Ever wondered why winter break is always one extra day? RDS provides professional development for faculty and staff throughout the school year and summer, and January 3 was no exception.
Students start in August all over the map... but within months, RDS second-graders emerge as more confident, fluent writers using Writer's Workshop techniques taught by Vicky Green and Taj Simmons and their interns Kelly Moore and Lisa Perloff.
Jodi Freedman's sixth-grade humanities students presented the capstone of their "cultural universals" unit this week, marking the completion of their first signature piece of the Middle School curriculum and an enormous step forward on their journeys to becoming broad conceptual and critical thinkers.
A very special honoring goes out to all those Middle School families, students, and faculty who joined us for our first Middle School Service Learning event on Saturday, September 17, as part of the 16th annual Creek to Bay Day in Oakland.
Learning specialists Loryn Hudson and Toby Mickelson recommend a thought-provoking new documentary, Journey into Dyslexia, to expand our entire school community's understanding of learning differences. Academy Award-winning filmmakers Alan and Susan Raymond are among America's most distinguished documentary filmmakers, and their new film profiles students and adults who struggled in school and then succeeded in life.
When I arrived at school on Tuesday at 7:30 a.m., beautiful music drifted from the Lower School music classroom to greet me. I peeked inside and, despite the early hour, found students hard at work practicing violins, violas, and cellos. The enthusiasm of the Beginning Strings Ensemble was palpable, and it reminded me how fortunate we are to be able to offer such a rich arts program.
On any given day, amazing smells waft through Redwood Day School. On Wednesday, it was freshly baked pan de muerto. Last week, it was whole wheat pancakes with blueberries. Before that, the cinnamon-goodness of warm applesauce.
Seventh- and eighth-grade science teacher, Lindsay Sandzik Robinson, was awarded a grant from the Redwood Day School Parents' and Guardians' Association towards travel-study in the Galapagos Islands to "see what Darwin saw" and bring back insights into evolutionary biology, ecosystems, and human impact on the environment to her students.
Immersive experiences are amazing educational tools, both for language-learning and life-learning,” enthuses Middle School Spanish teacher John Kohler who took 13 seventh- and eighth-grade Spanish students to Cuernavaca, Mexico with fellow chaperone Jen Ammenti over spring break.
It's a Wednesday morning, and Holden Caulfield is railing against prep school phonies in the library. Detectives and spies mull over the clues in their latest cases. An Afghani ponders how to continue enduring the unendurable in a country rocked by war and want.
Pi Day may be officially observed on March 14 (because pi's first three digits are 3.14), but our RDS celebrations came a few days earlier this year to coincide with our Wednesday assembly. This year's Pi Day festivities focused around the theme of "Pi and Music" with an awesome acoustic performance of "Mathematical Pi" performed by eighth-grade girls and a fantastic composition by our own music teacher Mark Bernfield using the order of digits of pi as a basis for its tonal arrangement.
It's an uninspiring, grey afternoon outside, but in Tanna Hall's fifth-grade physical education class, students are deep in the zone. Their focus is fierce, and at least one student's tongue pokes out of his mouth a la Michael Jordan as he concentrates on perfecting new skills.
RDS students have been exploring issues of hunger, homelessness, loneliness, the environment, and other issues that affect our community and world - and they've been working to address those needs. Some (not all) of their many service learning projects in November/December include:
Great teachers know that students learn best when adults model a real joy for learning: enthusiasm, a gusto for problem-solving, and a commitment to pushing themselves. From November 29 to December 2, RDS second- and fourth-grade teachers Erika Lagrisola, Kelly Alexander, Taj Simmons, and Vicky Green put theory into action at the California Math Council - North Conference at Asilomar, returning to school full of new ways to further enhance their math curricula.
What is the most important way to help the homeless? Warm sleeping bags? Rib-sticking meals? No, said a recent visitor to Jan Clitherow's and Lisa Horner's first- and sixth-grade Buddies group: the best thing we can offer is a sense of dignity.
Do your children come home raving about the great new foods they've made and tried in cooking units with our own Thelma Lancaster? Now you can recreate them at home with access to her recipes online. Click here for recipes shared in Lower School and as part of the eighth-grade unit on colonial America so far this year.
In recent weeks, the RDS Gallery brimmed with ofrendas created by students in various grade levels, as part of the School's observance of the traditions of the Días de los Muertos.
RDS Middle School students learn important lessons about leadership and peer relations throughout the year during guided advisory discussions and activities, but learning about leadership took centerstage this week as Redwood Day hosted the East Bay Independent Schools Association's Student Government Roundtable.
Somewhere between sixth and ninth grades, an amazing transformation takes place in the early adolescent brain: the leap from concrete thinking to abstract thought. Parents, guardians, and educators see glimpses of "the big idea" coming through in sixth grade, although for many children, robust abstract thinking isn't truly mastered until the ninth grade.
How often do students get to learn firsthand from true "national treasures"? Twice last week, if those students are RDS third-, fourth-, or sixth-graders! For the second year in a row, Julia and Lucy Parker visited Redwood Day to demonstrate and teach the art of basketry and acorn processing, bringing an important human dimension and true sense of history to each grade's curriculum units on California indigenous peoples.
Service learning starts early at RDS. Both first-grade classes have been thoughtfully collecting donations for the Alameda County Food Bank and recently toured the facility on separate outings.
This week in the Library, we have celebrated Banned Books Week (September 28 - October 16) by exercising our First Amendment right to read challenged and banned books. Kindergarten through second grades read Walter the Farting Dog by William Kotzwinkle and Glenn Murray. Classes had brief discussions as to why someone might challenge this book, what the authors' message was, and what might happen if we were no longer allowed to read this book. One second-grader felt that "...
Fifth grade's unit on nutrition is a masterful cross-disciplinary learning experience blending math, health, analysis, and hands-on learning. Cooking teacher Thelma Lancaster recently helped Monica Rees's and Nicole Solis' classes choose seven nutritious breakfast recipes. Students were divided into seven groups, each responsible for a different recipe. Students worked together to create a shopping list, expanding recipes by multiplying quantities of ingredients. "We then went to Farmer Joe's, where each group made their purchases.
Quick. Pick up a magazine or search the web: can you find a number with a 3 in the one millions place? Kelly Alexander’s fourth-graders can, after an exercise this week titled “Real World Information Scavenger Hunt” that reinforced their understanding of place value, measurement units, and number sense, while drawing on their linguistic, logical-mathematical, and interpersonal intelligences.
How do you teach the fundamentals of reading when students start the school year with vastly different skills? How do you engage students who are learning at grade level, while continuing to stretch students who are already strong independent readers?
Learning isn't just for students at RDS: faculty and staff focused on professional development during Work Week with group discussions of their shared summer reading, Why Don't Students Like School? by cognitive scientist Daniel Willingham.
