Happy New Year

el Rio development team hard at work in 2011!

Picture Books are Falling out of Fashion

Bless my mother, Charlotte who still sends me articles clipped from the New York Times – in an envelope, with stamp.

This one about the demise of the picture books as parents push their kids to read.

We happen to have one of the picture books mentioned in the article – this year’s Caldicott Award winning “The Lion and the Mouse” by Jerry Pinkney,  a magical wonder of illustration with no words at all which my daughter, son and I highly recommend.

el Rio THINK + PLAY + DO Tote Bags are here!!!

For our end-of-year fundraiser we made up 50 of these sturdy and useful tote bags!

Flaunt your el Rio support in style with a premium weight canvas tote with our THINK + PLAY + DO logo and web address printed on the bag in stunning, vibrant full color!
We are all loving our totes and finding them super useful.

The Made-in-the-USA organic cotton canvas tote bag measures 13″w x 14″h,  with a generous 3″ gusset and a 25″ handle.

The cost is $20 per bag plus $3.50 shipping and handling – for a total cost of $23.50. What a bargain!

To buy a bag please mail your check, payable to el Rio Charter School, to:

el Rio Charter School
c/o Julia Schacter
1350 Armadale
Los Angeles, CA 90042

Or contact us via our email – elriocharter@gmail.com – to meet up with one of us and buy your bag direct.

“There are questions we should be asking, such as what educational theory backs up standardized testing?” ~ Jenifer Fox, author of Your Child’s Strengths.

Here’s the “Waldorf” excerpt from today’s Huff Post article, “Education, What Are We Talking About?” by Jenifer Fox.

Waldorf Education Picks Up on Piaget’s Concepts
In 1919, Austrian-Swiss philosopher and educator Rudolf Steiner founded a progressive school for the workers at the Waldorf-Astoria cigarette factory in Germany. Although the school was shut down during World War II, it regained acceptance afterward, and more such schools followed worldwide. Like Montessori, a Waldorf education’s curriculum follows a pedagogical model of child development. Steiner’s model divides childhood into seven-year developmental stages rather than three-year ones, each having its own learning requirements. Waldorf education subscribes to the Aristotelian notion of educating the whole child and emphasizes education that inspires creative and imaginative development in addition to the analytic development that most contemporary schools prefer. Waldorf aims to integrate practical, artistic, and intellectual approaches into the teaching of all subjects.”

Letting Children Be Children in an Achievement-Oriented World – Talk by Dr. William Crain – Nov 6, 2010

The el Rio Charter School Development Team is proud to present an Ingenious Childhood Public Event for educators, parents and school leaders.

Dr. William Crain, PH.D
Developmental Psychologist, Professor of Psychology at City College of New York

Letting Children Be Children in an Achievement-Oriented World

The Four Remarkable Strengths of Childhood

Saturday, November 6, 2010
2:00pm – 4:00pm
Doors open at 1:30pm · Networking until 5:00pm

LA Leadership Academy Middle School
2670 Griffin Avenue
Los Angeles, California 90031

Anxious your child may not be achieving enough, fast enough or good enough? Well stop it.

Dr. Crain will show childhood in a new, relaxing light. You will see children not as immature but as evolving perfectly – the less we do to entertain and teach, the more children explore, play and learn.

You will breathe into the knowledge that your child is already capable, already ready and infinitely willing to blossom – ALL BY NATURE’S DESIGN.

THIS IS A FREE EVENT. DONATIONS TO EL RIO CHARTER SCHOOL START-UP FUND HAPPILY ACCEPTED.

EVENT PARTNERS: Ocean Charter School, Los Angeles Leadership Academy Middle School, and el Rio Charter School

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EL Rio Charter Development Team se enorgullece en presentar un Evento público sobre la infancia ingeniosa para maestros, padres y líderes escolares.

Dr. William Crain, Ph.D
Psicólogo del Desarrollo, Profesor de Psicología del City College de New York

Dejando que los niños sigan siendo niños en el ambiente de metas de éxito

Las cuatro extraordinarias fortalezas de la infancia

Sábado, 6 de noviembre, 2010
2:00pm – 4:00pm
Apertura a la 1:30pm · Recepción hasta las 5:00pm

LA Leadership Academy Middle School
2670 Griffin Av.
Los Angeles, California 90031

¿Tiene dudas que su niño no esté logrando lo suficiente, lo más rápido o lo mejor posible con sus estudios? Dígale “¡Alto!” a esta manera de pensar.

El Dr. Crain expondrá la infancia en una nueva luz, libre de ansiedad. Ud. Llegará a considerar a los niños no como personas inmaduras, sino como personas en un estado de desarrollo perfecto: Entre menos hagamos para entretenerles y enseñarles, más podrán explorar, jugar y aprender.

Ud. llegará a reconocer que su niño ya tiene la capacidad, que ya está preparado para alcanzar su propia plenitud–naturalmente.

Este es un evento gratuito. Se aceptan y se agradecen las donaciones a El Rio Charter Start-up Fund.

Nuestros socios de eventos: Ocean Charter School, Los Angeles Leadership Academy Middle School y El Rio Charter School.

October Public Meeting Recap & Thanks

Thank you to everyone who turned out for a hot Saturday meeting and weathered the broken air conditioner to hear Nora Dvosin (Westminster Elementary School) & Fred Eric (Eagle Rock Elementary School) talk about the journey from seed to plate, gardening with kids.

Master gardener Nora Dvosin shared the inspirational story of transforming a former asphalt campus into a green campus.  She shared the plans drawn by an architect friend that helped promote the garden project at Westminster.  The drawings were helpful in creating the vision, generating excitement and presenting the projects for grants.  The encouraging news is Nora found that money to fund a garden was relatively easy to acquire.  Check out Westminster Elementary School’s webpage for more pictures of the garden now six years old and the Kindergarten Wee Garden.

Vivian Miller

Vivian Miller shared what el Rio has been doing since our June public meeting:  the Waldorf Education for Public School Teachers at Ocean Charter (two attendees were in the house), collaborations with Community Health Action Network (CHAN) and TreePeople, to name a few.  Vivian also put out an APB for Web Help to assist with our website while our web guru Jennifer Patton is on maternity leave.  Please email el Rio if you’d like to help.

Julia Posey, Fred Eric & Nora Dvosin

Fred Eric, restauranteur of Tiara Cafe and Fred 62, shared a valuable tip that kids will eat vegetables when paired with butter.  He also talked about the importance of kids completing tactile projects whether it be nurturing a plant to grow or learning how to bake cupcakes.  The act of doing builds self-awareness and self-esteem, collaborative skills and the joy of sharing.

A big thanks to Nora & Fred for sharing their time and wisdom.  And a huge thanks to the Audubon Center at Debs Park for donating the use of their meeting room.

The el Rio tote bag debuted with a welcome response.  $180 were generated in tote bag sales.  If would like to purchase an el Rio Think + Play + Do tote bag, please email us and/or show up to the next Parents of el Rio play date on Saturday, October 9th, 11AM-1PM at La Tierra de la Culebra Art Park, located at 240 South Avenue 57 in Highland Park. We’ll have bags available for purchase.

Parents of el Rio Play Date * THIS SATURDAY 10/9 *

Another awesome play date is happening this Saturday! Join the development team and our families this Saturday, October 9th from 11am to 1pm for a play date for the parents of el Rio.

This one is at La Tierra de la Culebra Art Park, located at 240 South Avenue 57 in Highland Park.

From their website:

The centerpiece of [this two acre] art park is a 550 foot long sculptural serpent, La Culebra, as well as revolving mural panels, an urban forest of over 150 trees, gardens, incised ziggurat, a stage, sundial, pond, sculptural amphitheater.

Look for Development Team member Kim Ilas under the trees.
Kim is striking and tall and mocha-skinned and has long dread locks and twin daughters.
<—— There she is now!

See you there!

From Seed To Plate – Oct 2nd, 2010 – Public Meeting

Waiting for Superman review

I say this movie is worth seeing for the sake of knowing what up.

Next up? The super’man’ we are actually waiting for is the superpower of childhood. In each child, ‘super powers’ already wait as a pre-existing condition.

Fuller review at www.whole.org

Done! el Rio initiates first ‘how-a-K-8-Waldorf-classroom-actually-works’ experience for L.A. public school teachers at Ocean Charter School.

“Yes, but two of my unruly boys would immediately start fooling around and start sword-fighting with these things”, was the middle school teacher’s objection.  We were 20, standing in pairs in a circle, and 3-foot long/1/2-inch diameter copper rods were being distributed in preparation for practicing tossing the rods to each other to a clapping beat without dropping them. It was an example of waking students up, focusing the mind, and being social. We did, of course drop the rods continually, unaccustomed to throwing or catching with our left hand, clapping and saying a poem all at the same time.

The instructor’s response to the accidental ‘dropping of the rods’ turned out to be an object lesson of a central feature of the Waldorf educational ‘approach’:  forgiveness.  We are not warned not to drop the rods, instead we are told we will probably drop the rods and if we do that will be fine because rods can drop and probably will. As a result, we do not feel compelled to apologize, feel bad or make excuses.  We just pick it up, laugh, learn from the experience and try again. We notice that no one is selected as the best rod thrower of the day.  We are free to notice and appreciate the more talented throwers and learn from them.  We are not being judged and, as a result, try really hard and exceed our own expectations in every case.

So back to the teacher worried that in real life with real middle-schoolers real fooling, not just accidental rod-dropping, would ensue.  The instructor says, “watch this”, and invites  the skeptical teacher and her partner into the center of the circle with their rods.  The instructor says to the two ‘boys’ who, in our imagination, have been sword-fighting, “Sword-fighting is a discipline that can be learned with practice over time.  Let’s begin. Here is how you cross swords (clang! clang!) and you two can practice crossing swords right here while the rest of us practice throwing.” I can’t guarantee that this tactic would works with all unruly boys in all situations but the demonstration of helping the boys direct their energy into a productive purpose while having the chance to be admired and experience a small success seemed, to me and others when we talked about it over coffee at break, a direction worth developing to suit.

El Rio plans to continue developing opportunities for L.A. teachers to get to know Waldorf education philosophy and practice.  This initial project was a collaborative effort initiated by Tamar Kern, founding teacher and co-charter writer of the Ocean Charter School charter, and Joan Jaeckel, lead developer of el Rio Charter School and co-writer with Tamar of the founding Ocean Charter School charter.  The Public School Outreach team at Rudolf Steiner College assigned Bonnie River (assisted by Robert Murar) to develop the content and assemble the team and, with the Administrative assistance of Stephanie Edwards and Kristy Mac Fett at Ocean Charter School, it all came together. In total, 18 teachers took the course, including the winner of the el Rio Charter School get-to-go-for-free lottery.  Our instructors were Ken Lavner, Lisa Profumo and Alice Stamm. I especially want to mention the inspiring leadership and willingness  of el Rio Charter Shool development team member, blogger-writer Julia Posey and her brilliant brainchildren, the UTLA ad and the lottery.

It would be great to hear more stories from participants. Please join in and write!

And, tell a friend.