by Renee Owen | Sep 10, 2013 | Director's Blog, News
At the beginning of the year, each class traditionally chooses a class name, which is like a mascot –an animal or other entity to represent the character, culture, and ideals of the class. When I was a child, I remember reading a tale about how Merlin would turn young King Aurthur into different animals so who could learn from them. From geese he learned about sharing the lead, from ants how to sense and how to work as a whole. There is much to learn from nature.
Students work in a democratic fashion in each class to consent to a mascot name, by proposing different mascots and stating the qualities that animal or being has or why they want to persuade the rest of the class to choose it.
The fifth grade class just chose The Honey Bees as their mascot, because honey bees work together like one organism, every individual works for the good of all, they take care of the environment, and they are highly intelligent in many ways. Grade 4 is embracing their class name as the Ravens. The ravenlike qualities they hope to embrace are being cooperative, intelligent, playful and agile in nature.
by Renee Owen | Aug 21, 2013 | Director's Blog, News
Our very own Renee Owen is making a difference by making the newspaper!
Renee Owen, Director of Rainbow Community School, in front of the historic building, The Orr Mansion
Her journey to Rainbow Community School has been an incredible one.
Now, as director of Rainbow, she has used her talents to grow the school community and create a unique school with the “whole child” in mind.
As Renee said to the Times,
“The vision is very exciting, and our new name and logo capture the intent and evolution of Rainbow,” Owen said. “As one parent said, ‘I feel like the best of our history is being reborn into a new school, and the new name and brand represent that.’”
These are exciting times for Rainbow Community School. To read more about our valiant director, click the link below for the complete article:
Read more here!
by Renee Owen | Aug 8, 2013 | Director's Blog, News
Yay! to Howard Gardner, famous Harvard professor who published the Multiple Intelligences theory in 1983. (Even though Rainbow was founded in 1977 and predates Howard’s theory, our educational model is essentially based on the same theory, but we call the intelligences “domains.”) Howard Gardner is my favorite living psychologist, and it was fun to enjoy a social gathering together and talk theory. Thanks for all you have done for the field of education, Howard. ~Renee
by Renee Owen | Aug 5, 2013 | Director's Blog
The secret to introducting technology into the classroom is doing it intelligently. Most schools need to radically change the way they teach. Technology doesn’t do that by itself. To quote Chris Dede, Harvard Graduate School of Education, author of Digital Teaching Platforms: “If you are introducing a new device into the classroom, but using it to teach the same way as before, you are putting old wine into new bottles.” In other words, if the bulk of the classroom technology is basically just a new way of giving lectures and doing worksheets using technology, you haven’t enriched the classroom or helped the students make learning more relevant and powerful. It’s just a bunch of bells and whistles. We are fotunate to have 20 bright, new, shiny Macbooks for students to use, but their use will be embedded into research, project work, and other purposes that further enhance the learning experience for students.
by Renee Owen | Jul 30, 2013 | Director's Blog
Very Inspiring! Here I am with legendary Harvard professor, David Perkins. He just laid out a beautiful, succinct formula for 21st Century Learning.
