|
Dear Baker families,
Are you ready for a party? I said, “ARE YOU READY FOR A PARTY?” I know I am, and we’ve got you covered. Hopefully you’ve managed the transition from summer to back to school rhythm and you’re finally able to breathe a bit. Our Tailgate is in one week, and tickets are now live! Do not miss out on this super fun event. This is an event for us adults, which is important! We all love our kids very much, but being able to connect with fellow adults is precious. Furthermore, there is only so much you can talk about at carpool, or surrounded by your kids. And if you just want a moment of peace to have a glass of wine, a yummy sandwich, and listen to some music, you can do that at the tailgate too. Come find me and I’ll show you some of the lovely quiet places to relax in our garden or outdoor spaces.
Another big part of this event is to kick off the Baker Annual Fund. This is our biggest and most important fundraising campaign of the year. It will last 6 weeks, from Oct. 21st until Dec. 2nd. Many families may be asking, “Why do we need to give to Baker if we pay tuition?” This is a great question. Baker, like many schools, is a non-for-profit school. We don’t make money. We also are unlike public schools in that we don’t receive annual funding from the State, Local or Federal government. Almost all of Baker’s revenue comes from tuition, fundraising, and other programming (i.e. BASE and summer camp). Tuition covers part of our expenses, but not nearly everything. Many of the amazing things that we can offer to our students exist only because of donors. Every little bit helps, and no gift is too small. Our family community has a wonderful wide diversity of financial means. We don't ask for a specific amount. We just ask that you make a gift that is meaningful to you and your family. Our goal is 100% participation.
We've made it easier to donate this year by offering up either GiveSmart or Venmo.
Get your donation in today!
| |
Baker Happenings
Today was a big day for the Middle School! It was the first day of the Middle School camping trip. The Middle Schoolers have been preparing for this trip in their advisories for the last couple of weeks. As with everything here at Baker, this trip is student-centered. The students have planned all the meals, and some of the activities. As the buses were being loaded this morning, the excitement was palpable. The amount of supplies that the Middle School brought on the trip was impressive. I almost thought for a moment that they were preparing to invade Wisconsin. Just kidding, but it was a lot of food and supplies! Check out this video and you'll see what I mean. For more great pics and videos, check out our instagram feed.
|  | |
The goal of this trip is for the students to spend some time in nature and connect with each other and their teachers in a setting outside the school. They will participate in all sorts of team building activities and studies. In preparation for the trip, they have been learning about budgeting, cost analysis, and planning as they were responsible for making the menus for the meals, spending the money to buy the food, and they will be responsible for cooking the food!
It should be fun!
Have a great day,
| |
Mason Rocca
Interim Head of School
| |
|
October 13 and 14
Baker Middle School Overnight Camping Trip
October 13
Baker School Spirit Friday
October 13
FAN Event, Girls on the Brink - Donna Jackson Nakazawa and Michelle Icard
7:00 p.m. - Zoom - Register here
October 15
Baker Family Cardboard Challenge
Admissions Saturday Fall Tours
11:30am-2:30pm
Baker Campus
October 18
FAN Event, The Stolen Year: How Covid Changed Children's Lives, and Where We Go Now - Anya Kamenetz and Sarah Karp
7:00 p.m. - Zoom- Register here
October 21
Baker Fall Tailgate/Baker Fund Kickoff
5:30 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Baker Parking Lot
October 27
Parent Teacher Conferences- Early Dismissal
October 28
Parent Teacher Conferences- No School
You can view Baker's public calendar at bakerdemschool.org/calendar
| |
Baker Cardboard Challenge | |
Join in on the fun this Saturday for the annual Cardboard Challenge! Don't miss one of the most remembered events of the year! RSVP to the challenge below. | |
|
Have friends or family interested in Baker? Bring them this Saturday! We invite families to attend our Admission Tour and Explore Saturday on October 15th to learn more about Baker, then stay for the Cardboard Challenge event. This is one of our largest Admission events of the year!
Our Admissions Team and Baker ambassadors will lead guided school tours and answer questions that families may have. Tours will be held at 11:30 AM, 12:00 PM, 12:30 PM, 1:30 PM. Sign up in advance for the preferred tour time.
| |
Fall is in full-swing! Come out and join us for the Baker Fall Tailgate on Friday, October 21st from 5:30-8:00 PM. We will be kicking off our Baker Annual Fund with all the excitement! Join for an evening of fun, food, and music! The Fat Shallot food truck will be coming out for delicious food! Join for drinks (beer, wine, non-alcoholic) and music, while catching up with Baker families, staff, and friends! Cost is $25 per person. Childcare will be available for $15 through B.A.S.E. Sign up for childcare can be found here. TIckets for the tailgate will be available online soon! | |
Want to be a grade tailgate host? Sign up here! | |
Sign up for BASE childcare during the tailgate event! | |
This Fall, Baker will be offering BASE Bonus Days on campus in place of a typical school day for the Half/Full Day Conferences in October and Institute Day in November. These days will be scheduled with activities to keep your child engaged in physical activity, creative outlets and play based learning. Our Early Childhood participants will follow a daily schedule similar to their normal school day, complete with afternoon rest time. Please send your child/ren to school with a morning snack and lunch, as lunch will not be provided. Morning Care will be provided on these days as an option for all participants, as well as after care for enrolled BASE participants. After care will only be available until 4:30pm on these days and enrichments will not be offered. Please click the link below to register! | |
|
Special Bonus Day Events
October 27, we will have afternoon Fun Swim for 1st-8th Graders, supervised by Mr. Wills!
October 28, we will immerse ourselves in the Print Shop with Ms. Beth!
Questions? Please email Erin at erins@bakerdemschool.org
| |
|
Can you believe it? Outdoor gardening season is coming fast to a close. Some Chicagoland areas have already experienced frost! Fingers crossed for mild fall temps as we prepare to put the gardens to bed. If you’re free to join us, the Green Team will be gardening for a couple hours this Saturday October 15 and each of the remaining workdays. Bring your gardening tools!
Dates:*
Saturday, October 15th, 10:00 am
Saturday, October 29th, 9:00 am
Saturday, November 4th, 11:00 am
Saturday, November 19th, 12:00 pm
*Weather dependent
In Case You Missed It
Our needs for the garden go beyond getting your hands in the soil. There are many ways to contribute and all manner of talents and skills are welcome to help make Baker’s teaching garden initiative a success.
If you missed Wednesday’s Green Team Zoom Meeting but want to learn more about how to get involved, contact Natasha @Moss Family.
| |
Important Halloween Information | |
|
Halloween Parade Details
The Halloween Parade for PK and Kindergarten will begin at 9am, Baker Field. Students will attend school at the regular time and then with their class and teachers walk to the Field for their parade at 9am. After the parade, they will return to their classrooms with their class and teachers.
The Halloween Parade for Grades 1-8 will begin at 3:05pm on the Baker Field and will end just in time for carpool on Monday, October 31. Parents are welcome to attend and watch the parades on the Baker Field.
We acknowledge that not all people celebrate Halloween. If you do not want your child(ren) to participate in the Halloween Parade, please fill out this opt out form.
Community guidelines
We embrace the fun of Halloween, but ask that you be mindful of Baker's Halloween Guidelines as you plan your children's costumes. We are aware that not everyone celebrates Halloween and will be sensitive to students who are not participating by wearing a costume. If your child does choose to wear a costume, please keep these parameters for how they may need to adjust their attire at school:
-
Please give thoughtful consideration to your child’s costume. This article offers tips and guidelines to be mindful of potential issues related to cultural appropriation, cultural stereotypes, or costumes that marginalize others. This article talked about the #IAmNotACostume campaign which draws awareness to the problematic nature of many Halloween costumes. Link to Teen Vogue video: My culture is not a costume (appropriate for middle school students).
- No masks (other than any mask needed for safety related to COVID-19) or weapons are allowed as they may present a safety concern for children. Young children, in particular, are often upset by violent, scary, or gory costumes.
- Students are still expected to be able to participate in the school day so please be mindful of costumes that make it challenging for students to move around the school safely. Students must wear appropriate footwear.
Teal Pumpkin Project
At Baker, we are aware that Halloween may be difficult for children who have allergies.
If your family will be participating in Trick-or-Treating we encourage you to learn more about the Teal Pumpkin Project, to make trick-or-treating inclusive and safe for children with food allergies.
| |
|
I am grateful for the generosity of the Baker Board and the staff & faculty. The Board has 100% participation in our Baker Annual Fund, and the Staff & Faculty are zooming in on that number. This dedication to our school community inspires me and I am thrilled to be surrounded by dedicated people!
If someone has done something special or nice for you or your children, let them know! It will make their week and will also feel good to you. We have hit 24 Gratitude Notes, but we haven't heard from many of you, don't wait for Thanksgiving! These notes uplift our faculty and staff, and are super easy.
Gratitude Notes
| |
|
October 13th
FAN Event, Girls on the Brink - Donna Jackson Nakazawa and Michelle Icard
7:00 p.m. - Zoom - Register here
Anyone caring for girls today knows that our daughters, students, and girls next door are more anxious and more prone to depression and self-harming than ever before. As award-winning writer Donna Jackson Nakazawa deftly explains in Girls on the Brink: Helping Our Daughters Thrive in the Era of Increased Anxiety, Depression, and Social Media, new findings reveal that the crisis facing today’s girls is a biologically rooted phenomenon: the earlier onset of puberty mixes badly with the unchecked bloom of social media and cultural misogyny. When this toxic clash occurs during the critical neurodevelopmental window of adolescence, it can alter the female stress-immune response in ways that derail healthy emotional development.
Nakazawa is the author of four books that explore the intersection of neuroscience, immunology, and emotion, including The Angel and the Assassin, named one of the best books of 2020 by Wired magazine, and Childhood Disrupted, which was a finalist for the Books for a Better Life Award.
Nakazawa will be in conversation with Michelle Icard (FAN ’22), the author of Fourteen Talks by Age Fourteen and Middle School Makeover.
This event will be recorded and available later on the FAN website and our YouTube channel.
AFTER-HOURS EVENT: Attendees who purchase a copy of Girls on the Brink from FAN's partner bookseller The Book Stall are invited to attend an AFTER-HOURS event hosted by Nakazawa and Icard that will start immediately after the webinar. Copy and paste this link to purchase the book: https://bit.ly/DJNbook
NOTE: FAN collects registration data to inform event planning.
| |
|
October 18th
FAN Event, The Stolen Year: How Covid Changed Children's Lives, and Where We Go Now - Anya Kamenetz and Sarah Karp
7:00 p.m. - Zoom - Register here
The pandemic has touched almost every aspect of our lives. Some of the most lasting harm was visited on children. The childcare system in America collapsed, mothers were driven from the workforce, in the early days children went hungry in record numbers, and the bulk of our schools remained closed longer than our peer countries. Though it is segregated, inequitable, and starved for resources, the American school system is the biggest, most reliable social welfare institution for 50 million children. When schools were abruptly shut, children missed basic medical care like vaccinations. Depression, anxiety, suicidality, obesity, eating disorders, and diabetes climbed. Two years into the pandemic, many of our schools are still struggling to keep school staffed and students healthy, safe, and cared for.
Education reporter Anya Kamenetz (FAN ’15, ’18) explores these questions in her new book "The Stolen Year: How Covid Changed Children’s Lives, and Where We Go Now," showing how the last true social safety net—the public school system—was decimated by the pandemic, and how years of short-sighted political decisions have failed to put our children first.
Kamenetz will be in conversation with Sarah Karp, a reporter focused on education, children, and families at NPR-affiliate WBEZ.
This event will be recorded and available later on the FAN website and our YouTube channel.
AFTER-HOURS EVENT: Attendees who purchase a copy of The Stolen Year from FAN's partner bookseller The Book Stall are invited to attend an AFTER-HOURS event hosted by Kamenetz that will start immediately after the webinar. Copy and paste this link to purchase the book: https://bit.ly/KamenetzBook
NOTE: FAN collects registration data to inform event planning.
| |
|
October 20th
FAN Event, Visual Thinking: The Hidden Gifts of People Who Think in Pictures, Patterns, and Abstractions- Temple Grandin, Ph.D.
7:00 p.m. - No registration required
In-person event: Evanston Township High School Auditorium, 1600 Dodge Ave., Evanston, IL 60201.
Visual thinkers see images in their mind’s eye - they include everyone from the photorealist-inclined “object visualizers” with a knack for design and problem solving, to the more mathematically inclined, who excel at abstraction, pattern recognition, and systemic thinking. Even though visual thinkers constitute a far greater proportion of the population than previously believed, we live in a language-dominated world that tends to sideline visual thinkers, screening them out at school and passing over them in the workplace. In the new landmark book "Visual Thinking: The Hidden Gifts of People Who Think in Pictures, Patterns, and Abstractions," New York Times bestselling author, autism activist, and scientist Temple Grandin, Ph.D. (FAN ’14) explores cutting-edge research to take us inside the world of visual thinking, reframing the conversation on neurodiversity and showing how necessary different types of thinkers are essential for our collective well-being.
Whether by transforming how we think about autism or through her work on animal behavior, Dr. Grandin has never stopped following—and driving—the research on what makes minds tick. A professor of animal science at Colorado State University and the author of the New York Times bestsellers "Animals in Translation," "Animals Make Us Human," and "The Autistic Brain," her bestselling memoir "Thinking in Pictures" (later turned into an award-winning biopic staring Claire Danes) broke ground on neurodiversity, transforming scientific investigation and public understanding. In "Visual Thinking" she again leads the way, distilling the latest research, redirecting the conversation, and showing the path forward in her mission to celebrate the different ways our brains are wired, to advocate for the conditions that will let visual thinkers thrive, and to recognize the advantages that follow for us all.
This event suitable for youth 12+. It will be recorded but not live streamed and will be available on our website and YouTube channel.
| | | | | |
