Preschool to Grade 8 | School Updates & Alumni News
Cranes—the heavy-lifting kind—are all around us, and they perform vital roles in a variety of industries. They can lift or lower tremendous amounts of weight, move loads into position, and enable construction companies to ascend their buildings into the skies. An opportunity to explore the mechanical principles of these fascinating machines was presented to Clairbourn students during their annual Engineering Week Design Challenge in January of 2020.
Meet Jeffrey Karsh, a partner at private real estate investment firm Typerion Partners in Los Angeles, and a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania. Jeffrey attended Clairbourn in the early 1990s, from preschool through sixth grade, before his family moved to Beverly Hills. Jeffrey recalls his time at Clairbourn as still “vivid” in his memory, where he recalls the teachers who inspired him and the friends he enjoyed and loved spending time with. Emily Coolidge, Class of 2012, interviewed Jeffrey to find out more about his cherished time at Clairbourn and how it helped boost his confidence in third grade as a top tennis player and influenced his further education. She also asked him what advice he has for those interested in a similar career path.
Continue reading “Jeffrey Karsh, Class of 2002 – Partner at Real Estate Investment Firm”
Our Clairbourn alums continue to impress us with their talent, eloquence, kindness, strong work ethic, beauty, intelligence, and wisdom. Taylor Marks, Class of 2011, is no exception. We caught up with her during a visit to the Clairbourn Families Association Tennis Social, and in between her stellar tennis shots, we asked her if she would be featured.
She enthusiastically agreed to be featured, pointing out that Clairbourn has had a significant impact on her childhood. Although she has had a wide variety of experiences after high school, including attending university in San Francisco, and living in such a diverse and fast-paced city, she will always remember Clairbourn as the place where she had an “overwhelming sense of community and family.” She learned important skills here, and she made lifelong friendships. Clairbourn was a place where she was nurtured and encouraged and loved. Her tight-knit family, including her mom, who is active as a Board Member at Clairbourn, continues to inspire her to work hard and pursue what she loves.
Continue reading “Taylor Marks, Class of 2011 – Health and Wellness Expert and Entrepreneur”
Clairbourn School’s Middle School Math Teacher, Rebecca Messler, returned from winter break excited to share with her fellow teachers powerful ideas gleaned from the California Mathematics Council South Conference which she attended in mid-November of 2019.
This conference, offering hundreds of sessions and packed with several thousand math teachers, proved to be a power-house of great information! Messler attended eight sessions applicable to teaching middle school math. Highlights included presentations from two important thought-leaders in math education, Jo Boaler (a Stanford professor, research, and author) as well as Dan Myer (speaker, former teacher, and the chief academic officer of Desmos.com which, is Messler’s favorite math exploration and education support website).
At the Clairbourn staff development meeting in January, Messler chose to share with everyone the idea from the conference of incorporating “Rich Open-Ended Tasks” (ROET) into their teaching methods. She explained this simple concept can be easily implemented and produces stronger engagement and increased understanding of subject matter among students with differentiated learning styles.
Continue reading “Empowering Middle School Math Students at Clairbourn”When Christmas time comes, Californians often wish for some brisk winter weather to fully celebrate the season. The desire for snow flurries inspired this year’s Holiday Concert at Clairbourn School called, “Let it Snow!”
The show opened with skillfully played, instrumental music numbers performed by middle school students in the Clairbourn Band and Clairbourn String Ensemble. The Band played “Hornpipe” from Handel’s “Water Music,” “O Come All Ye Faithful” by John Francis Wade, and even a Korean folksong titled “Ahriang.” Songs played by the Strings Ensemble included, “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” by Mendelssohn and the English carol “Greensleeves.” For each song, there were additional solo performance opportunities for advanced students.
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Serving the learning differences among students is a hot topic in education today. In order to ensure that Clairbourn School’s teachers continue to deliver the highest standard of student care, a staff development session was held on Monday, January 6, to deepen awareness of student learning differences and to expand teachers’ collection of resources and strategies.
Speaker Tami Millard, an educational specialist at The Center for Connection in Altadena, California, addressed Clairbourn teachers at the staff meeting with a follow-up talk on “Student Support.” She spoke earlier in September on the topic of “Neurodiversity,” which means we are all uniquely wired with our own set of strengths and challenges. As part of her talk, she encouraged teachers to “chase the why” behind classroom behavior (avoiding good or bad evaluation language) and to instead discover what unmet need the student is struggling to communicate.
Continue reading “Clairbourn Staff Development: Neurodiversity and Student Support”