One of the things we seek to establish is regular communication between our groups. An example of that is that the Board of Trustees is looking to schedule time in 3-4 of the meetings in their annual meeting cycle at which PACT members will attend. The board and I wish to establish communication on a regular basis between our groups to help us all work effectively with our ultimate goal in mind: a fruitful school experience for our students. In past years, a member of the PACT has visited full faculty meetings on a monthly basis. We hope to re-establish that connection next year when the Parent Association mandate has been completed. This year and last, the Director and the PACT have met to form PA agendas together and to identify future discussion topics in the school. This has been a beneficial link, and one we will continue. At this time, we believe our whole school would benefit from more regular communication between all three of our leadership groups. The Board and I look forward to establishing and developing these links, and are grateful to all Parent Association members who have dedicated their time and energy to the school in general, and to the formation of the Parent Association mandate and communication links in particular.

Emperor Equal Keeps it Orderly

Emperor Equal joined Grade One this week to complete the arithmetic story that was begun earlier this month. To further assist them in their work, Grade One teacher Cindy Weinberg introduced an inspired way of traveling through numbers, ‘The Times-O-Meter’.

The Times-O-Meter

Barry Shuman, Jen Diamond, and Sarah Steiner Prepare

Board Member Barry Shuman

BWS Coach Bryan McGriff Demonstrates Proper Form

On Saturday, February 11, the Bright Water School Board of Trustees met as a part of their regular annual meeting schedule.  At each regularly scheduled meeting, Pedagogical Chair, Trish Bondurant; a member of the school’s Leadership Team; and I join the meeting.  This month, two Leadership Team members, Mia Fioravanti and Bryan McGriff,joined us, as Ms. Bondurant was unable to attend.  This month, the Board included some movement activity into the meeting by inviting Coach McGriff to teach javelin.  We all spent half an hour on the front lawn of St. Mark’s Cathedral developing our skills.  St. Mark’s gardeners commented that they appreciated our unique way of aerating the lawn. We thought it might be nice to share some pictures of our attempts.

Board of Trustees and the School Director Take Aim

Handyman Dave picks out some preschool favorites during the Minnows thank you celebration in his honor.

Miss Carolyn’s Minnows class invited Handyman Dave in for tea this morning to say thank you. He was served fruit and some Peter Rabbit tea, and he also got to meet Huckleberry. Handyman Dave had another treat in store for the Minnows today: he brought his banjo along and the children enjoyed favorites like Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. The Minnows have patiently watched Mr. Dave construct the house over the weeks and are delighted to at last be allowed inside. The Lily Pond and Salmonberries kindergartens celebrated the house’s opening yesterday. The construction of the house was part of the school’s early childhood playspace renovation plan, which was funded by last year’s Fund-A-Dream at our auction.  Please take a look at the house the next time you are on campus.  Thanks, Handyman Dave!

Arithmetic is Universal

This month’s diversity discussion question for the faculty meeting was, “What are some techniques or content that you’ve brought in your teaching based on the diversity of your class, past or present?”.  Teachers shared their experiences regarding their classes, past and present, and some shared some ideas they hoped to implement or would like to expand on.  Grade One Teacher, Cindy Weinberg, talked about preparing for her math block this year.  Mrs. Weinberg is no stranger to teaching Grade One, and this is her third time down the first grade path.  One of the many things she enjoys about another Grade One journey is the chance to reinvent the characters she employs to teach the four processes of arithmetic.   Partly because one of their classmates moved to London in December Mrs. Weinberg opted for royalty rather than gnomes and introduced the children to the four friends who would help them add, subtract, multiply, and divide for the rest of their lives.     As you can see, Mrs. Weinberg used varying skin tones for her royalty.  This is a small example that can make a big impact in the classroom; a visual way of reflecting the whole community.

If you are a parent in a Waldorf school, or a former Waldorf student, you may be familiar with the use of verses in the classroom.  The faculty also use verses to open and close some meetings, and the Board of Trustees  opens each board meeting with a verse.  Bright Water School’s Leadership Team has held to the tradition of closing each meeting with Rudolf Steiner’s ‘The Healthy Social Life’.

The healthy social life is found when,
in the mirror of each human soul,
the whole community finds its reflection and
when, in the community, the virtue of each one is living.

As is always the case, our diversity question created conversations that began before the meeting and continue for days and weeks afterward. Many of these conversations continue into our homes, as is the case in our house. This particular discussion caused an interest in further discussion in our faculty meetings, particularly in sharing techniques, methods, cultural stories, projects, or themes. We will bring this same question back to the meeting in March for further exploration, along with some artistic activity.  There were also requests to lengthen the time alloted to discussion, which has been 45 minutes per session. Because of our diversity discussions, we’re  seeking out faculty activities that are different than what we ordinarily take part in, such as engaging in African drumming and dance as our artistic activity for our February faculty conference during February conference week this month.

In addition to continuing our monthly diversity discussion, all faculty will engage in a diversity-themed workshop presented by Rosetta Lee on March 12.

The Smith-Corona, Misty With Nostalgia

The manual typewriter caused him to make the following observations:
a typist needs strong fingers
the pinky finger is pretty weak
there is no exclamation point
there is no number 1
it’s noisy
the weight of the type changes with the force of the keystroke
you have to pay attention to the end of the line/formatting is hard
it has a nice bell
and perhaps the most eye-opening discovery: it is not easy to fix your mistakes!

The electric typewriter rendered these discoveries:
it’s much easier to use
it has a correction ribbon
it makes a pleasant hum

My son used both the manual and the electric to write his block paper which was about, not surprisingly, the invention of the typewriter. He created his accompanying art on the machines as well.   He brought both his typewriters to school and they were used by his classmates and also by other grade school students.  One fourth grader wanted to know where the ‘backspace’ was to erase things.

The industrial revolutions main lesson block sparked quite a few dinner time conversations, and a number of these were typewriter-related.  My husband and I shared war stories about having to type high school and college papers on typewriters–we’ve begun to see how technology has dated us when we have discussions like these or wonder how long it will be before there are only a handful of us who have actually ‘dialed’ telephone numbers.  I recounted the glorious times I had after I bought my Brother word processor, which allowed you to view a small amount of text before printing, thus helping to avoid mistakes being committed to paper.  It wasn’t long before the PC began to be prevalent and my word processor became obsolete.

This week, our Leadership Team was discussing a portion of the study reading we had just completed: Lecture 3 in Rudolf Steiner’s The Essentials of Education.  In it, the following paragraph was notable to me:

The point is not to map out a new chapter with the help of anthroposophy, adding to what we already have. Indeed, we can be satisfied with what ordinary science offers; we are not opposed to that. We are grateful to science in the sense that we are grateful to the violin maker for providing a violin. What we need in our culture is to get hold of all of this modern culture and permeate it with soul and permeate it with spirit, just as human beings themselves are permeated with soul and spirit. The artistic must not be allowed to exist in civilization as a pleasant luxury next to serious life, a luxury we consider an indulgence, even though we may have a spiritual approach to life in other ways. The artistic element must be made to permeate the world and the human being as a divine spiritual harmony of law.

Upon hearing that, I couldn’t help but feel that the typewriter was a piece of ‘modern culture’ that had indeed been permeated with soul.  Typewriters invoke a nostalgia, and often create a heartfelt response in those who encounter them, and not just from those of us who are old enough to have used them as working machines in the past.  Typewriters are now used as an art medium.  Poets use them to infuse their works with a visual atmosphere that, to my mind, doesn’t seem possible with computers. Restaurants type up their menus that create a feeling in the clientele.  When looking at a typewritten page, a certain personality comes forth.

In discussing our reading, I mentioned this to the group.  I wondered whether future generations would look upon some of today’s technologies with a similar fondness.  Was it simply time that caused the typerwriter to gain some personality?  In what ways are we bringing the artistic element into our modern culture and our technologies today?  We had a brief, but lively and fun discussion about future technologies, and we imagined those who come after us being excited about a computer mouse or keyboard.

I can’t say I’ll ever be sorry that I can instantly fix my typing mistakes, or that I can sit in front of the screen and erase things over and over until I feel that I’ve captured my idea adequately. I’d much rather use a computer for composition than write things out by hand and hold my breath while I type the final draft. So typewriters, and then computers, made things easier for me. And they changed the way I write and probably the way I think. I can think on screen now instead of on paper, and I write a lot more than I otherwise might. If I add some pictures to my words, I believe that yes, I have put a little soul onto the screen. Maybe it’s art, in this modern culture.

This is what Bright Water School’s front entry looked like this morning when I arrived. I went in to finish up some work and reset the modem because the power knocked us offline and remote email wasn’t working. While there, I checked in on the classroom animals: three chinchillas, two fish, one rabbit, and one hamster were each quite cozy in their homes (if fish can ever be cozy), but did need a little refill of their food, so I took care of them. I’m looking forward to Monday when we can get back to normal! See you then.

As a Waldorf elementary and middle school, BWS does not have computers for student use. We have media guidelines, and cell phone policies, and preferences, procedures, and pleas. We have conversations in parent meetings, bring speakers in who talk about media use and the education of young and adolescent children, and offer parents books, articles, and more. But the reality is, we get in our cars and drive home with a GPS on the dash, or a screen that pops down from the roof in the back of the van, or attaches to the seat. Our kids are on Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr. So are we.

‘Screens’ have been prevalent in American public spaces for a long time. They’re at the airport, in restaurants, and in libraries. They can’t be avoided. Which is why a Waldorf school is a wonderful oasis. The majority of students today are going to schools that are dominated by screens. This can begin in preschool. By grade school, most students are using computers during and after school for their work and for fun. Technology and screens are used without hesitation in the overwhelming majority of schools.

As a person born in the early 1960′s, I remember three channels of TV, an occasional trip to a giant movie screen, and a film strip in class now and then (my favorite days!). I spent my teenage years in England, where TV actually went off the air at night, and morning
television wasn’t instituted until the early 1980′s. In fact, the BBC used to go off the air at the dinner hour so that families could eat undisturbed!

I traveled as an ‘untethered’ child when I wandered around my neighborhood with my friends after school and on the weekends. There was no cell phone for parental check-in. I had freedom to roam, get into trouble, and figure out how to get myself out of trouble. I had to plan things, such as where to meet people and when. I couldn’t call my mom from the check-out line at Macy’s and ask her to meet me by the back door. What good was all of this inconvenience and freedom? I built skills in problem-solving and organization. I developed independence and learned how to use public transport. I learned how to think things through and plan what I might need later (‘Mom, I’ll meet you at the front entrance at 3 pm.). These are valuable skills that children need to develop. They are just as valuable as developing an inner imagery, which is facilitated by limiting or eliminating ‘screen time’ for young children.

‘Screen time’ is not so simple any more. It’s not just a case of ‘turn off the tv’. It’s really about technology in general, and so the list to consider is now longer than just tv, movies, and computer time. It’s also worth considering whether your child should have a cell phone and when. What about an iPod, DS, or e-reader? What are the benefits of the devices that are available? What are some of the drawbacks? There can be interesting discussions about our technology choices and uses. About why, when, what, and how much.

It’s undeniable that the list of postives regarding technology is long. My favorite form of internet ‘art’ is the creation of songs and pictures that are pulled from other sources. Just do an internet search for The Gregory Brothers and you’ll see some things being done with newsclips that couldn’t have happened without technology. So virtual public spaces can be very fun and creative. This aspect of group creation, of living art, whether it’s LOLcats or the Princess Beatrice ‘Hat Meme’, can be clever and social.

If you’re a parent in a Waldorf school, sometimes the message can seem like all screen time is bad. I think the conversation is wider than that these days. What types of technology do we have today, and what is appropriate for children and when? How can we help older kids with technology when they do use it? What do we, as parents, know about what children are doing with their technology time? How can we model a healthy ‘technology lifestyle’, and how can we help children develop one for themselves?

With today being a snow day, you may get a moment of solitude yourself.  If so, maybe you’ll have the opportunity to see what you think of some of the ideas presented in the article.