Past Principal Outreach Articles

Principal Outreach

A Newsletter from Bob Ruud, WLS Teaching Principal
to WLS Families, December 2006

Dear WLS Families,

There's a lot going on. Here's what's most important, from my point of view...

A Montessori Point—Psychological Planes, Multi-Age Groupings, and Transitions: Maria Montessori observed characteristics in children specific to their planes of development. In a nutshell, the plane from 0-6 years old is one of the realization of self and other, recognizing that there is a world out there full of things with shapes and colors and smells, that we are part of but also separate from. The 6-12 plane is characterized by a burgeoning imagination, enabling people to conceive of greater and greater stretches of conception, such as having a real grasp of things happening millions of years ago, and things existing millions of light years away from us. The age of adolescence is characterized by a further leap in general intelligence, along with creating a capacity for creativity, with a corollary need to establish independence from parents and social establishments, generally met by an intense bonding with peers.

At World Learner School, as in Montessori schools in general, we group children together based on these planes. In the elementary configuration, we split the basic plane into a couple of sub-planes (thus the 6-9 lower elementary and the 9-12 upper elementary classes), but the significance of the boundary between the sub-planes at around age 9 is modest compared to that of the transition around age 6, and the one around age 12.

At this time of year we already start to see characteristics of the next plane start to emerge in the older children in each multi-age grouping. For each of the transitions inherent in our system—the one from lower elementary to upper elementary, the one from upper elementary to the adolescent program, and the one from the adolescent program to elsewhere—we want to anticipate and prepare to make the transition as meaningful as possible, and to minimize the shock, if you will, by making the transition a gradual process rather than an event. We are beginning that process now.

If you are a parent of a third-year student, or a sixth-year student, or an eighth-year student, look for announcements soon regarding special Montessori for Parents nights focused specifically on your child's coming transition. Also anticipate your child's frequent presence in the level he or she will be transitioning to next year.

Building Project: We have had a couple of recent meetings to review and revise some of the things we want to go into the building project. The project as drafted adds a gym on the east end of our building, extending across the playground toward the bike path. It also adds a music and art space, and some much needed storage space. It dedicates space for our library, and reconfigures some existing space to make a large middle school environment. There is some new space and some space added to existing space for JMS. The project schedule is still set completion prior to the 2008-09 school year, but financing is a real challenge, and we'll only get the shovels out when we're all sure the payment plan is in place. We're meeting again on January 8 at 5 PM to see how our recent discussions look translated to drawings. All staff and board members from both WLS and JMS are welcome at the meetings. And parents who would like to get familiar with the issues of the building project are welcome to come as well.

Board: The board officers are: Richard Hess, Chair; Mark Lokhorst, Treasurer; Bob Ruud, Secretary. Patti Quinn and Jon Hokanson are the representatives to the JMS/WLS Building Company. Parents are encouraged to come to board meetings. There is a Parent Forum scheduled before each meeting, 6:15 PM, in which parents can ask questions, offer suggestions, and voice concerns. The official meeting starts at 6:30 PM. Meetings are held at WLS, usually in the middle school classroom, on the fourth Monday of the month, with some exceptions: the January meeting is on the 22nd.

Board members are:

Parents: Richard Hess, Jon Hokanson, Mark Lokhorst, Henrik Lyder, (plus one position open as of this writing)
Teachers/Staff: Patti Quinn, Bob Ruud, Deana Siekmann, Liesl Taylor, Beth Wilson, Sherry Wolfe.

Randi Shapiro is not an official member of the board, but she does attend all of the meetings, and does the reports on finances and various administrative issues.

Fundraising: Fundraising is one of the most important things a parent can do for the school. In the past we have purchased playground equipment, digital cameras, a mediation training kit, a bus, computers, an entire library, etc. with money that has been raised through events and grants. If you would like to get involved in our school's efforts to enhance the program for all children, please get in touch with me or Randi or any board member.

We have just this month completed two projects that we hope will prompt donations to the school, although we are absolutely sincere in keeping the money part separate from the projects. They are a couple of musical CDs: one consisting of songs sung by each of the classes; the other recorded by the middle school rock band, All Tied Up. The former is being distributed free of charge today to all WLS families. The latter will be distributed to middle school families, but will be given free of charge to any other family who requests one.

Thanks! And thanks to all of you most generous donors!!!

Vision: We are working deliberately and patiently toward this full configuration (all parts are up and running except the one in brackets):

Middle School

Upper Elementary 1 Upper Elementary 2 {Upper Elementary 3}

Lower Elementary 1 Lower Elementary 2 Lower Elementary 3

Jonathan Montessori House of Children

As we live by our mission statement:

The World Learner School's mission is to create a school that supports an experiential collaborative learning (Montessori) program that empowers children to unfold their full potential as whole and unique persons in classroom, local and world communities.

That's all for this time, but for the calendar below. See you back here next time...

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and Many Happy Returns on the Winter Break, Everybody!