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A small correction to the February newsletter.
Hi everyone,
Small correction: our new Rector at Christ Church, the Rev. Claire Dietrich Ranna, prefers to go by "Claire." Apologies for the confusion!
Marci + Your VePA Executive Team
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IN THIS ISSUE
- Update from Julie Stanford
- In the Classroom: SEL in PE
- Chapel Curriculum: Meet the New Rector
- Silent Auction Volunteer Update
- Why Failure Hits Girls So Hard
- Rude vs. Mean vs. Bullying
- Upcoming Events
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Update from VePA President Julie Stanford
Hello Ventana Peeps,
Welcome back from ski week! Hopefully your home is not flooded / completely covered in snow. Launching into the last third of the year, I encourage you to pause for a moment and notice how much your children have grown already this year. Over the break, I took some time to read with both of my kids and noticed how much their skills had improved (thank you Teachers Julie and Amanda!).
Also, as we move into March,
I want to particuarly call your attention to Wed, March 15 at 4:30 when Ventana will be hosting one of the premier storytellers in the United States, Joel Ben Izzy, for an amazing event that is a Ventana tradition. You are not going to want to miss this year's Storytelling Festival. Please attend with your whole family (and bring your friends too!) by buying tickets here:
http://tinyurl.com/ventanastoryfestival2017 AND consider signing up to help out for an hour at the event or in advance by doing tasks in the comfort of your own home -
http://ventana.ivolunteer.com/storytelling_2017.
Julie Stanford
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In the Classroom:
SEL Skills in PE
Have your children told you about the games they've been playing in PE? Instructor Shermagne Gunn has been introducing new ones throughout the year, some that might be familiar (chaos tag) and others less so (Korfball, aka Dutch basketball). She uses these games to help the children develop their "ABCs": agility, balance and coordination. But as our Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) specialist, she also finds many ways to practice SEL skills too.
For example, after the kids in the Waterfall and Lion rooms played games like Duck on a Rock and Lemon Ball, Shermagne asked them, "How many emotions did you feel while playing the game?" Frustrated, excited, proud -- it ran the gamut. Shermagne writes:
As the class continues to identify the emotions that surface during game play, they will begin to develop strategies to manage these emotions. The main focus thus far has been how to stay mentally in the game when feeling frustrated. Students have experimented with "shaking it off" where they walk around the perimeter of the play area while taking a few deep breaths. They have also implemented the "quick reset" where they row-sham-bow when they strongly disagree but also want to get back to playing the game.
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Chapel Lessons:
Meet Our New Rector
Ventana School welcomes the Reverend Claire Dietrich Ranna as new Rector of Christ Church Los Altos. Claire
obtained her B.S. in Cultural Anthropology and International Comparative Studies at Duke in 2007, and her Masters of Divinity from Yale in 2014. She has been active in Girl's Club Entertainment as a co-writer and co-producer of the documentary "Miss Representation."
Most recently she was Associate Rector of St. Mary the Virgin Episcopal Church in San Francisco.
She recently relocated to Silicon Valley with her husband and two children, Safina (2 in April) and Soren (4 months).
You can meet Claire at our Coffee & Conversation event on March 2, or at our First Friday Brown Bag Lunch on March 3rd. For details, please see the Upcoming Events section below.
The children wrapped up their February chapel lessons with a reading of
What's Love by Shelley Rotner and Deborah Carlin.
We asked preschool and elementary students to reflect on the ending words of the book: "Love is a gift from me to you and from you to me. What do you love?"
I
n Elementary chapel time, since we had just launched the Buddy Program, students were invited to sit with their buddies and listen to their buddy's response. It was a very joyful time as students discovered more about their buddies and shared aloud with the whole community what their buddy loves.
In the month of March we will continue to share this special community time with our buddies. We are launching into the Ventana Value of "Human-Centered Development", where we will read books that reflect our "deep sensitivity to cultural and spiritual diversity." We hope you have great discussions at home with your children about these topics.
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Silent Auction Volunteer Update
Thank you to everyone who has signed up to help produce our annual Spring Fling & Silent Auction! Many important tasks, large and small, have been staffed with volunteers from our wonderful community.
There are just a few key roles we still need assistance with, including a Food & Beverage Coordinator (who selects and hires a caterer), and a Silent and Live Auction Lead. Please take a moment to view the remaining roles and sign up:
http://ventana.ivolunteer.com/2016_springauction.
Thank you for your help -- it's going to be a fabulous evening!
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Parenting Education Articles
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Why Failure Hits Girls So Hard
Many childhood development experts have been reminding parents to let their kids fail. Instead of protecting them from adversity and making sure they excel at all times, let them experience setbacks so they can practice coping and moving forward.
It turns out that girls may be especially vulnerable when experiencing failure, and protecting them from it may be even more problematic than with boys. Girls are more likely than boys to attribute failures to a lack of ability, which is something they can't change. And because girls are often raised to please others, they're more sensitive to feedback from teachers or others that makes them feel like they're being controlled (via rewards for performance, or certain kinds of praise), which causes their motivation to plummet.
So what works for girls? Informational praise that describes their performance ("You did very well on that test") rather than making a value judgement ("You're a great artist!") is especially good for maintaining their intrinsic motivation.
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Rude vs. Mean vs. Bullying: Defining the Differences
Bullying is being discussed more and more frequently these days, and in the last few years 49 states have passed anti-bullying legislation, a huge achievement. But Signe Whitson, a licensed therapist and national educator on bullying, is finding an unfortunate side effect: Parents are hearing about bullying so much that they're viewing relatively minor dustups between children as "bullying."
Whitson explains the difference between actual bullying, rudeness, and meanness in a recent article for the Huffington Post. Here's a nickel summary:
- Rude means unintentionally saying or doing something that hurts someone (burping in someone's face, bragging about a great test score)
- Mean is intentionally doing or saying something to hurt someone once, or maybe twice
- Bullying is intentionally aggressive behavior (physical or verbal), repeated over time, with an imbalance of power between the bully and his or her victim
Why are these distinctions important? According to Whitson:
If kids and parents improperly classify rudeness and mean behavior as bullying -- whether to simply make conversation or to bring attention to their short-term discomfort -- we all run the risk of becoming so sick and tired of hearing the word that this actual life-and-death issue among young people loses its urgency as quickly as it rose to prominence.
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Coffee & Conversation: Meet the New Rector
March 2
8:45 - 10:00 a.m.
Please join Marcy in the Fireside Room to welcome Christ Church's new rector,
the Reverend Claire Dietrich Ranna.
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Friday Brown Bag Lunch
March 3
11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
Should she be available, this will be a second opportunity to meet our new Christ Church Rector, the Reverend Claire Dietrich Ranna. We plan to "break bread" in the Parish Hall and share informal conversation. These lunch-time gatherings are perfect for our preschool families who might be on campus for 12:30 p.m. pick-up. Babies and toddlers are more than welcome.
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Ventana Parent Work Day
March 4
9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
We are seeking willing hands to help construct our "winter room," a pergola-like structure near the upper playground where children can pursue small group work and find shade on hot days. We're especially in need of parents with carpentry skills. Please sign up on iVolunteer.
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Education Connection: Design Thinking Workshop for Parents, Kids & Educators
March 9
6:00 - 8:00 p.m.
Join our STEM teacher for an evening of "Creative Confidence" where steps in the design process are shared and participants prototype a solution to a "human centered" challenge. Free for all Ventana families!
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Staff Professional Development Day
March 10
NO SCHOOL
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Family Festival of Stories: Featuring Joel ben Izzy, Storyteller & Author
March 15
4:30 - 6:30 p.m.
Bring your family ages 2-100 for an evening of amazing stories, pizza, Hicklebee's book fair, kid's crafts, and treats!
4:30 - Hickelebee's book fair & crafts
5:00 - Joel ben Izzy
5:45 - Pizza & Treats (yum!)
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Have something you'd like to submit for our next newsletter? Send your completed content to [email protected] by the 20th of each month to be included.
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Ventana School | Nurturing Minds and Hearts
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