MLC's Second Cup of Coffee

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

2010-06-09T10:33:00.000-07:00

Here is a summary of the past few weeks of Second Cup:

Mentor Program: We have been discussing ideas for developing a Mentor Program for our middle school students in which each student would have the opportunity to be supported by a mentor in the community. Some of the ideas in development are tying this program to the growth of our College Scholarship Fund and possibly the Harmony Gala as a way of celebrating and support MLC graduates after they leave MLC with such a strong foundation!

Volunteer Program: We have discussed ways to hold parents accountable for volunteering at MLC. Over the summer, the Volunteer Coordinator Laurie Cousins and I will be meeting to develop and launch a program that will go home in the Summer Packets to all MLC families. The concept is to clearly explain and ask for the commitment as well as a schedule for incentives. There is the idea that an option to the 30-hour volunteer commitment will be a donation to the scholarship fund.

New Committee: There is officially a new Challenge Committee called the Green Committee which will be responsible for implementing community projects and educational programming. New develpments include the acquisition of trees and a compost bin. Ideas include a community garden and much more. There will be an opportunity for parents to join the committee in the fall.

Bus: Explorations continue to acquire a bus or public transit for MLC students in certain neighborhoods to assist with transportation/carpooling.

Fundraising: The main fundraisers in the works for next year are Entertainment Book and Sally Foster which will happen simultaneously; Artwork for Education (or possibly another organization) that creates a catalog of greeting cards designed by MLC students for parents to purchase and MLC receives a % of proceeds, as well as some restarant nights and spirit wear sales.

MLC Rallies: An idea emerged at 2nd Cup to have morning rallies at MLC next year - for example a quick morning rally before school starts where parents and students can hear about the exiting things happening at MLC for the month. Today it was discussed that the rallies will coincide with morning Parent Council meetings which are being added to the calendar next year to accomodate parents who cannot attend the evening meetings. (The evening meetings will continue as well).

Advocacy Team - We need to identify a parent volunteer who can be "on call" for quick action when the MLC community needs to respond to events happening in our legislature that impact our school or programming.

In anyone has anything to add that I may have missed - please add to the post with comments!

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

2010-05-12T14:28:00.000-07:00

New Challenge Committee: Gayle Nadler (staff) and Andrea Milton (parent) will be co-chairing a new Challenge Committee called The Green Committee. Our purpose for the committee is to help make MLC and our community more "green" by focusing on recycling, composting, sustainable eating, reducing waste, energy conservation and much, much more!

Summer Packets (which parents receive in the mail in August) will now include Volunteer information including agreements, incentive plan, and commitment forms to fill out. This will help us start the year off with room parents in place, volunteer lists generated, and parents informed about their commitments to support MLC.

Carpool: We discussed the idea of allocating parking spaces at dismissal for carpooling parents and want to explore options of contracting for a school bus. It is possible that we may need to create a separate challenge committee to handle facilities issues.

Summer School at MLC: MLC staff utilizes the summer months to plan and prepare for the following year and are unable to provide summer school options for our students.

April 28 & May 5, 2010

2010-05-05T09:54:00.000-07:00

Summary of Topics the past two weeks:

Focus on Health and Fitness: MLC is focusing on healthy living next year and combining a number of projects which may need a committee to coordinate. Here is what is being planned/discussed:

Fruit Vending Machines
Composting
Quotes for artificial turf and shading
Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Fundraiser
Parent/Teacher Farm Experience opportunity (where you actually live and work on a farm for 3 days to learn)
MLC Garden - including California native plants and vegetables
PE Grant - to bring consultants/experts/equipment to improve MLC PE program
Possibility of creating a partnership with Environmental Charter High in Lawndale

Facility: Service Day huge success--great turnout and effort! Each class has flower-bed and will receive one more. Students responsible for care. Fence is being moved on May 14th and then we are looking for donations of trees and shrubs to create shade and privacy and we will eventually widen our running track.

MLC Picnic: PC is considering charging a small fee for tickets and asking each family to bring a cultural dish that feeds 10 people. There will be more "carnival" type activities such as games and face-painting and only 2 bouncers for younger kids. Soccer will be organized by grade level (3 games). There will also be a raffle and the media lab will be open for parents wanting to complete the online parent survey (a link will also be sent home for families with computers/internet at home).

Discipline/Building Community: Toby talked about the following topics which she plans to share out in more detail over time with community starting with assemblies next week:

Encouraging students to use I messages: "I feel....when....because..." which allows kids to express their feelings to one another without telling each other what to do which causes more conflict.
Encouraging students to tell an adult about a problem or conflict after an I message has been attempted when it puts the community in danger and explaining the difference between "telling" and "tattling."
The importance of taking action when you witness a wrong-doing in your community even if you are not involved and the fact that you can be considered just as guilty as the culprit when you know about something and don't do anything about it.
Helping students realize that effort with or without ability will lead to success and that even with ability, if there is no effort, there will not be success.
Helping students develop self-esteem and self-worth and to refrain from comparing oneself with others.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

2010-04-20T10:37:00.000-07:00

Here is Toby's post below:

There are several themes to the conversation at 2nd cup this morning that got resolved in one fabulous strategy! It was an amazing blend of concerns and ideas that evolved into a theme and focus for next year.

What was on our collective minds?

How do we motivate more parents to volunteer and fulfill their hours? Some are never seen on campus and run form the active paretns who try to recruit at dismissal!
How do we keep the sense of community and interaction among parents as active as it is in kinder and first grade? Parents who want to to get to know one another/arrange gatherings and play dates.
How do we create more opportunities for kids in different classes to work together as a community both academically and socially?
How do we keep kids from trashing/wasting untouched food at breakfast and lunch? (putting extras in a place for reuse or proper disposal)?
What can be done during summer months to get the kids to know each other better in anticipation of new groupings in fall classrooms?
What is the responsibility of the school to see to it that children play with friends from other classes at recess? (it takes a great deal of effort to establish rapport between one class and the campus aide assigned to them to ensure safety and their teacher who is responsible for them. Accountability for 20 minutes twice a day needs to be consistent and have follow-through. Grade levels do it at PE. Academic and social interaction within grades is purposeful and encouraged to meet our goals. Creating opportunities to play with friends is a paternal responsibility.)

Group consensus was achieved through the following solution:

MLC is going to focus on healthy eating and fitness next year. A committee will be formed to develop a plan to create, sustain, and maintain a community garden. Another committee has already been working on a plan to involve students, parents, and staff in a regular exercise program. These two strategies will provide opportunities for:

grade level parents to build community among themselves and their children
students to participate in gardening and exercise with peers and families
developing personal relationships through a common purpose
experiencing the joy of growing and eating healthy fruits and vegetables
parents to fulfill their volunteer committment

Footnote from Gayle who did not attend 2nd Cup: At Catalina last week with the 8th graders we met the challenge of leaving 0 Food Waste on our plates during breakfast, lunch, and dinner. This means we ate everything that we placed on our plates and did not throw away one morsel. We were rewarded with gratification and a poster that will hang in the dining hall. Can we incorporate this here?

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

2010-03-25T08:42:00.000-07:00

This morning we discussed Facebook Causes concept brought in by a parent - it's basically a way of soliciting donations for a cause through your network on Facebook. We decided to take a closer look at it so we can streamline this effort with our other fundraising efforts and investigate more about how it works and what it entails.

There was some dicussion about schoolwide events and the fact that when donations are asked for (such as for food and other items for the Pow Wow or MLC Picnic) not everybody contributes. It led to the discussion of how the same paretns volunteer for everything and that we need to work on our volunteer incentive progarm and strategize about ways to divide the work more evenly and engage more parents. Ultimately we decided that their would be a summer planning meeting with me and the Parent Council to come up a plan for next year and to refine the volutneer incentive/accountability system and how we can utilize room parents more effectively.

One of the kinder parents at the table brought up that there needs to be more in place to help kindergarten parents since they are new to the school and can feel lost in all of the events, activities, and volunteer opportunities. This is something that can also be discussed during the summer - one idea is to give incoming kinder parents a "buddy" from an upper grade to help them navigate through their first year and to establish room parents and other commitments at the Parent Orientation in August.

Have a great Spring Break!

Wednesday March 17, 2010

2010-03-17T14:42:00.001-07:00

I'm back from my brief "hiatus" during which I skipped attending 2nd Cup and writing my blog in order to write a $1 million grant to support MLC arts program. Keep your fingers crossed!

Today we talked about the following:

Enrollment for 2010 - 2011: A question was asked regarding the fact that we decided to enroll 3 kindergarten classes in 2010 from our lottery on March 5 and how that would impact the facility and current enrollment. The decision to enroll 60 versus 40 new Kinders in the fall was based on our current enrollment numbers and projects for several years out and keeping us under 400 students which is our capacity. We will need to re-design the use of Room 2 in order to enroll the extra kindergarten class and we will likely have a 4/5 split in the upper graders rather than 4 small classes of two 4th's and two 5th's which we have now. Incidentally, we had 92 people participate in the Kinder lottery including 26 staff children/sibling perfences!

Data Collection: At the Town Hall Meeting last week, Toby mentioned the use of a tool called ZOOM for data collection and analysis and a parents asked to know more about it. ZOOM is a tool that allows us to upload all of the data we have on students including thier test scores, reading assessments, periodic assessments given by teachers, etc. to enable us to analyze needs for students, teachers, etc. In addition, we are using Measuring Up - which is are sample tests aligned with standards and similiar to the state tests that we are giving to students in grades 4-8 currently to assess specific skill-based needs that need to be addressed schoolwide, by grade, by class and by student. ZOOM produces reports based on these assessments that can help us see where the gaps are and which questions students or groups of students are missing.

Letters to Support Senate Bill: I (Gayle) passed around letters of support for interested parents to sign in support of a senate bill to include standards-based primary language achievement tests for English Learners in the state accountability system AND to allow English Only students in dual language programs to take the Spanish Standards Test as well! Right now, our EO's take Aprenda - a different test than the English Learners and it doesn't allow us to collect comprehensive data - and none of it is factored into our API or other data viewed and communicated publicly by the state. It's an effort led by a group called Californians Together. This would be HUGE for schools like MLC, as you can imagine where our test scores in English only do not tell a complete picture as to the academic progress of our students.

Gala Debrief: We debriefed many aspects of the gala including fundraising goals, venue, connections made, general outreach and publicity, and improvements/goals for next year. The Committee will be meeting in the future for a full debrief/2011 planning session

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

2010-01-20T12:30:00.001-08:00

We had a large group this morning despite the rain and we had a lot to talk about! Here are the major highlights:

1) What is our policy regarding stolen property in terms of preventing it from happening on campus? We use our five standards (Respect, Responsible, Safe, Caring, Tolerant) in discussions and in connection with curriculum to teach students about being respectful of other people's property. We also teach students about being responsible for their own belongings. If we discover that something has gone missing and we can isolate the time and place, we can have a more direct discussion with students and this often leads to recovery of the missing items. As far as items put in Lost and Found - we do hang them up on the fence periodically and a majority of the missing items have been in the Lost and Found bin - which is accessible to students when they are on the yard - for a long period of time. During the holidays and at the end of the year, we donate unclaimed items to Goodwill.

2) Green Committee at MLC! We discussed the possibility of creating a Green Committee which emerged among talks of having a Compost Bin at MLC to accompany our efforts to recycle and reduce trash. We agreed that prior to having a Compost plan at MLC, we would need to educate the students (and ourselves) on the purpose and effectiveness of composting and the items we dispose of daily that are compostable versus recyclable versus trash. Andrea Milton shared a flyer with opportunities for purchasing compost bins and/or workshops to learn about how to compost at your home or business.

3) Rainy Days - We are learning new procedures this week of managing the campus during extremely hard rains which are rare around here, but very abundant this week! We have developed a plan for delivering lunches to classrooms for indoor eating and playing as well as a "hard rain" dismissal procedure which requires parents to pick up children in their classrooms so they are not standing outside in the rain. ESCAPE students will be picked up by staff members and brought to appropriate classrooms for their ESCAPE classes and snack will be indoors as well. ESCAPE will utilize classrooms such as the Library, Room 18 & 19 for ESCAPE dismissal at 6:00, 6:15 & 6:30pm. We appreciate the cooperation and patience of parents and staff during this time.

4) Gala - Debbie Allen has confirmed that she will be our special guest at the Gala this year and we are thrilled about it! Committees are in motion for 1) creating centerpieces; 2) collecting auction items and creating baskets; 3) event production; 4) invitations and rsvp's, etc. We even have a new dance class in ESCAPE for students who want to perform the night of the Gala! Thank you to all of the parents who are making this happen - you are wonderful! There will be a Gala Meeting following Second Cup next week if you'd like to meet some new people and get involved! If you've been wondering how to get involved at MLC, this is a fun opportunity!

5) MLK Event - If you missed the Martin Luther King Event on Monday and want to know about it or see pictures, check out the Multicultural Learning Center Parents page on Facebook or check out my Multicultural Moments Blog: http://multiculturalmoments.blogspot.com/

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

2010-01-14T11:10:00.000-08:00

This morning we discussed the MLK March on January 18th which is being organized by the Valley Interfaith Council. Our own Soraya Dean is the volunteer organizing the event and MLC's President and Vice President will be speaking at the event to share the collective thoughts of MLC students on the impact of intolerance and how acts of kindness can change the way we live together.

In the context of this discussion, Soraya mentioned Julietta Chavez (sister of Cesar Chavez) being a wonderful speaker - and the person who actually led Soraya to find a dual immersion school for her daughter.

Marisol Brainin introduced us to a website called Spanglish Baby - which is geared toward parents of bilingual and bicultural children. There are some opportunities on that website for MLC to advertise and communicate with parents and possibly others interested in opening schools like MLC. The website is http://www.spanglishbaby.com

This led us to Recruitment in general and I shared our advertising efforts this year - being primarily in the Spanish markets to acheive our 50:50 ratios in kindergarten. We have had ads and an article in La Opinion this month as well as English publications such as the Education and Enrichment Guide. We mailed flyers to about 60 pre-schools and letters to about 50 parents who have contacted us throughout the year with an interest in Kinder 2010. It appears we have about 20 MLC siblings enrollign in Kinder 2010 and the forecast is currently looking like 2 kinder classes of 20 each, so we don't have much space for new families this year unless we decide to open that third kindergarten class - which is mainly an issue of physical space on our campus. You can view our article and directory listing on La Opinion's website.

See you next week!

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

2009-12-09T13:38:00.000-08:00

Today the talk was about the Harmony Gala! MLC's 2nd Annual Harmony Gala is March 13, 2010. We have narrowed the venue down to 2 possible locations: Pickwick in Burbank or CBS Studios in Studio City. Some special features of this gala include an MLC student performance which is being choreographed by one of our talented parents - Brenda DeHoyos who will be working with me (Gayle Nadler) to arrange for a time (possibly during ESCAPE) where students can get involved in this opportunity. Mrs. Bornstein and I are focusing our personal fundraising efforts on paying for every 8th grade student and two parents/guardians to attend the Gala as our special guests. The Gala Committee needs help to gather donations & sponsors to help support the event and raise funds to bring more technology to our students. If you are interested in joining the Gala Committee (which I can tell you is a lot of fun!) please post a response to this blog. Also - you may know about a business willing to donate something for our silent auction - or a larger organization wanting to be a sponsor - let us know by simply posting to this blog or sending me an e-mail at gayle@mlccharter.org. We saw the Promo DVD - which was directed by Yennifer Behrens, Gala Chairperson and look for it soon on MLC's website!

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

2009-12-02T16:16:00.000-08:00

Second Cup Highlights for Today:

Parents are requesting more advance notice for events such as Grade Level Breakfasts. This is being addressed by MLC creating a January - June 2010 Event Calendar with all scheduled events for the rest of the year and will be sent home when we return from Winter Break. In the future this calendar for September - June will go home on the first day of school.

Ideas were generated for the Gala location: Odyssey, 94th Air Squadron, Sportsman Lodge, Pickwick in Burbank, Castaways, Porter Ranch Country Club, Woodland Hills Marriott, Universal Sheraton. We are anticipating 400 people in attendance - if you have location ideas or have connections, please post!

High School options were discussed after Gayle shared a story about a discussion with middle school students which will be a future subject of her blog at http://multiculturalmoments.blogspot.com/ Toby spoke about conversations MLC has had with Granada Hills High and Canoga Park High to help us find appropriate programs for our graduating students.

Regarding the ever-present parking lot issue, MLC will be setting up alarm systems via our phones to help teachers get students dismissed on time. Parents agree that if the kinders get out on time and leave the lot quickly, it will be less stressful for the 3:15 pick up.

Wednesday November 25, 2009

2009-11-25T13:19:00.000-08:00

After sharing our joy in the upcoming Thanksgiving Holiday, we heard about an opportunity for the school to get involved in Martin Luther King, Jr. Day March which will be presented to Student Council.

We talked about the need to engage more parents in the discussions and happenings at school and the ever-present divide between families of different language and/or cultural backgrounds despite our best efforts and desires to make connections. The Executive Director Toby Bornstein presented an idea that has been developing to have a once-a-month pot-luck dinner organized by the school that would put families together with administrators in an effort to foster cross-cultural relationships.

We also talked about the Recruitment needs at MLC - which now lies in targeting more Spanish-speaking families to maintain the 50-50 language ratio in classrooms. The more balance the language backgrounds are, the more linguistic success achieved by the students because they have sufficient language models to interact with among their peers. We are placing an ad and writing an article in La Opinion for the first time this January to attract Spanish speaking families to MLC. Parents suggested ideas to support recruitment efforts including the possibility of ad in association with a Film Festival and outreach to local pre-schools parents have contact with.

Happy Thanksgiving!

November 18, 2009

2009-11-18T11:00:00.000-08:00

We had a small group this morning and the conversation flowed toward several topics.

First we touched on the ways the school is working hard to enforce hand-washing with hand sanitizers in the classrooms and on the yard.

We talked briefly about a Technology Training that teachers had yesterday to learn new applications for an educational software called Frames in which students can create QuickTime movies utilizing visual images, computer art, sound, and voice recordings in the form of animations and digital storytelling.

The conversation turned to the topic of expression and writing and how there is an understanding that in traditional middle and high schools students are not getting enough opportunities to write due to the high volume of students each teacher has and their inability to read 100's of essays! We discussed the processes used at MLC to engage students in peer-editing and the value of that. I shared an example of something I had experienced during a 4th Grade Publishing Party last week in which students sat in a small group to read personal narratives and lessons they had learned about themselves as writers. I shared that I wished I had a video camera with me to document the conversations the students had as they gave feedback to their peers: "I really like the way you used so many details in your story - you made me feel as if I was there with you!" Or a more constructive comment: "I wish you used some different words for "said" when you use dialogue. For example, "stated," "answered," or "replied." Not only were the comments gently stated and purposeful the recipient of the comments replied in gratitude and took notes of the good ideas.

Parents then began speaking about the value of the creative process at MLC and the ways in which the children are encouraged to write and write and write to get their ideas out and to later go back and refine and edit. What is happening in my fourth grade example, is clearly being developed in the earlier grades as students begin the writing process.

With parents representing grades K, 1 & 2 at the table, the conversation turned to the transition to formal English Language Instruction at MLC and several points were discussed and explained.

In second grade, students are learning social studies (Different Ways of Knowing) during English time in which they explore topics relating to their social studies themes. Within that context, students experience new vocabulary and analyze patterns in the English language. For example, when a teacher reads a book aloud to the students about Native Americans, not only is the story discussed, but words and phrases are analyzed in an effort to examine and learn rules of the English language (consonant blends for example; unusual letter sounds, patterns in words, etc.) as well as the meaning of words. In addition, students are exposed to rich literature and non-fiction resources relating to the social studies themes that are in English -- some are able to read the words while others use the photographs and images to research information. It was clarified that these are not "leveled" books as found in Reader's Workshop, but child-friendly resource books to support learning in social studies.

Reader's Workshop in English begins in third grade. Starting in third grade, students have two levels - one in English and one in Spanish. English reading levels are assessed in June of 2nd grade so students can start third grade ready to begin that program.

We discussed two of MLC's Professional Cadres which began this year - one is focusing on Academic Vocabulary and the other on Assessment and Rubrics. The cadres are comprised of MLC teachers guiding the staff in a year of study in those areas. The Academic Vocabulary Cadre is working with staff to develop lists of words that students need to learn in both languages at each grade level as well as strategies to engage students in not only learning the meaning of words but being able to USE the words in their speaking and writing.

The Assessment and Rubric Cadre is focusing on developing consistency in the way in which we design and use rubrics to assess student work. One parent mentioned how much she appreciated seeing the rubric and criteria that her daughter had to meet to complete a recent project and even though it was in Spanish and the parent speaks English, she was pleased that her daughter could explain the rubric to her and they were able to work together on the project. Parents also mentioned that there are times when the child is not able to relay the assignment details and that is when they decide to go to the teacher for more information or explanation. There may be times when having some input in English would be helpful to the parent, as long as it is not providing a translation for the child. We recommended that a teacher be contacted when a student is struggling with the homework assignments and the parent feels unable to help so support can be provided to both the student and parent.

Parking Lot 10/28/09

2009-10-28T10:49:00.000-07:00

Today our main topic of conversation was the Parking Lot while in the background busy volunteers filled bowls of Halloween Candy!

In the past several days staff have been enforcing the parking lot rules and issuing tickets as necessary. There was a big question regarding parking on DeSoto - even though this is a public street open to anyone who wishes to park on it, MLC has a Conditional Use Permit which states that school pick up and drop off must take place on site and NOT on public streets. If we do not meet this condition, our Conditional Use Permit can be REVOKED or MLC could be FINED. Another issue is regarding parents who arrive after 8:15am and wish to park and walk kids to the gate. This is fine - but parents must wait until 8:30am to leave the lot so cars trying to come in and out through the loop do not get delayed. We strongly suggest using the drop-off loop, however it is understandable that some kids need to be walked to the gate (especially new or young students).

Some new ideas that were brainstormed included doing an "all call" prior to dismissal to remind classes to get ready to leave since many classes dismiss late and that causes problems on the lot. We also played with some ideas that would give temporary incentives to carpoolers - such as designated spots and/or early dismissal of students in carpools. These are just ideas at this point and we'll see what comes of it!

As alawys - if you need clarification refer to the Parent Handbook and MLC will be putting out a Q&A on the parking lot issues soon.

Second Cup on October 21, 2009 - Bilingual Stories, Dimissal, Classroom Management & Healthy Food

2009-10-21T13:59:00.000-07:00

A parent told us a great story about her daughter ordering a doughnut this morning in Spanish and the reaction she got from the doughnut shop employees--they ignored the long line of customers and were asking her all kinds of questions about how she learned Spanish and even gave her two extra doughnuts! There are stories like this all over MLC - share your stories with us!

We talked briefly about the idea of having a similar procedures at school dismissal as we do at arrival in terms of using the circle to pick up kids rather than having to park. We agreed that while this works well at other schools, it would be hard at MLC considering the physical layout of our property. We realized it works well on other properties in which the entrance and exit are two different driveways and doing this at MLC might cause more traffic and problems rather than a solution.

We spoke about classroom management--which is an amazing coincidence because this was also the topic of our staff meeting yesterday! The K-1 parents were talking about the infamous "traffic light" and a concern that the kids talk about who is on "green" and who is on "red." We shared that at MLC the teachers use the traffic light as a tool for helping kids manage their own behavior while getting feedback and as an opportunity for the classroom community to discuss ways to help each other make the right choices. On the MLC Second Cup Page, we will post Chapter 10 (Classroom Management) from a book called "What Works in Schools" by Robert J. Marzano which was discussed at MLC's staff meeting this week for parents to review.

Finally, we spoke about healthy eating and clarified the "healthy snack" rule at MLC. Children must eat their healthy food during snack time (recess). They can bring cookies and chips but those types of items must be eaten during lunch time and after they've eaten their main course and healthy food. Parents also expressed the too frequent birthday parties, primarily in the lower grade classrooms and the abundance of cake and cupcakes! We agreed that this is a hard thing to completely avoid, but also considered and discussed alternatives to the traditional birthday cake such as buying a Birthday Book for the library and reading it to the class or having a Community Circle or activity to honor the birthday child, etc. We also discussed the possibility of encouraging more healthy options during after-school sales such as pizza and popcorn to reinforce healthy eating habits.

Let us know what you think!

2nd Cup of Coffee - Play Yard Topics

2009-10-19T10:01:00.000-07:00

Welcome to MLC's Second Cup of Coffee! Parents meet with school administrators every Wednesday morning from 8:30 - 9:30am. Each week topics will be summarized on this blog so all parents can join in the conversation.

Here are some topics discussed relating to the Play Yard:

Interaction on the Play Yard: Parents expressed wanting to see more opportunities for kids to play with other children in their grade level during recess and lunch while at the same time ensuring safety. Parents ideally wanted students to be able to go wherever they wanted to on the yard during recess rather than to assigned areas. Toby and Gayle expressed how they felt this to be unsafe in terms of being able to know where every child was at all times. The assigned areas and direct communication between classroom teacher and yard teacher responsible for the class was instituted at MLC because of safety concerns. Classroom teachers hand off students directly to a yard teacher who is aware of who is absent, who needs to sit out, who is recovering from being ill and needs to take it easy, etc.

The idea for grade level teams was discussed. Grade level teachers can get together and create teams with students from multiple classes in a single grade level to play with each other in the areas designated for that grade level. Teachers can provide team lists to the Yard Teachers for safety purposes. For example - in third grade 10 students from Room 7 and 10 students from Room 10 can play together in the area assigned to Room 7 and 10 students from each class can play together in the area assigned to Room 10. Teachers will create teams and communicate the information to the Yard Teachers.

Middle School Coaches: During lunch recess middle school coaches are being assigned to coach students in grades 1 and 2. Ms. Koch meets with the students each week and provides them with training, support, and incentives to "coach" the younger students. While some of the kinks are still being worked out and the middle schoolers are developing skills in coaching, so far this has been a great project.

Tell us what you think!