Cosmic Education: The universe around them

written by Sonja Olson, Minnesota River guide

"Let us give the children a vision of the universe…an imposing reality and the answer to all questions."

~ Dr. Maria Montessori in “To Educate the Human Potential”

“When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe.”  John Muir

Cosmic Education is the foundation of Montessori pedagogy. It shows the child how all things in the universe are interconnected and have purpose. Cosmic education goes beyond memorizing math facts or knowing the difference between a noun and a verb. Children will definitely learn those things, but as they do so they will also develop into a whole individual who is aware of their place within the universe. It may sound lofty, because it is and it happens everyday in the classroom!  

Cosmic education begins immediately. Dr. Montessori believed teaching Cosmic Education was vital even when working with the very young. It informs how the adult interacts with the child, and how the child interacts with the world. From birth to age 6, children build an understanding of their environment through nature and sensorial experiences. They refine their senses and gain confidence in themselves and their immediate community. They absorb everything.

In elementary, children begin to reason. Their world becomes larger and expands beyond the home. Children begin to see repeating cycles in nature, shared fundamental needs of all humans throughout time, and how everything has a cosmic task that serves the health of the whole. These ideas are shared through stories, or what is referred to as the five Great Lessons which include:

  • The Creation of the Universe

  • The Coming of Life

  • The Story of Human Beings

  • The Story of Communication

  • The Story of Numbers

The Great Lessons form the overarching framework of the Montessori curriculum. Just as everything particle, species, and event is interconnected, so are subjects of history, science, math, language, geometry and biology. A beautiful illustration of this is an interaction I had with a student a few years ago. The student, a first year at the time, had brought in a black feather and wanted to donate it to the classroom as a specimen to study. I thanked them and asked them on which shelf should they place the feather. They began to walk around the room and reason out loud. It could go on the zoology shelf for obvious reasons, but it also could go on the botany shelf because birds spread seeds. It could also go on the language shelf because feathers were used to make quills. In the end they decided to place it on the history shelf because humans have used feathers for many things like arrows, but it also shows evolution because the dinosaurs probably had feathers. The feather still lives on the history shelf.

The influence of Cosmic Education continues through adolescence and adulthood. Students are aware of prior civilizations and are grateful for the contributions of others. They become more socially aware, independent, and active as a citizen of the human race. Understanding the depth of the interconnectedness of all things, students advocate for social justice and the environment on a local and global scale. 

Cosmic education is providing students with a key to open the universe and by doing so gives them the tools to discover their cosmic task within it. 

No matter what we touch, an atom, or a cell, we cannot explain it without knowledge of the wide universe…A greater curiosity arises, which can never be satiated; so will last through a lifetime.  The laws governing the universe can be made interesting and wonderful to the child…and he begins to ask:  What am I?  What is the task of man in this wonderful universe?  Do we merely live here for ourselves, or is there something more for us to do?

Dr. Maria Montessori, To Educate the Human Potential, 1947

Thank you for your service, Jeni!

This month we are highlighting outgoing School Board President, Jeni Williams! Jeni has served on the School Board since 2019 and served as the GRS School Board President since April 2020. Arguably, these years were the most challenging years on record for any School Board president; serving the role as a parent volunteer during seasons of pandemics, social change, and leadership transitions undoubtedly added an extra level of spice. 

It is difficult to put into words the amount of gratitude we hold for Jeni and the exemplary servant leadership she exhibited throughout her term. In terms of numbers, Jeni led thousands of minutes of Executive Committee, School Board, and Emergency meetings; she made a positive impact on the lives of all of our children by ensuring they had a stable and functioning school ecosystem to grow in. Jeni- thank you, thank you, thank you for your remarkable service as School Board President!

Jeni officially retired from the School Board on February 28th, 2023. Jeni took time this month to sit down with Lindsey Weaver, IB Coordinator and fellow former Executive Committee member, as Jeni reflected on her term. Lindsey used the 10 traits of the IB Learner Profile to structure the interview.

LW: In your role as President during an exciting (but challenging) season of unexpected events and transitions for GRS, you led School Board meetings, Executive Committee meetings, and various emergency meetings as the School Board navigated complex issues. You also led major collaboration and communication efforts with our wider community.  Is there one trait you feel you and the School Board grew most in during this unique term?

JW: Amazing to consider how much has happened since I was sworn in at the beginning of the 2019-2020 school year - it seems like a decade ago! When I look at the IB traits, I can legitimately find instances of where we, as the GRS Board, had to use every single one, depending on which (dare I say it?) unprecedented question or task we were facing. Looking back all of this time, I’m going to select Reflective as the one trait our GRS Board has grown most in from 2019 through today. We witnessed through the many aspects of the GRS community how we all impact each other, and have actively worked to incorporate that awareness into our reflections of how to best serve our school and community in our Board roles, while also thoughtfully considering what impact our actions and responses have on the GRS world.

LW: Arguably, the trait most relevant for the years you served was, “Risk-Taker: Approaching uncertainty with forethought and determination; working independently and collaboratively to explore new ideas and innovative strategies; being resourceful and resilient in the face of challenges and change.” How do you see Risk-Taking fitting both your decision to accept the President role in 2020 and  throughout your term?

Jeni Williams: First of all, I really appreciate that definition of Risk-Taker, as that is not how I would describe that trait outside of IB. That really helps me see risk-taking in that context. Choosing to accept the position of Board Chair when the need arose definitely required that I flex all of those IB Risk-Taker traits. And through the past few years, I have had to call a lot on aspects of resilience and resourcefulness to stay present to our GRS community’s array of needs, while also being accountable to our legal, financial, regulatory and authorizer requirements. I have enjoyed seeing our GRS Board Members and community rise to the challenges of exploring new ideas and innovative challenges together and if I helped play any part in facilitating that, I’m incredibly grateful.

I’d like to embody Risk-Taking one more time here and challenge the perspective that Risk-Taking was the most relevant IB Trait during my term, however. I have learned what can only be learned by participating in the GRS Board - that the IB Trait of “Principled” is what helps all of us on the GRS Board keep moving forward when things are challenging. And they have been so very challenging. But I, and the wonderful GRS Board members with whom I have served, have acted with integrity and honesty, calling in our strong sense of fairness and justice with an understanding of our responsibility to our school and community - often needing to leave our own personal perspective outside of the Board at the door and consider our duty to the school. We have endeavored to respect the dignity and rights of our GRS community while also knowing we would have decisions that would not be welcomed universally. As Board Chair, I  have worked to ensure I take responsibility for my and the Board’s decisions and their consequences.

LW: What advice or insight might you have for future School Board members around “Balance: We understand the importance of balancing different aspects of our lives…we recognize our interdependence with other people and the world in which we live?”

JW: In terms of interdependence, Board members depend on each other and our GRS Administration and partners, including our authorizer. They also depend on us to serve our duty well. While we are meeting together, we are making real change that impacts our GRS community. We must put on our Board hats and work to think critically and balance our individual perspective with that of our Board role and what serves GRS’s requirements and charter, mission and vision best.  

In addition, we invest a lot of time during our Board term! So understanding the importance of our volunteer Board role and ensuring we can balance our lives with our Board commitment can help ensure a successful term; hopefully all board members can depart when their term ends feeling that they have served with integrity and feel proud of their work.

LW: As you Reflect on your 3 years as School Board President, what are you most proud of? What do you see as the next challenges and opportunities for GRS and the School Board?

JW: I’m so proud of our GRS Board. We have weathered a lot together. We have stepped up and faced these years of challenges with integrity and openness to learning as everything changed. I’ll say that, as I reflect back on the past 3.5 years, I am most proud of two things - one, that we successfully made our meetings more accessible by committing to a hybrid (onsite & virtual) meeting option consistently, and when we received feedback about audio challenges, we now ensure we have closed captioning / transcript on consistently as well. Second - of course - that we as a Board were courageous enough to ensure we did a methodical and thorough search for our new Head of School - and that our school could attract someone as phenomenal as David Nunez! 

In terms of next challenges and opportunities -  we always need more volunteers! Now that we have moved to two-year terms, it is even more important that our GRS Community gets involved. I hope everyone reading this, especially GRS caregivers, considers serving a term or two to help our GRS Community stay strong.

Holly's Huddle - March 2023

Written by Holly Bell, Director of First Impressions

Greetings to YOU! Two questions that I’ve gotten quite often are…. Why do you take photos of sports? and Why do you like sports so much?

Let me tell you a little background about:  me taking photos of sports events. I’ve been entertaining myself in this way since the fall of 2008. It’s been a minute! And, I’ve only ever taken sports images of the GRS teams! “Back in the day” (15 years ago), I was working for a different school which was a member of the same sports consortium that GRS belongs to (grouping of more than one charter schools to get enough players for a team). Then, the school I was working for dropped out of the consortium for reasons I heartily disagreed with, but that’s a different story. I continued following the team and I’m really glad that I did! Over the years, I’ve met and worked with some pretty amazing student athletes. Does anyone remember Donovan O’Dowd who had several beautiful 3-point shots? I name him as an example since he still worked here up until last year.

When I first started this hobby, I would download all of the photos from a season to cds. Then, at the banquet at the end of the season, I would gift a set of cds to each player, each coach and the yearbook team of each school. All of that just seemed like the right thing to do even though I wasn’t related to any of the players. Nowadays, I have a google folder set up for each sport and I just share it with people throughout the season. It makes me smile to fortify the connection between myself and the players and coaches. By gifting the photos, I am able to bring joy to so many people, and it helps me to feel good, too.. 

Why sports? Because they happen fairly regularly. If I have something on my calendar for one game, I know that I can always catch a different game in that season. I also took photos of plays and concerts, but they didn’t happen nearly as often. Frequency is the main reason it looks like I prefer sports. I do admit, however, that I was raised to watch men’s college hoops because my father was the manager of the Iowa State Cyclones men’s basketball team. That’s just what we did. March Madness!! (The other thing I did each year with my father when I was growing up was to enter Hoard’s Dairyman’s annual dairy cattle judging contest. He taught me a lot about cow structure.)

Over the years, I’ve gotten lots of positive feedback about these gifts of photography. It’s not so much about the gift, but more about the emotion and intention behind it. I keep reading articles about today’s society where many people have feelings of isolation and loneliness. Whether it’s a result of the pandemic or not, I hope to do my part to help people to feel seen, respected and valued. What is the most memorable thing you have ever received?

On we go,

Holly

Midsummer Night's Dream Theatre Intensive, Thurs., March. 16, 2023

Theater Intensive is back for 7th and 8th grade families! This year we will be putting on Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Like last year we are splitting the students into three cohorts, each cohort consisting of about 40 students working over the course of five weeks. Students will participate in the Theater Intensive during Humanities/Occupations time (9:45-11:10) and on Wednesday afternoons.

Theater Rotation 2
February 15 - March 17, 2023
Performance Date: March 16, 2023
2pm (for GRS students) & 6pm (for families)

The Play

A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a play with a great many themes: magic, misunderstanding, dreams, but regardless of the production, cast or vision, the theme of love is one that cannot be ignored. Additionally as one of Shakespeare’s conceptually lightest and most overtly magical works, A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a ball of endless possibilities when approaching it as a director. Hawken Paul’s goal as a director is to highlight love as an overarching theme across each different plot line within the story, and for each of our three productions to approach the story’s magical elements with an entirely different lens of understanding. Most importantly however, his goal as a director is to create a rehearsal space that his actors are excited to express themselves in and bring ideas of their own as well.

And…introducing Hawken Paul, Theater Director!

Originally hailing from New York City, Hawken moved to Minnesota in 2020 after graduating from St. Olaf College with a Bachelor’s of Music Degree in Violin Performance. Currently a Twin Cities-based teaching artist and actor, Hawken has performed with Sidekick Theatre, Off-Broadway Musical Theatre, and the Guthrie Theatre, and has taught with the Children’s Theatre Company, and the Minnesota Institute for Talented Youth. Hawken is super excited to be making his directing debut with Great River School, and is looking forward to introducing this timeless story to the next generation of young actors!

Looking forward to seeing you all at the show!

Volunteers Needed!
We need your volunteer help! Here's your chance to get an inside look at the shows and all the amazing work that goes into each production. It's also a great way to fulfill your 20 volunteer hours for the school year. Parent volunteers are an essential part of a success for our students. Sign up here to help, and thanks for making GRS such a wonderful school! 

Click here to Volunteer!

March 2023 Head of School Message

written by David Núñez, Interim Head of School

Dear GRS Community,

I wanted to start my message this month by reminding you all that the Blue Heron Bash is coming up!  I, for one, am really excited, as I had a great time last year! This is Great River’s biggest fundraiser of the year, but even if you can’t make it, everyone can enjoy friendly bidding on great gatherings, and amazing items in our online auction. The money raised by the Blue Heron Bash is used to support all of the amazing programs that make GRS so special. To see more details, check out the BHB website. We hope to see you there! 

You should have gotten report cards in the last couple weeks.  We usually get a number of questions about why our report cards look the way they do.  In the Elementary, we offer full narratives on your students' progress.  In the Adolescent Program, we have a 7 point rubric for grading, it can be found linked here, and this document shows you the details of each rubric ranking.

March is also testing season in the state of Minnesota and we will soon be starting MCA testing at GRS.  I know many of you have some strong feelings about standardized testing (as I do as an educator), but between the gaps in our data collection from the pandemic and the impacts these test scores can have on the school’s long range finances, we do encourage students to take the test and to try their very best.

Finally, March is Women’s History Month, and as I always say, we encourage the celebration and centering of underrepresented voices at all times at Great River.  However, Women’s History Month is a time to celebrate the vital role of women in American history and highlight the accomplishments of people who identify as women!  Jordan Samejima, our Equity and Inclusion Facilitator will be sharing resources with staff throughout the month to support their growth and support active, positive engagement in Women’s History Month in our classrooms.

Thank you all for all that you do to make our community a better place.

Peace,

David

Support Great River School

Over the next two weeks, you will see emails and posts emphasizing the importance of giving to support the unique learning opportunities and life-changing experiences that define the Great River education, from Montessori educational materials and athletic equipment to food for classroom pets and camping gear. There are many ways to support Great River:

  • *Become a monthly sustainer (sustainers make the biggest impact by providing a consistent and reliable source of funds!)

  • *Give a one-time gift *Check with your employer about matching gifts— some employers also give monetary gifts based on your volunteer hours

  • *Collect Box Tops for Education

  • *Shop using Amazon Smile (the program is active through the end of this month)

  • *Volunteer—your time and talents are important contributions All of our giving options can be found at https://www.greatriverschool.org/give.

Please consider how you can contribute to our giving community. We encourage families to participate at the level they can afford.

Blue Heron Bash 2023!

Blue Heron Bash is just around the corner and you're probably looking for a fun, entertaining way to support the school and to build the GRS community! Consider hosting a Great Gathering this year!

Great Gatherings are fixed-price social events that bring people together while raising money for our school. We are looking to add new hosts and experiences. Please consider hosting an event as a fun way to connect with other GRS families!

Examples of Great Gatherings from the past included family events like pancakes in the park, brewery tours, back yard movies, or puzzle and game nights; parent-only events like wine and cheese, themed dinners, a moms weekend at a cabin; and workshops -how to make kimchi, woodworking, yoga. Host by yourself, or co-host with a friend or two! Really, any opportunity to get together can be a Great Gathering!

Here's the google form to register your gathering idea -we'll be offering the gatherings for folks to sign up to attend at the Blue Heron Bash, but you can plan your event for any time in the next 12 months.

https://docs.google.com/.../1jAlwTjMmfu3eNDR9izoG.../prefill

Questions? Ideas? Feedback? Email greatgatherings@greatriverschool.org

Heron's Nest Updates and Information - February

Heron’s Nest

"At Great River School, we believe that food is a connector. The food we eat not only nourishes our bodies, it reminds us of people and places, it connects us to the land." 

Thank you to UMN student Molly Farrell for showcasing the amazing work Mel and the rest of the Heron crew do on everyday here at Great River School. Molly highlights our focus on sustainable food systems and supporting students to build culinary skills in our kitchen.

Her fellow UMN intern Sylvia Michael created culinary curriculum posters to be used in GRS's experiential kitchen courses. 

Click here to read a reflection from Molly on her time at Great River and to learn more about how you can support Great River students building culinary skills in the kitchen! 

Just a friendly reminder, don’t forget to pre-order lunches each week for your students. When you pre-order your student’s lunches, Mel and the staff in the Heron’s Nest Kitchen are better prepared, and are able to ensure the right amount of supplies are ordered. In addition, it helps the Heron’s Nest Crew know how many students will be having lunch on any given day.
Need breakfast in the morning? No problem! The Heron’s Nest also has Breakfast options available for students and faculty. Breakfast is available to pre-order on the School payment portal.

Check out the Quarter 3 menu Below:

11th and 12th Grade CAS Internships

written by Lindsey Weaver, IB Math Guide

Anika Overvoorde and Isaiah Benti-Novotny, Grade 12, student interns at U of M Horticulture Labs

Picture by Professor Julie Grossman

As you may know, 11th and 12th-grade engage in on and off-site CAS (Creativity-Activity-Service) experiences on Wednesday afternoons. CAS Wednesday experiences are experiences interning, working, or volunteering within Great River School or another organization.

We want to highlight some of the organizations and internships our students are involved with. Here is a snapshot! 

  • Art Studios in Saint Paul

  • Bee Lab at U of M

  • Bell Museum

  • Best Buy Teen Tech Center

  • Brassa

  • Cahoots Coffee

  • Chipotle

  • District 10 Community Council

  • Horticulture Lab at U of M

  • Feline Rescue

  • Forestry Lab at U of M

  • GRS Internal Internships: Ceramics Studio, Community Meeting Crew, Student Wellness and Equity, Community Service Club, Elementary Classrooms, Theater, Newspaper, Grounds Crew, and Zine Production

  • GRS Community Dog Care

  • Hamline-Midway Library

  • Listen Up! Radio

  • Loaves and Fishes

  • Loppet Foundation

  • Macalester College and Concordia St. Paul Strength and Conditioning

  • MN State Representative, Kaohly Her

  • Red Balloon Bookshop

  • Robotics Idea Lab at GRS

  • Saint Paul School of Northern Lights

  • SAP Pre-school

  • Science Museum of Minnesota

  • St. Thomas University Science Labs

  • United Hospital in Saint Paul

  • YMCA Midway

Number Fluency and the Mathematical Mind

written by Bailey Taylor, Otter Tail guide

The human mind is inherently mathematical. Mario Montessori described mathematics as the ‘second language of man’, and the word itself comes from the Greek word ‘to learn’. Creating order within the mind is the developmental imperative of the elementary child, and it is through work that is naturally precise that the child builds up the powers of reasoning and imagination, or abstraction. 


Montessori children understand not only the process of an operation, but why it is so, because they have explored it with the materials, and when a child discovers these patterns for themselves, it is a joyful experience.  For example, elementary children are positively tickled when they find that fraction division results in a larger quotient than the number they began with, while division of whole numbers will always equal a smaller one. 

It is this creative repetition that results in what we call number fluency, which means a child can think flexibly about numbers, much as they would if they grew from parroting foreign phrases to the mastery of a new language. Any of us who have experienced learning a new language know how taxing it can be to carry on a conversation while decoding or translating each word or phrase. A child with mathematical fluency will revel at the patterns in cubing, but the child who is skip-counting their way through the first term in the formula will not have the same opportunity. 

The last few years have challenged our children’s natural construction of the mathematical mind, and this fall we have had to get creative as we both build back fluency and continue to explore complex patterns with numbers. In upper elementary, we have focused on automaticity with operations. Like everything we do, we have approached this task with the developmental characteristics of the elementary child in mind, and what does a child love more than a challenge and a race against time? This winter Great River students have been experimenting with completing as many facts as they can in three minutes, and throughout the work cycle you can hear children exclaim to their friends “time me again, I think I can get a few more on this one!”  

You can look forward to hearing about how this work is going for your child in their upcoming progress report, and we should continue to invest our precious time and energy in the development of fluency both at home and at school this year, so that everyone has the opportunity to experience the joy that comes with the construction of the mathematical mind! 

Midsummer Night's Dream Theatre Intensive, Thurs., Feb. 9, 2023

Theater Intensive is back for 7th and 8th grade families! This year we will be putting on Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Like last year we are splitting the students into three cohorts, each cohort consisting of about 40 students working over the course of five weeks. Students will participate in the Theater Intensive during Humanities/Occupations time (9:45-11:10) and on Wednesday afternoons.

Theater Rotation 1
January 17 - February 14, 2023
Performance Date: February 9, 2023
2pm (for GRS students) & 6pm (for families)

The Play

A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a play with a great many themes: magic, misunderstanding, dreams, but regardless of the production, cast or vision, the theme of love is one that cannot be ignored. Additionally as one of Shakespeare’s conceptually lightest and most overtly magical works, A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a ball of endless possibilities when approaching it as a director. My goal as a director is to highlight love as an overarching theme across each different plot line within the story, and for each of our three productions to approach the story’s magical elements with an entirely different lens of understanding. Most importantly however, my goal as a director is to create a rehearsal space that my actors are excited to express themselves in and bring ideas of their own as well.

And…introducing Hawken Paul, Theater Director!

Originally hailing from New York City, Hawken moved to Minnesota in 2020 after graduating from St. Olaf College with a Bachelor’s of Music Degree in Violin Performance. Currently a Twin Cities-based teaching artist and actor, Hawken has performed with Sidekick Theatre, Off-Broadway Musical Theatre, and the Guthrie Theatre, and has taught with the Children’s Theatre Company, and the Minnesota Institute for Talented Youth. Hawken is super excited to be making his directing debut with Great River School, and is looking forward to introducing this timeless story to the next generation of young actors!

Looking forward to seeing you all at the show!

Volunteers Needed!
We need your volunteer help! Here's your chance to get an inside look at the shows and all the amazing work that goes into each production. It's also a great way to fulfill your 20 volunteer hours for the school year. Parent volunteers are an essential part of a success for our students. Sign up here to help, and thanks for making GRS such a wonderful school! 

Click here to Volunteer!

Meet our Great River Staff: Gina Kuhn

Gina Kuhn is Great River School's first Adolescent Program Assistant! Providing daily support for students and staff of the adolescent program, Gina is on the move all over Great River! She works hard to assist teachers and classrooms and enjoys collaborating with the administrative team. This semester, she is looking forward to continuing to facilitate logistics for the theater program. You might just find her checking in directly with students throughout the day or helping to plan key experiences.  Let’s get to know Gina!

Biography provided by Gina Kuhn, Adolescent Program Assistant

Having grown up in the Mojave desert, I naturally developed a profound respect for and connection to the immense wilderness of the sky. This deepened through the years and instilled a strong desire to live in close connection with the wildness of the Earth and stars. It is through a deep curiosity and love of learning which compels me to live with immense reverence and gratitude for all of nature, plants, and our human connection. I am a small business owner and belong to our community as an herbalist, writer, dreamer, song carrier, water protector, educator and mother. 

Working intimately with plants and medicinal herbalism has guided me to engage in a lifelong journey of exploration & growth. I have been studying plant medicine since 2009 where I first attended The North American Institute of Medicinal Herbalism in Boulder, Colorado. Although the plants have taken me many places alongside many teachers, it was upon relocating to Minnesota where I found a certain familiarity with the rhythm and spirit of the land. This beckoned me onto a quest for lost memories of the once wild spirit and awoke an ancient remembrance of how to be in direct relationship with the land and the plants that grow around us. It is here where I discovered the magic of living in such close proximity to the wild waters of Minnesota and found the importance of protecting the waters and the wild places of the Earth. 

My life has been a patchwork of passions in which I have been able to combine my background in education and my passion for the natural world to create many opportunities to lead with this heart work.

A diverse work history has led me both inside and outside of the classroom. I found an immense interest in supporting childhood development working as an Early Childhood Literacy Specialist early in my career. My time with The Wellness Initiative in Boulder, Colorado allowed me to spend my time in the most meaningful and joyful way; public school outreach bringing kid’s yoga programming into after school care programs. Here in the Twin Cities, I have enjoyed facilitating child-led nature walks for parents and preschoolers with Free Forest School. Highlighting wild exploration and unstructured play and discovery in nature for young developing minds. 

  In 2016, I started my business, The Ever Wild Herbal Company, to share my medicine making and work to help connect & empower folks on their journeys to develop unique ways to be in connection with the land and plants around them. It has been my privilege and honor to continue this work and help inspire youth to find and embrace a deeper connection within themselves and with our wild collective. 

A little more about me:

I value the relationship between ourselves and nature and strive to support all of us to be in a more meaningful relationship with the land. 

I am passionate about creating mindful & positive influence through learning and being an advocate within our community. 

I believe that we all have individual experiences and interpretations to share and learn from. These interactions are what bring us together cooperatively in our collective experience.

I am very interested in the power of owning and speaking one’s truth, which I find for myself through singing, dreamwork, teaching, and earth-based living. 

February 2023 Head of School Message

written by David Núñez, Interim Head of School

Dear GRS community,

As I am sure you are all aware, February is Black History Month!

What you may not know about is the work going on at Great River around equity and inclusion and some of the resources we use.  Like our entire community, our school is a place that is fraught with all the real challenges of racial justice in our time and place, here in the United States in 2023.  We know, as educators, that this fight is the work that is set before us, one of the most, if not the most important educational issue of our time.

Of course, here at Great River, we also believe that we should be celebrating and uplifting all identities throughout the year.  But in the case of Black History Month, Women’s History Month, Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, and other such celebratory events on our calendar it's a great time to sharpen our focus and these events are a great opportunity to have some very real conversations.

One of the current projects at Great River is the creation of an Equity Action Plan.  We’ve spent the last few months examining the results of last year’s equity audit and a team of educators and parents have been working with Equity Alliance MN to create an action plan for the school.  This plan is intended to drive forward concrete action in our community and also to be the cornerstone of our new 5-year Strategic Plan.

Also this year we have revamped the Student Wellness and Equity role at Great River to be our Equity and Inclusion Facilitator, a full member of our Leadership Team.  If you haven’t had the chance to meet or talk to Jordan Samejima, feel free to reach out to him.

A couple key reminders around Black History Month I share every year with the staff I work with are: 

  • This month is about celebrating and taking pride in the contributions of Black people, they should not use this month as the one time of year to bring up slavery, segregation and oppression.

  • They should not only teach about MLK, Rosa Parks, and other heroes the students have heard about again and again, if this is what the staff know about Black History they should be actively broadening their knowledge.

  • Staff should be teaching Black History with a lens on intersectional black identities.

Here at Great River we have a collection of resources that faculty use and share and Jordan and I will be sending weekly communications to staff this month with reminders and further resources.  Here are a few of the materials and articles we’ve compiled as a community, if you’re interested:

I am truly looking forward to celebrating this month with you and our entire GRS community. 

If you have any questions, concerns, ideas to add to our staff resource list, or comments, please let me know!

“The histories, stories, and voices of Black people should be centered, honored, and uplifted in school curricula every day. Today, we still see the absence of Black history and experience in most textbooks, required readings, STEM, and overall curriculum of our educational system. 

Unless Black history is taught throughout the year, it perpetuates an “othering” of Black Lives and Black students, and is also a manifestation of anti-Blackness. Ensuring the ongoing integration of Black history and experiences throughout all curriculum is imperative as educators continue to uplift every student and reinforce that Black Lives Matter every day.”

Source: https://centerracialjustice.org

Peace,

David

Holly's Huddle - February 2023

Written by Holly Bell, Director of First Impressions

Want to know what I think is fun? The silent auction part of the annual Blue Heron Bash celebration; this year the party is on Saturday, March 18th. I absolutely LOVE the silent auction because I get to learn about people and their hobbies. People sew quilts. People knit or crochet hats/scarves/mittens, etc.  People make jewelry and mugs or bowls. Others donate services - like cleaning, for instance! People paint and make art. People build furniture and birdhouses. People use all of their creative talents to share in the auction to raise money for our programs at GRS. What is the most creative thing you’ve made? Wouldn’t it be fun to donate an item to the silent auction for others to bid on? Just imagine how much your object will sell for! One of the best things (in my opinion) to bid on is artwork made by a student. You can see on the wall in my office that I adore art made by students.

I have a couple of silent auction strategies that I’ll share with you - if you promise not to use them against me. Once I “won” a vending machine because of my first strategy: be the first to bid on an object that no one else had bid on. (I sometimes feel badly for donations that don’t get bids.) Sometimes it seems like just one person needs to start the ball rolling for more bids to show up. Another strategy I use is to have a total dollar amount limit that I can spend - and keeping that in mind and to sticking with that number. It’s easy for me to outbid others when there’s something that I really want and I just need to keep my limit in mind. I have to struggle against the competition of the “game” getting the best of me. My third strategy is to make sure I see every item available for the silent auction. Sometimes the true treasure is just beyond the corner! Another strategy I’ve heard about is that many people “win” their bid by standing right next to the bid sheet (or by hovering over the object on-line) so that they’ll know right away if someone outbids them. Do you have strategies to win items at a silent auction?

Have you ever heard of the saying that one man’s junk is another man’s treasure? Silent auctions remind me of that quote. Maybe I’ve made something that I don’t particularly like or it’s not as beautiful as I had imagined. I could donate the item to the silent auction to see if someone would bid on it. Every little bit helps the school in the long run. Take a look around you to see if there is something you could make or donate to the silent auction. Let’s get lots of variety available! I’m taking this weekend as an opportunity to gather things together before the sale starts. How about you?

On we go,

Holly

Meet our Great River Staff: Aja Parham

Aja comes to Great River from the American Heart Association, where she worked as a Development Coordinator in Michigan before moving back to her home state of Minnesota. Aja is new to Great River this year in her role as Communications Coordinator. She is working daily on finding ways to improve the past communication processes, and discover ways the communication between the GRS community and the School can best serve the needs of all our families at Great River! She has some great ideas and is excited about 2023! She is looking forward to knowing more about Great River through her role. Get to know Aja!

Biography provided by Aja Parham, Communications Coordinator

Hi there! My name is Aja, pronounced [Ay-zhuh] and if you ever need help remembering or pronouncing my name, my parents named me after the 1977 titled album “Aja” by Steely Dan. I may be biased, but it is a pretty great song :-) Take a listen here: Steely Dan's "Aja"

I joined Great River in August and was thankful that the former Communications Coordinator set me up for success in my role. Since starting I have learned more about the GRS community, the history and it makes me so happy to be in an environment where everyone helps out as a community so all others can succeed. As the Communications Coordinator, I plan to get a better understanding of what the GRS families and faculty need to better communicate the great things going on at GRS. I love writing as well as learning new things so I am happy to be here in this role.

My Background
After graduating from the University of Minnesota with a Bachelor of Music degree in Vocal Performance, I went on to perform with the Minnesota Opera, Skylark Opera, Penumbra Theatre, and the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts. After a time, I rekindled my love of Jazz, R&B, Funk, and Motown, and started performing as a freelance vocalist throughout the Twin Cities. In addition to performing, I have taught voice lessons since 2010.

In addition to being Communications Coordinator, I am mom to 1st year student, Asa in Minnesota River. Asa, also new to Great River, is excited everyday to go to school, has learned so much, and is very supported here. I love the fact that he is thriving and comes home everyday wanting to talk about friends, activities, and those adults that have helped him throughout the day. He loves it here and I look forward to watching him grow in the GRS community.

Lastly, on top of being a mom and being Communications Coordinator, I am also all things entertainment! I am a singer, voice teacher, actress, vegan baker, photographer and a Photoshop and graphic design enthusiast. Singing since I was little and both singing and acting professionally since 15 years old, music is very important to me. I like to bring creativity into each of my workplaces, so you may catch me at my desk listening to or humming any number of songs. Currently, I’m a freelance vocalist often singing with various artists and groups in the Twin Cities. If you like live music, try to catch me at some of my shows in the Twin Cities singing with the Capri Big Band, Kashimana Ahua, Lake Harriet Bandshell, or The Twin Cities Jazz Festival. In addition to performing, I have been a clinician for 3 years and co-conducted a Vocal Jazz workshop in 2014 and 2015 with the former Dakota Jazz Foundation for Education.  If you want to know further about my music, please catch me in the halls of GRS.

For some fun things about me, please check out my websites below:

Babyshopped website (My Graphic design + website)
https://aja-parham.squarespace.com/

My Youtube Channel: Aja Darrah
https://www.youtube.com/user/babyleontyne13/videos?view_as=subscriber

Holly's Huddle - January 2023

Written by Holly Bell, Director of First Impressions

Happy New Year!!

Have you ever heard about a challenge that a friend is dealing with and you’re not in a position (financial, in this case) to help? It requires some brainstorming. You may have heard about this, but I have a co-worker (Nat Lutterman) who is working on such a challenge. Nat pays our bills at Great River School - a crucial role for the school. She has two dogs; and one (the littlest, and oldest at 3.5 years old) is having problems holding food down. He throws up frequently throughout the day (and night). I love animals - that’s not breaking news, I know. And I feel like humans must be advocates for animals. 

HA! My sister jokes about how I love animals so much that I birthed a veterinarian. Now THAT’S funny! Sure, my son had a good idea about what he wanted to be when he grew up… from about the age of 3, but he certainly didn’t verbalize that at birth. Wouldn’t it have been funny, though, if when he was born that he and I were in cahoots so specifically about his future? She also jokes that I have so much animal magnetism that when I go outside, squirrels stick to me. THAT would be silly - and frustrating!

Back to Jupi (Drops of Jupiter), Nat’s dog. Isn’t he cute? I want to know what’s keeping him from digesting his food properly. I know (from birthing a veterinarian) that tests are NOT cheap - for humans or pets. And, I know how important Jupi is to Nat. I believe that pets are part of the family, like children from another mother. I imagine that some people love their pets more than they love some human family members, but I don’t want to huddle about that. I finally thought of starting a GoFundMe for Jupi’s medical expenses. He’s got a BIG test coming up on January 12th at the U and it’ll be pretty pricey. (It’ll be all over by the time you are reading this huddle; I’m crossing my fingers that some answer will be found.) I’m pleased to see that as the word gets out, that we’re getting closer to the goal I set. Please spread the word with me. I thank you.

So what can you do to help a friend who maybe hasn’t got the resources to help themselves? You can brainstorm with them about solutions to the challenge. You can talk to other people who might know more about strategies than you do or who maybe have more experience with the specific challenge than you do. I think that asking for help from others is always one way to move forward to help your friend. However you decide to help your friend, your support will be noticed and remembered by them. And supporting friends feels pretty good! That saying about “It takes a village...” is true for more than just raising children.

On we go,

Holly

January 2023 Head of School Message

written by David Núñez, Interim Head of School

Dear GRS Community,

Welcome to the new year!  Coming out of a long break followed by two snow days means we’re all just getting back into our routines, but I know we at GRS are all excited that the students are back and I think deep inside they’re happy to get back into it as well!

I wanted to share with you all that the staff has been doing some work around Key Experiences this month.  In the fall, the Leadership Team was discussing why we do these trips and we realized that with all our new staff we could use some community time talking about why these trips are so essential to who we are as a school and a community.  Also, we want to get a jump start on planning next year’s trips!

The Leadership Team started this exploration by putting together a list of the reasons why we think that Key Experiences are such an important part of what we do.  Then, in December, the entire staff gathered together to talk about the “why” behind our Key Experiences and now, in January we are starting the planning for the remainder of this year’s experiences and trying to get into the planning for key experiences for the Fall of 2023.

 Here’s the “why” we came up with as a team:

  1. Pedagogy of Place - Our key experiences are important because we are able to learn from the places we go to launch and enrich our curriculum.

  2. Shared History - Here at GRS students take the memories of their key experiences with them both as experiential learning but even more so as a shared history that they all hold as a community.  It builds our culture as a school and allows us to build something new together.

  3. Social Emotional Learning - Our Key Experiences build the relationships between guides and students, and between the students themselves.  During Key Experiences students engage every moment in problem solving, learning to interact and be together, work in a team, bond, and resolve conflict.

  4. Independence - As follows directly from Maria Montessori’s writings, removing a child from their regular surroundings and their families helps build their independence as they construct their own learning in a new and unique situation.

  5. Interdependence - Also a tenet of Montessori learning, when students appreciate that they are an interdependent part of a larger system with others and with place they grow and learn about their world.

  6. Rising to a Challenge - These trips build resilience in our students by helping them move out of their comfort zones.

  7. Connection to the Outdoors - We as a community value the experiences and skills in the outdoors that students gain from these trips. Also, these trips allow some students who might not otherwise have it gain access to the outdoors.

  8. Observations - Adults are able to observe and get to know students in a way that will help us set the students up for success throughout the year.

  9. Building Confidence and Valorization of the Individual - Students get built up and see themselves as a valuable aspect of our community.

  10. And finally, Having Fun!

I’m also excited to share, if you don’t already know, that our 3rd year students will be going on a key experience trip to Eagle Bluff Environmental Center for a 2-night stay from May 31-June 2 for the first time this year!  This trip will be designed to help prepare our 3rd graders for a five day Key Experience in their fourth year.  We are all really excited to be including 3rd graders in our Key Experiences and know that they’re going to have a great time!

I hope you are all staying warm this winter.

Peace,

David

Congratulations! 12th Grade IB Diploma Students complete their Extended Research Projects!

Please join us in congratulating these 20 seniors on the completion of their IB Diploma Extended Essay Research Projects! We have included a list of the amazing research questions studied and what their authors are most proud of below. Take a look at all the Class of 2023 - IB Extended Essays

If you see them, tell them congratulations!

December 2022 Head of School Message

written by David Núñez, Interim Head of School

Dear GRS Community,

December was a short month with a long break here at Great River.  I wish you all a wonderful break and hope that you all got to spend some time together and celebrate in whatever way you and yours might celebrate!

Winter Break also means that we are getting close to the mid-year point as a school.  The semester ends on January 27th and so winter break is also a great time to check in with your student, particularly if they are in the adolescent program, and make sure they are on-track and getting all their work done.  If you’re concerned, reach out to their guide after break and help your student make a plan with them to get on-track!

Looking back at the year so far, one of the biggest challenges the field of education is facing right now, and we are no exception, is in staffing.  We have several full time positions open at Great River, but even more so we are looking for substitutes.  Those in the community who might be interested, or know someone who might be interested, should reach out to Maiya Yang, our HR Manager, and we can help you with the process.

Also 2022 we have been focused on recovery from the pandemic as a community.  This means social emotional recovery and academic recovery.  We spent a lot of time last year learning how to be together again in community and while we made a lot of progress we’re still doing that work everyday. In the area of academic recovery specifically, we are running programs such as our after school homework help and have invested in the hiring of a new reading interventionist at Great River this year.  While I know that recovering from this pandemic is going to take some real time, I also believe that we are making great strides with students every day.

Finally, if you did not know, we are deep in initial union negotiations here at Great River.  And while the process is a slow one, I am also delighted to report from my perspective that it has been a positive one.  We are working together on this first collective bargaining agreement Great River has ever had, and I remain truly hopeful that this document will bring about positive change for all of us.

Have a delightful break, Great River students, staff, and families!

Peace,

David

Holly's Huddle December 2022

Written by Holly Bell, Director of First Impressions

Have you been “counting your chickens before they’re hatched”? Or dreaming about something with “all the bells and whistles”? Maybe, during Winter Break, you’ll find yourself “tripping the light fantastic”? But have you ever “fiddled while Rome burned”?

What? Have I picked up a new language? Actually, I was just browsing through the Scholastic Dictionary of Idioms by Marvin Terban, 1996. In a way, it reminds me of a time when my daughter was younger; we used to tease her about never going on a trip without her dictionary. My sister and I took both of my children to Alaska one August. What a fantastic time we had! When we settled in at a bed and breakfast that first night, I discovered that my baby girl (6 or 7 years old) had packed her picture dictionary in her bag. What a heavy load! And so precious! Unusual as it is, sometimes she and I actually enjoy leafing through reference books to learn new facts.

Earlier this year, I referenced a couple of different idioms (sayings with a different meaning when taken all together as a phrase instead of reading each word individually or literally) to a couple of different students. The first was “get your goat” (“to annoy very badly, to make a person angry”). My dad once handed me a small wooden goat figurine when I was upset and he said, “Holly, don’t let them get your goat.” I lived on a farm, but we didn’t have any goats (like we DO at Great River!). I didn’t understand him at first. Why would anyone want this little figurine? And what did that have to do with my anger? He explained the idiom to me and now I pass that wisdom along. Another idiom I talked to a different student about was to “get the monkey off of your back” (face the problem that’s been bugging you, understand it, and don’t let it bother you anymore). Once again, I gave a little plastic figurine (of a monkey) as a symbol to remember the idiom and it’s real meaning. Putting the message into an idiom adds variety to our understanding and retention of the information. 

Idioms can be a fun way to learn history - or to learn English. Are there some favorite sayings that are mentioned in your family? My grandma used to talk about her friend who always had a “bee in her bonnet” (crazy idea, or an obsession with an idea). THAT was a difficult one for me to figure out when I first heard it growing up. This book of idioms gives some history of how the phrase came to be, so it’s a fun way to learn.

You might know the meanings of the idioms I mentioned earlier. Do you think you could make up some idioms of your own that might be strong enough to carry on through the years? If you’re up to the challenge, over Winter Break, send your ideas to me and I’ll do my best to pass them along as I chat with people at the front desk. I’d love to help spread the word(s)! As for those initial idioms in this piece, the chicken one is about depending on a profit of some kind before you have the goods in your hands. The bells/whistles is about something that is especially flashy with high-tech features. To trip the light fantastic is to dance. And the one about Rome? It means “to do nothing or busy yourself with unimportant matters instead of taking action in an urgent situation. There’s a famous legend that in A.D. 64 Emperor Nero stood on a high tower and played his lyre (fiddle) while he watched Rome burn.” Now whether the legend is true or not is another opportunity - to research. Who was Emperor Nero? See how much you can learn from idioms?

Have a great Winter Break!

On we go,

Holly