Renee, West, several Omega students and other local educators, consultants and community members have been working hard since September to rethink and reinvent learning. The team has emerged with an innovative high school concept-the rEVOLution High model which was recently submitted to the XQ Super School Project. This XQ Super School Project is project is a $50 million campaign, funded by Laurene Powell Jobs and the XQ Institute, to reimagine and design the next public American high school. Recently the Mountain Express did a story on our XQ Superschool Team and its process. Check the article out here.
On Saturday, May 21st, Rainbow Community School will host our 1st Annual Rainbow Flea, a community marketplace to upcycle household items, clothing, art and all! Let this be the start of something great!
Expect cool stuff to buy, spaces to sell your old stuff, food trucks, and a busking performance stage. We will also have a Kids Market Area on the hillside for kids to sell their old toys.
Reserve your space in the office today. Flea Market spaces are $20 and Kids Market spaces are $5. 1st come, 1st served. This old school flea market will serve as a benefit, with profits from space reservations going towards the Rainbow Bus Campaign in their efforts to secure an adventure activity bus for our Rainbow students. All personal profit is yours to keep!
Please help us get the word out by sharing this event!
For more information contact ali.banchiere@rainbowlearning.org or denisa.rullmoss@rainbowlearning.org
Check out this interview with Dan Siegel on the psychology and sociology of our environment. At Rainbow I often stress that helping students cultivate a deep and personal relationship with the natural world is our only hope of saving it, as they will only protect what they love. Dan Siegel shares that same sentiment adding the notion of “mwe.” When we learn to see ourselves as integrally connected to all things and to one another, we will end the destruction of our time and begin taking care of one another and the planet that sustains us. It all begins with love.
From January through March 42 students from as young as six-years-old to as old as thirteen-years-old gathered every Friday to create magic together. The magic invoked was theater at its finest complete with pirates, heroes, and villains. This fun twist on the old Treasure Island classic by Robert Louis Stevenson featured Josie, an adventurous and courageous young girl, as the main character. The theme of the play was one of empowerment, imagination, and actualization as Josie learns that in the end it truly is always her adventure no matter what obstacles and challenges come her way. As the performance drew nearer it became clearer and clearer that these youngsters were transforming and evolving not only as confident young actors and techies, but also as an extremely multi-aged and connected ensemble. Whispered cues were hurriedly exchanged backstage as actors reminded each other of their blocking, while stagehands stepped into their less visible yet powerful roles of supporting the production as a whole. By the time the curtains closed on that epic first and last performance, those 42 students stood together as friends, artists, storytellers, performers, and family. Huzzah and congratulations to these brave pirates!
In their first trimester electives, Omega students had the choice to take either Home Economics, Theater of the Oppressed, Advanced Art Techniques, Creative Writing Workshop, or Choral Explorations. These four brave 7th and 8th graders chose to deepen their understanding of vocal technique, harmony, and choral arrangement in Choral Explorations with Sue Forde, our wildly creative music director. They performed their original song “Love is More” to an amazed audience during our Annual Winter Program. The Jaegens’ insightful lyrics and playful melody delighted and inspired all in attendance. Love is overused, abused, confused with admiration, attraction, creation, temptation, obsession, emotion, relation, confusion, delusion… The song starts with this somber note on the misuse of Love and then continues to motivate us to build a new and more compassionate relationship to Love itself.
