Week 9: A week of fun and learning!
Week 8!
"This is an experiment, let's see if it works!"
We have had a full week of excitement and energy. We have a few new volunteer needs and I have included a template for a Front Porch Forum post at the bottom and would be grateful if you helped spread the word in your communities. If you post on FPF and send me the listing you win a free Pacem water bottle or sticker!
Between Halloween parties, mushroom buckets, sawmill field trips and owl banding programs we have had a FULL week (okay, technically the owls were the prior week....)! We even managed to prioritize quality math, language arts, history, art and science education too! It was a good week at Pacem.
In this week's Pacem Pages:
- School Happenings and volunteer needs.
- Scenes from last Week
- Important Dates and Reminders
- Classroom snapshot
- Front Porch Forum post to spread the word!
- Family and Teen Resources
Building Community!
- School Happenings!
- Caregiver Conferences: By this time your students advisor or assigned teacher (for part time students) should have reached out to schedule conferences. Students are encouraged to attend and remember that you can always reach out to us to schedule a meeting anytime.
- Website Photographer visit November 9 - On November 9th we will have a photographer visiting the school to take pictures for our new website. He will be taking photos of students and our spaces from 1-3pm.
- Family Game Night! 11/12 6-8:00pm- Join us for a Pacem family game night on November 11th. We plan to hang out an play some board games, card games or whatever sounds fun. This is a casual evening of snacks and building community around games. Anomia, Ticket to Ride, Uno and so much more! Bring your own games or play one that we have here.
- Thursday workshops
- This week! Graphic Design in Canva with Jenni Belotserkovsky — In our workshop, students will learn about the elements of graphic design, discuss various templates, and learn how to create attention-grabbing posters and create their own designs. This is an introduction to the online program Canva, image manipulation, and how to find free images on the internet. It is suitable for both students new to Canva and those who have used it before. Thursday, 11/5, 1-3pm. Included in full-time tuition, $25 for part-time enrolled students, $35 for students not currently enrolled.
Other Upcoming Workshops:
11/12 Intro to Fan Fiction with Aaron Starmer
11/19 Nail Art with Alex Yahm-Halberg
12/3, 12/10, 12/17 - Makerspace series with Paul Wallich (will include fidgets and holiday crafts)
- Volunteer needs:
- Caregiver Circle Support! - Parent Circle is an important part of our learning community. Can you help coordinate this circle? This can be as simple as an email and a cup of coffee. I can put you in contact with our parent circle representative, Liva Coe!
- Website design support - I have started the process of redesigning our website and will need a couple people to help look over some designs and tinker with it once we get a little further along. Let me know if you might like to help.
- Pacem Wish List (6 items purchased so far, whoo hoo! Thank you!): Our wishlist for school items makes it easy to donate - https://giftlist.com/l/CV4qKywqZZ
- 20th Anniversary planning- Please contact Ryan if interested!
- Organization Master! - Our storage room needs a serious overhaul. Any organizers out there that want to dig in?
- Marketing Team support! - Contact Ryan for details on how to be involved - ryan@pacemschool.org
Halloween Party!!
Sawmill field trip!
Our students helped thoughtfully turn a standing tree into lumber. This was a special opportunity and a big thanks to Nick for making it all happen. We had three different parents support the field trip, two of them stayed the whole time and everyone had fun. Safety was priority and the lessons from the experience will last forever.
Oyster Mushrooms!
Events, field trips and this month and next
Here are some important dates. These include field trips, class visitors, community events and more:
November 9 - Website photographer visit
November 11 - Family Game Night 6-8pm
November 23-27 - Thanksgiving break - NO SCHOOL
CHPS - Culture, History and Peace Studies
My favorite thing about teaching high school CHPS (Culture, History, and Peace Studies) is the discussions. Recently, I asked the class what technologies other than iron have completely reorganized major aspects of society. This led to an animated conversation about whether alcoholic beverages have had as big an impact on human history as something like automobiles or the Internet (some students claim they have, but I remain skeptical). I look forward to revisiting this line of inquiry after we have learned more world history, with more discussion and/or as an end-of-year essay topic. Today students ended up in a heated debate over whether Buddhism is a religion, which got us reading different definitions of “religion,” as well as looking up what Buddhists say about it. These discussions, even when they go in unexpected directions, get students actively engaged with the ideas of the course and help meet two of my main goals for my CHPS students—developing critical thinking skills and learning to explain their thinking and support it with reasoning and evidence. So, what technological changes do you think have had the biggest impact on human history?
Post on FPF - Get a sticker or water bottle 🎉
A few of you have offered to post on Front Porch Forum to share the awesomeness of Pacem. One of my big focuses this year is making sure that we spread the word about who we are and what we do. If you have a minute and can post on Front Porch Forum it would be great. You can copy and paste what I have written here or you can write your own post about your own experience at Pacem. Send me a copy of the listing and Ill get you a water bottle (while supplies last) or a Pacem bumper sticker!
"Have you heard of Pacem (pah-chem)? We are a state approved, independent and non-profit school offering full and part time options for grades 6-12 and part time programming for 5th grade. Our students are curious and passionate. We give them time and freedom to pursue their interests while supporting them with an intellectually rich curriculum. Celebrating Curiosity - Igniting Passions!
Visit www.pacemschool.org or contact ryan@pacemschool.org for more info."
Thanks for being amazing!
Ryan