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Publication Date: Wednesday, April 27, 2005 Cover story: Building community -- Portola Valley schools help kids become responsible, respectful and active participants in the community
Cover story: Building community -- Portola Valley schools help kids become responsible, respectful and active participants in the community
(April 27, 2005) By Marjorie Mader
Almanac Staff Writer
On "Earth Day," eighth-graders at Corte Madera School and their fourth-grade buddies wore grubby clothes, put on work gloves and used shovels to dig out invasive grasses, thistles and non-native plants that threaten the community's beloved "Frog Pond Park," adjacent to the middle school and Portola Valley Ranch.
Restoring the six-acre preserve to its natural state is the eighth-grade's ongoing environmental and service-learning project, guided by teacher Virginia Downing.
At Ormondale School, second-graders in Deena Gardyn's class recorded favorite stories -- like "Jack and the Beanstalk" -- on tape in the "Read Aloud" studio in a downtown San Jose library. Volunteers from the nonprofit "Read Aloud" organization deliver books on tapes to blind and visually impaired children and adults so that they may read by listening.
The second-graders were inspired to record books after reading about Louis Braille, a French man who invented a way for the blind to read, as part of their classroom study of "heroes" and how they make a difference for others.
These projects are examples of the many ways that kindergartners through eighth-graders in the Portola Valley School District are involved in meaningful activities as they move along what the district calls a "Character Education Roadmap."
Embedded in school life
This roadmap, developed by a group of staff and parents over a year ago, serves as a guide to integrating the district's character education goal into all dimensions of school life -- curriculum, school culture and parent education. The focus this year is on the core values of respect, responsibility and service.
There are several factors behind stepped-up efforts to improve student relationships with themselves and the community. While standards-based education and state testing have taken time away from classroom discussions and creative activities, recent student and parent surveys at Corte Madera show a concern with bullying, teasing and other mean behavior among students.
"We're trying to respond to the pressures that are present in children's lives today and the overall intensity in which their lives are lived," says Superintendent Anne Campbell, citing the fast pace of student activities and exposure to the media.
"Everyone is encouraged to work together to build a school community characterized by a commitment to civic responsibility, an appreciation of diversity, and opportunities for success," says Ms. Campbell, now in her second year at the district with 700 students.
"We want all our kids to be in a safe place where they are open and accepting of each other," says Ms. Campbell. "We want them to realize people make mistakes, and they can grow from them and make changes."
She has taken the lead in making character education and service-learning take root at Ormondale and Corte Madera. Teachers, principals Eva Gal of Ormondale and Joel Willen at Corte Madera and staff are on board. They initiate activities and classroom discussions that help students develop and connect with each other, the school and community.
Leading the character education team at each school are Kate Hennessy, physical education director and teacher at Corte Madera for grades 4-8; and Anna Henderson, third-grade teacher at Ormondale, the district's K-3 school. Their service-learning counterparts are Shane Cucksey, English teacher at Corte Madera, and Linda Vlasic, third-grade teacher at Ormondale.
What's different
"We've always taught character education and it's embedded in our class culture and literature," says Mrs. Vlasic, who has taught at both Corte Madera and Ormondale.
Students have long done service projects for the school and the community, she says.
"The big difference now is that character education is a key district goal, and service-learning projects must be embedded in the curriculum and linked to the community," says Mrs. Vlasic.
Teachers now use the same language from kindergarten through eighth grade as they focus on the core character values of respect, responsibility and service. Large posters in every classroom spell out the key points under each concept as a guide to what's expected from students, staff and the parent community.
Changing standards, society
Portola Valley students are very fortunate, many people would agree. Bright and talented, they go to schools ranked among the top in the state.
The campuses are beautiful, with up-to-date facilities -- libraries, multi-use rooms, science labs, classrooms wired for technology, and grassy playing fields. Teachers go "above and beyond" to involve and challenge students.
While the schools may seem like an idyllic island in time, they are affected by what's happening in the larger society.
For one thing, schools are shifting their emphasis to meet state standards and pass tests because of the "No Child Left Behind" federal mandates, says Principal Joel Willen, who came to Corte Madera middle school last August from a large and diverse school district in Houston, Texas.
This shift has taken a lot of creativity out of teaching, many teachers say.
"Some of the things we, as educators, used to teach as part of character education, weren't happening" -- such as working with students in terms of their interaction with others, says Mr. Willen.
Bullying, teasing
Student and parent surveys at Corte Madera last year indicated concerns about how students were treating each other, he says.
The main concerns were "bullying," teasing, saying "mean things" about a person behind her/his back, and sending unkind messages in e-mails and posting them on Web sites.
The district and PTA joined forces to bring consultant Shanterra McBride, deputy executive director at the Empower Program in Washington, D.C., to Portola Valley, to talk about bullying, harassment and cliques.
She worked with teachers, talked to classes and spoke at a parent education forum last fall.
Her message had an impact. She challenged the school community to examine and broaden its definition of "bullying" to include its root causes: gossip, cliques, social isolation and gender stereotypes, and to reflect on the consequences.
Another part of her message was taking a look at individual behavior and guiding parents and teachers in raising children who can "navigate adolescence safely with strong friendships."
Ms. McBride was invited back earlier this year. The district then sent Corte Madera teachers Kate Hennessy, Jeff Mead and Serge Morgan and counselor Christina Viar to Washington, D.C., for three days of intensive Empower training. They are developing a character education-training model to fit Portola Valley schools.
Peer mediators
Mr. Morgan, a history teacher and also a trained mediator, has trained 12 students -- both boys and girls and all seventh- or eighth-graders -- as peer-to-peer conflict mediators.
They work in pairs at lunchtime and, upon request, meet with pairs of students who have differences. They follow set rules to keep the process peaceful. The typical mediation lasts an average of 10 minutes.
"Most of their issues are arguments, verbal fights," says Mr. Morgan, "very rarely physical."
The issues often deal with friendships and feelings of being left out, group hierarchy, rumors, and mean Internet messages.
"We don't have battles and fights," says Classye James, a seventh-grader, during Earth Day. "It's more verbal -- like talking about others behind their backs."
"For girls, it's a bigger problem," says seventh-grader Hathaway Moore. But she notes that differences often are resolved by the next day.
When asked if they would see a peer mediator or talk to a teacher about an issue they had, most kids in the small group said peer mediator. One girl's response: "Probably the teacher because sometimes kids don't understand."
Technology vs. talking
"Technology -- TV, computers, Game Boy and cell phones -- are replacing face-to-face communication and social interaction in the family," says teacher Anna Henderson, Ormondale's leader in character education.
She sees signs that "the mass media and marketing are rolling over the families' influence and replacing the interaction that used to occur naturally in families -- such as conversation at dinner and talking in the car."
An example: Mom is talking on her cell phone while picking up her child at school. The student hops in the backseat and starts watching a video. Mom keeps talking on her cell phone.
What parents do is more important than what they say, teachers say.
"We need to step up to the plate and spend more time teaching social skills," says Ms. Henderson.
"As we roll with character education [in the district]," Ms. Hennessy says, "we need to continue to build, take small steps, and bring students, staff and community on the same page and with the same goals."
Service-learning starts in kindergarten
Service-learning flourishes in Portola Valley schools.
It starts in kindergarten at Ormondale School and involves students in every grade level up through eighth grade at Corte Madera. All projects are tied to curriculum standards for each grade and linked to service at the school or the larger community.
The district is in the second year of a three-year Cal-Serve Learning Grant that provides $30,000 to help implement and fund projects at both schools.
Corte Madera Spanish teacher Joan Dame's bi-literacy exchange project between her seventh-graders and first-graders at Adalante Spanish Immersion School in Redwood City was honored as an exemplary service-learning project at the National Service Learning Conference in March. The seventh-graders created books in Spanish for the younger readers and presented them as gifts during a visit to their school.
"We were able to use our Spanish and have the kids respond to us in Spanish, and that was a lot different than reading out of a book," said one seventh-grader.
Below are snapshots of some of the service-learning projects at the schools:
Ormondale School
** "Reading in Giving" is the motto for the literacy-based kindergarten projects. Students have donated 400 age-appropriate books to hurricane victims in Florida and are collecting more to encourage summer reading and literacy for kindergartners in Redwood City.
** First-graders are studying mammals, collecting items to help the Pets in Need program, and writing brochures about proper animal care that they plan to distribute in town.
** A new organic school garden is an outdoor classroom for students. It includes "buddy projects" involving students from two different grade levels. Second-graders are learning about and caring for native plants that they plan to deliver to neighbors, along with a letter explaining the importance of native plants in the environment.
** Recycling is the third-graders' project. They have taught the rest of the school about the necessity for recycling and have run a year-round recycling program for the school.
Corte Madera School
** Seventh-graders are tackling the big job of planning and creating a garden at school. They did extensive research, contacted suppliers, and developed plans by working in small groups and then merging ideas for the final plan. During the school's Earth Day, the students used tools and constructed wooden planting boxes with help from parents and teachers.
** Fifth-graders in Karen Towle's class are writing biographies of seniors who live at Lytton Gardens in Palo Alto. They have visited their senior friends, learned about their lives, and will read the written biographies to them during the final visit. Other classes are creating books for younger readers in nearby schools.
** Eighth-graders in the leadership class with teacher David Macomber have taken on the project of collecting and making cards for 1,000 new and slightly used books that will become the first library for a school in Zambia. This school serves children who have lost their parents to AIDs. "We've already met our goal, but we'll continue to collect books until school ends," said student Erin Troedson.
By Marjorie Mader
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