PHS Friday Letter

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January 25, 2008

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Save the Date: Art for Kids' Sake

Upcoming events 1-25-2008

ALL SCHOOL EVENTS:

•    January 28–Staff in-service -No Classes, (childcare by reservation)
•    Dialogue Circle - RESCHEDULED FOR MARCH 13
•    February 13–Board of Trustees, 5:45-8:00 PM
•    February 18–Presidents' Day, School Closed (no childcare)
•    February 19–22–February Break, No Classes, (childcare by reservation)

Click here for a downloadable calendar of events for January 2008.
Click here for a downloadable calendar of events for February 2008.
Click here for a downloadable 2007-2008 School Year Calendar

Announcements 1-25-2008

Ordering School Pictures
DEADLINE FOR ORDERING SCHOOL PHOTOS IS TODAY!  JANUARY 25, 2008
If you are interested in ordering school photos, please make sure to order them before the deadline of TODAY! JANUARY 25. 

http://photographicproof.com/projects/presidio-hill-school

Click on the gallery you want to view and then click on the icon of the lock.  Enter the password (it is the same as the password for the community part of the website - email Tania at tania_hurter@presidiohill.org if you are unsure of the password). 

Please contact Michael Angelo (photographer) directly if you have any questions about ordering: http://photographicproof.com/contact
 

Childcare Available on January 28, 2008 ~ Staff In-Service Day
Childcare is available by reservation only on Monday, January 28 from 8-3p for a fee of $65 when reserved by Wednesday, January 23 and $85 for late reservations. Regular after-school rates will apply from 3-6p.  Please provide your child(ren) with a lunch.

RSVP by Wednesday, January 23, 2008 to avoid an additional charge.  Make reservations with Raymi at raymi_orozco@presidiohill.org or at 751-9318 x.130.

 
Parents Association Meeting, Thursday, 2/14, 8 - 9 a.m. in the stage.

Please join us for our monthly Parents Association meeting!  Bring us your thoughts and ideas about ways we can serve the community, or just come see what we're up to!  You can also contact us via email:  Kimberley Spears (kimberleyspears@yahoo.com) or Regina Casciato (casciatoreggae@aol.com).  
 

Interested in joining the PHS board?
The Trustees Committee is beginning its search for potential board candidates for the 2008-09 school year

Find out what makes the school tick!
Enjoy the feeling of working collaboratively with others!
Make new friends!

For more information, access the school’s website and click “from the board.”  Please contact any member of the Trustees Committee for nominations or information. 

Trustees Committee
Jennifer Franklin        jennifer_franklin@presidiohill.org
Manolo Santana        manolosantana@yahoo.com
Noel Kaufman, chair    gabbler@aol.com

 

 

ART FOR KIDS' SAKE

From the Lower School Dean and Librarian 1-25-2008

From Lisa Jeli, Lower School Dean
It’s Bedtime!

I read this article about children and sleep a couple of months back and have wanted to share it with other parents. I am including a link to the article, which was written by Po Bronson in New York Magazine last October. I found it very compelling regarding the need for adequate sleep and how our children are generally not getting enough snooze time these days. If you find that your children’s bedtimes have been slipping to be a little later than they used to be, this may inspire you to get back on track. I encourage you to read the entire article, but here’s a snippet to pique your interest: "A slightly sleepy sixth-grader will perform in class like a mere fourth-grader. A loss of one hour of sleep is equivalent to [the loss of] two years of cognitive maturation and development.”

Go to http://nymag.com/news/features/38951/

Curriculum Spotlight: 5th grade 1-25-2008

Christopher Warner, 5th grade teacher 

At PHS, we hold a philosophy that our curriculum stands to be enriched by making use of the vast resources our city and community has to offer. To illustrate, I’ve noted some highlights from last week in the 5th grade:

Monday 1/14: Kathy Turner, Interim Executive Director from the Angel Island Immigration Foundation, visited the classroom to share her expertise with the group. We’ve been studying immigration to the U.S. in-depth, and Kathy provided us with special insights that included stories of her own grandfather’s immigration through Angel Island. She donated invaluable resources to the school as well, a full Angel-Island-Immigrant-Journeys curriculum guide and several immigration-related storybooks among them.

Tuesday 1/15: We hopped on MUNI and headed down to the Civic Center for the day. We spent the morning portion at the Main Public Library, enjoying story time, singing songs, and finding & reading books/conducting research. After a lunch outside on the Civic Center Plaza, we enjoyed an afternoon at the Asian Art Museum, touring the galleries and participating in a hands-on Chinese brushpainting activity.

Friday 1/18: For the second time this school year, we visited the Mission Education Center, a public K – 5 school in Noe Valley serving an entirely new-immigrant Spanish-speaking population. The 5th graders performed their Follies number for our 3rd grade buddy class there, then they worked in 3rd grader/5th grader pairs to make maracas; finally we all ate lunch together.

This ongoing relationship proves beneficial to our 5th graders in numerous ways: Spanish-speaking skills become increasingly relevant, the idea of 'immigration’ takes a new face, and we establish a close relationship with a local public school. It’s always very sweet to observe the students’ interactions.

In addition to all this, last week I engaged several current PHS parents in several respective email exchanges, all in the interest of having them enrich our curriculum through their own areas of expertise. Two different dads will hold sessions with the 4th & 5th graders as we begin our 10-week stock market simulation in mixed groups. One of them will speak on his approach as a personal investor, and the other (a professional financial analyst) will give a lesson on some to-be-determined aspect of the market. Another parent will soon share with the 5th grade class, ideas related to her work at a non-profit that works for racial justice. That topic relates closely to our yearlong 5th grade study of United States history, culture, geography and current events.

We are quite fortunate to have such resources in the Bay Area and within our PHS community, and this collaborative approach to learning indisputably enriches our students’ (and adults’!) learning experiences.

Curriculum Spotlight: Performance 1-25-2008

January 25, 2008

With the start of the new semester in performance class, the upper and middle grades have shifted focus from various forms of improvisation to begin working towards scripted acting.  Using improvisation as a foundation, we have turned our attention towards bringing the skills it has given us— self-trust, attention for the other, honest reaction, a willingness to follow an instinct, to be alive and engaged in the moment—to work with a script.

I tell the kids that if you can improvise, you can act, and I deeply believe this to be true.  The greatest failing of any actor is the illusion that he is not really living inside any given moment of a scripted play or film.  This leads to a certain kind of “effortful acting” that makes us all uncomfortable when we see it.  The illusion that the actor has to in some way “pretend at life” or “manufacture a self” leads to stiff, deliberate, reaching acting.  In this case, the actor comes across as a kind of forced imitation of something, weighted with the extra layer of a constructed self.  This is because she has forgotten that she is real life, even inside of the “unreal” circumstances of a play.

I like to invite students to continue working with each other with the same kind of engaged and responsive attention that they use when they are inventing the story as they go along.  In improvisation, one has to listen in order to go where the story is going, and to know what the world is becoming.  In scripted acting, one still has to listen for the same reasons.  Even though the literal story has already been written, actors have to be present to the emotional lives of their partners, and the cues that they are giving them.  They also need to remain aware of their own feelings and impulses, so that they may act honestly.

The problem of not having authorship over our words is kind of an exciting one.  It takes something away from our creative control, but it also gives us the luxury of focusing entirely on our physical and emotional experience.  Our very selves become our art.  We get to pay attention and be curious about how we live through things, and how we show ourselves through them.  Once lines are fully memorized and specific choices are made for the physical traits and emotional history of a character, we are left with only two things to do: 1. Be flexible and articulate enough in our bodies to express our inner experience clearly, and 2. Live presently inside the scene; aware and responsive to our own impulses, and to another person, in the moment.

In class right now, we are playing a bunch of theater games that have an essential lesson of, “it’s not what you say, it’s how you say it”.  We are paying close attention to the “instruments” of our bodies, and getting good at letting what’s happening inside, show on the outside.  We are playing Language Limitation games, in which actors must make themselves understood, and get what they want, without the benefit of (the right) words.  And in some classes, we are beginning to work with scripts.  Looking closely at subtext, motivation, desire and relationship. 

It’s fun. :)  I’m having a ball with your kids, as usual.  Last week in the Language Limitation games, a brave and powerful 6th grade actor did a stunningly moving rendition of Hamlet’s to be or not to be… monologue, using only the PHS emergency evacuation instructions as his script.  I’ve actually never seen the moment of the choice to live so deeply felt (the pivotal moment happened on the line “resist the temptation to go back into the building,” and he repeated that line, on his knees, until he was ready to get up and keep on living).  I remember another scene between two actors playing Santa Claus and a brave young Elf, in which the Elf confronted Santa for better pay, and better working conditions.  The actors were reading from a sheet of meeting facilitation instructions and an artist's liberation manifesto.  The audience was riveted, and in stitches most of the time, and gave thunderous applause after the scene culminated in a heartfelt musical number.  Beautiful. 

Here’s hoping you’re all having as much fun as we are!  :)  If not, ask your kids to share some of our exercises at home.  I bet you’d have a ball doing them together. 

With love,
Janna, Performance Teacher