of Learning classes Watch Mr. Riches hype our Middle Campus students up on the first day of school! Community Corner What community means at Pinewood and a preview of upcoming events, page 2 Us + You = Exceptional Introducing the brand new Scholastic Leveled Bookroom at Lower Campus, page 5 K 12 Language Arts/English Academic Profile Department chairs share what makes Pinewood's program uniquely excellent, page 2 Student Travel Recap Operation Wallacea Research Expedition in Fiji, page 8 One Moment Campus Heads share one moment from the first days of school that made them feel proud to be a Panther, page 3 and so much more... 1
Summer
What's Inside Scott Riches, President and Head of School
will be
September 2022-23
We are
A Note from Scott Riches
throughout the
our community building with students, parents, and faculty We appreciate everyone’s partnership and support! PINEWOOD SCHOOL • ALL SCHOOL NEWSLETTER • SEPTEMBER 2022 23 Student art
Welcome back to Pinewood! It has been a wonderful first few weeks of school all three campuses, I have loved seeing all the positive energy and enthusiasm There have been lots of smiles, joy, and laughter to set the tone for what a great year looking forward momentum entire focus on from Ms Blalock's Festival
Across
to continuing this
PINEWOOD'S ALL-SCHOOL NEWSLETTER
school year as we
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While we are no longer called "The Creative Workshop" (as we were in our early years), we have held on to these initial ideals and continue to offer a strong language arts program across all three campuses, K 12
One of the most unique aspects and also greatest strengths of Pinewood’s K 6 Language Arts program is its focus on foundational grammar instruction. Students in every grade are introduced to grammar concepts that build and become more complex with each progressive year. Teachers use the same terminology so that students in kindergarten all the way through sixth grade can identify concepts such as base sentences and parts of speech to whatever level is appropriate for their grade The language arts program also includes robust spelling and vocabulary instruction This solid understanding of grammar and language conventions underpins the other two main focuses of our program: literature and writing.
Kim Wetzel teaching 7th grade literature
What Makes Pinewood's K-12 Language Arts + English Program Uniquely Great?
Academic Profile by Marianne Griffiths, Language Arts Department Chair (K 6), and Sabrina Strand and Patty Welze, English Department Co Chairs (7 12)
Pinewood’s Lower and Middle Campus students explore literature with poetry, prose, and whole class novel studies. Students read from a canon of classic novels as well as award winning contemporary fiction. First graders learn about the ins and outs of friendship in Frog and Toad Together Third graders consider the fragility and cycle of life in Charlotte’s Web, and sixth graders view the Chinese immigration experience through the lens of historical fiction and folklore in Dragonwings Whatever the story, Pinewood’s K 6 study of literature is focused on making sure that every student can see themselves reflected in the books that they are Continued on page 4 >> 2
Pinewood was founded by Gwen and Vic Riches, who loved the performing arts and language arts. From its inception, the school has stressed the importance of self expression, creativity, speaking skills, and writing skills
byAnneWong,Directorof CommunityandAlumniEngagement Humansaresocialbeings,andthe needtobelongisdeeplyingrained inallofus Thissenseofbelonging helpsusdevelopastrongersense ofouridentityandmakeusfeel uplifted,encouraged,inspired,and supported Whenstudentsfeelsafe intheircommunityandenjoya senseofconnectedness,their academicoutcomes,socialand emotionalwellbeing,andcritical thinkingskillsareenhanced The wordcommunityismadeupofthe root,common,andthesuffix,unity. AtPinewood,parents,teachers, andadministratorsareallunitedby thecommonthreadofacademic, social,andemotionalsuccessinour students.Afteracoupleofyearsof strangeinteractions,let'sreconnect andstrengthenourbondstoeach othertoshare,learn,andaccept Seeyouinourcommunity Community Corner Upper Campus BTSN Parent Social, September 1 @ 5:45 pm Panther Night for New K 6 Parents, September 22 @ 7pm Panther Night for New 7 12 Parents, September 29 @ 7pm Jamboree, October 15, 12 4pm Upcoming Community Events
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The first day of school is always a special time for our community, and our opening assembly sets the tone for the whole year This time around, we decided to play a live version of Kool and the Gang's Celebration along with a choreographed faculty dance that was to accompany it Yet, the summer break makes it difficult for everyone to get together at the same time and in the same place to rehearse The band rehearsed mostly separately from the singers and each faculty practiced the dance independently by watching a tutorial video We just didn't know how it all would work out And in true Pinewood fashion, it went wonderfully! The band was rocking, the vocals were spot on, and the faculty dance was enthusiastic and joyous! In fact, by the end of the song, we had the whole community dancing together on the gym floor What a way to start the school year! Gabriel Lemmon, Head of Upper Campus
What a joy it has been to have our Middle Campus community back together! I have loved the way our returning 6th graders have reached out to our new 6th graders and helped them feel comfortable and welcome There were many introductions, invitations to sit together at lunch, and shared conversations It was a pleasure to watch our 6th grade leaders in action The values we aim to instill in Pinewood students shined through on the first day as we welcomed new people into our community Brynn Hambly, Head of Middle Campus
What was one moment from the first days back to school that made you feel proud to be a Panther?
Welcoming our new 7th graders onto Upper Campus made my heart smile. They were courteous and unafraid to ask for help. Guiding these students to the computer room or chatting with them on their way to history class was the highlight of my first day. It reminded me how our students truly embody what it means to be kind hearted.
PINEWOOD SCHOOL • ALL SCHOOL NEWSLETTER • SEPTEMBER 2022 23
I loved greeting the children and parents on the driveway on the first day of school, our faculty decked out in Pinewood gear, students sporting new backpacks, new lunch boxes, and new haircuts Everyone was waving pompoms, singing, dancing, and celebrating the fact that we starting the year TOGETHER! I am so proud of how Pinewood has handled everything during this pandemic the priorities were always about keeping everyone safe, healthy, happy, and learning, despite the overwhelming challenges After all that Pinewood families, faculty, and staff have been through these last couple of years, celebrating being together this year feels especially wonderful and special Sarah Haun, Head of Lower Campus
Haley Hemm, Assistant Head of Upper Campus
Meet Our New K-6 Counselor, Melissa Braunworth Eat a good breakfast each morning to fuel your brain and body for the school day Cindy Pistone K 2 Learning Specialist Learning Specialist Tip of the Month 4 We hope not only to strengthen our students’ reading and writing skills but also to develop open minded, culturally aware young adults who are poised to make ethical contributions to society at large.
Continued: What Makes Pinewood's K-12 Language Arts + English Program Uniquely Great?
PINEWOOD SCHOOL • ALL SCHOOL NEWSLETTER • SEPTEMBER 2022 23
Finally, Pinewood’s K 6 students have an opportunity to practice public speaking and oratory skills as they memorize and recite poetry and prose. Our goal is that as our K 6 students prepare to move to Upper Campus, they will demonstrate those initial language arts ideals as fluent, insightful readers and communicative, articulate writers who are able to express themselves creatively and confidently. At Upper Campus, we continue to build on the incredible foundation established by our K 6 Language Arts program We cover similar concepts but with added depth and complexity as students move to junior high and then high school Most notably, we intentionally divide English into two separate classes, Literature and Writing, to allow for a more comprehensive exploration of each topic This differentiates us from our peer schools, the vast majority of whom offer a single English course Students take yearlong Literature courses in each grade, 7 12, where they dive into great works of literature via close reading, discussion, and writing. While we believe in exposing our students to the traditional literary canon, we are also proud of our work in recent years to modernize and diversify our curriculum. Throughout their years in our program, students will read everything from graphic novels to Shakespeare and explore worlds from different time periods and cultural perspectives. We hope not only to strengthen our students’ reading and writing skills but also to develop open minded, culturally aware young adults who are poised to make ethical contributions to society at large. on page 7 >>
Continued
Pinewood’s writing program develops students who can communicate effectively and dynamically.
reading while also expanding their views and understanding of the world by exploring the experiences of others
Please welcome our new counselor for our K 6 students, Melissa Braunworth Melissa is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist who is coming to us from Santa Clara Unified School District. She has extensive experience working with elementary and middle school students. We are excited to expand our mental health and wellness support to our younger students here at Pinewood!
Pinewood’s K 6 writing curriculum takes the basic building blocks of well crafted, grammatically sound sentences and expands them into persuasive essays, poetry, research papers, short stories, and personal narratives. Kindergarteners start with a few sentences that turn into five paragraph essays by the time they are in sixth grade.
Strides in the Reading Program at Lower Campus
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>> Laine Corfield, 2nd grade language arts teacher and Pinewood Class of 2016, models her WISCR With Us t shirt on the first day of school.
WISCR With Us
Pinewood's student learning outcomes the WISCRs outline our goals for student growth and integrate our mission into the daily school experience Our students are Well rounded, Insightful and critical thinkers, Self motivated, Clear communicators, and Respectful individuals of character This year, we look forward to sharing more about what it means to be a WISCR student!
What does the Leveled Bookroom Mean for your student? Us + You = Exceptional
The Leveled Bookroom helps teachers facilitate small group reading instruction and allows students to enhance comprehension skills, analyze new vocabulary, evaluate challenging sentence structure, and consider new ideas, all at their own reading level Pinewood students are at varying levels of reading even within their grade levels This program allows teachers to support our emerging readers as well as challenge those who need acceleration It also facilitates differentiated learning at a level where each student can grow at a pace most suited to their needs Pinewood is proud to go above and beyond in ensuring a joyful learning environment that allows all our students to succeed We are grateful to our community for its support of the Annual Fund First Campaign Your investment in us allows us to invest in our students’ learning
(EXCEPTIONAL)
PINEWOOD SCHOOL • ALL SCHOOL NEWSLETTER • SEPTEMBER 2022 23
This program allows teachers to support our emerging readers as well as challenge those who need acceleration. At Pinewood, Language Arts is the crown jewel of our curricular program We are proud of the strong reading foundation that we lay for our students no matter their proficiency. This summer, Lower Campus added the Scholastic Leveled Bookroom for our K 2 students. The Leveled Bookroom includes over 6,000 books, 780 short reads, 24/7 access to instructional resources, and professional books and services.
K-6 Artists at Work in the Classroom 6
It is an exciting time for Computer Science and Engineering at Pinewood, and we welcome Christine Tran to the program.
PINEWOOD SCHOOL • ALL SCHOOL NEWSLETTER • SEPTEMBER 2022 23
by Bill Bates, Director of Technology Ms Tran comes to us from Woodside Priory, where she spent 17 years in the classroom She founded the Computer Science Department in 2005 and was the Department Chair Christine has Bachelor of Science degrees in both Computer Science and Electrical Engineering from UC Berkley and a Masters in Electrical Engineering from San Jose State University. She is a highly motivated, passionate, and experienced teacher in grades 6 12 classrooms. One of Christine’s passions is promoting Computer Science and Engineering to girls and students who do not think they like STEM classes. Working with the Pinewood Computer Science and Engineering K 12 team, Christine has been instrumental in helping to improve the Pinewood 7th and 8th grade technology program. We are excited to bring higher level coding along with Design Engineering principals into our Junior High curriculum, aligning it with our complete K 12 Computer Science and Engineering experience. One of the unique aspects of Pinewood’s K 12 Computer Science and Engineering curriculum is the strength of the program in grades K 6 Our Lower and Middle Campuses are leading the way compared to our peer schools Mrs Tran is building on that program to utilize the new Upper Campus Maker Space to expand the Engineering Design Thinking curriculum started by Mr. Brusco.
Sheryl Wu, 3G, Ms Beverleigh Aidan Sun, 3G , Ms. Beverleigh
Meet Our New Upper Campus Computer Science Teacher, Christine Tran Deyar Ghanayem, K, Mr Maliksi
Our Writing courses, yearlong in junior high and semester long in grades 9 11, offer a unique opportunity for students to study professional writing and try their hand at a wide variety of genres, from the personal to the persuasive Students engage in rhetorical analysis to develop their understanding of how great writers achieve their aims and heighten their awareness of how to effectively reach their audience through diction, syntax, and voice They write research papers that teach them important skills such as how to determine source credibility and properly cite their sources. In addition, these courses explicitly teach vocabulary and grammar as tools to enhance students’ writing. To further support our budding writers, Upper Campus offers many opportunities for students to write with more independence and share their work with a larger audience, such as The Perennial, our school newspaper and the most popular elective on campus, and Tabula Rasa, our literary arts magazine These award winning publications allow students to explore journalism and creative writing and gain leadership skills. We also offer several other English related extracurriculars. For students with a performing arts bent, Poetry Out Loud combines poetry and performance in a recitation contest sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts (one of our students won the county title last year!). Additionally, we run a Book Club, a Creative Writing Club, an English Honor Society, an English Workshop, and even a Celebration of Literature Week each spring! We are very proud of our English program here at Pinewood As educators, we truly love what we do and hope to pass our knowledge and passion on to our students And as they say, the proof is in the pudding: Pinewood students outperform national and independent school norms on standardized tests, and alumni routinely report that the skills they learned in Pinewood’s English program serve them well in college. We feel very lucky to work at a school that continues to recognize the primary importance of the language arts in a rapidly changing world.
Language Arts + English Program
Uniquely Great?
PINEWOOD SCHOOL • ALL SCHOOL NEWSLETTER • SEPTEMBER 2022 23
• Olivia Tung, 5 Conor Reid, 5 Hattie Kaufmann, 6 Joaquin Orduña, 6 Student Work from Ms. Blalock's Summer Festival of Learning Art Classes 7 Kim Gustavson teaching 6th grade language arts
This summer, Ms Ventrice, Ms Hemm, and ten Upper Campus students embarked on an environmental adventure of a lifetime They spent one week in the rainforest measuring trees to approximate carbon sequestration and identifying newly discovered species in hopes of preserving the pristine land. The following week, the group earned their South Pacific: Coral Reef Ecology scuba certification as they learned to identify species and capture stereo video footage of the village of Vusuratu’s surrounding reef. We are hoping to explore Madagascar in 2024!
We love seeing our alumni on campus! As we draw a close to summer, we send our college alums off with our annual tradition of the college alumni and faculty luncheon. It was wonderful to hear chatters of summer trips and excitement for college in the fall.
Haley Hemm, Assistant Head of Upper Campus Summer Festival of Learning
PINEWOOD HAPPENINGS
Lots of community has been happening at our orientations and Back to School Nights. After a couple of years on Zoom, our families were delighted to be back in person and connecting with their fellow parents face to face. If there is strength in numbers, then Pinewood is strong! Welcome back, everyone!
Anne Wong, Director of Community and Alumni Engagement
College Counseling Bootcamp
Heather McCauley, Director of SFOL
Pinewood's College Counseling Bootcamp gives rising seniors a jump start on the college application process Over the first week of August, Bootcamp attendees completed the Common App, wrote and edited their personal statements, learned how to write an effective “why” essay, began to explore the “Personal Insight Questions” found on the UC application, and met with admissions professionals to learn insights into how the admissions process works from the college perspective
WALLACEA: Research Expedition in Fiji
Anne Wong, Director of Community and Alumni Engagement College Alumni Luncheon
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PINEWOOD SCHOOL • ALL SCHOOL NEWSLETTER • SEPTEMBER 2022 23
OPERATION
Marvin Coote and Carolyn Siegel, College Counseling Office
Pinewood Summer Festival of Learning (SFOL) in July was a joyful time of learning, exploring, creating, performing, and playing. Students from Pinewood and the community enjoyed class offerings in academics, technology, sports, and the arts. The last week of the program included 16 different shows performed for students and families and the popular Splash Bash class with inflatable water slides like the Big Kahuna and Rampage! We are grateful for the teachers and staff (from Pinewood and from other schools in the community) that made it such a success!
Parent Socials
PSP Summer of Learning and Leadership
The Pinewood Scholars Program (PSP) seniors spent a week deeply engaged with mission driven organizations in the Bay Area during the Summer of Learning and Leadership program Students began their adventure in San Francisco learning about the history of the Tenderloin and meeting some of the organizations that are helping to support this community The following day, the students met at Mrs Gannon’s house for breakfast and yoga followed by goal setting activities and a team building “Chopped” competition The week culminated in an overnight camping trip to Santa Cruz county to learn about fair farm practices, food justice, sustainable agriculture, and land tending practices of the Quiroste people.
All of our junior high and high school students and faculty members spent two full days during their first week on campus creating lasting memories with each other on a variety of class trips. Students spent time all over the Bay Area: in San Francisco doing scavenger hunts and escape rooms, in Santa Cruz visiting the Beach Boardwalk and the Mystery Spot, and near Sacramento rafting down the American River. These class trips have always been an incredibly special and exciting way for everyone at Upper Campus to kick off the start of a new school year, and this year was no exception!
to you by the
Thank you for reading! communications@pinewood.edu
is
– Michelle Gannon, Director of PSP Upper Campus Class Trips
PINEWOOD SCHOOL • ALL SCHOOL NEWSLETTER • SEPTEMBER 2022 23
Kyle Riches, Director of Student Life 9 week. This newsletter brought Pinewood Team.
Don't Miss a Moment Follow @ourpinewood on Instagram for K-12 highlights throughout each
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