by Webmaster | Sep 19, 2013 | News
The Garden by the Orr Mansion
We have exciting news!
Rainbow Community School is now a certified wildlife habitat site, recognized by the National Wildlife Federation.
RCS created a garden space that helped improve habitat needs for wildlife, including birds, butterflies, and frogs. Now, these animals will have an easier time finding food, shelter and water.
This is great because it is part of Rainbow’s mission to help students be responsible earth citizens. We have become a greener campus with this award by helping to create an inviting, eco-friendly place for wildlife.
With this award, we will have a subscription to National Wildlife Magazine that will help us to maintain our habitat year-round.
RCS also joins over 150,000 other certified habitat areas across the nation.
Thank you to our third grade teacher West Willmore for helping us achieve this award!
Our Certified Wildlife Habitat Award
NWF’s Wildlife Habitat Program
This program certifies schools, businesses, churches, and even homeowners who want to make their lands and resources more wildlife-friendly. The idea is that people create healthy and sustainable eco-systems that will allow wildlife to survive and thrive.
by Webmaster | Sep 18, 2013 | News
Before school started, the Rainbow staff had a chance to team-build on the Nolichucky River.
We met at the Nantahala Outdoor Center (NOC) and had a chance to do a centering before our rafting trip. Our fabulous upper grades Spanish teacher Lisa Saraceno helped make it all happen.
“I bring my family here to this very special place on the Nolichucky. I wanted the staff of Rainbow to experience this special, sacred place – together.” – Lisa said during our centering.
The rafting experience can’t be beat. Some staff members hadn’t been rafting and others had a lot of experience. However, they all built confidence and trust in each other as they ventured into the wilderness.
The Nolichucky River where everyone rafted was in western North Carolina and Eastern Tennessee. Amazingly, there are parts of the river that can only be seen by train or by rafting on the river.
They encountered class III and IV rapids. Only two people ended up tumbling out of their rafts that day.
Do you think they’re concentrating hard?
Later that day, staff enjoyed more time with each other with a chance to see Mountain Lights Sanctuary. They had a simple dinner and enjoyed the natural surroundings. Colleagues could walk on forest trails, meditate, and take in the pristine beauty of a place designed to nourish the spirit.
With those experiences, the staff – centered, fulfilled and ready – could begin a new academic year.
Rainbow Staff enjoying the challenge of the river
by Webmaster | Sep 13, 2013 | News
The Future of Education and The Future of Rainbow
By artist Caryn Hanna
Before school starts each year, educators at Rainbow attend a series of trainings to enhance their teaching careers and to help them prepare for a new academic year.
In one of those sessions, teachers brainstormed about the future of education in general and about the future of Rainbow Community School. Artist Caryn Hanna visually interpreted and recorded their ideas onto a beautiful banner.
Teachers noted that seeing their thoughts “visualized” effectively helped them to form a solid vision for the future.
Before meeting, the staff at Rainbow read Renee’s article about Educating the Innovation Generation.
In Renee’s words,
The mission statement at Rainbow Community School ends saying that we are developing students who will be “leaders in building a more compassionate and environmentally sustainable world.”
Anyone enrolling their child at this unique school must resonate with the urgency of this goal.
One would have to have blinders on to ignore the stream of evidence and quotes from leading scientists, sociologists and experts in almost every field who declare that sustainability is the most important vision for human survival.
From Tony Wagner, “The solution to our economic and social challenges is the same: creating a viable and sustainable economy that creates good jobs without polluting the planet. And there is general agreement as to what that new economy must be based on. One word: innovation.”
Indeed, the mission and vision of Rainbow embraces our new generation of young people to propel them into a world where they are prepared to not only think out of the box, but to dare to reinvent the concept of the box itself. We understand that giving students the tools to be creative thinkers and problem solvers today will help them become leaders who will create a sustainable tomorrow.
by Webmaster | Sep 11, 2013 | News
Rainbow Community School has won a prestigious award: it has become a Green Ribbon School.
Why is this so important?
From the Green Ribbon Schools website,
The Green Ribbon Schools program is where health, education, STEM skills, technology and being green combine to propel entire schools towards a happier, healthier and smarter future. It is where students get more involved in school activities, not less, and where teachers and students become the true leaders of their schools and communities.
The community here at Rainbow is committed to a happier, healthier and smarter future for our students. We embarked on many projects in the last year to create a school that embraces sustainability. Our students are heavily involved in this process.
Take a look at some of the projects that helped us to gain such special recognition:
Building a New Playground
We built a playground that incorporated recycled materials wherever possible: from “dead” locust logs to urbanite (recycled concrete), the children can play in an area that was designed with nature in mind.
Our “Gnome Village” was built with recycled materials wherever possible.
Creating Gardens
Our fourth graders helped to build raised garden beds to learn about growing vegetables sustainably and organically. They used the scientific method to investigate vegetable growth, nutrition and predicted various results. They also incorporated their math skills by calculating the distance between vegetables and growth patterns. They also experienced the “farm to table” idea by eating the vegetables they grew.
4th graders learn about growing vegetables organically.
Create an Outdoor Classroom
In order to create what is dubbed the “Council Circle,” community members and builders found dead tree stumps and reclaimed them to become the “chairs” for our outdoor classroom.
The Council Circle fosters a community learning environment. Designed in a way that echoes the customs of Native American Indian tribes, this classroom promotes peace and appreciation for nature, as well as helps create an atmosphere of mutual respect and appreciation for not only the outdoors, but for fellow students and teachers. At Rainbow Community School, everyone has an equal voice.
Our outdoor classroom, aka “The Council Circle.”
Investigating Dinosaurs
Our second and third graders from last year did a paleontology dig to investigate dinosaurs. The dinosaur unit centered around investigation, writing, documenting, and seeing the world through a paleontologist’s eyes.
2nd and 3rd graders doing a dinosaur dig.
Build a Terrarium
Our first graders learned how to build terrariums. In the process, they learned about soil composition and how to create habitats for organisms such as ferns and moss. By the end of the unit, our students understood how important it was to balance water, air, and proper soil nutrition to create a suitable environment for plant life.
It’s fun to build a terrarium! First graders learned so much!
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!
