IN ADMISSIONS
42 New students to embrace, to guide, and to learn with: Carole Smith and our office assistant, Mary Sigler, work year-round to promote the school through marketing and admissions. Along with Margaret Gerleve, the personal service our administrative staff puts into helping every prospective family decide whether RMCS is the right school for them and to help them throughout the enrollment process, requires immense patience, time, and resources. Now that you are here, we hope you and your child’s experience at Rainbow is all you hoped it to be.
The host family program: Of the 42 new students, 19 are in the K-8 grade range. They have each been joined with a host family – a current Rainbow family to help initiate them to the culture of RMCS, to meet other families, and to offer help as needed. In future years, we’re hoping to expand the host program to preschool.
MORE MULTI-AGE CONNECTIONS “WEAVING A WEB OF CONNECTEDNESS*â€
School-wide Math from 9:15 to 10:00 am every day: Second through eighth grade students will be placed in a math group that best suits their current level and need for challenge. For many students, this will mean transitioning to a different teacher during math time, and working with students of various ages. As a pilot program, we consider this year an experiment. It might take several months to work out the kinks and to evaluate whether the benefits outweigh the drawbacks. We ask for your patience and welcome your opinions.
Collaborative classrooms and pods: For the 08-09 school year, think of 1st -3rd grade (upper level of the new building) as a pod, and 4th -8th grade (the historical building) as another pod. Assistant teachers, rather than being assigned to just one class, will be assigned to a pod: Amorn O’Connor and Ruth Shackelton to the New Pod (1st – 3rd) and Chris Waddell to the Historical Pod (4th – 8th). Ruth will still primarily work with Sandra in first grade, and Amorn with Eddy in third, but there will be more flexibility than last year. Also to promote more multi-age connections, 2nd and 3rd grade are collaborative classrooms, as well as 4th and 5th grade. In both of these cases, a very small class with a gender imbalance (ie. overwhelmingly boys) is being paired with a larger class for certain times encouraging a culture of collaboration.
THE ART PROGRAM
“Art†isn’t just the visual arts this year, but all of “The Arts.â€Â Beth Allison, our fabulous new Art teacher, will have weekly visual arts class with 3rd through 8th grade. But she has extra time in her schedule to work with any class, 1st through 8th grade in a workshop format in the visual arts, drama, or movement/dance. Some hypothetical examples: Beth might work for a month with the second grade class creating handmade books with leaf samples to correlate with their nature study OR she may help the Omega kids choreograph a hobbit dance for their Lord of the Rings presentation. This “workshop†format will create more cross-curricular study, while also promoting more faculty collaboration with the arts teacher. Music, with “maestro†Mr. Mitch, will remain a stand-alone program, but just as classroom teachers incorporate art into their regular classroom activities, they also incorporate music with daily singing and blessings.
COMMUNICATION TOOLS
New calendar: Click on the Calendar tab, and you will see our new Google Apps calendar. If you make it a habit to check the calendar on a regular basis, you will see up-to-date information on Rainbow Happenings. Once we all get trained and receive our passwords, teachers, committee heads, parent council members, and staff will be posting activities and need-to-know information on a regular basis.
Kaleidoscope: Last year, the administrative office published Kaleidoscope – the email publication with lots of helpful RMCS information–on an irregular basis. This year it will be published regularly, on the first and third Wednesday of each month.
THE TEACHER MENTORING PROGRAM
Just as new families benefit from a host, so do new teachers. Mentor teachers will work closely with new teachers and with faculty who want or need greater professional growth to help them learn about RMCS and to grow as an educator. Another role of the mentors is to act as co-leaders, helping the executive director collaboratively lead the school. I like to thank Judith Beers, Lauren Rosenfeld, Sandra McCassim, Susan Swanson-Waddell, Eddy Webb, and Doreen Dvorscack for taking on this extra role this year.
REGARDING THE GROUNDS
The new outdoor classroom space (next to the parking lot) is a work-in-progress. Classrooms have started using the space on a limited basis, and we expect that students will have a part in designing the space and improving it over the next year or so. It will evolve organically. Some ideas: build a small stage, make a garden space to the South of the storage shed and a medicinal garden against the fence, create a pond with moving water powered by solar panels, create a fort building area, build benches and picnic tables.
New Grass will soon be planted in some areas of the playground that you will see sectioned off. This is an experiment, to see if we can get a hardy grass to withstand the high traffic areas of our grounds.
AND MORE…
Of course, there are other new things, some of which we don’t have designed, but the ideas are percolating. Two worth mentioning are:
- A student newsletter, written by students with lots of voice!
- Student grounds keeping. Each class would be responsible for the upkeep of an assigned/chosen section of the grounds.
WEDNESDAYS ARE PARENT DAY
Like they say, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.â€Â Just like last year, Parent Day is every Wednesday.  Parent Day is the day for parents to meet with Renee Owen, the executive director, when they have a concern, a great idea, a conflict, or just an FYI. By reserving Wednesdays, parents know that they will be heard, and Renee will have time to listen. In return, she asks that parents try their best to respect her office schedule and to have patience if they have to wait a few days to speak with her or to receive a reply. Although it can be challenging to wait to speak with Renee or to receive a reply, this often provides time to listen to one’s inner voice and to develop equanimity. This is consistent with Rainbow’s values to slow down and reflect amid our “hurry up†world. Sandra McCassim will usually be filling my shoes on Wednesday in the afternoons and fulfilling other administrative duties while she works on her Master’s Degree in Educational Leadership.
*The phrase “weaving a web of connectedness†is attributed to Parker Palmer.
