Thank you to everyone who's already volunteered to help our school. There's just one crucial team that still needs help: the Silent Auction. This is our largest fundraising event of the year and a critical element in our budget - and also a fantastic night of fun. 

We're looking for key people to organize: 

We need your help. Please take a moment to sign up here.

In September's Education Connection talk, Marcy and several of our teachers described Ventana's "emergent curriculum" - projects and explorations that spring straight from children's interests. Our 3rd grade Star Room is deep into just such a project. 

At the start of the year, the teachers showed a video that described how brains grow and neural pathways are formed when we learn new things. The kids were so excited by this idea that it led to a major exploration of the brain. A child psychologist visited the class to discuss how behavior changes the brain, STEM teacher Rick led them through a brain dissection, and they created a gallery of 2-D and 3-D art  demonstrating what they learned about neural pathways.

You can see photos and learn more about their project using the links above, or by scrolling through the full Star Room blog here. (Use your regular Parent Portal password to access the links.)

At September's Education Connection session, another topic that Marcy and our teachers explored was the power of asking rather than answering questions.

Mara Krechevsky, parent of a young child in a Reggio school, discovered to her delight that she could use this technique at home too. One day while out walking with her son, he turned and asked her, "How do leaves get back on trees?" Rather than answering his question, she asked for his theories and suggested he share them with the other children at school. The results were surprising and wonderful. Read the full story here.

Julie Lythcott-Haims, author of How to Raise an Adult: Break Free of the Overprinting Trap and Prepare Your Kid for Success, has an important message for parents. While Dean of Freshman Studies at Stanford University, she grew increasingly alarmed by the number of students -- each year more accomplished than the last -- who lacked basic skills to survive on their own.

You can read a summary of a recent presentation she gave in this Daily Crackle article. "Countless studies indicate that success is not contrived by the caliber of your [college], your grades, or even your IQ. Success occurs as a culmination of emotional, problem-solving, and intellectual skills that are largely learned during childhood." Her full 2015 TED Talk is also available here.