The Ridge Report for November 2012

Report

The Ridge

November 2012

Sacred Heart education is about relationships I cannot recall a time when I did not want to be an educator. From my earliest memories of playing school in my room with stuffed animals as students to making my family take homemade quizzes on the information shared by guests on The Merv Griffin Show, I flawlessly mimicked the mechanics of the classroom routine I had lived earlier that day. My family had the kindness to play along; my friends had the luxury of putting me in my place! Whatever judgments you make on this scenario, I share with you one thought: I knew from primary school what I wanted to do with my life.

Education, for me, is all about relationships — the personal connection. The connections energize my thinking and inform my reflections; they broaden the traditional base of my knowledge as they feed my desire for innovative ideas. Relationships drive the educational process — they ensure a healthy respect and admiration for views other than my own and enable me to listen to others with passion and to act with integrity.

Sacred Heart education is all about relationships. From our beginnings in 1800 to our work today, we have remained true to keeping the personal connection as part of our mission. Our founder once said she would have started the enterprise if only “for the sake of one child.” That tells you something about the depth of our spirituality and our educational program —and the respect we have for the individual.

As we enter the season of Thanksgiving and reflect on the blessings we share as a community, I am abundantly thankful for the gift of community as manifested in our relationships.

Enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday, and spread the thankful spirit that makes our community a special place.

Mark Pierotti Head of School

STEAM:

Dr. Carola D. Wittmann Director of the High School

Keeping the Arts in the Picture

Already a topic of discussion in other countries, STEAM — which merges arts education into a STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) curriculum — is gaining momentum in the United States. For the high school experience at Forest Ridge School of the Sacred Heart, that is nothing new. For more than 100 years, young women have been challenged to pursue the sciences and mathematics while also fulfilling requirements in art and the performing arts.

The Senior Seminar program at Forest Ridge, which integrates a thematic study of literature, history and religion, collaborates whenever possible across the curriculum with science. Nowadays, the International Baccalaureate and our newly articulated Global Seminar path further clarify this vision and makes it more intentional through specific teaching and learning activities and target outcomes.

It is that intentional framework of clear and consistent curricular integration that gave rise to STEAM. Coupled with the importance of educating the whole person, STEAM may also accomplish what we as educators, parents and community members already know, namely the importance of engaging learners by differentiating instruction. With an increased awareness of individual learning styles, differentiated instruction can no longer be the exception; it needs to be the rule. I remember a student in my junior English class many years ago who struggled with writing a literary analysis; one day she presented me with an outstanding portfolio, exquisite watercolors and drawings, depicting her interpretation of the various authors we had read in class. She eloquently presented each work, connecting it to the appropriate piece of literature and demonstrating her critical and analytical understanding. Art and math, especially geometry, were her favorite subjects, and that is how she interpreted the world around her.

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STEAM celebrates, at least in part, the relationship between arts and technology. In the high school, one of our faculty members, Ms. Debbie McLaughlin, models that relationship between art and science/technology. As many of you know, Ms. McLaughlin, a Forest Ridge alumna, is our learning specialist; in her ‘other’ life, however, Ms. McLaughlin is an accomplished mosaic artist. Undoubtedly, she brings the artist’s dimension to her work at school, thus being able to assist students and colleagues alike in looking at a problem or situation from a variety of angles.

Education is broader and more invigorating than any acronym.

However, given the richness of our high school curriculum, our students benefit from the science taught in the classroom and in the field; they understand the relationship between art and math, and they are encouraged to look past artificial curricular barriers. After all, that is what makes learning innovative, creative and engaging.

On Forging a Writers’ Community Elizabeth Matlick Middle School Faculty

Whether a Forest Ridge girl is most excited by math, humanities, science or fine arts, one demand on her is universal — she must be able to write. In most of her academic subjects, writing is a tool for her thinking as well as for showing what she knows. Later on, as Forest Ridge graduates become leaders in their communities, the need to be a capable, persuasive communicator becomes critical. How, then, can we begin to tackle this goal in middle school? With what tools and practices can a middle school girl discover the power of her own voice?

Second, we offer specific frameworks for organizing and expressing their ideas. Writing a scary scene for Halloween becomes a vehicle for narrowing topics and for honing in on active verbs and descriptive phrases. An essay on a class novel begins with a lesson on how to organize ideas using a foursquare paragraphing method. By seventh and eighth grade, the girls use consistent organizing tools for paragraphs and essays and practice many times the tinkering that goes along with finding just the right topic sentence and supporting detail.

First, regular opportunities to write. Research suggests that students must write often in order to improve. Thus, we build the girls’ writing experience with a variety of creative and expository assignments. In fifth and sixth grade, this could mean having the girls keep a literature response journal or write the next chapter of a class novel. It also means writing poetry and taking the first steps toward writing formal essays.

The pattern these assignments in the middle school years develop becomes an emphasis on process. We believe that part of this process should include goal setting and reflection. At three times during the school year, the girls will reflect on a writing piece in order to learn to recognize patterns of strength and challenge in their writing and, with their teachers, to identify next steps for improvement. Our hope is that the girls will return to their work more in tune with their own writing skills and thus better equipped to solve problems in their work.

By seventh and eighth grade, the girls focus solely on writing for two periods a week during writing class, an extension of their English class. The work includes essays and paragraph assignments, often on topics ranging from social studies to science in order to support the writing that takes place in other subject areas. Each student also keep a writer’s notebook. In it, the girls pick their own topics, with the goal of exploring their world and uncovering new insights. Whether they find something of small or large significance, their job is to stay with an idea longer than they’re accustomed, to see their topic as having many layers, to connect their observations to the broader world. A main objective is writing frequently. As the girls return again and again to their notebooks, they begin to see what it feels like to explore a topic in depth. By October or November, we might hear them say, I had trouble stopping at 10 minutes, so I just kept on going.

At Forest Ridge, this conversation makes the writing process itself less than solitary. Across grade levels, the girls swap laptops to share advice and give encouragement. As they work to transform prewriting into drafts and drafts into polished prose, the girls also develop their own kind of writing community. Often, the sound of hands typing on laptop keys mingles with a flurry of whispers: What word count did you get? ... Can you read this? ... What’s confusing?

With the structures in place to forge a community of writers, our goal is that the girls develop the tools they need to meet their personal writing goals. By practicing now the skills they will need as future leaders, our hope is that middle school students build their confidence as writers, that the blank page becomes a little less daunting than it was before.

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What makes Forest Ridge

a distinctive educational experience Regina Mooney, Ph.D. Director of Institutional Advancement

Recently I asked to sit in on classes in both the Middle School

He playfully engaged students as they learned how to

and the High School. Being relatively new to Forest Ridge,

understand the charges, valences and sharing of electrons.

I felt that I needed a concrete experience of what alumnae

As they gradually understood, he moved into an enlightening

and parents talked about as the distinctively Forest Ridge

introduction to how compounds are formed.

education. I could see how engaged students were as they walked to classes from the Commons, but I didn’t know how

My experience solidified my own ideas of what makes Forest

the classroom nourished their enthusiasm. So I set out to see

Ridge a distinctive educational experience. What I observed

for myself.

in class and across the curriculum was deep respect for each student and how she comes to her own “knowing.” I also

In Will Segall’s Senior Seminar history class I was struck by

noted with delight how teachers held high expectations for

his ability to get students to think, not just critically, but

each student, no matter her style of learning or what she

historically. This approach kept the discussion at a high and

brought to the learning experience. The teaching helped

rather sophisticated level for virtually the entire class period.

create the learning, not by feeding information (although

Will was particularly adept at finding relevant references on

students were absorbing plenty of information) but by

the Internet as the discussion progressed. These illustrations

showing pathways to knowledge down which each student

sometimes supported students’ claims and at other times

could walk, arrive at the destination and call it her own.

challenged them, but he maintained the students’ intellectual

Brilliant!

enthusiasm throughout the period.

The students, fully engaged in the classroom experience, and John Fenoli’s junior biology class was pitched at the mole-

the talented teachers deftly guiding the students’ intellectual

cular level, at least for that day. My own formative biology

discoveries revealed that distinctive educational experience

experiences involved enduring lectures so that I would get

alums and parents had described to me. Forest Ridge truly

to dissect a frog or two. John, by contrast, employed Socratic

does inspire a real and deep commitment to the school’s

questioning, which led students to their own discoveries —

pedagogical, moral and overall educational values to those

of which they were, naturally, quite proud.

of us fortunate enough to witness or experience them. It is a school that gives girls their voice, challenges them to seek

When I arrived late to Bill Lewis’ middle school science class,

answers themselves, develops in them a confidence gained

I walked into a lesson on the periodic table. You know, the

through self-knowledge, calls them to humbly acknowledge

one we all memorized as a prerequisite for learning any

all there is still to learn and inspires a lifelong love of learning.

chemistry. Here, again, was the Socratic method at work,

Who wouldn’t want to support that?

with Bill employing it to lead students to their own answers.

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Building Bridges

in Our Sacred Heart Network

As Women as Global Leaders continues to evolve on campus in the forms of experiential program offerings around global issues, workshops emphasizing inclusive leadership and intradivisional collaboration in scaling Women as Global Leaders seamlessly from grades 5 to 12, other relationships are forming beyond our campus.

Kisha Palmer Director, Women As Global Leaders

I am thrilled to share that Sacred Heart Atherton has decided to join us for our Peace and Reconciliation program. Two of their faculty members and three of their high school students (young women) will participate in our first year of building a partnership around this leadership opportunity. We started the conversation last year as part of an effort to share resources and leverage leadership opportunities for students within the network. This is exciting because it offers students and faculty from both schools the possibility of another whole collection of immersion leadership opportunities. Reid Particelli, the service learning director at Sacred Heart Atherton, and I have been in discussion for more than six months, exploring ways to grow this partnership. I am so excited to say we are jumping in with both feet this year!

In other exciting news, Forest Ridge has been granted a TEDx* license. Thanks to the spearheading work of Leslie Decker, Mary Frances Feider and Pamela Rhodes, we have been moving forward with plans to celebrate International Women’s Day on March 8 with a TEDx Conference on campus for students and special invited guests. We will ask students for their input to help us make speaker selections. As plans progress, we will send links and notifications to all.

I am thankful for the amazing energy of Forest Ridge families, students and colleagues who are stepping forward with their innovative ideas and risk taking to bring relevant leadership opportunities to the table for everyone.

Stay tuned for new developments in our diversity and inclusion work as we move ahead and ask ourselves: What does being inclusive look like in a truly global community?

Warm regards this Thanksgiving season.

*The TEDx program, created in the spirit of TED’s mission of “ideas worth spreading,” was designed to give communities, organizations and individuals an opportunity to stimulate dialogue through TED-like experiences at the local level.

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November:

a month of remembrance

As the ghouls and goblins start to come down from their sugar highs, Christians pause for the Feasts of All Saints and All Souls. These days are an opportunity for us to remember those who have gone before us.

All Saints Day (Nov. 1) honors not only the more than 10,000 people who have been named saints by the Catholic Church but everyone who has lived a life of faith in service of others. The practice of honoring saints dates back thousands of years and comes from the Jewish tradition of honoring prophets. A common misconception about Catholics is that Catholics pray to saints. This is not true. Catholics are encouraged to talk to saints in the same way one would talk to a friend or ask a neighbor for advice.

The next day on the Christian calendar is the Feast of All Souls, Nov. 2. This is a day to remember all who have gone before us. At Forest Ridge, we invite anyone who has lost friends or family in the past year to join us for Memorial Mass, a Mass of remembrance.

The Spanish classes on campus celebrate Día de los Muertos, the Day of the Dead. The middle school Spanish classes and their teacher, Señora Oquendo, set up an ofrenda, a table of remembrance and offering for family and friends who have died, in the library. Students decorated candles, hung photos and left food to honor their loved ones.

In Enumclaw, the town where I grew up, there is a small cemetery on the edge of town called the Holy Family Cemetery (formerly the Krain Catholic Cemetery). Every year on Nov. 2, groups from the local Catholic church place candles on all of the graves in the cemetery. Church members gather to say a rosary in memory of their ancestors, and as the sun goes down the light from the candles illuminates the sky. This tradition has remained an important one in the community for more than one hundred years. Being a part of this celebration every year taught me the importance of remembering the dead.

In the Christian tradition, death is not something to be feared. The hope of resurrection and the promise of seeing our family and friends again in heaven provide solace in times when the feeling of being separated from those who have died is overwhelming. Last summer, my family lost both of my dad’s parents. This year’s celebration of All Souls Day held a special meaning for us.

In this month of remembrance, and as we approach the holiday season, I invite you to honor your loved ones who have died, thank them for their many contributions and reflect on the ways in which they continue to live in your heart.

Tanya Lange Campus Minister

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Giving thanks for a busy November Ann Rillera and Luann Desautel Parent Association Co-Presidents Happy fall! The air is brisk, the leaves are changing colors, and the rain is with us once again. Despite the change in weather, we hope that your daughters are settled in their new routines this school year. On Veteran’s Day and during the Thanksgiving break that occurs in the middle of this month, we hope you will take the opportunity to stop, reflect and give thanks.

The Parent Association hosted a variety of community events in October. Many grade-level parent representatives hosted Parent Coffees for their classes as opportunities to build community by meeting new families and catching up with old friends. On Oct. 11, middle school fathers and daughters enjoyed Games Night, a longtime middle school tradition, which was a huge success.

Thank you to Jubilee Seth (event chair), her team of volunteers and everyone who participated in this event!

On Nov. 1, the Parent Association hosted a membership meeting and wine and cheese social in the evening. We hope you had a chance to join us in the Sacred Heart Center for an opportunity to talk to members of the Board of Trustees and hear a State of the School address from Mark Pierotti.

On Sunday, Nov. 4, the Parent Association hosted a fun-filled mother and daughter bowling event for Forest Ridge high school students and their mothers. Thank you to Cynthia Seely for chairing this event.

The following PA clubs will meet this month. We hope you will consider participating in the clubs that interest you.

Book Club The Book Club met Nov. 8; members read The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes.

The book club is a fun, casual group co-led by Donna Young and Julie Stangell.

Reflection Club The next meeting is Nov. 21 from 8:00- 8:30 a.m. in the Sacred Heart Chapel.

The club meets the first and third Wednesday of every month. This club offers a wonderful opportunity to pray with other parents, share time with other Forest Ridge community members and learn about Sacred Heart traditions. For more information contact Tanya Lange at tanyala@forestridge.org

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