Big Work in the Upper Elementary Classroom

(written by Swan River guide Meggie Exner)

Gretchen Kiel (left) and Rayna Goalen (right) from Swan River show off their Imaginary Island Flora and Fauna Guidebooks.

Big work is work that takes up a lot of time or physical space to create. Elementary children in particular are attracted to the challenge of big work. While guides suggest ideas for follow-on after lessons, children are given the freedom to choose how they would like to integrate, practice, or further their understanding of what they have learned - and often what they choose far exceeds our expectations. 

Big work appeals to elementary children and supports their learning for several reasons. Children of this age are especially interested in group work. Big work provides an excellent opportunity for children to collaborate in a meaningful way and practice the social skills needed to come to group decisions. Big work also is a source of inspiration and because Montessori classrooms consist of mixed age groups, every child throughout their elementary career will have two opportunities to be be among the youngest in the class, looking up to and being inspired by older children, as well as two opportunities to be among the oldest, providing that inspiration and mentorship to others. Ultimately, big work is a source of pride and confidence and is a way for children to practice pursuing their interests without constraints.

One example of big work currently thriving in the upper elementary are the Imaginary Island projects. Imaginary Island is a summative big work offered to sixth years and sometimes younger children who are interested. During this project, children come up with their own imaginary island, complete with its own government and culture. As children consider the climate and biomes of their island, what imaginary flora and fauna might live there, and how people might have migrated to their island, they draw on their geography, biology, and history work from their previous years in the elementary. We have been thrilled to watch the sixth years delve into these projects with enthusiasm, creating guidebooks, writing stories, drawing maps, and creating models, while, at the same time, modeling the joys of learning to other children.

Alan Husak from Crow Wing displays a scale model of their imaginary island



December GRS Board Updates

DECEMBER

Your GRS School Board has been hard at work, and we would love to share some updates! A friendly reminder that all meetings are accessible on the GRS Public Calendar, and we are actively seeking community members to join and support committee work! Here are the highlights of November and upcoming Board and Committee work:

  • The School Board’s November Agenda included accepting updates to GRS’s Safe Return to School, a review and approval of both GRS’s 2021 Financial Audit and changed Enrollment Targets, and a detailed Head of School report. Next meeting: Monday, December  13th at 4:30pm. Email: executive@greatriverschool.org.

  • NEW! Working Group for Finance Equity Audit: Help/Input Needed
    Are you passionate about equity?  Do you want to see what we are spending money on? Do you want to guide the future of GRS?  Then we have a great opportunity for you! The Finance Committee is hoping to do a line item analysis of the budget and spending in order to help shape and guide future budgets. Our focus is to look through the budget with a mission and equity lens.  The first step for this project is to figure out what the criteria and rubric are for measuring equity with our current budget and spending. In other words, how can we label and sort agenda items so we can know if what we are looking at is equitable spending or not?  We will be having a working session on Wednesday, January 5th at 4:00pm at this zoom link or in Crow Wing Classroom. Please join us!

  • The Finance Committee is happy to report that a wide variety of Great River School employees and board members, guided by Micheal Flood, worked together to create an additional Covid related PTO support fund to support staff in this challenging year.  The document has been finalized and is being brought to the board. It can be found here.  Many thanks to those of you who came and brought a sense of possibility, questions, and a willingness to hear multiple perspectives and create something. The committee is actively seeking more members to support the work of our Finance Committee Action Plan. Next meeting: Tuesday, December 14th at 4:15pm. Email: resources@greatriverschool.org.

  • The BIPOC Caregiver Committee has been meeting monthly on the first Thursday of each month. The focus of conversations in the last few meetings has been centered around what events and opportunities have been created for BIPOC students at each program level. The group asked and gained clarity about funding for BIPOC events. The results of the discussion were funds are available for BIPOC events. The next step is writing up proposals for events and starting with planning.

    Our next meeting is Thursday, January 6th at 7:45pm.. Want to join the BIPOC Caregiver Committee? Email Anu (adean@greatriverschool.org) or Cassie (curbano@greatriverschool.org) to get connected!

  •  The Student Experience Committee discussed teacher evaluation across levels; program directors presented current plans for cycles of formal and informal evaluation. We also heard from members of the GRS Nutrition department about recent changes, and talked about revitalizing the rubric for assessing the program's health. In our December meeting, we will be discussing funding for equity programming, institutional responses to racism in the GRS community, and measures of academic achievement. If you are interested in serving on our committee and Action Plan, please attend our next meeting! Next meeting: Thursday, December 9th at 4:00pm. Email: sec@greatriverschool.org.

  • The Policy Working Group is actively seeking more members. Contact faculty member, Sarah Hansen (shansen@greatriverschool.org), parent member, Mike Hang (mhang@greatriverschool.org), or policy@greatriverschool.org in order to learn more. Next meeting: Wednesday, December 15th at 4:30pm. 

Outerwear Exchange Report

written by parent volunteers Kathleen Erickson and Theresa Fath

As a way of supporting the environment and each other, we hosted an elementary Outerwear Exchange this October. The numbers for our exchange are below and as you can see this was a great success!

Our vision going forward is to include the whole school next year and so, this spring we will again have a week where we’d receive any outerwear that elementary through our high school this time, have grown out of (coats, jackets, snow gear, rain gear, mittens, gloves, hats, scarves, boots), organize it, and then make it all available again free of cost to others in our school community next fall. We’d have another donation week in the fall after our spring donation week and then open it up for “shopping” at the same location (a couple blocks from our school) in the fall. More details for that will be coming in the spring!

December Nutrition Updates

written by Jenny Breen, GRS Food and Nutrition Education Support

Hello families!

We want to update you on all the exciting food/nutrition/sustainability-related things happening in the kitchen AND in the classroom at GRS!

The kitchen team, led by Head Chef Mel Hammond (yes, she got married in October!!) continues to develop delicious, nutritious scratch-made food for your children to consume. The meals are vegetable and whole food-focused, simple, and sustainable. They include sandwiches, salads, snack trays, as well as hot soups and stews. We will be adding a THIRD hot lunch day on Wednesdays starting in January.

We have received vital help from our parent volunteers, so thank you and please let us know if you are interested in joining the volunteer team! Reach out to Mel directly at Mhammond@greatriverschool.org if interested.

We also appreciate parent/staff member Julie Brown-Micko, who has been a steady team member since the beginning and continues to make things run smoothly. And, we welcome new team member Stayci Bell, who brings much food, farming, and teaching experience!

In addition to the lunch program, we are piloting a middle school occupations class that focuses on food, sustainability, health, and justice. Tami Limberg has led the implementation of the class, in collaboration with Jenny Breen (GRS food and nutrition education support). The students are learning about these concepts through experiential learning, including multiple days of cooking in the kitchen. They even help prep ingredients that are used in the school lunches!

This class is fulfilling a long-standing mission of the school's food program, and we're thrilled to be implementing it. Look for more information about other educational opportunities for families and community members in the coming months!

IB Theatre Performances

written by Caroline Miesle, Music & Theater Guide

IB Theatre is just one of three diploma level arts courses available to our 11th and 12th grade students. This rigorous course asks students to not only learn as performers, but to approach theatre from multiple different perspectives, as presenters, directors, technicians, and dramaturgs. Hands-on experiences are approached through an academic lens where recording and reflecting on the process is just as important as presenting a final product.

After 18 long months, many of our IB Theatre students had the privilege of stepping back on stage for the first time. On October 28th, juniors and seniors had the opportunity to highlight their skills as actors, writers, and theatre technicians during one of our annual IB Theatre nights. Due to the ongoing pandemic, we had a limited capacity audience. They did a wonderful job of supporting and responding to these emerging artists!

The seniors showcased their skills as solo artists. During the first part of the school year, these students individually chose a renowned theatre theorist, learned about them, and then diligently worked to incorporate those theories as they learned and refined a 4-8 minute piece to perform alone on stage. This took an enormous amount of courage and dedication. Please take some time to enjoy four of these performances, highlighting the theories of Lee Strasberg, Antonin Artaud, Uta Hagen, and Augosto Boal (please note that there may be triggering content in the "Violence Against Women" solo).

While our seniors worked as individuals, our juniors took on the equally daunting task of creating new short plays through a collaborative process. Two different groups formed, creating entertaining and truly original new productions. One group decided to set their play in New York City. While they were unable to perform at the evening event, their classmates enjoyed a private performance earlier in the day. Four students took the stage to show how many different challenges and obstacles face those who try to pursue acting dreams on Broadway. The other group took a more whimsical approach, devising a creative fairytale story about a pig whose motivations for collecting taxes might be less than noble.

Please enjoy the hard work of our IB Theatre students as seen in the filmed performances linked here.

Performances:

Aaron: Mr. Blanky on Fury Beach -- recounting of a true story of an arctic expedition

Oliver: There's No Place Like Oz -- avant garde piece about Dorothy longing for Oz

Rosa: Violence Against Women -- "Newspaper theatre" using articles about rape/assault

Soledad: Excerpts from Can't Hardly Wait -- a teen rethinking her relationship with a boyfriend

Collaborative Group (Anika, Eva F, Ari, Elsie, Shannon): "Pigs and Taxes" -- just a goofy, fun children's play

December Head of School Message

written by David Núñez, Interim Head of School

Dear GRS Community, 

This has been a difficult few weeks for our community. In this newsletter, we want to give you a recap of all that has happened in the last few weeks and support you in processing the big and stressful events of the last month.

  • Last Friday, we informed the community that threatening graffiti was found in an Adolescent bathroom prior to Fall Break, threatening danger to the school on December 6th. The school completed a thorough investigation and informed staff of the threat on Thursday, December 2nd and families and students on Friday, December 3rd. We canceled school on December 6th out of an abundance of caution. Click here for the emails sent to families about the emergency closure.

  • Since our last newsletter on November 1st, we have had 27 cases of Great River students testing positive for COVID-19. We have quarantined multiple classrooms and continue to follow our COVID mitigation strategies. The vast majority of the COVID-19 cases were in our Elementary program, with students too young to yet be fully vaccinated. With each COVID case, we email and text the families of any close contacts with further directions and then update the whole community. 

The Leadership team has been working to respond effectively to all of the above situations. We at Great River are committed to the safety of our students, employees, and families, as well as the emotional and social needs of our community. I have received a tremendous amount of emails, phone calls, and texts about everything happening at Great River. If you have an urgent need or question, please include office@greatriverschool.org. Otherwise, please know I am reading families’ concerns and appreciate your wisdom, feedback, and guidance. 

We are in the middle of a sustained, long-term world-wide health emergency and the lengths that the entire community is going to to keep each other safe is truly amazing. We have a dedicated staff who are going above and beyond everyday to serve this community. This is not easy - and we will continue to be here, following Great River’s mission to serve our community and support our students. 

Finally, I am thankful to be a part of this community.  Thank you all for welcoming me in and thank you to the board for extending my contract as Interim Head of School for another year!  I particularly appreciated all the positive feedback I have gotten since the board announcement went out. Thank you.

Peace,
David


Meet The Goats!

pictures and text by Ava Limberg (LA Animal Manager)

Our school goats are Nigerian Dwarf goats. They welcome visitors on the west side of the school, near the garden, with their bleating. They will follow you down the sidewalk, asking loudly for food. Be assured - the goats are well fed and do not need additional treats! See below for a who’s who of our school goats:

Sodak (he/him)

Sodak is the black goat. He loves attention, is so sweet, and is one year old. He came to us just this year because he had bonded with one of our other goats named Oz while he was at Sodak’s previous owner's farm. If you ever need an animal buddy to talk to, Sodak is the one!

Oz (he/him)

Oz is the biggest brown goat who loves to eat anything he can get his hooves on and cause trouble. He is very food motivated, is somewhere in between 8 to 9 years old and he came to us about 6 years ago.  You can also tell who Oz is because he is the only one with blue eyes.


Rue (she/her)

Rue is the smallest of all the goats and likes to be lazy and eat. Rue has white spots on her side. She also is the master at escaping and will jump the electric fence whenever she gets the chance and is definitely the most headstrong. She is 8 to 9 years old and came to us the same day Oz did.



Montessori Community in the Elementary Classroom

(written by Matty Brossart, Crow Wing guide)

Winter is upon us. We have progressed from the gloriously warm sunny October days we had to the cozy, dark  drizzles and flurries of late November.  As the weather has turned chilly, and we have had to navigate quarantines and other creative community work to keep everyone as safe as possible, it is a good time to reflect on the role of community in the work we do.  A big part of the Montessori work we do at Great River School involves learning and growing with tools to be strong community members.  The structures of our classrooms and our day are set up to help children navigate the interwoven paths that link freedom, responsibility, grace and courtesy, and interdependence.  

One of the first things we do to begin to create community is utilize stories.  Stories are fundamental to the Montessori education journey, and our Great Lessons are stories that help us find order and interdependence in our work.  These stories help us see how everything in nature and history is interconnected, and even in our differences, we each add to a constantly changing and beautiful whole.  In addition to the great stories, many communities use “read a-louds” of short stories and chapter books chosen to create conversations and build shared understandings.   We observe and reflect on our shared stories, and this shared experience helps us have a shared language, even as our other work can be more individual.   Another thing we do with our stories is that we connect with our social work team: the social work team and guides work together to deliver lessons on wellness and emotions to give us common language and skills to help each other when we are struggling.  These lessons are anchored in stories and books that connect us to writing, art, and diverse perspectives of success and struggle.  

In addition to sharing stories and learning how to be in the world from them, we build our classroom environments informed by what Dr. Montessori said in Education and Peace, “Preventing conflicts is the work of politics; establishing peace is the work of education.”  We purposefully sow our classroom communities with chances for students to navigate their freedom, their responsibilities and their interdependence with their classmates: We center practices in group follow up projects, using work journals, conferencing with students to discuss their work and reflect, with choice in follow up work and practice, and expectations of community care.  These are daily opportunities for struggle, success, failure, heroics, and reflection.  Within each community we also include systems for conflict resolution.  We know that struggle and failure is part of being in community, and we want students to have the opportunity to ask for help from others, to find the common ground, to hear the other’s perspective, and to make plans to move forward.  Sometimes these work right away, and other times they need to be revisited.  Both are great opportunities to build a beloved community. 

Many of those tools help students learn to navigate community life from their individual places; As a whole class, we have an anchor practice of community meetings.  These help students become full and active members of society (both now and later in life), and to let them navigate and develop their sense of justice and fairness,. Montessori Communities at Great River come together as a whole group to get to know each other, discuss community needs, and come up with solutions.  We make use of various talking technologies to try to hear and value multiple perspectives, and that allows students to hear others' perspectives and share their own.  This experience can involve discussing anything- from the small (pencil erasers), to the global (reducing garbage), to the personal (feeling left out).  Being part of problem-solving allows students to feel purposeful while experiencing the slow process that is looking for authentic solutions that meet everyone’s needs in equitable ways.  

This is big work, and it is a joy to be doing it with you all.

Attendance & Robo-Text Expectations

(this email was sent to all families on 11/8/21)

Greetings Caregivers:

We are exceptionally grateful for your continued caution this year as you keep students home if they are not feeling well. One impact of this (in addition to keeping us all healthier) is that the attendance tracking workload is much heavier than it has ever been.

To manage this increased workload while still preserving the integrity of our communications around attendance, we are instituting a few changes effective Tuesday, November 9th. 

Robo-Texts
At 9am, we will be sending robo-texts to caregivers of ALL students marked absent, whether or not we’ve heard from you.  This notification will let you know if your child is not at school for attendance in the first hour. 

  • If you have already reported your absence, you do not need to do anything.

  • If you haven’t reported the absence at this point, send an email to attendance@greatriverschool.org to let us know the reason for the absence.

Any student with an absence that was not reported by a caregiver will be marked as “Unexcused.” 

Want to opt-out of all texts from the school? This video shows you how to manage your alert preferences.  We want to hear from you if your student is absent. The reason for the absence is important so that we can help support your student if necessary. 

Accessing Your Student’s Attendance

You can look up your student’s attendance for their current classes at any time in Powerschool.  You can also set up an email notification to give you a summary (linked here)of attendance for your student at a specific interval (daily, weekly, monthly). If you need help accessing your Powerschool portal, contact passwords@greatriverschool.org. 

General Attendance Reminders (from the Family Handbook)

  • Early Departure: For students leaving the school building before the end of the school day (e.g., for medical appointments) we ask that caregivers/guardians complete the Early Release google form found on the website OR the caregiver enters the building to sign the student out at the Front Office. Students returning to the school after an appointment may sign back in without a caregiver present. If leaving early, adolescent students must stop at the office in the morning and receive an early leave pass that they will show their guide.

  • Reporting Absences: To have an absence excused in our records, we must receive notification through the Attendance Line (651-305-2780, ext 1) or attendance@greatriverschool.org. Please report absences no later than 8:00am (note: the handbook says 8:30, but we greatly appreciate earlier notice).

  • Late Entry: If a student comes into school late (after 8:30am), they must stop at the office and sign in using the iPad. The office will provide them with a late pass to give to their guide (this will ensure students receive a tardy instead of an unexcused absence).

Specific Guidelines for Adolescent (Grades 7-12) Attendance

  • Students should attend all classes, advisories, and independent work periods.

  • Students should be in their first classroom no later than 8:30am.

  • Students may not leave the building or school premises during school without caregiver/guardian permission.

  • Students who become ill at school must sign out at the front desk.

  • For adolescent levels, a student who is more than 10 minutes tardy to any class will be marked absent for attendance purposes. The first ten minutes of a class are vitally important.

  • 3 unexcused tardies in any given class will be recorded as 1 unexcused absence.

  • Any student having 10 or more excused or unexcused absences in a given class (including Advisory, CAS, and the Independent Work Period) will result in no credit for that class, which will be recorded on their transcript. If a student wishes to receive credit for the class they must petition the Head of School or Dean of Students and the guide of the class.

Thank you,

Stacey Kreger
Director of Administration

Head of School Transition Update

Great River School Community - Hello from your School Board! 

 We would like to provide an update to our Head of School Transition Process.  If you have been part of the GRS Community since last year, you will recall we conducted a search for an Interim Head of School last year, hiring our current HoS, David Núñez, effective July 2021.  

 Filling the interim position was the first step in a two-part process for filling our permanent Head of School after Sam O’Brien’s departure in the Spring of 2020. Part two was to launch a permanent HoS search in fall 2021, to be hired for the 2022/23 school year.  

In the short time since David joined us, our school has gone through many changes.  This year will continue to present as many challenges for educators, administrators, familities, and students as last year. The Executive Committee, which provides oversight for the Head of School, acknowledges that this is hardly a typical school year, and the priorities for our Head of School will continue to evolve. We recognize and value the importance of stability and continuity in our school leadership. In all fairness, we believe it’s in everyone’s best interest to give ourselves and David more time to work together. 

Therefore, the Board is acknowledging that the previous model to which we committed no longer feels like an appropriate one for GRS.  The Board has approved the Executive Committee’s recommendation that David Nunez be retained for two consecutive school years: 2021-22 and 2022-23. 

The Board retains the option to extend an offer for the permanent Head of School position to David, based on its evaluation of established performance criteria, by early 2022. Should both parties agree that the position is a great fit, no external search will be needed.  If not, the Board will assemble a search committee and begin that process.  

Despite the challenges of 2020-21, we managed to find David and he found us. GRS has greatly benefited from his calm presence and steady leadership since July, and we look forward to knowing him better in the coming months and years. 

Frequently Asked Questions:

Q. This is a major change from the search process that was communicated last year. What gives?

A. If there’s one thing we’ve all learned throughout the pandemic, it’s that our constantly-changing environment requires agile and responsive decision-making. We’ve reassessed the earlier plan to start a permanent Head of School search this fall. With what we know today, we believe this would be an impractical and counterproductive effort, and what is really needed is a reasonable amount of time for us to work with David and vice versa. He has agreed to this arrangement and we greatly appreciate his flexibility and understanding as we’ve revised the search strategy.  

Q. Why was an interim Head of School posted in the first place? 

A. Primarily because it was a more realistic approach to managing the unprecedented challenges of recruiting a school leader during a pandemic. With massive upheaval occurring across the education sector last year, the job market was anything but predictable. Frankly, we weren’t sure the right person would find us. We were transparent with candidates about the two-part process, and that the Interim HoS would be eligible to apply for the permanent position. 

Q. Was the search for Interim Head of School a “real” thorough process or was it shortened or rushed?

A. Despite the challenges of Covid, the 4.5 months’ long interim search process involved thorough vetting, multiple rounds of interviews, and opportunities for a wide range of stakeholders to participate. We met a pool of qualified candidates and we are confident in our selection criteria and process. 

Q. How does David feel about this announcement?

A. We can’t speak for him! But from our perspective, the Board recognizes the inherent awkwardness in this subject and we value the transparent conversations we’ve had with David to date. His ability to discuss hard things with openness and curiosity - and ‘roll with it’ during messy times of change  -  is really a tremendous asset for his role.

Your input and engagement as a member of our GRS Community is so valuable. Please don't hesitate to reach out to your GRS Board when you need to, and please consider engaging with our GRS Board committees!

Warmly,
The GRS Board

November Head of School Message

written by David Núñez, Interim Head of School

Dear GRS Community,

What a tremendously supportive community we have here!  Having passed the mark of 100 days on the job, I can say that I have absolutely felt welcomed into this community.  We have passionate, involved, and kind families and thoughtful, engaged, and excited students here at GRS and I have loved getting to know them all.

Like last month, this month I'm going to share a little information about another one of the mitigation strategies we do in our building: we eat outdoors whenever possible.

We know that it is safer for us all to be outdoors when we are going to take off our masks and obviously you can’t eat with a mask, so our practices around lunch have been something we’ve looked at very closely this year.

This is a tricky one because we have discovered that we don’t really have enough space for all 770 students and 125 staff members to eat outdoors every day (and our ability to do this depends heavily on the weather), but we have tried to overcome those concerns in a couple ways.

First, we had students build us around 30 new picnic tables (a really great project for our kids to do) to allow for more space to eat comfortably outdoors.  Then, we purchased the new tents you may have seen going up around the building to make it easier for students to eat outdoors independent of the weather.

We have to admit that we have prioritized these outdoor spaces for our unvaccinated elementary students, but we still have enough space for some of the adolescents to eat outdoors as well.

Unfortunately, sometimes eating inside is unavoidable.  Whether it is because of space, a weather condition like driving wind-blown rain, or, soon, the onset of bitter cold winter temperatures, we do have students eat inside.  When this happens, we work on other mitigation strategies in the classroom. We have food delivered to the classrooms each day rather than having students wait in line for lunch. If students are eating indoors we ask them to spread out and eat silently. We support this with podcasts and read-alouds in the Elementary and movies in the Adolescent program. The goal here is for them to eat without talking and get their masks back on as quickly as possible.

Altogether, I’m proud of the mitigation strategies we’ve put into place this year and I know we will continue to discuss and examine our strategies with the hope of making our school a safer and safer place.

Thanks for reading!

Peace,
David

October & November School Board Updates

Your GRS School Board has been hard at work, and we would love to share some updates! A friendly reminder that all meetings are accessible on the GRS Public Calendar, and we are actively seeking community members to join and support committee work! Here are the highlights of October and upcoming Board and Committee work:

  • The School Board’s October Agenda included a presentation from the school’s authorizer, NEO, updates pertaining to COVID-19 pandemic and impact on school operations, and approving sound abatement purchases for GRS community spaces, among many other items! Public comment is always welcome. Next meeting: November 30th at 4:30pm. Email: executive@greatriverschool.org.

  • The BIPOC Caregiver Engagement Group brainstormed ways to encourage recruitment of students and staff who are a part of BIPOC communities, pushed for more clear updates to when BIPOC events are happening at school, and strategized how to prioritize scheduling of BIPOC events for the academic year. Next meeting: Thursday, November 4th at 7:45pm. For more information or to join the BIPOC Caregiver Engagement Group, email office@greatriverschool.org.

  • The Finance Committee continued work on a COVID PTO Support Fund Policy Draft, which is being designed with the hopes of creating an equitable and supportive additional PTO pool for potential additional COVID related absences. In addition, the GRS Foundation presented their quarterly report, and the committee explored strategies for supporting the GRS Leadership team on visible and transparent spending. The committee is actively seeking more members to support the work of our Finance Committee Action Plan. Next meeting: Tuesday, November 9th at 4:15pm. Email: resources@greatriverschool.org.

  • The Student Experience Committee discussed recruitment strategies and partnerships, planned to introduce members of the School Board to students at UA and LA community meetings, and discussed next Action Items towards achieving the goals of the Student Experience Committee Action Plan. Next meeting: Thursday, November 11th at 4:00pm. Email: sec@greatriverschool.org.

  • The Policy Working Group is actively seeking more members. Contact faculty member, Sarah Hansen (shansen@greatriverschool.org), parent member, Mike Hang (mhang@greatriverschool.org), or policy@greatriverschool.org in order to learn more. Next meeting: Wednesday, November 17th at 4:30pm. 

Thank You Parent Volunteers! Volunteer Morning & Harvest Fest Pictures

We are grateful to our parent volunteers for helping us build a community-minded school!

Volunteer Morning - October 2nd

written by Brent Cummins, Outdoor Education Director
On October 2nd, we had over 40 volunteers (adults and students) spend their Saturday morning making our outdoor spaces beautiful, more useful, and sustainable.

Here are the things we got accomplished in just 3 hours:

  • Installed new mural in garden painted by students and Juxtaposition Arts

  • Built and installed Octagonal Bench for community meetings and workshops

  • Installed donated round metal tables in the Zen Garden

  • Moved picnic tables for lunch

  • Put landscape cloth down and spread woodchip pile

  • Trimmed the crabapple tree

  • Picked up trash

  • Weeded the garden areas

Thank you to all that gave their time and talents for our community!

Harvest Fest - October 16th

On October 16th, we hosted our annual Harvest Fest on campus. Community members had the chance to listen to some amazing student musicians, along with local singer/songwriter Mayyadda on our Outdoor Coffeehouse stage. Families and students had their pick from fun fall activities like apple cider-pressing, leaf crown or bird feeder making, body art stations, and of course, our traditional community stone soup.

Thank you to the many volunteers who made this event such a success!

Indigenous Histories and Futures

Over the past several weeks, 10th years have engaged with place based learned centering Indigenous History and Futures. The experience began with a school visit from the local musician/poet/activist Tufawon (Spirit Lake / Boricua). After that, students visited the MIA and took part in a workshop with local artist Marlena Myles (Spirit Lake). Students finished their experience by visiting the Native Cemetery at Indian Mounds Regional Park and the soon to be built site of the Wakan Tipi Center at Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary.

Lower Adolescent: Creativity, Action, Service, & Montessori

written by Tami Limberg, Lower Adolescent Program Director

CAS (Creativity, Action, and Service) is a key part of what we do at Great River School and it comes straight from the Montessori Pedagogy that Montessori wrote over 100 years ago.  The pedagogy that she wrote has been organized into what Montessorians refer to as the Montessori Syllabus.  It is organized into three parts: one -self-expression, two - psychic development, and three - preparation for adult life.  It’s part one where the CAS pedagogy comes from.

Laurie Ewer- Krocker in the North American Montessori Training for Adolescents wrote:

Part One: The opening up of ways of self-expression for the purpose of “the difficult development of the personality”

The adolescent needs to develop awareness of the qualities of being human and the discovery of what each person brings to society through their gifts of self-expression. Adolescents need to develop an inner self awareness and voice: to express what they think, what they see, what they understand, what they struggle with, what they love.

Self-expression needs an audience, other people to connect with and share appreciation of the human experience. Society as a whole is enriched by each person’s contribution and ability to freely express themselves.  All of the expressions that Montessori lists (music, poetry, writing, dance, art) are languages that bridge us to and allow us to see the beauty and value in the OTHER).

Couple that pedagogy with the International Baccalaureate’s aim to cultivate joy and significance and explore new possibilities while setting goals and reflecting in a variety of activities around three areas: Creativity, Action, and Service - Where our Lower and Upper Adolescent programs get the name of CAS.

Over the years Lower Adolescent CAS offerings have been adult-led, community member-led, and student-led!  They’ve included options like knitting, musical pit band, skating, broomball, fishing, sledding, soap making, and biking.  This current round of CAS boasts offerings of Running, 7.8 Theater Intensive Script Review, Service Learning, Natural Fiber Cordage, Board Games, Connecting with Nature, Pickle Ball, Embroidery, Jigsaw Puzzle Competition, LA GRS Song Book, Paper Crafts, Piñatas and Alebrijes, Reels and Squares, and Water Shoreline Clean-up.

Coming of the Universe in Upper Elementary: A Mathematical Universe

written by Craig Asche, Blue Earth guide

This is part of a series on the five Great Lessons in our newsletters. Follow this link for last month’s telling of the Lessons by Rachel Cupps, Minnehaha Creek guide.

The five Great Lessons, first heard each year in Lower Elementary, continue to be retold each year in Upper Elementary with a deeper dive and more opportunities for students to integrate their studies back to these five cosmic stories: Coming of the Universe, Coming of Life, Coming of Humans, Story of Writing, and Story of Numbers.

Dr. Montessori once referred to the universe as a ‘mathematical universe.’ Observing Upper Elementary students transform their understanding of themselves and the universe by applying and integrating their Montessori math studies back to the Coming of the Universe story explains why. 

Hearing the Coming of the Universe story again, the Upper Elementary students often ask big questions, like:

  • “How can roughly 98% of all matter in the universe be the manifestation of the kinetic and potential energy of incredibly minute quarks spinning near the speed of light, and is my mass mostly made up of quark energy?”

  • “If quarks have a positive or negative charge and if three quarks make up a proton and three quarks make up a neutron, why do protons have a positive charge and neutrons have a neutral charge?”

  • “If the moon was smaller or larger, would it keep its orbit around the Earth?”

  • “Why do planets have their specific orbits around the sun, and why do some orbit the sun faster than others?”

The Montessori math work that the Upper Elementary students do in arithmetic, geometry, and algebra reconnects them with the ‘mathematical universe’ and answers these questions. Seeing students integrate their knowledge of square root; velocity; geometry of circles, ellipses, and spheres; powers; ratios and canceling units of measurement - all concepts that they discover working with Montessori materials - to determine the orbital velocity of satellites (both natural and human-made) and to understand how the universe creates systems of such amazing balance is... amazing!

Look out for some more amazing discoveries of the ‘mathematical universe’ by your children. They are in the ‘mathematical universe,’ and the ‘mathematical universe’ is in them. 

October Head of School Message

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written by David Núñez, Interim Head of School

Dear GRS Community,

Thank you all for playing your part in such a great start to the school year. 
As a new member to this community I have been deeply impressed with the dedication of the entire community to making this school a safe and welcoming place.

Because I know that COVID is still on the forefront of everyone's mind, this month I'm going to share a little information about one of the most effective and simplest COVID mitigation strategies we can do in our building: mask wearing.

To begin with, you should all know that here at GRS we have really high mask compliance.

However, we know that the virus that causes COVID-19 is thought to be mostly spread by respiratory droplets released when people talk, cough, or sneeze. It is vitally important that everyone in the building wear a well-fitting mask to stop these droplets from spreading to others.

Please have your children wear masks with two or more layers of tightly woven fabric. The blue surgical masks we have at the school for student use are better than cloth masks, and KN95 masks are even better than that.  But the key with a mask is not just how well it filters, but also that it fits well and is comfortable enough to wear all day.

Face coverings made of thinner, loosely woven, or single-layer fabric such as certain types of masks, scarves, neck gaiters, or bandannas are not as effective, and should only be used if nothing else is available. If you wear a scarf or neck gaiter for warmth, also wear a mask underneath it.

Any masks that incorporate a valve that is designed to facilitate easy exhaling, mesh masks, or masks with openings, holes, visible gaps in the design or material, or vents are NOT sufficient face coverings because they allow droplets to be released from the mask.

A few great tips for mask usage are:

  • Wash your hands before putting on your mask and after taking it off.

  • A mask must cover the nose and mouth completely and fit snugly against your face without gaps. The mask should not be overly tight or restrictive and should feel comfortable to wear.

  • Do NOT touch the mask when wearing it. If you often have to touch or adjust your mask, it does not fit you properly and you may need to find a different mask or make adjustments.

  • Wash your mask after each time you wear it, or if its disposable, get a new one!

Here's a review from the New York Times on recommended masks!

And remember if you are unable to afford masks for your kids, we will give them a mask so they can enter the building.

Thanks for reading!

Peace,
David

School Kitchen and Climate Change

written by Leo Tangness, Lower Adolescent student

Great River School (GRS) has a kitchen because it reduces greenhouse gasses and carbon footprint that contribute to climate change by providing natural and fresh produce and meats. This is true because GRS sources the food that is locally grown, such as produce and meats, from area farmers.  This is important because it reduces the amount of carbon footprint and decreases the amount of food travel mileage. It also helps because the animals they use are naturally grown and fed instead of feeding the animals antibiotics and unnatural diets such as corn to grow and produce large amounts of animal meat.  The naturally grown food is also better because the farmers do not use industrial concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs). Also, the farmers humanely butcher the animals. Therefore, having a kitchen and using local growers help decrease carbon footprint and climate change.   

“Love the Land, Love Yourself” Mural Project

written by Scott Alsleben, Lower Adolescent science guide

Happy Fall to all Great River School Students and Families! 

This past spring a group of adolescent BIPoC students had an opportunity to work with Juxtaposition Arts on a collaborative mural project for our urban farm. The project was completed at the very end of the 2020-2021 school year and we are excited to finally show the community the finished product! Come on by to GRS at Harvest Fest and see the mural at its new home in the garden.

In May 2021 students worked with resident Juxtaposition Arts artist Hawwa Youngmark to create an absolutely stunning mural that will live in our garden as a reminder that all are welcome here. 

The summer of 2020 triggered lots of emotions and revealed many ways that our society is unjust and inequitable in regards to race and culture. In a white supremacist culture, inequalitites run deep, specifically in access to land and agriculture. Black, Indigenous, people of color land matters. As a response to this, a collaboration project was born. One of the goal of this collaboration was to make a mural that represents culture, food, traditions, heritage, history, science, and peoples’ connections to the land. Another goal was to provide an opportunity for our students that identify as BiPoC to connect with the land and work in the urban farm program.

Love the Land, Love Yourself.

Revolution is based on land. Land is the basis of all independence. Land is the basis of freedom, justice, and equality.

-Malcolm X

GRS Foundation Fundraising Info-Social

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Come connect with other parents passionate about supporting GRS programs and mission! The Great River School Foundation needs parents, caregivers, and community members who are willing to share their time and their skills (and get to know other parents too!) in support of Great River School. Join us for the Info-Social so you can get to know the Foundation and we can get to know you.

GRS Foundation Fundraising Info-Social
6:30-7:30 pm, Monday, October 25, via Zoom
RSVP here!

The GRS Foundation raises funds for our tuition-free public school. As a charter school, Great River receives 87 cents for every dollar received by district public schools. We count on our school community to help make up for that gap. Families that give monthly make the biggest difference in Great River School fundraising by offering a consistent and reliable source of funds—no amount is too big or too small. Sign up to give here.

Questions? Contact foundation@greatriverschool.org.

In gratitude,

GRS Foundation Board Members: Jenny Thompson, Eric White, Katie Togramajian, Natalie Buckman, and Anne Parker