“WORKSPACE FOR TEACHERS” on Saturday, February 5th from 2-4PM, Highland Park

Friends,

The El Rio Charter School planning process is now getting to the heart of the matter.

Teaching!

If you’ve been following our progress you know we’ve been ueberbusy with business plans and bylaws and all such necessary parts of starting to move El Rio from rivulet to white water.  Parents write every day asking to participate.

And … some things just require teachers to weigh in.

So now, as we write our way towards our August deadline for presenting the El Rio Charter School petition to LAUSD, we turn to you, teachers, for input, feedback, guidance and vision.

Whether you are a teacher, a pre-service teacher …

• Are you interested in helping to write a charter petition for 21st century teaching that builds capacities for an enlightened future today?

• Do you wish to help build a network of classrooms in L.A. preparing young people to have the presence, empathy and initiative to think big and, as Obama said last night, “do big things”?

If this resonates with you, please join us at the first El Rio “WORKSPACE FOR TEACHERS” on Saturday, February 5th from 2-4PM at the home of El Rio Charter School development team member Jennifer Patton, in Highland Park, LA, CA 90042. Joan Jaeckel will facilitate a conversation between us and Julie Navarro will set the tone with a Waldorf kindergarten circle.

El Rio Charter School, although still a dream, is not a lone dreamer.  El Rio is part of a dynamically growing cultural movement of public Waldorf education that already has in it, nationwide, 45 public schools and 20 developing initiatives. Most of this growth is in California, northern California to be exact.  In L.A., things are just beginning.

Ocean Charter School opening six years ago and El Rio is in the works. The Mariposa school in Thousand Oaks is a ‘regular’ public school whose teachers implement Waldorf practices. Several individual teachers in L.A. schools use Waldorf approaches in their classrooms. The northern California school network grew out of close proximity to teacher training and intra-school mentoring.  We can build this same capacity of mutual learning  by getting together to imagine an expanded network of public Waldorf education adapted to the realities of urban, inner city life in Los Angeles.

The charter writing process, the most essential part of it all, can only be done with input from actual teachers – visioning what the children will experience, translating the vision into the actual charter petition, forming a mutual learning space … whatever is needed.

The WORKSPACE starts forming a energetic hub for L.A. teachers interested in teaching, adapting Waldorf teaching to the LA urban schools, interested in teaching or mentoring at El Rio … meet and form the actual life of the school.

Whether you wish to join us as actual worker bee between now and August or you only wish to come once or twice to share your thoughts — please join us for the first El Rio “WORKSPACE FOR TEACHERS” on Saturday, February 5th from 2-4PM .

For address and directions please  email joan.jaeckel@gmail.com.

Warmly,

Joan Jaeckel
Acting Director,
El Rio Charter School development team

P.S. Please allow 15 minutes for parking. Once at the house, you will follow the signs leading you up two flights of external stairs to the right towards a door to the cozy attic of the El Rio Charter School development team “HQ”!

Call for volunteers

Although September 2012 is 20 months away, it is fast approaching.  The el Rio Development Team has been busy and done some amazing work, but there is still a vast amount of work that needs to be done before the doors can open to el Rio and the first students can be served.  If you are interested in helping make el Rio Charter School a reality, your service is needed now.

We are offering three Planning Meetings where we will discuss the work that needs to be done & assign tasks.  If you are truly interested in making el Rio a viable reality, please attend one of the following meetings.

When & Where:

•Friday 2/4/11 9:00-10:00AM Swork (2160 Colorado Blvd. 90041)

•Tuesday 2/8/11 7:30-9:30PM Private Residence (1350 Armadale Avenue 90042)

•Sunday 2/13/11 2:00-3:00PM, Coffee Table (1958 Colorado Blvd, 90041)

We have chosen three different times and locations in an attempt to create opportunities for as many people to attend as possible.

We hope you can attend one of the meetings (no need to attend more than one).

On behalf of el Rio Charter School and future students, we invite you to take that step and get involved.

Just updated our FAQ page!

We just got some really good questions from a friend and so I shared his questions and our answers on our FAQ page.

Not yet in Spanish – sorry – but it’s the last 5 Q’s and A’s on the page.

2012 is right around the corner! Do you have any burning questions not adressed in our FAQ? Send ‘em in to elriocharter@gmail.com and we will do our best to answer.

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.

“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

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

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.

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

dunce caps off! TED talks on ideas for our education system

http://www.ted.com/talks/tags/id/70/page/1

7 Top Picks (and still working):

1. Akan KAY,
2. Gever TULLEY,
3. Ken ROBINSON (schools kill creativity),
4. Ken ROBINSON (bring on the learning revolution)
5. Stuart BROWN,
6. Temple GRANDIN,
7. Tim BROWN