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September 21, 2007
Printable version
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PHS Historical Photos: "Mrs. Scrogg's group in the backyard of Helen Salz home circa 1918"
Upcoming events 09-21-2007
ALL SCHOOL EVENTS:
• October 4–Dialogue Circle - 6:00-8:00 PM Childcare by res.
• October 5–Professional Development Day - No Classes
• October 8–Fall Holiday, School Closed
• October 16–School Photos: All school and class pictures
• October 17–School Photos: Individual Portraits Day 1
• October 18–School Photos: Individual Portraits Day 2
• October 19–Walkathon
Click here for a downloadable calendar of events for September
Click here for a downloadable calendar of events for October
Announcements 09-21-2007
FALL CORPORATION MEETING/BACK TO SCHOOL NIGHT
Thank you everyone for a fabulous Corporation Meeting. We appreciate your support, time and enthusiasm at a gathering that is not just a back-to-school night but is the kind of event that represents what is essential about what we do here at Presidio Hill School. We appreciate the partnership between staff and parents in supporting your children. We hope to see you at upcoming events.
WALKATHON!!
Each year the entire PHS community, most notably our students, bands together to raise money for PHS financial assistance in the annual PHS Walkathon. Last year students raised $32,000! And we hope to raise even more this year. This event is unlike any other because it's the kids that do most (if not all) of the work. From planning and soliciting pledges to collecting money and walking, students are really helping students. And in the process they are learning about the importance of participation and philanthropy, social awareness and activism. This year's Walkathon will be held on October 19th at Julius Kahn Park and like last year, 100% of the proceeds will go directly to financial assistance for families in need. If you need an extra copy of the materials that went home with your children, you can download them here:
- Walkathon Flyer
- Instructions for Getting Sponsors and Collecting Donations Sheet
- Walkathon Sponsor Form
As always, if you have any questions about the Walkathon or would like to volunteer with the event, please contact Namrata in the Development Office at 415-751-9318 ext 106
DIALOGUE CIRCLE
Join us at our very first Dialogue Circle of the year (October 4, 6:00-8:00 PM), where we will discuss parenting and raising children in the 21st century. We will discuss topics raised by the three summer reading books: The Blessings of a Skinned Knee, A Whole New Mind, and The Price of Privilege. Even if you haven't read the books, please come. Childcare available with advance notice. Please contact Raymi at x130.
THANK YOU
Thank you to Philip Reno, G & R Paints, and Benjamin Moore! Philip worked with Benjamin Moore to extend a significant discount to Presidio Hill School. This discount made it possible for us to purchase the highest quality low-VOC paint for the interior of the school. Thanks to Philip our school is not only more beautiful, but healthier for our children, community and the environment.
High School Placement 09-21-2007
Ann Meissner Jennifer Franklin (Seventh Grade Humanities Teacher)
High school
9.21.07
Student visits to high schools have begun. It is wonderful to hear the students analyzing their visits, being open to changing their impressions and critically thinking about the qualities each school brings to the high school experience. When a student misses school for a visit please call or email the advisor and Martin (martin_gross@presidiohill.org, 751-9318x100) so that are keeping accurate attendance records. Your child is responsible for contacting the teachers of classes s/he will be missing either in person or by email and making plan for completing any necessary work.
Below are questions that students/families may want to refer to when trying to differentiate between schools. Remember to keep some sort of written record of the impressions as the school visits progress. It will be very easy to confuse schools or forget a particular visit several months from now when you will be making final decisions.
*What was your first impression as you entered the school?
*How were the facilities and how does that influence your thinking? Think about the libraries, computer labs, science labs, sports facilities, art studios, theaters, classrooms, cafeterias, student lounges, halls, bathrooms, neighborhood.
*What is your impression of the teachers? Were the teachers interested in the subject matter? Could you imagine feeling comfortable working with the teachers? Did the teachers explain things in a way you could understand? Did the students seem comfortable with the teachers?
*What is your impression of the students? How did they act in class? Did they seem engaged in the curriculum? Were they nice to one another? Were they nice to you?
*Can you see yourself attending this school and doing well?
*Can you see yourself attending this school and enjoying it?
*Do you think you would feel safe and secure at this school?
*What did you learn about the school that is exciting to you?
*What did you learn about the school that surprises you or is different than the impression you had before visiting?
*If you were to go to this school, what kinds of things would you want to participate in?
From the Director 09-21-2007
Friday Letter September 21, 2007
Agents of Change
As a school, by philosophy and practice, PHS prides itself on fostering our students to be agents of change. This means that students are exposed to a wide variety of ideas—at school and at home—about ways that they can make a difference. Every once in a while in the Friday Letter, we want to highlight the efforts of our students, present and past, who not only view themselves as change agents, but who also do something to earn that title.
The following essay was given to me the other week by a current 7th grader who spent much of last year analyzing the school’s paper consumption. The student wants to remain anonymous for a variety of reasons, and we will respect the student’s wishes. The text of the paper is below:
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My PHS Paper Project
Why Did I Choose This Project?
I did this project because everyone in my family does community service projects because we think it is important to give back to the community and make the world a better place. I chose to help the school buy recycled paper and plant trees to replace those cut down to make the virgin paper the school uses. I did this because I am interested in saving the environment, especially trees and forests.
Why Should PHS Buy Recycled Paper?
PHS should buy recycled paper to help save the environment, to support the people who are making the recycled paper for a living and to help them in their work to save the environment. The school shouldn’t only recycle paper, it should buy recycled paper. If everyone recycled paper that would be great. But if nobody bought the recycled paper, that paper would sit in warehouses until there was so much of it that it had to be sent to a landfill. That’s why PHS should not only recycle paper, it should buy it. It’s important to save trees from being cut down because trees provide us with oxygen and reduce CO2 that we put into the air.
How Much Paper Did PHS Buy?
To find that out, I had to organize PHS’s paper purchases so that I could calculate how many trees to plant for all of the non-recycled paper PHS bought. First I got invoices from Pascal that said how much paper PHS bought in the 05-06 school year. Then, I copied the name, item number, date, quantity, and price of each paper item purchased by PHS onto a spreadsheet.
I organized all of the data on my spreadsheet by what paper came in reams. I put all of the paper that came in reams at the top of the spreadsheet. I focused on the reams that PHS bought because it seemed like most of the paper PHS used comes in reams.
Then I figured out the total weight of the paper that PHS used by using a calculator on a website called www.replanttrees.org. I have attached the calculation of PHS’s paper use to this report. I know exactly how many reams of paper PHS used from the invoices, but I had to estimate the weight and quantity of the other kinds of paper, including tissues, paper towels, toilet paper, post-its, file folders, easel pads, composition books, newspapers and magazines, catalogs, etc., etc. The total number of pounds of paper PHS used was approximately 6,841.5.
How Much Recycled Paper Did PHS Buy?
For the reams of paper PHS bought I figured out how much of that was recycled. I searched each item on the Office Depot website to find out how much of each item was recycled and I recorded that data onto the spreadsheet. I figured out that PHS used 3,365.4 pounds of virgin paper in reams and 630.6 pounds of recycled paper in reams. Only 16% of the paper PHS bought in reams was recycled.
For all of the other kinds of paper PHS bought, I estimated that only 5% of it, at the most, was recycled. That means that only 142.3 pounds of other kinds of paper were recycled compared to 2703.2 pounds of other kinds of paper that were virgin paper.
The total amount of virgin paper used by PHS was 6068.6 pounds and the total amount of recycled paper was 772.9 pounds.
How Many Trees Did I Need to Plant to Offset PHS’s Virgin Paper Purchases?
To find out how many trees I had to plant to offset PHS’s paper purchases in the 05-06 school year, I went back to the calculator on www.replanttrees.org. I changed the number of reams used from the original total to equal the pounds of virgin paper that I calculated in my spreadsheet. I did that so that the calculator wouldn’t count the pounds of recycled paper PHS bought. The calculator told me that I need to plant 30 trees to offset the total amount virgin paper PHS bought.
How Did I Plant the Trees to Offset PHS’s Virgin Paper Purchases?
I donated money to www.sustainableharvest.org. They use donations that they receive to plant trees and help people in the area that they are planting. I chose them because they plant many more seedlings for a cheaper price. That allows me to spend less money. Plus, the more seeds that are planted, the more likely it is that 30 of them will survive and thrive. Also, they plant trees in Central America which is very near the equator, which has been proven to be the most effective place to plant trees to reduce CO2. www.sustainableharvest.org also helps villages and towns where they plant trees to learn more environmentally safe ways of living such as using more efficient stoves in their homes, not cutting and burning trees to make farmland, and helping families plant other more lucrative crops such as Tabasco peppers so the family makes more money and doesn’t need to cut down trees to make more farmland.
I donated $20 to www.sustainableharvest.org to offset PHS’s total virgin paper use in the 05-06 school year. That is enough money to plant approximately 44 trees which would provide a little insurance that 30 of them live until they are fully grown. I used money that I received from birthdays and had been saving so that I could plant trees with it.
What Kinds of Recycled Paper Could PHS Buy?
No matter what kind of paper PHS is buying, it should always try to buy 100% recycled paper with as much post-consumer recycled content as possible. Looking online at the copy paper that Office Depot has, I couldn’t find one that was 100% recycled or over 35% post-consumer recycled. I recommend that PHS look at the Give Something Back catalog for recycled paper that they could buy. Give Something Back is a company that sells all sorts of recycled and virgin paper plus other office supply items. Give Something Back is a very charitable and environmentally responsible company. Much of the energy they use is made from solar panels at their facility and they give away over half of their after tax profits each year which is 68 times the national average.
The best recycled paper from Give Something Back that PHS could buy is Encore 100 20# copy paper which is 100% post-consumer recycled, chlorine free and comes in cartons of 10 reams. Encore 100 20# costs $50.99 instead of the $29.99 paper from Office Depot. That is $21 more than the Office Depot copy paper, or $2 more per ream, but has three times more recycled content. This copy paper is also sold at Kinko’s.
But if the school can’t afford to spend that much more, then some other good options would be:
1. 90% recycled, 50% post-consumer recycled copy paper, 10 reams per box, call for price, item # NSN753000NIB0644
2. 100% recycled, 30% post-consumer recycled copy paper, 10 reams per box, call for price, item # GSB-RCY8511
Other products PHS could buy from Give Something Back include:
• Recycled Facial Tissue, 12 per box, $21.99, item # KIM03131
• Recycled Toilet Paper, 40 rolls per box, $39.47, item # GEP19840
• Recycled Post-its, 12 pads per pack, $13.79 , item # MMM654RPYW
• Recycled Envelopes, 500 per box, $29.99, item # AMP19702
The Give Something Back catalog is attached and I’ve marked pages with recycled paper products with post-its and circled the best ones.
What I Found Out From Doing This Project?
I discovered that PHS bought over three tons of virgin paper in the 2005-06 school year. It requires over 30 trees to make that much paper. Over a few years, PHS could waste over 100 trees just because they don’t buy more recycled paper. The school can buy much more recycled paper if it wanted to. It could buy from Kinko’s (there is one about 10 blocks away from the school) and/or from Give Something Back, which delivers the next day for free. I also learned that it is more expensive to buy recycled paper but if everyone bought recycled paper the price of recycled paper would go down and the environment would be better off.
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As you can see, the project is not only impressive, but the student also analyzed the problem well and offered a creative solution, which included what the school could do. We’ll let you know how we will proceed in the coming weeks.
I will keep you informed about what other students and alums are up to as they set about changing the world. Thank you for encouraging activism and compassion at home and at school.
Brian Thomas, Director
Curriculum Spotlight: Athletics 09-21-2007
Our fall cross-country team has started with a bang! This year PHS has 15 runners, representing grades 5, 6 and 7. The boys and girls have been training hard, running through our beautiful Presidio and competing in the first San Francisco Athletic League meet held at the Polo Fields this last Monday. The students run 1.5 miles, competing in two grade divisions, 5th/6th girls and boys and 7th/8th girls and boys.
Tanya Finley (our fabulous 3rd grade teacher!) is the head coach and running inspiration for our team this season. At our first meet, Tanya commented, “I am impressed with the running, but I am more impressed with all of the support the team offered one another.”
One teammate, a PHS 6th grader, running a stunning race, took first place within the boys 5th/6th grade division. 
After his remarkable finish, he was congratulated by all teammates and then asked, “You got first! How do you feel?” And his quick response was, “Tired…”
From warm-ups, through the race to the cool-downs, PHS performed as one team. And that is what team sports are about!
Please come join us and cheer on the PHS striders!
9/24 Lake Merced
10/1 Katherine Delmar Burke School
10/15 Crissy/Marina
10/22 Polo Field (Championship)
All meets are at 4:00 PM
Curriculum Spotlight: 1st Grade 09-21-2007
I spent a week this summer at the Gurian Institute, learning about brain-friendly teaching and parenting. I went to a session with Pat Crum, an educator with the Gurian Institute, who shared this list with us, and I thought you might enjoy it too.
Top Ten Ways to Help Children Succeed
10. Let them struggle.
(They learn self-reliance when they work at something for a while and then do it themselves.)
9. Learn to say no.
8. Focus on health.
(Media, physical health, nutrition, sleep, turn tv off several hours before bedtime, lots of soothing, predictable routine, right at sleep time: dimming the lights, soothing music, talking quietly with a massage for approx 15 minutes, exercise)
7. Be who you want them to be.
(Make a list of qualities/characteristics that you would like your child to have, and compare it to how you see yourself)
6. Expose them to many opportunities.
(Have adventures, try new and exciting things)
5. Be aware of the child’s nature.
(I recommend Michael Gurian’s book, Nurture the Nature)
4. Foster the courage to fail.
(And model it too!)
3. Develop E.Q.
(Emotional intelligence and literacy)
2. Form a parent-led team. It’s essential that it has men on it.
(This is a team of people that you choose to ask to play a part in raising your child. Nobody can do it all alone!)
1. Create a culture of delight.
Kelly McDonough
1st Grade Teacher