The Willows School Back To School Night 2010

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Willows Head Of School Lisa Rosenstein Phonics in 2nd Grade Classroom
and Christina

What “courage” means to my son On the 2nd Grade Classroom Wall

Courage Is The Willows School’s Theme For 2010
What does it mean to have courage? How have people shown courage throughout history? How can we demonstrate courage when things get tough?

These are just a few of the questions that Willows students will be addressing throughout the 2010-11 school year, as they consider our schoolwide theme of “Courage.” As in previous years, teachers will be working with their own students and across the grade levels to explore the idea of courage in a variety of contexts and disciplines, including art, mathematics, language arts, and science.

Guest Blogger "Catherine" Tours The Preppy Meets Hippie School

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Mandatory Camping Trip. No RVs Allowed!

Although it has been several years since I toured LA private elementary schools, there are a few experiences that can still make me smile. Actually, I was really set on having my son attend a neighborhood public school that had a tremendous “buzz” surrounding it. This particular school had a dynamic new principal and lots of dedicated parents intent on “taking back our local school”. Unfortunately for me (and subsequently our savings account), I attended open school night on two separate occasions that killed any notion of enrolling my child in that school.

As I was sitting in a 3rd grade classroom, I looked up at a number line that was a permanent fixture above the chalkboard. “Wow”, I thought to myself, “this new-fangled math is really confusing”. When I was a kid 3 x 3 equaled 9. These days 3 x 3 equal 10! “I think I need to send my son to a more traditional school”, I remember thinking. When I pointed out the error to the principal, she assured me that there were going to be many changes occurring and that new math teachers (with the old fashioned math skills that I was taught), were going to be hired.Oh, it was just a silly mistake that was displayed for the entire 3rd grade to look at daily. To think they would memorize this multiplication error was unsettling. I went home feeling queasy with anxiety, but decided I would attend the second open house a few weeks later.

The second open school night was held in a different wing of the school, in a 4th grade classroom. The room was spic and span, the general demeanor was energized and positive. I reveled in the company of other prospective parents. I happily listened to the philosophy of the principal and read cute little sentences posted as examples of vocabulary words students were learning. “Nectar is used to ATTRACK butterflies”. I thought, “the T must just look like a K”!“Oh, it was just an oversight, right”? “Well, I’ll go walk around and see what the other 4th grade classroom looks like”. And plain as day, there it was again. “Nectar is used to ATTRACK butterflies” in very clear, adult handwriting.

So, you could say it was a mathematical mistake and a grammatical error that brought me to my desperate and urgent quest for the right private elementary school. At this point, time was of the essence. I hadn’t seriously done my research about various types of schools. I had no idea which schools would be a good fit educationally and socially for our family. Luckily, I was able to schedule five kindergarten tours of private elementary schools.

The first school we visited was very small, set on the grounds of a church. Although the school was non-denominational, I could still feel the aura of religious icons and could detect the faint odor of incense and burnt candles. This could have been my imagination (was it?) because a certain reverence overcomes me whenever I am in the presence of pews. I lose my personality because I feel judged for growing up with no religious affiliation. I constantly think people see what a heretic I must be. I found myself speaking in hushed tones that no one could understand, as I introduced myself as the mother of the devil’s spawn.

But there was a contradiction in this learning institution. It was literally Preppy Meets Hippy. I imagined I was in the living room of the faithful with the requisite snacks (potato chips, fruit in plastic bowls, pitchers of water) laid out on table-clothed folding tables. While touring the inner grounds and the upper classrooms, I suddenly envisioned myself walking the halls of an ivy-covered institution on the East Coast. I glanced at the group of parents surrounding me and didn’t feel I could belong to either division of the group. Some were clad in blazers that I imagined having an alumni patch from their college on the pocket. Others seemed to have left-over compost on their Birkenstocks.

As I went downstairs to the kindergarten rooms, I was transported 3000 miles and three decades back to Woodstock. There were a few sparse garden beds and some antiquated seats outside the room. Inside, a pleasant woman with long grey streaked hair and sandals held an acoustic guitar. Her voice was lovely. She was the teacher and seemed extremely enthusiastic about working with children, as she serenaded us with “The Wheels on the Bus”. The vibe was gentle and warm, if not a bit too touchy-feely for a former New York City denizen.Then it was time to formally meet the head of school, a sturdy woman with a former nun-like vibe (again, I felt the need to confess something!) and a glint in her eye. She was perfectly non-threatening. I don’t know why I felt so self-conscious of my high-heeled boots, make-up and over accessorized trendy outfit. I dress like this daily and never question my fashion choices because I work in the arts. All I could scream internally was “Who am I”? and “Where do I belong”? If this has never happened to you, and there is a prospect of feeling like a black and white chameleon for the next six or seven years, be assured it won’t be a comfortable fit! This school also had a mandatory camping trip (no RV’s allowed!) for about four days. Needless to say, we were rejected with no promise of a wait-list addition. I guess they knew I was a stranger in a strange land.

I toured the other schools and liked them well enough. But, when I walked into The Willows Community School in Culver City I felt as if I had found a new home. The other prospective parents looked familiar to me, even though I had never met them. It was the right fit! I hoped that the admissions director shared my enthusiasm. She did and it’s been a wonderful experience for the past few years!

There is an appropriate school for everyone. You just need to find the one that feels like “the abode of your heart”.

“Catherine” (not her real name) is a parent at The Willows Community School in Culver City.

Our Guest Blogger Writes Traffic Jam: The Importance Of A Good Carpool

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My mother has this story she likes to tell. Back in the 1980s, my little sister attended the then Westlake School for Girls. She was in a carpool. One the families in the carpool decided to divorce, but it hadn’t gone through yet. The wife found out that her not-yet-ex-husband was having a fling with one of the other carpool moms. Was the wife furious at the betrayal? Yes. Her response: an outraged ”That’s my carpool!” Never mind the demise of the marital relationship. Her carpool trumped all.

 

Extreme example? Maybe, but you really can’t underestimate the value of a carpool until you really need one. After I switched my daughter’s school from our local, two minutes away, fully walkable public school (3rd St. Elementary) to a private school (Mirman) on the other side of the moon, I knew I needed a carpool for sanity. Because, you remember when Christina wrote a post awhile back with the ridiculous squiggle line from “your house” to the perfect “private school?” That could be my commute.

 

I initially thought I’d be in a small carpool to start, maybe just one other family, and we’d all switch off. But instead, it turned into a four family carpool, including two moms I don’t know at all. Fine. It means even less driving for everyone. Except that I have a small car that can only fit three kids (my daughter is big enough to ride in the passenger seat in relative safety), a slight wrinkle that has since been worked out to everyone’s relative satisfaction. Frankly, I would’ve jumped through hoops of fire to make this carpool work out.

Thus far, the actual commute has been unpredictable. Due to the mercurial nature of L.A. traffic patterns, it seems impossible to choose a reliable route. On my first day of afternoon pickup, the traffic on the 101 just stopped. I mean, stopped dead. For fifteen minutes. I really got concerned when people started getting out of their cars and rummaging in their trunks for bottles of water. I kept thinking: there must be a logical reason for this. No. Traffic started up as mysteriously as it had stopped, and the rest of the commute was smooth sailing.

What’s really brutal is the morning pickup. Carpools depend on the requirements of the individual drivers, and two of those drivers want their kids to have time on the playground before school begins, necessitating a 6:45 pickup time. Seriously. My daughter has taken to awakening to her alarm at 6am, turning it off in a stupor, and waking in a panic at 6:20. She’s developed the sleeping habits of an adolescent overnight.

Still, it’s hard to complain. This is a good carpool. This is a carpool I need. This is a carpool I must keep sacrosanct. Other people’s horror stories, however, abound. There are stories of forgotten children, awaiting carpools that never showed. Or extra kids showing up, requiring “doubling up” of seatbelts (probably illegal, but what’s a mom to do, leave them? Don’t buckle them at all?). I know of one kid who refuses to let his parents join a carpool, because he doesn’t like having other kids in “his” car. How about kids who hate each other and fight all the way, every day? Or fears about someone’s car model and safety (unfounded, but in this fear-laden culture, probably unavoidable).

Sometimes I look back with nostalgia to my high school Crossroads carpool. Sitting in my friend’s mom’s Country Squire station wagon, the mom’s long crimson fingernails clicking on the steering wheel in time with the crooning of Neil Diamond. That carpool had many different characters: the silent, hulking, smelly 9th grader, the hapless boy who stumbled out his front door always half-dressed, the mean girl duo who refused to speak to me. My mother says she learned more about teenagers in that carpool than she ever wanted to know, just by listening to our morning conversations (“You guys must have thought I was deaf,” she says).

Once your child is in the perfect private school, in the most inconvenient location, you’ll become a tolerant carpool soul. There will be pickups at the crack of dawn, or pickups that are outrageously late. There will be punches thrown in the way back of a minivan while on the freeway. There will be smelly breakfasts to-go, which leave grease all over the backseat. Someone’s child, at some point, will be forgotten, and everyone will have to be forgiven. You know why? Because it’s your carpool, damn it, and without it, life will be unmanageable.

Jenny Heitz has worked as a staff writer for Coast Weekly in Carmel, freelanced in the South Bay, and then switched to advertising copywriting. She now writes about gift ideas and products on her blog, Find A Toad.

Reader Question: How Long Is Too Long For Written Application?

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Here’s a question from a blog reader:

I would love to know what we should be aiming for in essay length. What’s considered average? How long is too long? Etc. I would hate to ruin my child’s chances by overwriting, but I don’t want to short change him either. Any advice would be appreciated!

Thanks!!

September 12, 2010 7:33 PM

Here is Kim Hamer’s response:

How long is too long for the written application is a good question!

Instead of focusing on the length, it’s really about focusing on the content of your private elementary school application. Specific, detailed applications are never too long. As a parent you really want the school to know who your family is and who your child is, right? The problem is talking about your child is usually a parents favorite subject which means, we can drone on and on about our kids, causing a too long application. You’ve met that same person at a party! This person continues to talk and talk and talk while not saying anything of interest and not providing details that you can relate to. Unfortunately, that is how many private school applications read. Here are two ways to help you avoid the droning and over long application.

 

1 .Make Sure You Are Answering The Question And Be Specific.

Many parents make the mistake of NOT answering the question! This usually happens because they’re so worried about not giving a good description of their child, they over describe him. They also use meaningless descriptions like happy, nice, funny. To avoid this mistake, while you re-read your answer keep the question in mind. Use words that really show who your child is.  The more specific you are about your child, the less you have to say!

 

2. Show The School Who Your Child Is, Don’t Tell Them

Another way that essays become too long is that parents often tell the school about their child, about their family or why they should be a part of the school. The most effective way to get this point across is to show the school your child, family etc. For instance in our essay about our youngest son, we wrote, “When Ezra’s in a group he tries to make sure that everyone else in the group gets to talk.” I could have written “Ezra is a leader.” While that sentence is shorter, the longer one speaks volumes! It demonstrates how my child behaves, it shows what we think an important leadership attribute is. It also speaks to our values, that being a leader is important. I just showed them in one sentence who my child is and what we value. I now no longer need to state, or tell the school. Show Your Family!

 

Remember, an admissions director in Los Angeles has to read over 100 applications. An essay that takes up a lot of their time, that uses none interesting or detailed words for them is like listening to the person at the party. You just want to get out of there. An essay that is pointed and clear, which means it will not be over-written or over long, will get you noticed and closer to getting you in to the school of your choice!

 

Kim Hamer is the founder of “Get Into Private School” an education consulting firm in Los Angeles. Kim is no longer working in consulting, but has moved on to a job fundraising for schools.