by Renee Owen | Nov 4, 2011 | Director's Blog, Heart of the Matter, News
Gifted is an uncomfortable term. It seems to imply that some children are born with more gifts than others, and therefore, are more important or more special. The Multiple Intelligence Theory used at Rainbow Mountain recognizes that all children have gifts in various areas. One child may have musical gifts, while being kinesthetically challenged, for example. A child who may not consider herself to be academically gifted, per se, shines because they are talented in some other area, such as interpersonal skills, and at Rainbow, she will feel special for who she is. Our school’s mission is for all children to have the opportunity to discover and develop their personal gifts and talents.
This article is specifically about educating children who are academically gifted. A large proportion of our population at Rainbow Mountain is academically gifted.
Read entire article here.
by Renee Owen | Oct 30, 2011 | Director's Blog
Renee being one with the elk. There is a herd in the meadow.
I just spent two days with teachers in the Great Smoky Mountains on an Elk Trek. It was stunning! I can’t wait to take a group of Rainbow students to some of the same spots! We saw the head bull with his “harem.” We saw males sparring, heard bulls bugling, and watched their herd behavior in the frosty, below freezing high elevation weather. We were outside from 6 am in the morning until 7 pm at night, which is a great way to feel connected to Mother Earth.
Other great sightings: Barred owl, black bear, grouse, wild turkeys, downy woodpecker.
We also learned about some of the effects of air pollution. Snails are believed to be negatively affected by air pollution, because acid rain causes calcium to be leached out of the soil, weakening their shells. Therefore, the snail population is a possible indicator of air quality. Ranger, Susan Sachs, trained us to identify various species of snails. We hunted for snails and collected the data. I found the smallest one — about the size of a pinhead.
Also affected by air pollution are lichens. In teams, we measured the growth and/or decline of lichen on specific trees. Did you know there are over 100 varieties of lichen in the Smoky Mountains?
Two bull elk. The elk were re-introduced to the Smokey Mountains in 2001 and 2002. 57 elk were brought in. The herd is now about 150 and growing.
an average-sized bull elk
An adult bull as seen through a scope
We found 45 snails. This is data that middle school kids and teachers collect for the park service to monitor the effect of air quality on snails.
Liking lichen: Standing next to the black birch with the lichen data our my team collected.
Ranger, Susan Sachs showing us fruticose lichen. Fruticose lichen is sensitive to air pollution.
by Renee Owen | Oct 20, 2011 | Director's Blog
Oral storytelling is a rich tradition in the human race, and an important aspect of the curriculum at Rainbow Mountain. Reading stories from books is valuable, but when a someone tells a story orally something magical happens. They storyteller has no book between her heart and the children, so she is sharing openly, without any barriers. The children are not distracted by trying to see the pages or photos, nor can they rely on the photos to tell the story. This increases their listening skills and their imagination, as they create their own pictures in their heads. Oral storytelling is an important precurser to reading for very young children, as it helps them develop comprehension and plot development.
Ruth Shackelton is our storyteller at Rainbow Mountain Children’s School. She tells a story almost every day to one of the classes. Teachers often ask her to introduce a unit with a story. For example, at the beginning of the author’s unit in second grade (when students write and illustrate their own books) she tells a story about the first time humans communicated in “writing.” Her repertoire of stories is endless, and her storytelling style rivots the children’s attention. (See all eyes on Ruth in the photo above).
by Renee Owen | Sep 27, 2011 | Director's Blog
Research within schools has shown that the time spent on social curriculum – on team building activities, class meetings, character studies, and the like, which promote social skills—is not time taken away from academics. By training children how to get along with one another, they can actually focus better on the academic tasks they have to complete because they are less distracted by, and less anxious about relationships with their peers. At Rainbow Mountain Children’s School, we take it one step further. As a holistic school, our social curriculum isn’t an “add on.” It’s completely embedded, and it’s regarded as being at least as important as the other domains: physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual.
by Renee Owen | Jun 16, 2011 | Director's Blog
Remember tumbling around on the floor with your dad or having a pillow fight with your cousins? Fun, right? Well, it’s also developmentally essential, especially for boys. To read all the fascinating reasons why you WANT your son to roughhouse, click on the following NY Times blog:
http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/14/in-praise-of-roughhousing/
by Renee Owen | Apr 28, 2011 | Director's Blog
There were over 20 people from Rainbow Mountain Children’s School at the Sir Ken Robinson lecture last night, and we were all inspired — actually, validated, is a better word for it. Validated to know that the style of education we have been doing for 34 years at Rainbow, is now considered visionary, cutting edge, and the direction education needs to go nationally.
One of Sir Ken’s points that really stuck with me was when he answered a question by saying, “It’s about Spirit.” He clarified that he was referring to energy. Great teachers are energized by the children and by the material they are teaching. It resonates with their spirit. They also recognize what is special about each child, and they use that. For example, a child who habitually hums would be given more singing instruction and asked to lead songs for the class.
When asked to describe the perfect school, he might as well have been describing Rainbow: A school with strong underlying structure (as Ken said “creativity can only happen within structure”) and an ability to allow both kids and teachers to be creative in all subjects.
Here is another great Sir Ken Robinson talk:
