Monday, August 30, 2010

Sign Up for Conferences Right Here!

Or rather, by clicking here.

Welcome to the new year!

August 30, 2010

Dear Students and Families,

Happy shorter days of summer to you. I hope this letter finds each of you in good spirits, enjoying time with family and friends and looking forward to the school year.

I am pleased and honored to be serving as your Advisor. For those of you new to high school at Trillium, I offer a special welcome. I am here throughout your High School experience to offer support and guidance for all things academic and personal. As a group, advising embodies the heart of Trillium's democratic community - small, committed groups working through issues and ideas to nurture the growth of our school. But, like all families, we will sometimes be at odds with one another. The tools of peaceful conflict resolution, mediation, and one on one conferencing empower us to address problems, reflect on ourselves, deepen our understanding of each other, and develop our communication skills.

Each year traditionally begins with an Advisor-student-parent conference. We discuss your academic path, review your transcript and assess your progress towards meeting graduation requirements. We also discuss learning interests and goals and collaboratively sign-up for a Semester 1 schedule designed to best meet your needs.

Advisors do home visits only for students who are new to the Advising group, or to whose homes I have not yet had the chance to visit. Returning 10-12th graders and parents whose homes I have visited in the past will have a scheduled conference in the classroom.

You may sign up for a one-hour classroom conference:
Tuesday, September 7th from 7:00 AM til 1:00 PM
Wednesday, September 8th from 2:00 PM til 7:30 PM.

You may sign up for a one-hour home visit:
Thursday, September 9th from 9:30 AM til 5:00 PM.
Friday, September 8th from 8:00 AM til 11:00 AM.
Saturday, September 9th from 9:30 til 11:30 AM.

Please contact me at your earliest convenience so we can work out a time that best meets your needs. If I have your correct email address, you should have received an email inviting you to sign up online through a Google spreadsheet. This is the simplest way for me to manage the schedule. You may also find a link to it on my blog at http://ken-trillium.blogspot.com/.

Please note that the first day of school is Monday, September 13th. Class starts at 8:30am. Students are to report directly to Advising rooms.

Trillium continues to offer an enriching academic experience in the midst of the budget stress all schools are experiencing. Significant cuts have been made to teaching budgets which have been used for the purchasing of books, curriculum, project supplies, basic classroom supplies, and room improvement. As teachers do with less, we are asking students and families to shoulder greater responsibilities in supporting the classroom. To assist in this planning I have written two lists below. One is what I have seen, over the years, as the basic school supplies students use the most. Also, I have included a classroom “wish list” that includes the supplies that support the creative hands-on projects and art that enrich your students' learning and that I have, in the past, purchased from my budget to stock the “art boxes” in the room. You will also notice that there are some food items on the list. I like to keep some staples in the class. Fed students are better learners than hungry students. Please do not feel pressure to purchase these “wish list” items, but do look around your house, keep an eye on yard sales, pick up something extra at a craft shop, or take a family trip to SCRAP to see if you can make a great score to pass on to our classroom.

I look forward to meeting with each of you soon to discuss all of the things that are going to make next year one of tremendous creativity, community, growth, and learning. Enjoy the last days of summer.

Peace.

Ken Gadbow

Ken@TrilliumCharterSchool.org,
503-348-9849 (mobile)
http://ken-trillium.blogspot.com


School supplies High School students commonly use
• a lot of pencils and a good eraser
• a couple of good pens, especially black ink
• college-ruled lined notebook paper
• black sharpies
• if you often choose visual projects, a set of high quality color art pencils or markers
• highlighters and/or sticky-notes to support reading strategies and research
• a water bottle 
• a personal organization system for classes: notebooks/binder/folders... something that works for you and keeps each classes' work separate and organized
• a planner notebook – ones with calendars are the most useful (store-bought, hand-made, SOMETHING!)
• a personal journal or notebook to capture ideas and expression
• a personal library card free of fines

Project Wish-List for our classroom
• Colored paper.
• Tape: scotch tape, blue masking tape, duct tape.
• Felt squares of all colors.
• Fabric scraps of all varieties.
• Needles and thread.
• Poster board and large paper.
• Surfaces to paint on... canvas, wood, recycled materials, etc....
• Art paper- Big sketch books, watercolor, charcoal, etc....
• Fabric scraps, screen printed patches, needles, thread.... all sewing stuff
• Black Sharpies of fine and wide tips
• Tissues.

• On going:
 Natural peanut butter
 Whole grain bread.
 Honey
 Herbal Tea
 Fresh flowers are always a nice touch.

* And if you might be willing to help buy books for the classroom, a Powell's gift card is always a delightful contribution.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Front Space Update



Hello Trillium Families,

I hope everyone is having a fabulous summer. With the sun beating down for the past month or so the cob has had a nice chance to dry. There are several more steps before it will be finished and there will be several chances for families to participate in that process. Below is a list of things that we would love your help with.

#1. THE COB ROOF AND BEAUTIFYING THE SPACE. On August 28th (from 9 am to 4 pm) we will be having a Front Yard work party to beautify the space and finish putting on the cedar shakes for the cob roof. We won't be doing any cobbing, but rather cleaning up the space and getting it ready for the first day of school. If you have experience with putting on cedar shakes or other kinds of roofing, (or just want to come give it a try) please join us. If you want to just lend a hand in the clean up or have some ideas for ways of making the space (including the Maryland side) sparkle and look more inviting that is great too (We would love to think about plants, a better way to organize bike parking etc). An rsvp to me would be helpful so I can get a sense of the numbers. ( I have attached a picture of the finished roof and the unfinished roof.)

#2. MAKING THE MAIN GATE A team of welders and artists in our community are working to get the metal gate ready to be hung and would also welcome new members. Contact Jon Molenkamp at jonmolenkamp@mac.com if you are interested. The gate will initially be a skeleton, which will be filled with metal designs and "scenes" created by the community. The work on the designing for the artistic part of the gate will start once school has begun.

#3. PLASTERING AND PAINTING THE COB: The intermediate class (3rd-5th) have taken on the challenging of orchestrating the plastering and painting of the cob wall and the trillium flower bench located inside the wall. This work will begin the first weeks of school and we will be inviting the community to be both a part of the plastering and the painting. Look for information about that in early September.

#4. REMOVING THE GREEN GATE: Once the cob is finished the main gate is in place, we plan to remove the green cyclone fence that separates the front yard from the back. We hope that we can find someone who would like to dig it up and take it away, but if not, we may be asking for help with that process some time in last September.

#5. NEXT YEARS BIG PROJECT!! The cob wall was just the first step in a long term effort to really make the outside and inside of Trillium much more community friendly and aesthetically magical. The process of creating the wall really brought the community together and has done wonders for the feel of the space already. I often see people stopping to poke their heads in and see what we are doing or reading about the project in the unfinished kiosk outside the gate. There is nothing set in stone for next years big project, but I would really love to see an outdoor classroom built from cob and lumber. I am putting my intermediate class to the task of beginning the process of making that happen starting in September. I would love any and all feedback. I really want this to become an even bigger community involved event than last year.

Thanks for reading and let me know if you have any questions, comments or want to lend a had.

See you in a month or so.

Rob van Nood