. This public sharing is an amazingly brave yet vulnerable challenge.

But more importantly, the words of wisdom spoken by these young adults are nothing less than profound.

They are informed by years of social, emotional and spiritual engagement and learning. They are guided by opportunities to explore life’s big mysteries and ponder personal purpose. They are rooted in a a collective AND personal identity.

If you are curious what happens when soul is invited into the classroom, please click here to listen to Noah Mraz’s graduation speech.

Please also consider:

  • What are the implications of integrating rites of passage, existential questioning and the spiritual domain into your own work with children?
  • What are you already doing that serves the spiritual development of your students? What more can you do?
Mind In A Jar

Mind In A Jar

The integrated RCS curriculum fosters learning in a holistic way.

This approach is void of the restrictions often imposed by teaching discreet subjects. Purposeful integration acknowledges, builds on and reinforces the existing relationships between subject areas and/or topics. The hope is that learning is then more easily transferred into other settings.

Integration is also a “brain compatible strategy” as described by brain researcher, Eric Jenson. Jenson (1996) suggests that, “The brain learns best in real-life, immersion-style, multi-path learning [and] fragmented, piecemeal presenting can forever kill the joy and love of learning.” This immersion style is considered a best practice and is embraced by our teachers. It is, therefore, not uncommon for the theme, topic or unit of study to be woven into the fabric of an entire school day, week, and/or month. For example, the element of water and its states of matter are introduced in kindergarten. First grade elaborates on the water cycle and studies rivers and oceans. During these units, water often becomes a central theme that invites cross curricular learning.

Centering offers cross curricular learning opportunities.

The intended purpose of centering is to awaken the spiritual center of each child, opening pathways to learning. The centering practice activity includes a contemplative experience, but teachers also strive to extend the learning by integrating with the academic curriculum. The Mind Jar centering serves as an excellent example. The Mind Jar begins with a conversation about the various properties of water. Perhaps prompted by photographs of water in various forms or by a book such as, The Water Dance by Thomas Locker. Discussion yields a shared understanding of the ways in which water moves- Water is always moving, flowing, changing, essential to life, found deep in the ocean, under the ground, high in the sky, freezing, melting, etc. The focus being more heavily on the magical and mysterious qualities of the element rather than the scientific descriptions.

The teacher guides students to make connections between their own thoughts and feelings to the movements of water in the natural world

(i.e. a raging river can represent anger, a waterfall- excitement, snowfall- peace) After giving an example or two, the children are then prompted to suggest additional feelings and water movements connections. The teacher explains that The Mind Jar is simply a jar filled with water and glitter. But it is representative a tiny world where we can watch the movements of water and match those movements to our own feelings. The water represents our mind’s natural state and the glitter represents our thoughts, emotions, fears, concerns, and wonderings. When the jar is shaken, our thoughts will whirl around and our mind becomes cloudy and hard to see through. But, as the glitter begins to settle and still, so do our thoughts and feelings. It is in this stillness and calm state that we are able to make good decisions.

The Mind Jar is a simple mason jar containing water, glitter, glitter glue, and food coloring.

Combine warm water with the glitter glue, glitter, and food coloring.  Close the Jar tightly.  Depending on the amount of glue you use, the glitter will settle more slowly. This tool can be used when a child is feeling stressed, overwhelmed or upset. It can calm and relax them. It can serve as a meditation tool or a self-regulation tool. You can explore many versions of this on the web. If you have an interest in extending the learning from this centering, you may want to try a follow up centering using the picture book, Moody Cow Meditates. Peter the cow is moody after having a rough day. A series of unfortunate circumstances leads Peter’s grandfather to teach him how to settle his mind and let go of his frustration using some mediation tools.