 |
Chicago Friends School eNews | Spring 2018
IN THIS ISSUE
|
|
|
|
Karen Carney, Head of School |
In This Together: A Message from the Head of School
Every spring, a team of dedicated volunteers plans the annual fundraising dinner. The theme for this year's dinner is In This Together. This theme fits the school in so many ways.
It has been ten years since a group of committed Quakers and parents first began the work and planning to make a Quaker school in Chicago a reality. During these start up years, the school has been nourished by the incredible talents of volunteers who are in this together with the school. Below, you'll see an example of one instance in which our expert arts volunteers created a moment in which arts unified the school on a normal Thursday afternoon.
Our newly revamped website at
http://chicagofriendsschool.org/
shows another way in which our expert volunteers in our community use their talents to help us grow.
Chicago Friends School is also making deliberate choices about how to use our program to teach students to be In This Together. From buddy reading to a visit to city hall, we are working hard to connect our students to each other, to their neighborhood, city, and world. This year, as we have explored the school-wide curricular theme of Circles, we have looked at connection points and spheres of influence and ways that people can make an impact. Our visit to City Hall, described below, is one such example of that. Our oldest students' embrace of Quaker decision making practices is another. Alex Randhava's blog post about real world engineering shows another in which students can learn that they can have an impact. Finally, two articles are about service. Our school's emphasis on service is consistent with the Quaker tradition of service, and through it, our students are growing to know that part of living in the world is giving to others.
I hope you enjoy reading about what we're up to. And if you'll be in Chicago on May 17th, consider joining us for the annual dinner. We'd love to have you In this Together with us on that night!
- Karen Carney,
Head of School
|
Spotlight on Service: Little Library Service Project
|
|
|
Students paint the little libraries |
By Renata McAdams, Grade 3-4 teacher
Chicago Friends School took on a full-year service project beginning in October. Funded by a grant from the Friends Council on Education, we have taken on the job of building, painting, placing, and stocking five Little Free Libraries around the city of Chicago.
Our school has a Little Free Library by the front steps, and both families who attend the school and community members make use of it frequently. Our students feel a strong sense of ownership over this little library, and that's what gave one of our teachers the idea that sharing that enjoyment with other children in our city would make a good service project for the school. So, beginning with our day of service on Columbus Day 2017, we have been constructing and painting small library hutches, using kits supplied by Edgewater Reads, an organization that builds Little Free Libraries all around our neighborhood.
The aim of the project, however, is to place our Little Free Libraries in areas of the city where they are more rare than in Edgewater. To that end, our older classes have looked at maps of little libraries in the city, and are preparing letters to be sent to residents and aldermen of other neighborhoods asking for help in choosing places to install our libraries. Those letters will be sent out in March or early April. The children have been enthusiastic about the idea of sharing books and Little Free Libraries with the wider Chicago community.
Everyone who participated in the day of service in October was asked for ideas of popular books for children and adults to make an initial supply for each library, and our third and fourth grade students are using that list to research and compare book prices online. Our goal is to complete the project on our second day of service on Friday, April 27 (Arbor Day), with the Little Free Libraries actually installed around the city by the end of the day.
|
|
|
|
A Chicago Friends School Student reads to two pre-schoolers |
Spotlight on Service: Service to Young and Old
By Meghan Brtnik, Grade K-1 teacher
Service is a big part of our Quaker School identity and the students do service in many different ways. We have developed two recurring service relationships where the ages we work with span from 3 years of age to 100 years old!
Reading with Families Together
About five times a year we read with the students at the neighborhood preschool Families Together. We either walk to the local park or visit them at their school. We usually start by playing a cooperative game and get to know each other. We then break out into small groups where the Chicago Friends School students read to the preschoolers. This is a tradition that Chicago Friends School students look forward too, especially the beginner readers. It is a chance to be a leader and become more confident with reading skills. When Chicago Friends School students read to their buddy, they are not only reading a book, but thinking about their reader, asking questions, pausing to discuss pictures, holding the book so their friend can see it etc. Many of our students came to our school from Families Together and they remember being on the other side - being read to. It is an exciting feeling to now be the reader and provide that buddy relationship to a younger friend.
|
|
|
Chicago Friends School Students in "The Admiral Olympics" with a wheelchair-bound resident.
|
The Admiral on the Lake
We have maintained a strong relationship with The Admiral on the Lake retirement community. We visit the residents monthly and participate in all sorts of activities with them. This service builds friendships and companionship with them. Chicago Friends School students take the time to get to know the residents, listen to their stories, tell them about what is happening at school etc. When we do arts and craft activities, you may see a resident helper a younger student tie a knot, or a Chicago Friends School student help a resident with tricky cutting.
The service goes both ways. We have planted in the Admiral's beautiful garden on the 14th floor and they have come to visit our school garden each spring. Every Halloween, the residents come to our school in a large bus and hand out candies to the dressed-up students. Recently, we participated in "The Admiral Olympics" where students and residents were bowling, throwing balls at targets and playing balloon volleyball together. The students all sat in chairs to be equal to their teammates who were in wheelchairs. The fun and laughter that spread to all was a service to everyone.
|
|
Student Government and Meeting for Business
By Alex Randhava, Grade 5-6 teacher
Students at Chicago Friends School are beginning to practice the functions of Quaker self-government. Traditionally in Quaker joint decision making, where egalitarian beliefs shape the way business is done, the approach has a unique character. We have introduced Quaker decision-making practices to our 5th-6th grade students in meetings about their classroom culture. In this practice, students confront decision-making situations with a quiet and reflective state of mind. We acknowledge that no one person is in possession of the whole truth, and that to speak honestly we must focus on speaking our own truth. It is the responsibility of all to listen deeply, in order to gain a fuller understanding of the whole truth, mindful not to speak to a person, but to a point.
These beginning meetings will lay the groundwork for our oldest students' nascent student government.
Today they are practicing the Quaker Meeting for Business approach for classroom issues but soon they will take on whole school issues such as service projects or what recess sports equipment to buy.
Top of Page
|
Trip to City Hall
By Melanie Berlin, Grade 2 Teacher
|
|
|
Chicago Friends School students pose for a picture with Mayor Emmanuel |
Our annual theme this year at Chicago Friends School is "Circles." In the context of learning about "circles of influence and authority," the students of Chicago Friends School took a field trip to City Hall in December in order to learn more about how local government works and how decisions are made.
The field trip was organized by the office of our Alderman, Harry Osterman, in communication with one of our teachers. Every Chicago Friends School student, grades K-6, arrived early to school that day, donned their green Chicago Friends t-shirts, and boarded the red line to head downtown. Upon arrival, members of the Alderman's office greeted us at the train station and escorted us into City Hall. The Alderman's office had set up a conference room with donuts and juice for the students.
Next, we were introduced to Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, and had a school photo taken with him. The students were delighted to shake his hand! Mayor Emanuel greeted each of the students and teachers, saying, "Happy Holidays," or "Nice to meet you," or "Merry Christmas." At one point, Mayor Emanuel said "Merry Christmas" to one of our first graders, who replied, "I celebrate Hanukah!" Upon hearing this, Mayor Emanuel sang the Hebrew prayer over the Hanukah candles with the first grader. It was a special moment!
After meeting the mayor, we were invited to sit in on the first part of a City Council meeting. We saw how aldermen come together from all over the city in order to meet and make decisions. Students were also able to observe how members of the public are permitted to voice their concerns to the members of City Council during the first part of the meeting. Many students learned about issues faced by fellow community members, such as a teacher concerned about a school closing in the Englewood Neighborhood.
We then met with our Alderman, Harry Osterman. He explained a bit about City Hall and City Council meetings and took students' questions. Students applied what they had learned in Social Studies about how government works in order to ask meaningful and relevant questions. Finally, students received a tour of City Hall, during which we saw where different departments are located, learned about past mayors of Chicago, and met various people who work in City Hall.
Chicago Friends School is very grateful to Alderman Osterman's office for organizing and facilitating such a meaningful learning experience that students won't soon forget!
|
Featured Staff Blog Post: Buddies Save the Day
You can find more staff blog entries at: http://chicagofriendsschool.org/community/blog/
|
|
|
A sixth grader helps her 2nd grade buddy |
Melanie Berlin
March 11, 2018
In the second grade class, we recently started a writing unit on biographies. Students chose an African American figure that they wanted to learn more about. I gave students texts about the person they chose, so that research could begin. There are many good biographies written on a second grade level, but they are not easy to find. I reserved sources from the public library, found appropriate passages online, and printed books from our reading website. Even with my careful selection of texts, some students found it challenging to read the texts they were given-or to read and take notes at the same time. This is where our buddies in the middle school class came to save the day.
Students from the fifth and sixth grade class joined us in our research. Each second grader chose a source that they had been struggling with. For the next twenty minutes, a fifth or sixth grader read the text aloud to their second grade buddy, so the younger student could really focus on absorbing the content, locating important information, and taking notes. Without having to bear the responsibility to decode, comprehend, synthesize, and produce short summaries in the form of an outline, the second graders were freer to truly understand the content, and produce more succinct and meaningful notes on the information. The younger students were very grateful for the help reading their sources; I could previously only help one or two students a day, but this collaborative approach allowed all nine second graders to receive one-on-one attention.
The second graders were not the only students that benefited from this activity. The middle schoolers helped the younger students to determine whether or not information they read was a main idea or detail-a skill they had been working on in their own Language Arts class. When the older students lined up at the end of our buddies session, they said they were tired from the hard work they had done! And they didn't say so, but I think they were proud too.
|
Featured Staff Blog Post: The Arts Converge at Chicago Friends School
You can find more staff blog entries at: http://chicagofriendsschool.org/community/blog/
|
|
|
Students in Masks March to the Music |
Karen Carney
March 8, 2018
Ten minutes before dismissal today, I was down in my office in the basement when suddenly I heard footsteps clattering into my office. A teacher poked her head in: "You are cordially invited to a musical mask march, upstairs, right now!"
Who could resist such an invitation, especially at the end of a long day?
Upstairs our K-2 group was lined up in the hallway, each wearing the masks that they had been working on for the last three art classes. The masks were fantastic, and each one an expression of the maker. There was a character from Minecraft, a peregrine falcon, a jellyfish, and my personal favorite, a blue and green snake mask that went all the way down the back of the student onto the floor.
In the fifth and sixth grade classroom, our grade 3-6 students were warming up on their Orff instruments. Parts for a march, composed twenty minutes before by their music teacher, were up on the white board. A quick lesson in marching to the beat followed, and the younger students marched in. The variety and color of their masks were in perfect counterpart to the sounds of the older students, each one of whom was contributing different beats and notes in musical coordination.
It was Thursday afternoon, and the arts came together to briefly unite the school, with each group of students adding to the overall celebration.
|
|
Featured Staff Blog Post: Learning As Action
You can find more staff blog entries at: http://chicagofriendsschool.org/community/blog/
|
|
|
Students work on an engineering project |
Alex Randhava
February 15, 2018
Students in middle school are learning about their connection to the world. Events take place around them-or to them-and understanding that they have control over these forces is new. In the fifth and sixth-grade class, we try to leverage this connection whenever we can. We use it in Social Studies, for students learning to see the operation of government as less distant or unknowable. We use it in Reading and Language Arts, for students who are trying to see the intent of the author beyond the words on the page. We use it in Engineering, to help students realize that the problems of the world can be solved, and the wild thinking necessary to do so requires practice.
Problems are introduced, the nature of the problem is defined, criteria for success are established, and then we go to work. A successful project addresses the problem as defined, is built to the criteria, and is then tested to determine if the criteria are reached.
Our current project takes us to Tanzania, where the majority of domestic travel happens by rail. Train cars get outrageously hot in that climate. First class may have air conditioning, but for most the ride can be sweltering to the point of peril. Death by dehydration and overheating are common.
We've been learning about the forces that heat and cool the earth, and we have some tricks up our sleeve. Conductive materials transmit thermal energy through solids from areas of higher to lower temperature. Radiation does so through gas or liquids. Evaporation has a cooling effect as liquids change phase to gas. All of these forces can be used to cool a rail car -especially one traveling at 40mph.
We run tests to determine the conductive properties of metal. We model and test the effects of an evaporative system in front of a moving rail car (in this case an enclosed tube with a fan pointed at it). We provide a control by plotting the temperature increase and decrease of a closed rail car. Then we use this knowledge to build.
Models aren't perfect. I don't spoon feed ideas or help with craftsmanship. Our work sometimes looks like it was built by children, because hey, it was. But we get demonstrable results. Aluminum pillars fanned out to maximize surface area really do conduct heat. A wet membrane draped over openings to the rail car really does reduce the interior temperature.
Students begin skeptical of what they can achieve and whether they can make a real world difference. They become less skeptical when they see what they can do.
|
|
Upcoming Events
Spring Admissions Open House
April 22, from 2:00 pm
-
4:00 pm
We invite all interested families to our spring open house. Come see our space, and meet current Chicago Friends School parents, teachers, and students. The whole family is invited. Kid's activities will be provided. Reservations are not required. Applications are being accepted for children entering grades K-7 for the 2018-2019 school year.
In This Together Fundraising Dinner and Auction
May 17 from 6:00 pm - 9:00 pm
|
|
Sharing Our Story
We invite you to learn more about our story and share it with your family, friends, and community. You can play a part in several ways:
- Check out our new website.
- Follow us on Facebook or Twitter.
- Share our Facebook and Twitter posts with friends.
- Forward Chicago Friends School eNews.
- Join us at community events.
|
|
|
|
|
|
