Hilltop Montessori School's mission is for students to
practice responsible independence in a caring community
of curious, critical learners and thoughtful citizens.
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Upcoming Calendar
In-person schooling will remain dismissed for the remainder of the 2019-2020 school year as directed by the State.
End of year events and SummerFun remain TBD.
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Note from the Head of School
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Dear Families,
Have our individual and collective lives ever changed so much in two weeks? And we are here for the long haul. As most of you have probably heard, we will not be allowed to meet in person with students and families for the
rest of the school year
(with the exception of providing care to children of “essential persons” - see below).
Teachers and families have adapted to virtual learning amazingly well; it has been a steep learning curve and out of the comfort zone for many. Each program has been working to connect with and support each student/family, which is different for each age level. Middle School has had ZOOM meetings with the whole class every weekday morning with small group lessons and projects continuing online. The Toddler Programs and Children’s House teachers have connected with phone/video calls, videos of a teacher doing a circle lesson, and individualized Montessori goodie bags for each child. Elementary has needed to be a hybrid of individual support to families and adapting to using the technology for this transitional age (working with both the adults and children in the household). It is all a work in progress, and we will be continuing to augment and refine how we provide this learning from home.
As our distance learning programs continue to grow and develop over the next two months, we need your input and engagement.
If there is a way we can support your family differently, please let us know.
And, also, please be patient with yourselves, your children, and teachers. This is a monumental shift and adjustment for us all. Managing working and parenting from home 24/7 is a challenge, and we will all remember this time. How do we strike a work/home balance when they are so intertwined? How do we follow the child with their interests and take this opportunity to be more “free range”, but also keep learning happening in all areas?
We are working through the answers to these questions and more, individually as teachers and staff, as programs serving families, and as a school community. To the topic of work/home balance, I’d like to encourage all of us to take the evenings and weekends off. Many of us have trouble with this under regular circumstances, and this is no regular circumstance. With no physical boundary between school/work and home, perhaps we need to impose a different boundary to enable us all (parents, students, and teachers) to have some time to reflect and refresh. As such, teachers will continue to be available weekdays from 8-4, and will be taking evenings and weekends “off”, possibly away from their computers and phones! We encourage you and your students to do the same. And, please continue to communicate with us about how you are doing and how we can support your family and student further. We are at the beginning of a marathon and we are in this together!
Stay well,
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Care for Essential Persons Update
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We continue to be committed to serving families and also doing our part to “flatten the curve”. We surveyed our community to determine which families were
essential persons
and also needed continued childcare from Hilltop. We heard back from five families, one of whom needed care immediately. We provided care for that family by having a staff member work with the student in the family’s home. (That care has since ceased due to possible COVID-19 symptoms and a precautionary quarantine.) All five families have said that their need for childcare might change as the situation continues to unfold. We remain committed to reducing social contact and to serving the community of families who work in fields that are essential to supporting our broader community during this crisis.
P
lease keep us updated on your status and need for care by emailing the
Front Desk.
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Dear Families,
While so much has been upended in the last two weeks, Hilltop is very much not closed. Our faculty and families have spent many hours working together to provide meaningful education for the students. This impressive effort has brought success in providing curriculum to support Hilltop students’ development, and also success in keeping Hilltop’s sense of community alive. In the weeks to come, the Board believes that Hilltop staff and families will deepen our ability to teach our students, especially the younger ones, and cultivate more ways of being together that meaningfully help get through what could otherwise be an isolating experience.
We are also aware that this is an uncertain time economically for many families and businesses, and for Hilltop itself. The Finance Committee is meeting weekly to determine how to manage for the short term and for the long term. We are considering several individual and school-wide options to help with these real challenges. We are fortunate that March and April are months during which no regular tuition payments are due. We hope that this eases some of the stress families may be experiencing.
To further ease financial stress for families, Hilltop’s Finance Committee has decided to offer families who find it necessary an option to delay the start of next year’s tuition payments from May 1st to as late as July 1st.
If you would like to request a deferral of your initial tuition payment for the 2020-21 school year from May 1 to July 1, please contact
Deb Lagoy
, Business Manager, or
Tamara Mount
, Head of School.
Any families who are able and willing to maintain the May 1st tuition payment date are strongly encouraged to do so. Keeping our cash flow steady enables us to continue to pay teachers and maintain our facility, which is critical to the long term viability of our school. Your understanding and help with this is greatly appreciated. Thankfully, the State of Vermont recognizes the importance of maintaining critical childcare facilities and has continued to provide the State funding for the early child care programs during this time of physical isolation.
We are in a fortunate position to have an endowment that we can lean on to get us through what we hope will be a temporary crisis and economic downturn. Many schools are having to ask for great sacrifices from their communities. We, instead, are able to mitigate that sacrifice by making a carefully considered draw on our endowment fund to help cover any gap in tuition payments. The more families who are able to stay with the May 1st payment plan, the smaller that draw can be, preserving the remaining funds to support Hilltop's long term strategic goals of equity and sustainability. We will continue to communicate closely as we move to develop options that will work for all of us. We truly appreciate your understanding and commitment to the long term future of Hilltop Montessori School!
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Dear Toddler Families,
We hope this finds you well and that your families are finding ways to adjust to life as we now know it. This week the toddler teachers had a great time making up distance learning kits for your children (and let’s be honest, for you too!). We tried to pick out some favorites from the classroom for each child as well as some new things to explore. Your toddlers will likely know what each item is for, but here’s a little explanation for the adults.
- The cloth mitts and sponges are for wiping down tables and drying them after a meal. We use these at school regularly.
- The baskets are for collecting things on our walks. Perhaps a walk around the yard, the woods or your neighborhood will turn up some interesting things to collect in the baskets.
- The small cushions (that were made by Françoise and are typically used at nap time) can be heated up in the microwave for about 20 seconds and make a comforting pillow to hold and keep hands warm.
- Sarah put together a lovely video to instruct children how to plant their microgreen seeds (found on the Toddler Google Classroom page which you will soon have access to - more on that later). The book is a nice accompaniment to the activity.
- You’ll also find, varying from child to child, art supplies, language objects, puzzles, practical life exercises, scissors for cutting paper and more.
In addition to the kits, Julia (who sometimes subs in the Toddler Room) has set up a Toddler Google Classroom page for caregivers to access all kinds of useful resources. Instead of sending out regular emails that may overwhelm your inboxes, Google Classroom offers a way to share organized information that can be easily accessed when you are ready for it.
This platform will enable us to organize resources in order to support children’s learning at home. It will also be a place where families may stay connected by sharing pictures and videos of what they are working on while at home. We plan to have these up and running next week. You will get a Hilltop email address for each child that can be used to access the site where you can find a tutorial on how to get started.
Google Classroom will be updated regularly and has a variety of things for children and families, including but not limited to: videos of Françoise singing favorite French songs, Music with Jay, videos of lessons, ideas for activities, and helpful resources. This is the perfect place to find the answers to burning questions like: What’s a good way to explain coronavirus to my toddler? Or, what recipe can I use to make playdough at home? Or, what are the words to the song my child keeps singing? Of course, if you are looking for something that you don’t see in Classroom, let us know and we’ll add it!
We’ll also continue checking in with families on a regular basis. If you have pictures of your families' home adventures to share, we’d love to see them, and if you would like them to be a part of the newsletter, please cc the Front Desk. We all miss spending our days with Harrison, Laylani, Mabyn, Maple, Meiyi, Olive E, Olive G-M and Philex. Sending big hugs.
-Ellie, Sarah, & Françoise
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Olive E. on the balance beam.
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Harrison plays the guitar.
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Hello Hilltop Families,
It was great to touch base with everyone this week, and be able to schedule some ZOOM meetings for next week. We have been busy planning for the next set of distance learning kits, which we will start on next week.
Children's House is joining the other programs and using Google Classrooms as a means of providing materials to families. This platform will enable us to organize resources in order to support children’s learning at home. It will also be a place where families may stay connected by sharing pictures and videos of what they are working on while at home.
We plan to have these up and running next week. You will get a Hilltop email address for each child that can be used to access the site where you can find a tutorial on how to get started. The teachers have been recording videos for Google Classrooms, and brainstorming lesson plans. Here is a sneak-peak
video from Jay that you will be able access easily next week on Google Classrooms. The learning curve is steep for some, and we are all working hard to find our personal strengths, helping to support each other, be patient and compassionate with each other, and stay in touch with everyone. What an awesome community we are!
Enjoy the weekend, and we look forward to continuing on this journey with you,
-The CH Team
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Distance learning kits for everyone in Children's House.
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Eliza examines the globe.
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Kolya and his brother Lev have
their own painting area in mom's studio.
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Odin makes a butterfly with materials from his Montessori goodie bag!
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...and so does Annabel and Eleanor - muffins all around!!
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While we would much rather be in our classroom with everyone, we have enjoyed keeping in touch with our students through the Lower El Google Classroom, sharing pictures and stories.
Here is a video that was posed on Google Classroom this week of Amelia and company performing the Birdie Song!
We appreciate your patience, as we work to figure out how best to continue providing lessons and new material for each student. We would love your feedback about how this new distance learning situation has been for you so far. We sent a survey link out this morning. If you haven’t yet had a chance to respond, please click
here
. Many thanks!
In light of the new State directive to not meet in person for the remainder of the school year, we’re evolving our plan to include increased services and interaction with families. We want to take your feedback into consideration when planning this, so we’ll be in touch soon to communicate with you about what changes this will entail.
Every Monday, the Lower El team will post new work for phonics, reading groups, and math. Cultural work (our geography and science studies) will also be updated periodically. Next week, we kick off our botany study!
We’d like to ask the Lower El botanists: What do you already know about plants (both inside, and out in nature)? What do you wonder about plants? What do you want to know? Go outside this weekend and pay attention to the different kinds of plants around you, small and large. A tree is a plant, so be sure to look up! Use some of your senses to observe and study them: What do you learn about these plants when you look? Hear? Smell? Touch? (Let’s not taste any plants.) Record your observations, in your nature journal (this weekend is a good time to make one, if you haven’t!), in writing and/or drawing form.
We miss the wonderful students of Lower El! Please continue to send us your updates and pictures-and as always, parents, reach out with your questions. Thank you in advance for filling out our
survey!
Take care of yourselves, and be well.
-Lots of Love from the LE Team
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Reine's seed predictions.
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Isaac begins germinating his seeds.
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Mazin practices handwriting.
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Hello Families-
Upper Elementary distance learning is happening!! We’re up and running! Starting Monday morning, we’ll all begin our full schedule of ‘classes’ - a combination of assignments and videos on the Google Classroom (GC) site along with live ZOOM meetings. We finished our week with a community share where students were encouraged to mention one highlight from their week. Responses ranged from having the opportunity to work on art, to getting to know their pets better, to helping their parents install electrical outlets in their new garage. Wow!
A bit of family homework: Find the weekly schedule - titled ‘Weekly ZOOM Schedule’- on the ‘Classwork’ page of our GC. Please take a few minutes this weekend to print that out or copy onto a piece of paper and figure out with your child their schedule of meeting times for the week. We tried for regularity……
Our other portal-UE Community Share:
Thanks to everyone who has contributed to our other classroom, ‘UE Community Share’. If you haven’t seen it, please take a look. We’re asking students, at their desire, to post pictures and videos of their new lives at home - projects, artwork, music and the like. For now we’d like to limit it to that, and not cute kitten videos we find on the web, as well as limit it to only 2 posts per child per week.
Enjoy the weekend and spring!
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Tom making a video in his new office (his son's old bedroom) of his strategy for a work about equivalent fractions, now online in our Google Classroom.
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Jen showing off Google Classrooms.
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Ava and the string group use flipgrid to
continue cello lessons with Heather.
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A bird at the feeder by Jade.
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Rainbow Trout drawn by observation
by Sebastian.
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I have watched Parker approach this challenging situation with a level of professionalism and dedication that shocked me. I have watched her get up early, prepare herself for the day and brew a cup of tea before opening a screen to equally and likeminded students; raring to go. Honestly, seeing that screen of eager students has done more to inspire me than any speech my senior leadership has provided in the past few weeks. I believe this experience will actually make Parker and her peers better, stronger people, in so many ways thanks to your efforts. I can't wait to see what this new generation will unleash on the world.
-Marc Toyloy
Morning Meeting takes on a new importance when it is the only time each day to see your friends and connect with the world beyond the four walls of your house. For the past eight days, the Middle School community has been appearing promptly at 9:00 on ZOOM to check in, share our learning, and prepare for a morning of distance learning. After generating a list of COVID-19 related questions together last week, students are now sharing their research in short presentations at morning meetings. We are learning a lot, both about the pandemic and about the digital tools, such as ZOOM, Padlet, and Google Classroom, at our disposal. All four math classes met this week to continue their studies. The smaller class sizes allow for even greater dialogue and sharing of ideas, and the “share screen” and “whiteboard” functions available through Zoom allow students to share their process directly with others. For now, the once a week math class meeting is a place for answering questions and giving an overview of the work coming up. Students are responsible for completing several days worth of work, including reading or watching lessons and completing practice problems, in preparation for these class meetings. Math office hours on Tuesday afternoons allow for one-on-one meetings with teachers to clarify tricky problems or concepts. This model relies heavily on a student’s ability to self-direct, self-advocate, and manage their Google Classroom To-Do list (the digital equivalent of the assignment book) independently. If any questions or concerns arise about how this all works, please be in touch. We are all learning and navigating this new world together, and we appreciate all the work families are doing to partner with us during this transition. Onwards!
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The middle school took a moment to reflect on the impact of pandemic on their lives and to reflect on the question: “What are you reading, watching, listening to, creating or doing that brings you joy or peace of mind during this time?” The resulting paragraphs were so moving expressing sadness and fear as well as clearly revealing the resiliency and commitment of our students to making this time as meaningful as possible.
Here are a few examples:
“Being cooped up in my house while also being sick isn’t the most fun I’ve ever had but it has its perks. For one I can wear my Pajamas all day, so that's great. I finished one of my favorite shows and it had a great and satisfying ending. Every day in the morning before the morning meeting I rise from my bed and sit, just sit there for 10 minutes and sometimes I pray or meditate or just listen. It clears my head for the day whether it brings fun and joy or sadness and sorrow. That 10 minutes in the morning is the only reason I haven’t gone mad in my 13 years of life in this fun, crazy, terrible, amazing world.”
-Nathaniel
My peace rock
“I have been spending most of my time outside. The outdoors is where I can find peace and center my thoughts. I have this spot outside where there is a stream and a giant rock by it. Whenever I want to be alone I go to this rock. Nobody knows where this rock is. I can sit on it and just hear the water and my thoughts. When I am stuck on an assignment I just lay down on my rock and think. My Peaceful rock is where I spend my time thinking in these crazy days.”
-Eddie
My Life During COVID-19
In this sad sad time
I steer my head to Mahler
Emotional and sublime
To guide in finding
The new rhymes
Of this quarantined life
In this sad time
I go outside
And watch the beautiful climb
Uvale before me
In this Interesting time
I play my Clarinet
And enjoy its lovely chime
Until I must stop.
For today’s daytime
Is running out
-Ian
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Managing Anxiety and Distance Learning During COVID-19
Lynn Lyons is a "psychotherapist, author and speaker in Concord, New Hampshire. [She has] been in private practice for 28 years, and...specialize[s] in the treatment of anxiety disorders in adults and children. [Lynn] travel[s] globally as a speaker and trainer on the subject of anxiety, its role in families, and the need for a preventative approach at home and in schools."
We highly recommend you take twenty minutes out of your day to check out Lynn's recent
Facebook live video where she talks about managing anxiety for parents and children during these unpredictable and ever-changing times. Her
follow up video opens up talking more specifically about teenagers and older kids, but goes back into talking about kids of all ages. Both videos are worth a watch!
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This New York Times
article talks about how to support yourself and your kids while distance learning during quarantine.
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Hilltop family-owned business still open!
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