Opal School Blog

Gradual Release of Responsibility

Here's a good, quick explanation of an approach to instruction that we use throughout the grades at Opal School. Jeffery Wilhelm is the speaker. You can click here for a little more information about who he is.

 

Winter Celebration Invitation

You are invited to Opal School’s Winter Celebration

on Friday, January 21^st from 6:30-8:00 PM at the Museum. 

It promises to be an entertaining evening, beginning with singing at 6:45 and continuing with storytelling and music, games and crafts for the older kids and bidding on items at the Skills Auction. 

Attached, you will find a preview catalog of all the wonderful items that you, the amazing community, have offered up to support our school!  Please take some time  to review this!  You won’t want to miss this event and have the opportunity to bid on great experiences (Help out with a Grape Harvest! Have a sleepover with your favorite teacher!) and wonderful things (Beach homes, yummy food).

Can’t attend the event but still want to help out?  See the RULES of the auction to see how you can still get in on the fun shopping!

Hope to see you all there for this evening of community and celebration.

 

Supporting the relationships of our littlest girls

I read about this book today on a blog by a local teacher that I am beginning to really admire. It is called Books That Heal Kids and you can find it by clicking here.

She is beginning an online book club of parents and teachers interested in reading and sharing thoughts about this book. Based on her recommendations, I've ordered a few for Opal School staff to read. Maybe some of us will participate in the book club. I was pleased to see that the author of the book has agreed to participate!

I know that many parents of young girls have concerns about this difficult dynamic that develops from time to time in the lives of even very young ones. This book may be a great support.

I hope that you'll let us know if you decide to read this book and/or participate in the book club. It would be great to talk about it in our Opal community as well!

Happy New Year!

After a wonderfully long and restful break, I am looking forward to returning to the busy, exciting, stimulating, challenging world of Opal School and the Portland Children's Museum. My head (and my heart) are filled with resolutions to find increasingly better ways to communicate the important things that are going on at Opal School with you and with an ever-widening audience, and to facilitate connections between the various members of our community. 

For me, these resolutions lay tightly intertwined with many others I shared with my family today. They include things like, be sure to pay attention to each precious day, grow a better garden, get more exercise, eat better food... the usuals, I'm sure. I especially liked these that ended up on my children's lists: create at least 3 great art projects, make a you-tube channel with my own animations, get to Suzuki violin book 7, dream up some fabulous family adventures. 

What a great exercise it is to zoom way out, consider what it is that you love, and imagine what it might look like if you were doing it. Maybe my greatest resolution of all is to try and remember that image when I'm so zoomed in on the little stuff that in the moment kicks up so much needless sweat. And remember that those little moments are really all we ever have. They are the steps on the path, so what a good idea it is to think for a while about where we expect that path to lead.

I was reminded of all this when I stumbled upon this post by Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project, a book I happened to find under the Christmas tree this year. In this post, (click here) she offers 7 tips for keeping school-day mornings calm and cheerful. It seemed like a good read for all of us heading back to school next week. And good support for keeping those small moments connected to big hopes and dreams.

I look forward to seeing all of you! (Remember... school starts on Tuesday!)