Tech Week – A Letter From the Director
Dear Families,
As you may have noted, our schedule in the theatre is different this year for the Ramayana, particularly for our younger students. We thought there might be some value further explaining those changes.
Congratulations to all!
With the audition process complete, it is appropriate to acknowledge the challenges of casting both for performers and directors. For some, this will not be a big issue, while others may experience disappointment. The key is finding a way to move forward positively. Most have heard the statement before- every role is pivotally important-and while a bit of a cliché, it is proven true.
Nine-year-old Lily Hernandez held up a deer antler as she listened to a presentation about the Ohlone people of long ago. Nearby, her friend AnMei Dasbach-Prisk examined a replica of an Ohlone arrow. The girls and their fourth grade class from Mount Madonna School were visiting Chitactac-Adams County Heritage Park in Gilroy to learn about California history and Native American culture. Chitactac-Adams Park is an authentic site of a former Ohlone village.
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Recently the junior and senior classes at Mount Madonna School had the opportunity to interview John Laird, California’s Secretary for Natural Resources. Each year as part of their Values in World Thought course, students engage in conversations with individuals working for change, and through these dialogues the students come to better understand their world, country, community and selves.
February 10, 2012, “The Manimal is Back,” By Stan Redetsky and Stacy Brown. Read more: http://games.crossfit.com/video/manimal-back
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Sitting near containers filled with assorted plastic K’Nex and Lego Mindstorm pieces, two seventh grade girls laugh as they put the finishing touches on their robot creation, and joke about what to name it. Nearby, other students concentrate on working with the program software and syncing it to correctly control their robot.
Santa Cruz Sentinel, 2/4/2012, “Dancing the night away: Two Santa Cruz-area teens join marathon to raise money for pediatric AIDS groups,” by J.M. Brown. Read more: http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/localnews/ci_19894407#.Ty-HW6DUwaQ.email
Standing in front of the class, the sandy-haired boy shuffles his feet, avoiding eye contact with the middle school students seated before him. He looks up, shyly meets his classmates’ gaze, and takes a deep breath. Exhaling, he begins telling a story in Spanish. The words come haltingly at first, then, as his confidence improves, he relaxes and expands his vocabulary, exploring different sentence structures and verb conjugations.
By Hema Walker
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“Once upon a time…” may be an uncommon way to begin a mathematics lesson, yet in Mount Madonna School’s kindergarten where I teach, that is just how I present our “Golden Number Book” lessons. During the kindergarten year, each student will create their own counting journal, called a “Golden Number Book.” Every week the children add a new page to their book.
