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Executive Functioning
I came across a title of a paper from Harvard’s Center on the Developing Child that caught my attention. It read, Building the Brain’s Air Traffic Control System: How Early Experiences Shape the Development of Executive Function. Intrigued by the phrase “the brain’s air traffic control system,” I began reading.
Happy Birthday MLK
At Renbrook, we believe a diverse, equitable, and inclusive environment serves our students’ needs of belonging so they can pursue academic excellence, experience community, and lead with courage and empathy. Throughout the school year, those core beliefs inform our curriculum and programming. Additionally, when significant events such as the MLK Jr. federal holiday occur, we thoughtfully curate learning experiences that are relevant and age-appropriate. This important work is accomplished because of positive and constructive mindsets, belief in the impact of unity, and an understanding of the experiences of others.
Reading Comprehension
As adults, we tend to overlook the complexity of the ability to make meaning from something we read because we have been doing it for a long time and because it happens automatically and instantaneously for so many of us. For children, though, especially during the elementary school years, there is so much involved in processing print.
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How Are We Beautifully Different?
What a treat it is to share the culmination of our first units in Preschool through Kindergarten with our readers. Each grade’s unit strove to answer the essential question, “How are we beautifully different?” This question stems from Renbrook’s Diversity and Belonging Vision Statement “Beautifully different, stronger together, united in purpose for the public good.” At the Beginning School, we are laying the foundation for our students to feel “stronger together and to be united in purpose for the public good” by first supporting them to develop a strong sense of self and embrace others.
Dr. Kelly Bird presents at Independent School Management Conference
Five Ways to Make Your School Makerspace a Thriving Space of Belonging
Dr. Kelly Bird, Director of Renbrook Beginning School, joined Margaret Powers, founder of Creative Thinking Partners LLC, and ISM Consultant Joshua Nelson, as presenters in a webinar on makerspaces for Independent School Management this week.
Makerspaces are dedicated areas where students use hands-on techniques and tools to design, experiment, build, and invent. These spaces foster learning through inquiry and help develop students’ real-life, critical-thinking skills. But teachers often find it challenging to use their school’s makerspaces effectively and equitably. Dr. Bird and her colleagues discussed the value of makerspaces and how to ensure these specialized areas support student belonging and fruitful learning.
Key Points included:
- Scheduling tips to promote collaboration and ways to create connections across subjects for interdisciplinary projects.
- The benefits of designating a makerspace coordinator in each school division.
- The importance of creating a scope and sequence for specific skills students can choose from.
- The impact of the environment’s physical design on student interest and sense of belonging.
- Concrete steps to build a shared commitment to learning through “making.”
Dr. Bird received her Doctorate in School Leadership from the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education. Her dissertation, MAKING Space: Teacher Perceptions of How
Participation and Choice are Mediated in Maker Education in Independent Schools has informed her important work here at Renbrook School and beyond.
Making: An Iterative Process Presents Opportunities for Learning
“What was a challenge you had today, and how did you solve it?”
This is how we end our STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and math) classes in kindergarten. The students circle up, and a few friends volunteer to share what problem they encountered and how they went about solving it. By helping students to see the opportunities for learning that come with mistakes or failures, we are affirming one of our guidelines for STEAM class, “Enjoy the process!”
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Renbrook School Featured in West Hartford Lifestyle Magazine
Renbrook School was recently featured in the November edition of West Hartford Lifestyle Magazine and Glastonbury Lifestyle Magazine. Head of School Matt Sigrist talks about our mission and the Renbrook difference. Our own Katie Jackson graces the cover with her woodworking students. Enjoy the full article here.
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Did the Pandemic Interrupt Your Child’s Social, Speech, and Motor Development?
We recently had the pleasure of hearing from a panel of therapists with whom we work closely to support the language and social and emotional development of our students here at Renbrook. We partner with these professionals to develop a child’s toolbox of strategies for success and to educate our teachers to incorporate these strategies into the classroom. We know that children thrive when we function as a team.
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Why I Teach by Nancy Reynolds
I always felt lucky, that at an early age I knew what I wanted to be when I “grew up.” I was extremely shy in elementary school, I remember clinging to my mother’s legs and running after her back then, as if it was the end of the world. But low and behold, I felt the caring of teachers around me, who were kind and attentive, and made me see school as a happy place – a place that felt safe and comfortable, almost like home.
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Maggie Doyne, Author and Philanthropist Visits Renbrook School
Last week, Renbrook welcomed humanitarian and author, Maggie Doyne. Maggie is the founder and CEO of the BlinkNow Foundation that funds a children’s home, health clinic, women’s center, and K-12 school in Surkhet, Nepal. Maggie met with our Lower and Upper School students for a spirited and inspiring conversation about her life’s work. She also joined us for an evening parent event to discuss her new book, Between the Mountain and the Sky: A Mother’s Story of Love, Loss, Healing, and Hope.
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Sleep
Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine note, “Elementary school-age children who get less than nine hours of sleep per night have significant differences in certain brain regions responsible for memory, intelligence, and well-being compared to those who get the recommended nine to 12 hours of sleep per night.” There were over 8,300 children who participated in their study. The researchers used MRIs, medical records, and surveys over a two-year period. They were particularly concerned to see that children who slept, on average, less than nine hours a night not only had less gray matter than their peers who slept nine or more hours but that the volume of gray matter remained low at the two years mark. Essentially, gray matter should increase during the elementary years until it peaks around 13 years of age.
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Friend Wanted
At Lower School Assembly, third-grade students recently shared excerpts from their “Friend Wanted” ads, a beginning of the school year writing activity. I enjoyed reading through all the ads and learning more about what each student desires in a friend. Some of my favorite excerpts are:
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Columbus Day
As you know, school is closed on Monday due to Columbus Day, a federal holiday in the United States which celebrates the anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s arrival in the Americas on October 12, 1492. As a child in America, I sat in my elementary classrooms around Columbus Day and learned about the Niῆa, Pinta, and Santa María. In music class, I learned songs about those ships, and my teacher read picture books that taught me about an adventurous and brave explorer who “discovered” America.
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Building your Child’s Social-Emotional Muscles
As parents, we often want to protect our child from feelings like frustration and sadness. However, we need them to experience a large range of emotions, because it isn’t until they have experienced them that they learn how to regulate them.
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Play is the Work of Children
As parents, we often worry. Will my child ever stop crying at drop-off? Will they learn their letters? Will they write their name? Will they learn to read? The answer is yes. They will do all of these things. If we can remember this, it will allow us to take a deep breath, model calmness for our children, and allow them to enjoy where they are developmentally.
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Eighth Grader Excels at Track & Field
We are excited to celebrate eighth grader Chidi Moemeka for his amazing accomplishments in track recently, In the Spring of 2022, Chidi, along with his team at Capital City Track Club, competed in the USA Track & Field (USATF) Indoor Nationals. Individually, Chidi won the National Championship in the 55 meter hurdles. Additionally, his relay team earned All American honors by placing fourth in the 4X200m.
The Pandemic Within the Pandemic: COVID-19 and Anti-Asian Racism
During the month of May, we have celebrated Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month in a variety of ways at Renbrook School. Students have read numerous books, presented at assemblies about AAPI influencers, shared personal stories, and completed projects.
Seventh grader Alana McDonough focused a recent “Key Convictions” project on hate and hate crimes directed at Asian Americans. Alana was inspired by the uptick in events due to COVID and its origins in China. Alana has written a thoughtful, important, and passionate paper, and her own Asian American heritage surely fueled that passion.
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Enjoy Alana’s paper here.
Building Number Sense
Math happens everywhere in the Early Learning Center! Students are counting, estimating, and computing in the context of authentic daily tasks and experiences. Confident mathematicians need to develop a strong number sense in order to be successful long-term. While memorization of math facts is also important at this pivotal time, students relying solely on rote memorization can hit a wall, and number sense and more creative applications play an outsized role in student success.