The Beacon

The Jungle Book - Come See Your Favorite "Characters"!

 Submitted by: Thomas Oberlander (grade 2)

My mom, Katie Oberlander, is putting on a play in March.  The play is The Jungle Book. 

The showtimes are: Friday, March 9 at 7:00pm and Saturday, March 10 at 2:00pm, upstairs in the Middle School at Harborlight. 

The Jungle Book is about a kid raised in the jungle by wolves, but when the wolves find out that the tiger, Shere Khan, is coming back, the panther, Bagheera, wants to take the boy, Mowgli, to the man village to keep him safe.  So come see the play to find out what happens.  I hope you like it.

In the pictures above, can you spot the elephants, monkeys, and snake through the trees?

Teachers as Students - Eleven teachers receive Lighthouse Scholarships from the Susan E. Egan Teacher Enrichment Fund

“To get good performance from your kids, you have to get good performance from your teachers. The education field does not stand still. The only way to get to the point where you reach the highest academic achievement levels for all students is for teachers to study together and learn together.” (NYTimes, 6/2000)

Front row: Debby Chang & Jamie Oakley
Back row: Andrew Carlson-Lier, Kate Dickman, Claudia Ovalle, Rachel DeStefano, & Tim Creamer
Missing: Adrienne Frautten, Dan Lord, Emily Luongo & Cindy Perreault

At Harborlight Montessori School, professional development is interactive and sustained, assisting teachers in meeting professional status requirements and Program development goals. Those goals include:

• Long Range Plans
• Program Professional Developments Plans
• Professional status requirements
• Harborlight’s Curriculum Scope and Sequence
• Common Core of Learning & Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks
• Department of Education Regulations, Licensing, Program Quality Ratings, Teacher Qualification Registry

Since the fall of 2000 when the Teacher Enrichment Fund was created, nearly $120,000 in Lighthouse Scholarships has been awarded for professional development. Harborlight remains committed to the underlying principles of the Fund and the core belief that great teachers make great schools. By supporting its teachers, Harborlight has advanced initiatives that are both Program Specific and also School-wide that affect the practices in the classroom, which ultimately promotes high standards and expectations for student achievement. In 2011, the Fund was renamed the Susan E. Egan Teacher Enrichment Fund honoring Harborlight's Founding Head of School and in celebration of her 38 year legacy at the School.

Teacher-centered professional development provides a targeted, consistent, model that empowers the faculty and staff by helping them choose and initiate professional growth activities according to their strengths, needs, and schedules. This model has tremendous potential as a tool to differentiate individual professional goals, support faculty at all levels of professional status meet their most salient goals. Professional development at Harborlight is not funded by tuition. It is made possible by the incredible generosity of the School's families and friends through direct contributions to the Fund.

Adrienne Frautten with a few of her Toddlers

This year's Lighthouse Scholarship recipients are: Andrew Carlson-Lier, Debby Chang, Tim Creamer, Rachel DeStefano, Kate Dickman, Adrienne Frautten, Dan Lord, Emily Luongo, Jamie Oakley, Claudia Ovalle, and Cindy Perreault. Below are personal reflections offered by some of the recipients...

"I am so thankful for this opportunity to work toward completing my master’s degree. I am excited to take what I am learning in my classes and bring new work to my students as well as share what I am learning with my peers." ~ Cindy Perreault, ECE-1 Head Teacher, pursuing a graduate course in Montessori Education

"Being a Lighthouse Scholar, I plan on completing my master’s in Montessori Education in 2012-2013, and be able to further implement my teaching philosophy in “Follow the Child” and the Confucian teaching of “Yin Cai Shi Jiao,” which means to give appropriate guidance and encouragement adaptive to each individual talent and personality. With this newly acquired knowledge, I’m confident to expand my skill sets beyond integrating Language, Chinese and Math into Montessori plays to include additional subject area expertise such as special needs and child development. Being a life-long learner, I also plan to visit and witness other bi-lingual (Chinese/English) classroom settings. I firmly believe the experience will not only widen/inspire my visions of a bilingual Montessori learning environment, but also enrich my teaching perspective to better offer to my class." ~Debbie Chang, ECE-2 Head Teacher, graduate study at Gordon College

"I will be using my TEF Scholarship to take a graduate-level course at Plymouth State University. I have been pursuing my Master's of Education at PSU for over a year, and I hope to complete the program by December 2012. Upon graduating, I plan on continuing my education by matriculating in a C.A.G.S. (Certificate of Advanced Graduate Study) Program in Educational Administration. I very much appreciate being selected by the committee to receive a scholarship named after our Founding Head of School, Susan E. Egan. Susan has always been a proponent for my pursuit of a graduate education, and I hope that I am making her proud." ~ Tim Creamer, Science, Math & Physical Education Teacher

"It's an honor to be chosen as a SEETEF recipient. Thank you for your support! As a C.A.G.S. student at Salem State University, it is my goal to continually hone my understanding of the educational process. Although I believe children to be our best teachers, it is always positive to connect with the wisdom of professional educators. My long-term goal is to obtain a Doctorate in Education."  ~ Dan Lord, Art Teacher

"To become an educator has given me a great satisfaction to be able to observe students at different stages and aspects of their growth and development. It has always been my pleasure to know that I am contributing in some small part that which will shape their future and the future of our society. For this reason, being part of the Harborlight Montessori School makes me feel a high level of gratitude and compromise, since it has given me the opportunity to grow and become a better professional and educator. I have the opportunity to become a professional educator, which will provide me the means to reach higher goals, more so with the knowledge of the Montessori philosophy at NCME-NE. Furthermore, it is an opportunity to attain a master’s degree at Gordon College toward my licensure in Education and Spanish. Thanks so much to the Lighthouse Scholarship committee and this award for the opportunity." ~ Claudia Ovalle, Spanish Teacher

Workshops for Parents - At Harborlight the learning only begins with the students

Harborlight Montessori School is a thriving social learning community where students are provided a unique opportunity to learn how to learn - a skill necessary for living and succeeding in our complex and connected world. Harborlight is not unique in marketing the lifelong learning opportunities it provides each student. 'Love of Learning' and 'Lifelong Learning' are catch phrases utilized by all of academia these days. Harborlight does, however, strive to meet and exceed its promise every day through all that happens in and out of the classroom. And, the learning here is not limited to just students. Harborlight offers a calendar of diverse programs and workshops for parent, care givers, educators, and members of the greater community.

Over the past few months, Art Teacher, Dan Lord, invited parents to join him in Harborlight's art studio for Adult Play with Clay. Many parents signed up for the three-evening sessions to learn, share, and experience hands-on the joy of their own creativity. "As a child, I was one who really enjoyed playing in the mud. I would create streams, towns, roads for matchbox carsm and ramps for launching various objects, oftentimes with friends. It was a childhood experience that I will never forget. Today, I am fortunate enough to have a position that enables me to continue working with mud. Clay is an amazing medium for creation, and, in this light, I invited Harborlight parents and teachers to a series of community building pottery workshops to play with clay. My aim was not only to teach adults the fundamentals of pottery, but also  to further develop Harborlight's sense of community. The experience culminated in a special display of our work at the Empty Bowl Dinner that was held on Friday, February 3rd, where they could donate their work to help raise funds for Beverly Bootstraps. I really enjoyed these Adult Play with Clay workshops. Witnessing parent connecting with each other for the first time was a gift. Their work is both intelligent and beautiful; a direct reflection of our community." ~ Dan Lord

On a professional note, Harborlight has, this academic year to date, offered three programs funded through a community engagement grant provided by the Department of Early Education and Care: Beyond Bossing, Begging & Bribing (9/13/11) and Different Needs-Different Children (11/1/11) both with Jeanine Fitzgerald , Development-Should I Be Concerned? (11/29/11) with Dr. Ryan Plosker, and Parent Involvement in Literacy Learning (1/25/12) with Harborlight's own Marie Andrews. These workshops, which are open to the public at no charge, continue to provide parents with valuable insight into child behavior and development, parent/child relationships, and empowered parenting.

On the calendar this month, Beth Stone, Director of Harborlight's Infant/Toddler Program, is giving a talk on 'Your Capable Toddler' on Tuesday, February 28th from 9-10 am. For more information on this talk, please contact Beth at estone@harborlightmontessori.org. Visit Harborlight's website at www.harborlightmontessori.org to learn of upcoming programs specifically targeted for parents, caregivers and educators. Or become a fan and receive regular updates on events and programs at Harborlight: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Harborlight-Montessori-School/277331322590

The Empty Vessel Dinner

Submitted by:  Dan Lord (Art Teacher and Coordinator of the Empty Bowl/Vessel Dinner)

 We have been putting the Empty Bowl (now, also known as The Empty Vessel Dinner) together for 6 years.   We always aim to make it better each year.   This year we raised over $3,333 dollars!  Over the past 6 years we have raised over $20,000!  All of the proceeds have gone to Beverly Bootstraps Community Services, Inc., a foundation which gives aide and offers resources to people so they may achieve self-sufficiency. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The children and I made the decision to change the name of our annual event from The Empty Bowl Dinner to the Empty Vessel Dinner because we did not want to limit our creativity to simple bowls.  ‘Vessels’ makes more sense. 

This year’s kiln has triple the capacity of our old one.  In addition to being larger, we are also able to fire at higher temperatures.  This gives us the opportunity to work with high fire clay and glazes which is a lot of fun.

    

A new addition to our ceramics program is a parent group that met every other Friday night throughout the Fall and Winter months.  Adult Play with Clay was a blast.  Our community is so creative and open to learning.    We had over 30 families participate and data reveals that the program was successful in terms of increasing collegiality.  Hopefully, we can do it again next year. 

 

Cheleste Thorpe, parent of Bryan Wolf, was one of our donors.  She inspires me and our students to push our creative limits.  Another donor was Haitian potter Jean-Micheal.  Cheleste met him on her mission to Haiti (She is also a Medical Doctor.) where she fell in love with his pottery and story.    

The evening of the Empty Vessel Dinner certainly celebrates and showcases the tremendous talents of our students, renowned potters and now, our parents as well, but the true focus of the event is never lost on anyone.  There are many people out there whose vessels that should be filled with food are empty.  The saddest of which are their stomachs.  It is through donations of time, money, and goods by all of us and through organizations like Beverly Bootstraps Community Services, Inc., that we can help to fill those vessels.

If you would like to make a contribution to Beverly Bootstraps Community Services, please visit their website www.beverlybootstraps.org.

Happy Valentine's Day St. Jude's Research Hospital!

Submitted by: Rachael DeStefano (Lower Elementary Teacher and Club Advisor)

            Last Wednesday, the Creative Discovery Arts and Crafts Club spent an hour making Valentine's Day cards to send to the children at St. Jude’s Research Hospital in Memphis,Tennessee. They worked very hard and were able to produce 78 cards to send to sick children. The kids really enjoyed this project and worked very hard to make as many as possible;  they were very proud of the amount that we were able to mail out.

             “It was fun because we were helping people to make them happy. “Ava and Cecilia

             “It was really fun because it felt good to cheer people up who are sad and sick.” Grace

             “We hope the kids enjoy the cards and that they make them feel better.” Mary and Natalie

             I am very proud of the time, care and determination the children took to make as many beautiful cards as they could in a short amount of time.

 

Skiing and Snowboarding

Submitted by: Tim Creamer (Middle School Teacher)

 

Adults in the Harborlight community sometimes talk about the value they see to going skiing and snowboarding on Fridays during the winter with our students.

 “That must be a great reward to encourage the students to do all of their homework.”

 “The students must get to know each other even better.  It’s great that the 6^th graders get to hang with the Middle School students, too.”

 “It’s great that the kids get to know their teachers outside of the classroom setting.”

 All of these things are true, but the Middle School Skiing and Snowboarding Program at Wachusett Mountain is so much more than this.

 

Harborlight strongly believes in balancing classroom learning with experiential education.  Our Middle School class has gone on overnight hiking trips, canoeing and kayaking excursions, plus numerous field trips.  We have traveled to the cities of Washington DC, New York, and Montreal – going to the White House, The Metropolitan Art Museum, and Interactive Space Camp, amongst many other things.  Our skiing and snowboarding experience fits right in with these adventures.

 

Many of our 6^th grade students have never been on a ski trip before.  The teachers walk them through the entire process - from taking the bus, to renting their equipment, to their lessons, to meeting up for lunch.  It is a challenge to make new students comfortable with all of it, as many of these kids still need to overcome their own fears about sliding down a mountain or falling off a chairlift.  While the teachers have a good handle on how to streamline the process at Wachusett, they are also aided greatly by the older students that have been there in years past.  The 7^th and 8^th grade students do such a great job talking the inexperienced students through the first day, and truly help them in overcoming their fears to get them on the board or skis.  After that, the instructors take over and off they go!

 Learning to ski or snowboard is an excellent way for students to understand their bodies.  Stopping, starting, turning, falling, and getting up again are all significant actions on the slopes.  The students learn about these things for themselves in a way that no book, video game, audiotape, or Youtube video could ever teach them.  This experience belongs entirely to each student.  They become acutely aware of how minute muscle actions can affect their speed, angle, motion, and direction that they are traveling.  They are taught to have a healthy respect for the inherent dangers of the snow and the mountain, but to overcome their fears with ever-increasing skills and control.

Skiing and snowboarding are two of the best examples of experiential education that we are able to offer our students here at Harborlight.  Watching these kids go from first day, bunny-slope beginners as 6^th Graders to advanced black-diamond cruisers as 8^th Graders is a wonderful thing to witness!

 

A Review of the Case of the Missing Homework

by: Emily Minster (5th grade student)

    A few months ago I saw the play, The Case of the Missing Homework.  It was very enjoyable.  It wasn't like any other play I have ever seen at Harborlight Montessori School.  I believe it was because of the new director/drama & music teacher, Katie Oberlander.  She is very good at directing, as well as writing plays.  She created some new parts, for extra people.  The stage was set up perfectly.  All of the lights were great.  Even the stairway leading up to the theater was decorated very well, with lights and draping.  The actors were very good.  I think Katie did a good job picking the actors.  There were also concessions.  There was an intermission half way through the play.  The play was about forty-five minutes long, which I thought was a good amount of time.  The costumes, which the actors picked themselves, were very well chosen and matched the characteristics of each character, especially Sally Sumpgump's multi-colored hair and Peter Prune's red mohawk.  All of the props and scenery were beautifully painted.  Since the play was a melodrama, it was pretty dramatic.  The "harried stagehands" were very funny.  They kept running on at random times.  I especially loved the oleos, which were done in between scenes.  They were very funny and kept the whole audience laughing.  The whole play was amazing.  It was just like a real theater.  If you liked the play, then come and see Katie's next production, The Jungle Book Kids,which will be as good or even better than The Case of the Missing Homework, because I'm in it!!!

No Woes Over No Snow

 

Every year students participate in winter sports.  However, winter sports require snow.  The Middle School students and the sixth graders have been skiing every Friday at Wachusett Mountain on man-made snow.  But in order for the upper-elementary students to go cross-country skiing and the lower-elementary students to go snow-shoeing, Mother Nature needs to cooperate and cover the trails with snow. 

Since the fluffy white stuff has only fallen sporadically and doesn’t stick around, the plan for Physical Education had to change.  Now, all of the elementary students are ice-skating!  Obviously, they go to an indoor rink located in Gloucester.  The children are having a great time!  (At least the ones who haven’t fallen)

Cartoons in Spanish

One of the many ways that Claudia engages her students in Spanish class is to present them with a story in pictures that they then have to write captions underneath to coincide with what is happening in the cartoon.  Below you will find examples of the students' work with some errors and no accents.

Gabi - Epesodio 2#

By: Anna (Grade 4)

1. El lunes Gabi duerme.
2. Hay una criada sellama Anna.
3. La criada prende la radio y la aspiradora
4. Gabi no se duerme. Gabi no esta contenta.
5. Solution: Gabi come la radio y la aspiradora.
6. Gabi duerme otravez.
7. La eriada no esta contenta

Episodio #3

By: Will (Grade 4)

1. El miercades la casa esta sucia.
2. Limpia !Que lio!
3. Busa la aspirodorn.
4. !Gaby!
5. Encnufd la con.
6. Posa la aspiradora la casa.

Episodio #3

By: Ben (Grade 4)

1. El Mericotes la criada limpia.
2. Criada busca la gatita coma.
3. El aspiridora la criada enchufa.
4. La gatify la cola la craida.
5. Limpia pasa la aspiradora.

Episodio #3

By: Rachael (Grade 4)

How yes miercoles.  La casa de gabi esta sucio.  La criada llega la casa.  La criada limpia.  La criada busca la aspiradora.  Gabi come la aspiradora.  La criada enchufa la cola de gabi.  La criada pasa la aspiradora.  La criada esta contenta.

 

Spanish with Claudia

By: Emily Minster (Fifth Grade Student) and Makayla Kalman (Fourth Grade Student)

This term, we have been studying many things in Spanish class.  Our favorite, by far, though, is studying the names of the foods.  In Spanish class, we learned the names of the foods, and then, this is the best part, we had breakfast in class!  We learned the names of all of the breakfast foods.  Then, one day, we all volunteered to bring in a different food.  At last, it was time to have the breakfast.  We had to “order” all of our food in Spanish.  We had bacon, bread, cheese, pancakes, sausages, and orange juice. 

Claudia is a very good Spanish teacher.  She has helped us learn a lot, both this year and last.  We have started learning about the parts of the body, and we’re having a good time doing it.  Claudia teaches us games to help us learn different words and concepts.  Claudia teaches us in fun, exciting ways so that what we learn sticks in our brains.  She pushes us to learn new and more advanced things.  We all have a great time in Spanish class.