About Our School

The report of The New Commission On The Skills Of The American Workforce, titled, Tough Choices or Tough Times articulates the challenges we face as educators in erasing the “education deficit” in our country. The report specifically addresses the fact that American workers today can no longer compete with the highly skilled workers of countries like China and India who are willing to put their talent to work for low wages. The conclusion that the report draws is that our system must learn to produce graduates who are innovative, creative and critical thinkers who “invent” the technologies, ideas and products that can be produced as outsourced goods.

At The GreenMount School, we are laying the groundwork for the very type of individual that is called for by the commission. Our students are encouraged to investigate topics, skills and strategies deeply to create what the Harvard Review calls “deep smarts”. The students here are allowed to use a constructivist approach to learning and are often independent in their approach to it. Our graduates are confident, contributing and capable of looking at new situations in which to apply prior learning effectively. The curriculum is theme-based with an emphasis on student products that demonstrate the intended learning.

An important part of our program is the preparation the students receive for their experiences as middle school students during which time they have the opportunity to travel abroad and be involved in the community in service learning projects. The travel this year in February will involve our eighth grade students in a week-long trip to Barcelona, Spain. During the trip the students will be hosted by their counterparts at a middle school there, but for the most part, the students will be responsible for planning the trip. They will decide on the itinerary, make arrangements for in-country travel, and make decisions about what they want to learn while they are in Spain. We believe that it is important for students to have a sense of other cultures and gain confidence as world travelers. In the spring of this year, students from Barcelona will travel to Baltimore to learn more about our culture and our approach to education. Our students will plan activities for their guests based on what they think are essential learning experiences for their new friends. In preparation for the trip and for receiving our guests, students are trying to raise money to offset the expenses of travel to Europe and the expenses of entertaining the students from Barcelona when they arrive in April.

Service learning projects are an important part of our middle school students’ experiences here at GreenMount. Our main goal is to expose our students to entrepreneurship so that they can exercise choices in their subsequent education. For example, a student who last year had a great experience at a local bakery has been featured on the Food Network because he wants to attend a special program in high school that will give him the skills and knowledge to apply chemistry, physics and even biology to become a chef. Our students learn from the real world and are given opportunities to explore many possibilities for their futures as members of the American society.

GreenMount School Newsletter 11.26.07

Greetings GreenMount Community,

I’d like to begin today by expressing my deepest thanks to the grandparents and special friends who attended our event on Wednesday. It was great fun and I know the children were all excited to share their learning with so many people who are special in their lives. I thoroughly enjoyed speaking to many of our distinguished guests who came from as far away as The United Kingdom to be with us. I also had a great time quizzing one grandparent on the order of her 20! Grandchildren. She did very well. We would also like to express our thanks for the contributions and pledges to our Annual Fund. The Grandparents and special friends have set the standard and given our campaign a wonderful beginning. We ended our visit with a beautiful performance from our chorus led by Ms. Laurie with exceptional accompaniment by Ms. Janet. Al in all, it was a great beginning to what we hope was a relaxing and fulfilling Thanksgiving holiday.
There are just a couple of announcements to make this week:

I will be conducting CTBS make-up tests for 8th grade students on Saturday. Those students involved know their testing times and whether they will be tested in math, reading or both.
There will be no weekly report this week because of the short week last week.

I would like to recommend a book for parents to read. It’s actually a report and something to which I have referred in the past. The title is Tough Choices or Tough Times and it is the report of The New Commission On The Skills Of The American Workforce. It comes from the National Center On Education And The Economy in Washington, D.C. I think it would be important for some parents to read this report to stimulate a discussion on how our school is or isn’t meeting the challenges put forth in its pages. I believe that GMS is at the forefront of producing students who can meet the challenges in the world economy that are described in the publication, but it would be productive to have some of you read this so that we could have a discussion – a book club-type discussion. Let me know if you are interested. I think the exchange of ideas may help us finalize the vision we should have for The GreenMount School.

We are now blogging! Please check out The Greenmount School blog by clicking on the icon on our home page. I’ll be posting the weekly messages as well as other facts about GMS that the world might be interested in understanding. We have a school that is a model for the way schools should be. It is our hope that we will hear from people around the world who discover our site and communicate with us to find out how parents and teachers create the kind of quality individuals who exit our doors. More later.

John F. Kennedy said, “There is an old saying that the course of civilization is a race between catastrophe and education. In a democracy such as ours, we must make sure that education wins the race.” People need to visit The GreenMount School to see how we are winning.

Cheers,

Steve

GreenMount Newsletter

Greetings GreenMount Community,

In the last installment of our weekly newsletter I was hoping to include some information about the accomplishments of some of our students outside of school. However, upon reflection it occurred to me that since we will begin to post our newsletter as part of our new blog, we shouldn’t include the names of students for the world to see. Still, I would like to celebrate contests won, goals scored, artwork exhibited, etc. for the benefit of our school community. I’ve decided that we will publish a separate bulletin to be distributed on paper only that will highlight the wonderful things that our students do when they go on to their after-school activities. We’ll send this along to you on a monthly basis to start and, depending on the volume of entries, consider sending it more often. The work that our students do here is worthy of nearly constant celebration. It only stands to reason that many of them continue to be successful in other aspects of their lives. Send your information directly to me.

As we look forward to Grandparents and Special Friends’ Day I hope you will pass along some things we will be asking our guests during the morning meeting. We’ll want to know who has come the greatest distance to attend our special event. We may also ask our grandparents who has the most grandchildren. We may also ask who has the most unusual nickname. My grandmother’s nickname was “Muz”. Can you top that? I’ve been racking my brain to come up with some other categories and I hope that by Wednesday to have a couple more. Any ideas? If you have a suggestion just send it along to www.mrsteveneedscreativeideasforgivingawaydoorprizes.org . If that address doesn’t work for you just use my regular email address at swarner@greenmountschool.org .

In the October 1 issue of this newsletter I referred to the work of Michael Gurian and his research on how boys learn. We talked a little bit about how boys do not hear, as a group, as well as girls. In fact, boys’ sensory input is generally less significant than that of girls. However, there are many things that boys react to very well that involve the senses. According to Gurian, in his book, The Minds of Boys, boys are great at gathering data from movement, active visual images, and some very specific auditory input. Among his findings is the fact that boys respond positively to music ( and so do girls). This is especially true for boys who may be struggling with math (Gurian p.165). “Many parts of the brain that build math skills are the same as those that react to music. Music can ‘wake up’ the brain for math learning and keep it awake.” Gurian goes on to say that music often correlates directly with math success. “The craft of music is built on a mathematical framework of scales, chords with prescribed intervals, timing rhythm, cadence, and beat. If your son learns an instrument and practices it daily, this simple exercise can improve math performance”. So, get your sons involved with music. Let them play it when doing homework (do we dare?) and encourage an appreciation for all kinds of music – even classical!

Finally, we would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving. For my part, I will celebrate the fact that I have been given the incredible opportunity to work for you as the head at GreenMount School. As I learn more about the values and talents that the good people in this community display, I continue to be impressed with who we are and who we can become in the future. I am grateful to the teachers here for their commitment to a rigorous learning environment that allows students to take ownership of their learning. I am grateful to parents who are responsible to their school and to every child, not only their own. I am most grateful to the students here who have given me a renewed faith in the potential of young people to take over a world that needs leaders.

If you are driving to your destination, be late – be safe. If you are flying, be patient. Good Luck!
Cheers,

Steve