Clairbourn Middle School Math Teacher Rebecca Messler
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.
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!”
Grades Junior Pre-Kindergarten through Grade 5, along with Middle School musicians performed in this year’s Holiday Concert at Clairbourn School.
String Ensemble performers
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.
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.
For people who have discovered the warmth, supportive atmosphere, and academic advantages at Clairbourn, enthusiasm runs high. Parents, who enroll for elementary or middle school grades, often remark that they wish they had known about Clairbourn School sooner for preschool and Kindergarten!
So, in order to create more awareness about all that Clairbourn has to offer, and also to teach families how to use the school’s photo-sharing website, a “Clairbourn Around Town” photo contest was held in November and December of 2019. Parents were asked to take and submit off-campus photos that showcase the Clairbourn spirit. The entries were very creative, and both parents and students got in on the action.
Entries to the photo contest included a Big Bear snowman photo, students in Taekwondo class, students eating a cotton candy ice cream treat at MilkCow Cafe, a California coast photo with sea lions, a lakeside photo in Taiwan, and a photo at a local car racing speedway.
The contest’s first place photo was from a family who sport-fishes in the LA River. They waited for two hours for a carp to be caught so this photo could be taken.
In order to ensure fairness in the judging, a well-respected art teacher from a top private high school in the San Fernando Valley was asked to choose the winning photos. Winners from both contest received coveted new Clairbourn-logo merchandise including insulated water bottles, stadium chairs, plush cougar toys, and the ultimate prize of over-sized and waterproof, outdoor fleece blankets.
The beach photo, above, was taken in the Bahamas over a school break, and the night photo was taken at the LA Arboretum’s Moonlight Forest Lantern Festival.
This
was the second photo contest of the school year. The previous contest was held in September
and October, and parents were allowed to submit any type of photo of any
subject as long as it was taken on campus.
Parents sent in charming landscape photos, staged student shots, well-composed
abstract photos, and lots of student candids.
The first photo contest of the year asked parents to submit photos taken on campus of any subject.
Overall, the photo contests turned out to be a great community-building activity. It helped more parents know how to use the photo sharing website, and an added bonus was happy family memories and photos were created along the way!
Clairbourn School Provides Private School Education for Preschool, Kindergarten, Elementary School, and Middle School Grades | Serving Families in the Pasadena, California, Area and Surrounding Cities (K-12 Private Schools) Clairbourn is a 501(c)3 charitable organization. Click here to request information.
Students from Preschool through Grade 5 attended a warm, and literally fuzzy, Winnie The Pooh play put on by Clairbournmiddle school students who signed up for the elective. Drama teacher Paul Barker authored and directed the show, and the concept was inspired by A. A. Milne’s characters from the Winnie the Pooh series. This funny and whimsical play was entitled, “A House is Built on Pooh Corner.” The storyline covers the antics of Pooh, Piglet, and friends working together to build Eeyore a new house—which may have been his old house rebuilt.
Clairbourn School’s service opportunities for students hold impactful lessons on giving, empathy, selflessness, and kindness. Whether it’s donating food or holding a book drive, such opportunities can improve work ethics in young students and can provide them with a sense of greater purpose. It can also help them become valued, contributing members of society as well as good human beings. Aristotle once wrote, “What is the essence of life? To serve others and to do good.”
Grade 4 and 5 students at Clairbourn School are seeking donations for Operation Santa Paws to help animals in shelters. Students are asking for a variety of pet supplies including dog and cat food, blankets/towels, and durable animal toys. Bring your donations to Clairbourn’s Reception Office by Thursday, December 19, to support our students’ service-learning effort.
Only in a garden can one experience the technicolor tartness of biting into a fresh tomato, enjoy the smell of sun-warmed, scented herbs, and delight in the buzzing bees, who offer a pollinator’s promise of good things to come. In today’s technology-centric world, Clairbourn School’s gardens provide students with a way to connect with life’s simple, outdoor pleasures. But more importantly, they offer a way for students to understand humanity’s role in maintaining a healthy, life-sustaining ecosystem.
These bountiful and beautiful gardens, full of vegetables, herbs, and fruit provide a tangible experience that will never be duplicated by an iPad app, a textbook, or a video. In an era where children spend more time indoors, Clairbourn’s garden beckons them into an outdoor environment where they can use all of their senses to see, smell, hear, taste, touch, and learn in a new way. Albert Einstein once said, “Look deep into nature, and you will understand everything better.”
Farmer Loretta from Harvest to Home taught Clairbourn students from JPK through Grade 5 about fall crops, soil health, pollinators and how to make Confetti Salad using edible flowers, herbs, and mixed vegetables.
Opportunity for creative expression, self-discovery, community-building, and increased cultural literacy were the primary benefits experienced by seventh and eighth grade students involved in a two-week, immersive unit on J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone at Clairbourn School. The middle school teachers cleverly designed a custom educational adventure to enrich the lives of students who did not sign up for the school’s Australia student-exchange trip, which occurred during the same time period.
Opportunity for creative expression, self-discovery, community-building, and increased cultural literacy were the primary benefits experienced by seventh and eighth grade students involved in a two-week, immersive unit on J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone at Clairbourn School.
Author Carter Higgins read Bikes For Sale to preschool students and later signed books in the gymnasium.
Clairbourn’s library strongly supports student literacy through an annual Book Fair event on campus which introduces students to the best books in children’s literature and helps them to learn how books come into existence.
Local and nationally-known visiting authors and illustrators are brought on campus each year as part of the Book Fair. These grade-level appropriate presentations often include book readings and can cover writing skills, storyline development, character development, editing, how to get published and promote books, and how to draw and conceptualize book illustrations.
This year, Clairbourn brought two authors on campus. Preschool to Grade 5 students heard from Carter Higgins, a former school librarian who now writes popular children’s books. For the youngest students, she gave two read-aloud sessions of her book Bikes for Sale, where bike-riding characters Maurice and Lotta have a mishap that leads to a friendship and new adventures thanks to some creative problem-solving.
Third-graders benefit from a hands-on science lesson provided by current Clairbourn parents Dr. Tijana Talisman and Dr. Ian Talisman.
Clairbourn’s community is unique among area schools because of our
emphasis on parent involvement in the life of the school. Parent engagement can
boost student success both academically and behaviorally, and according to the Southwest Educational Development
Laboratory (SEDL), “When schools, families, and community groups work together
to support learning, children tend to do better in school, stay in school
longer, and like school more.”
