Sarah's Shreiner Matters

Why Summer Camp is Great for Kids

Mon, 03 May 2010 17:00:00 GMT

In a recent posting on TVOParents.org, the benefits of summer camp were widely touted. The article referenced specific categories of life skills that are offered to children through camp activities. "Many of the positive skills children learn at summer camp are called upon later in life...studies show that outdoor activity, social interaction, and balanced diet at camp can greatly improve a young person's overall well-being and can lead to establishing health and lifestyle patterns."

Specifically, the article identifies the following categories as among important developmental benefits of summer camp:

Health and Well-Being = Children benefit from physical activities and games as important links to socio-emotional and physical growth and health.
Self-Esteem = Camps allow children to try new things with relatively low stress in an outdoor environment.
Independence = Camps allow children to foster responsibility to others, as well as to self and environment.
Leadership = Camps allow children the opportunity to develop leadership skills--through team-building activities, games, and sports.
Friendship Skills = Children gain a further awareness of responsibility to others as well as the benefits of mediation and moderating skills.

So, as we approach the end to another wonderful academic year, please know the Shreiner campus is open to your children for a summer of fun and fitness at camp! This year, we have added many new programs in academic areas, athletics, and fine arts. Learn more about our Summer Camp and Summer Enrichment Programs right here on our website. Our programs are both fun and rewarding, and, importantly, children benefit from the experience. Besides that, it's all happening on our beautiful 8-acre campus! We look forward to seeing you!

STEM and the Gender GAP

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 18:03:00 GMT

STEM is an acronym for science, technology, engineering, and math. The March 2010 edition of the ASCD Education Update focuses on issues surrounding gender and the resulting application and entrance into these fields of study and related professions. Historically and currently, women are under-represented. Educators are making concerted efforts to inform young girls and young women about the myriad study and career opportunities that are available to them. In the ASCD article, Fred Smyth, a research professor from the University of Virginia states, “’There really aren’t any differences in achievement or performance in math and science for girls and boys all the way through high school…Girls tend to think of these fields as a guys’ environment. Girls, Smyth asserts, are less inclined to pursue fields in which they don’t see their faces reflected” (ASCD, March, 2010).

So, how do we address this? What we can continue to do at Shreiner is to develop courses and club opportunities, as well as bring in guest speakers to inspire our students and eradicate bias. In addition, we have a rich parent body composed of many accomplished women who hold leadership roles in all of the STEM fields. Enlightening all students—boys and girls—about career opportunities should begin in the early grades. I invite our parent body to join me as we look to the summer and to this next academic year. Planning guest speaker series from the STEM fields for our children will provide them with yet another way of looking at what they can accomplish, empowering them by opening their eyes and opening doors to a future they shape for themselves.

Enrollment Information:New Horizons for 2010-2011!

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 17:59:00 GMT

Our re-enrollment packets will be coming to you in the mail this next week. Thank you for your patience—sensitive to providing the best value-for-dollar, and cognizant of expense to our families, we have been finalizing necessary details about some important enhancements to our academic programs and offerings, as well as some needed streamlining for the convenience of our community.

First of all, we are excited to announce commitment to an incredible new curriculum, ED Hirsch’s Core Knowledge. I encourage you to visit www.coreknowledge.org to learn more about the advantages we will be able to offer our students. The alignment of our scope and sequence of skills, within each grade level and across the grades will be an important differentiator for us. In addition, this curriculum provides incredible opportunity for creative application and exploration of a liberal arts, college prep, interdisciplinary program of study, and it will work beautifully with our NWEA tool for individualizing instruction to each child’s need. We will be providing more information in upcoming parent meetings throughout the remainder of this year, and faculty will be receiving in-service and training, prior to our implementation.

Second, we are thrilled to announce further commitment to and development of our technology resources, campus-wide, for next school year. Our roll-out will include smart boards on campus, additional computers, improved infrastructure, and computer coursework commensurate with the skill-level and age of the student.

For streamlining purposes and easy access for our parent community, we are pleased to announce that we will be offering SMART TUITION for this next academic year—bill paying will be automated, streamlined, and accessible online. Be sure to look for your brochure in the upcoming enrollment packet.

Stay tuned, great things are in store as we continue to grow together!

The Importance of Earnest Play

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 18:40:00 GMT

A mark of an exceptional teacher is the ability to engender a love of learning in his or her students, coupled with providing each child with an excellent foundation in education. We’ve spoken a lot about our 3 pillars at Shreiner: Family Feel, Whole Child (Approach to Learning), and a solid pedagogical Foundation. Let’s break that down a bit this week by looking closely at what educators are recognizing about the role “play” has in a child’s development.

Washington Post staff writer Emma Brown recently wrote an article entitled: The Playtime's the Thing. (Washington Post, Saturday, November 21, 2009). Besides a clever nod to Shakespeare in the title (which I love, by the way), Ms. Brown spotlights the polar positions of two educational camps—those who believe in raising standards and student achievement by “teaching to standardized tests” and those who believe in the fundamental value of games and make-believe as an important part of a child’s preschool education and socio-emotional development.

The upshot is this, Ms. Brown’s article quotes education experts who support the value of play in a child’s education –especially and particularly in the preschool years. Among other things such as cultivating creativity and harnessing imagination, play also allows children to develop “…the roots of empathy and the capacity to take turns, negotiate with peers and understand how their behavior affects people”. And, as far as play versus “proficiency”, “…proficiency is measured on tests, but the far-reaching effects of play don’t show up in answers to multiple-choice questions. They show up in life”.

At Shreiner, we embrace the importance of play as an essential part of a child’s development, and we do this, we believe, without sacrificing the rigor or stimulation of a broad and rich curriculum. Know this: we are constantly evaluating what we do and improving upon it, too. Currently, we are revamping and aligning our curriculum across the grades, preschool through grade 8 for the 2010-2011 school year, and, rest assured, an important part of the plan is to continue to incorporate our play and creative components of the Shreiner approach to education. So stay tuned as we incorporate the wonders of technology with the old-fashioned benefits of an 8 acre campus and 9 playgrounds!

Food For Thought: Healthy Choices/Life Choices

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 03:51:00 GMT

Did you know: Shreiner continues to make inroads educating children about the importance of establishing healthy eating habits?

Most of you are aware of the great work by Shreiner parent and nutrition educator Dr. Amelie Billon-Bancel. From November through December, Dr. Billon-Bancel donated her time, expertise, and materials and conducted a series of 5 nutrition classes for each of our 3rd through 8th grade classes. This was a program initiated last year by Dr. Billon-Bancel, and our students and faculty continue to benefit from this important education. We greatly appreciate all that this awareness adds to our Shreiner program.

Another component of Shreiner’s health and nutrition awareness efforts is provided by Shreiner Cafeteria manager Cindy Visentin. Cindy continues her part in educating our children about good nutrition through her leadership with the Shreiner Garden Club. This past summer and early fall, Shreiner students enjoyed tomatoes, lettuce, radishes, onions and other vegetables with their cafeteria meals that had been grown and harvested by students in the garden club. Opportunities are available to students to participate again this year through our after school enrichment programs. Participating students had fun and provided wonderful food for our cafeteria!

And speaking of our cafeteria, this past month we welcomed Shreiner Cafeteria Business Manager and nutrition expert, Karen Hatchell to our staff. Karen has revamped our Shreiner menu with even healthier choices for our children, and she enlists the children in interesting food projects and will continue this each month. The student project work is displayed in our cafeteria—lessons are fun and interesting, and children have the opportunity to proudly display what they’ve learned.

All of the above coincides nicely with the January 2010 edition of EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP. The focus of the majority of the articles in this particular edition is on “health and learning”. In the article, “Finding Our Way Back to Healthy Eating: A Conversation with David Kessler” by Amy Azzam, former commissioner of the FDA David Kessler is quoted as stating, “The greatest gift you can give someone is to lay down healthy eating patterns from the beginning, to find foods that are rewarding as well as healthy…Once we understand that the constant availability of fat, sugar, and salt conditions and drives our behavior as well as the behavior of our kids, it has profound implications—for our school lunch programs, for vending machines, for when we eat, for how we use food, and for how we educate” (pp.9-10).

Precisely…and we at Shreiner are working as a community to educate and celebrate healthy eating habits.

Something to chew on until next week!!

Sarah

Creative Forward Motion!

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 15:32:00 GMT

In this hectic, work-a-day world, it is easy to put our passions on the back burner. But that’s exactly what we shouldn't do! Living a creative life is essential to cultivating our passions, and it’s something we can practice every day and, importantly, model for our children. And here’s the thing—creativity doesn’t have to be defined the way you might think…

Creativity isn’t confined to the exceptionally talented or even to the geniuses—the Beethovens, the Michelangelos, the Stephen Hawkings…you get the drift. And creative thinking and problem solving aren’t just abilities nurtured in the educational environment. Yes, a remarkable education is invaluable, but it doesn’t stop here.

The December 2009 edition of Psychology Today has an excellent article addressing how all of us can foster our creative abilities every day. The article, appropriately entitled, “Everyday Creativity” by Carlin Fiora, challenges all of us to “…nurture our inner innovator”. Fiora says, “The real question isn’t ‘How creative are you?’ but rather ‘How are you creative?’ Innovation is rarely a one step deal; the trick is figuring out how you solve problems.” (p.68)

So teachers and parents, let’s cultivate creative problem solving with our children in some significant way, every day. Let’s challenge our thinking about the ordinary and look through a different lens to find a different picture and solution. Let’s embrace the “what ifs?” and explore the process. I encourage you to read this article, and some blogs you might wish to visit are noted as follows from the same article, “Bloggers on a roll: Check out the regular musings of these creativity experts at blogs.psychologytoday.com: Art Markman ‘Ulterior Motives’; Robert and Michele Root-Bernstein ‘ Imagine That!’; Tina Seelig ‘Creativity Rulz’; Gretchen Rubin ‘The Happiness Project’; and Scott Barry Kaufman ‘Beautiful Minds’."

Until next week—

Creative Motion!

Sarah

Helping Hands: Donate to the Clinton-Bush Haiti fund

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 16:27:00 GMT

Undoubtedly you have seen or heard about the horrors of the earthquake in Haiti. On Saturday, President Obama announced the establishment of a national fund to provide needed supplies and relief. Please join me as we reach out a helping hand to the survivors of this earthquake. http://www.clintonbushhaitifund.org It is easy to make a donation, and you will receive a confirmation by email almost immediately.

In the spirit of working together, I invite you to help develop our Shreiner Parents’ Association. Please contact Shreiner parent Sam Giles, or call the Shreiner office at 770-953-1340.

We are rapidly moving through this first month of the new year and accomplishing a lot—thanks to those of you in attendance at our monthly parent meeting on January 13. We had a great presentation by NWEA Vice President, Vicki McCoy. The next NWEA test window for our students will be February 1-6. In addition to our work with the NWEA on campus, we are continuing our work with curriculum, continuing our plans for our new library, and growing our technology and applications. We appreciate your support and we welcome your ideas.

The Next Head to Head: NWEA MAP Assessments…What They Are and What They Mean for Shreiner Students

Tue, 12 Jan 2010 19:25:00 GMT

On Wednesday, January 13, 2010, join us in the Academy Building Conference Room at 9 AM for our monthly Head of School/Parent Meeting. We will welcome NWEA representative Vicki McCoy to answer your questions about our incredible MAP assessment tool for individualization in the classroom. Shreiner grade school and middle school teacher representatives will be on hand to answer questions for you, too.

Shreiner is the only school in Georgia currently using the NWEA MAP assessment tool. We firmly believe this is something that sets Shreiner in front of any competitors in the local market. Importantly, we believe this will continue to help us provide the very best education for each child, meeting each child's individual strengths and needs.

Join us on Wednesday and call 770-953-1340 to reserve your seat! We look forward to seeing you!

5 Months in Review, and Forward!

Tue, 05 Jan 2010 16:01:00 GMT

Happy 2010, Shreiner Family! As we enter this new year, it's a perfect time to look forward as we build on our progress of these past few months.

Did you know?

-We have monthly parent meetings.
-We have regular faculty meetings.
-We meet regularly in teaching teams.
-We are aligning our curriculum, both vertically and horizontally (by grade level and discipline)
-We are continuing to build on and strengthen our middle school offerings as we build towards our future.
-We submit weekly reflective lesson plans.
-We have formal classroom evaluations.
-We have a new and evolving website.
-We have a FLIP camera and the ability to email film clips of campus and classroom happenings.
-We are restoring our library and will have books LEXILED by next year.
-We are the only school in Georgia using the NWEA MAP test for individualized education.
-We have regular meetings for faculty sharing and study of NWEA resources.
-We are overhauling our cafeteria menu and making other improvements, beginning in January.
-We have computers for all faculty, grades K-8; and we have projectors available for classroom use.
-We are expanding the classroom and learning experience beyond the bricks and mortar!
-We are improving and expanding our enrichment programs and after school offerings.
-We are developing some exciting new summer camps and programs for summer 2010!!! (Academic and family programs, too!)
-We are looking forward to our parent body forming a Parents' Association...

WHEW! :)

In addition, we had two professional in-service days for faculty during the month of December:

-The first was a workshop led by international corporate trainer, Leslie Krehnbrink. Leslie guided faculty through Tom Rath's best selling approach: Strength's Finders. The implications are many, for individuals as well as teaching teams. Rath's book has many applications. If interested, I encourage you to go to Tom Rath's website. (There is also a program noted as Strengths Explorer for ages 10-14.)

-The second in-service was with national NWEA trainer, Katie Robinson. Shreiner faculty had an excellent day of further training and analysis as we continue to build on the best ways to use the student data for improved individualization.

As a special note: Our January Parent Meeting will be on Wednesday morning, January 13, at 9:00 AM with NWEA representative, Vicky McCoy. Vicky will be on hand for an informal Q and A.

As always, I invite you to contact me with any ideas or concerns. Here's to an exciting and successful 2010 and beyond! Working together for our children, we can grow in exponential ways.

With warmest wishes for a bright and prosperous New Year--

Sarah