Open Institute
On Thursday, February 9 and Friday, February 10, Open School held its annual Institute. Over the two days, Open teachers and staff made presentations and held workshops to demonstrate constructivism in action to sixty local educators. Few people realize that the original intent of charter school legislation was to disseminate best practices in education. Topics included differentiation in the classroom, integration of technology, poetry lessons, and more. A big thanks to our teachers who continue to share their wonderful ideas with other professional colleagues. We also appreciate all the parents who helped welcome our visitors, lead tours, and provide a lovely breakfast.
In the Garden: Everything Under the Sun!
Greetings from the Open School Garden Teachers Gina Neusteter and Mismak Tadesse. We are thrilled and delighted to be spending time with your children. We have been VERY busy getting ready for and learning about fall.
We began our series together cleaning up and weeding our main garden. We pulled yards and yards and yards of weeds. Our next job was to apply new mulch to our garden's pathways. We have planted our winter crops, and they are presently germinating in the greenhouse. Please come and see our sprouts and the smiles on your children's faces as the "miracle in the greenhouse" continues to delight us all. In the weeks to come we will weed, amend and prepare our planting beds. We then will transplant our 400+ seedlings for our winter harvest. We have discussed donating our surplus to the food banks, making delicious treats for ourselves, feeding our garden pets, and we look forward to utilizing our crops for inside projects during our rainy weather too.
We are currently working on a module about leaves. Exploring their sizes, shapes, colors, fragrances, and their purpose to a plant. Look for beautiful leaf surprises in your student's backpacks before Thanksgiving.
Please go to Thursday's Backpack to read more about what our cluster's are studying in the garden (click on Twitter icon).
We have created an outdoor sharing and learning space in the main garden where we meet for our lectures and learning time. We could use a few painters tarps or old quilts to keep our space dry over the next few wet months. Any donations would be appreciated!
Other Wishlist Items Include:
Child Size Metal Hand Cultivators
Child Size Working Gloves
Child Size Metal Shovels and Hoes
Adult Size Medium and Small Button Down Shirts
Bunny Food
Thanks to our sweet parents who already donated bunny food this month. We appreciate your thoughtfulness. Please come visit anytime in person, or feel free to drop us electrons at Neustetergl@gmail.com
Yours in the Garden,
Mismak and Gina aka (Ms.N.)