Author Archive for jessica – Page 6

Failure Could Be the Best Gift You Give to Your Child

Failure is NOT a bad word! It could be the best gift you give to your child!

What?!?

Join the PTO for Montessori Parents in Action (MPIA) this Friday, November 10 from 8:30-10:00 for an open discussion on the book The Gift of Failure: How the Best Parents Learn to Let Go So Their Children Can Succeed  with specific focus on Part 1 of the book “Failure: A Most Valuable Parenting Tool.”

Please come even if you have not had the opportunity to read the book. This is such an important topic as many parents struggle with deciding on when to step in to help a child and when to allow a child to fail and learn from that failure. See below to learn more about this worthwhile book to read and join in the conversation!!!

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PTO Internal/Gift of Failure.pngIn this book, Jessica Lahey delves into modern parenting and the tendencies towards overprotectiveness: parents who run home to retrieve forgotten homework assignments, deliver forgotten lunches to school, mastermind children’s friendships and interfere on the playing field. Children are robbed of the opportunity to experience failure and in turn the opportunity to learn from failure and learn to solve their own problems.

 

Jessica writes, “Out of love and desire to protect our children’s self-esteem, we have bulldozed every uncomfortable bump and obstacle out of the way, clearing the manicured path we hoped would lead to success and happiness. Unfortunately, in doing so we have deprived our children of the most important lessons of childhood. The setbacks, mistakes, miscalculations, and failures we have shoved out of our children’s way are the very experiences that teach them how to be resourceful, persistent, innovative and resilient citizens of this world.” Additionally, she writes “In order to help children make the most of their education, parents must begin to relinquish control and focus on three goals: embracing opportunities to fail, finding ways to learn from that failure, and creating positive home/school relationships.”

We hope you will join us for a group discussion of this well written and thought-provoking book.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Parent Workshop on Primary Math Curriculum

Please join the Primary teachers for a Parent Workshop exploring the Montessori math curriculum this Thursday, November 9 from 6:00 p.m.-7:00 p.m.  This workshop will help parents understand the sequence of the Primary math curriculum as well as become familiar with many of the math manipulatives.

We welcome perspective Pre-Primary and Primary parents to this informative night.  We kindly ask that you RSVP so we can be prepared with an appropriate number of chairs for the presentation. Please RSVP to Jessica Greer at jessica@fiveoaksacademy.com by Thursday at noon.

 

FOA Hosts Special Guest Speaker Ted Braude

 

This workshop will be beneficial to parents of boys and girls alike as Ted will discuss the unique academic, social, and emotional development of each gender.

Please join FOA and Guest Speaker Ted Braude on October 12 at 6:00 pm at the Windy Hill Event Barn in Simpsonville. Ted is a psychologist, therapist, international speaker, and author who will give a special presentation, “Men in the Making: Boys Grow Through Strength and Play”. During this time he will delve into the intricacies of raising boys into men. However, this workshop will be beneficial to parents of boys and girls alike. Ted will highlight the developmental differences in genders as well as the differences in relating to girls both academically and socially.

Please RSVP at   https://foatedbraude.eventbrite.com so we will have adequate seating available. We will also have childcare on the FOA campus for current students Primary age and older.

On Friday, October 13 at 8:30 a.m. Ted will join us during our Montessori Parents in Action (M.P.I.A.) for a Q & A session.

We are honored that Ted has accepted our invitation to come to the Upstate and speak to the Greenville community. For more information on Ted and how he helps boys reach their full potential as men, visit his website at https://www.boysworkproject.com/.

Join FOA in Welcoming the Fall Season

Join FOA in Welcoming the Fall Season at the annual Fall Festival on September 29, 2017!

Community Day Success!

Thank you to all of the parent volunteers who worked so hard on Community Day to help make our campus look so beautiful! We truly appreciate the parents, students, and faculty coming together to accomplish so many much-needed jobs around the campus and in the classrooms.

This day is always such a wonderful day of building a sense of community with our FOA families and this year was no different.  It is amazing what can be accomplished when we all work together for a common goal!

You can see many more pictures from this fun day on our private website on the school homepage. A special thank you to FOA’s official photographer, Guy Adamson of Guy Adamson Photography, for getting some great shots of all the hard workers.

Welcome to the 2017-2018 School Year

This year will mark our 15th Anniversary since our founding year in 2003. I have had the honor of watching our campus grow and thrive over these years. Each year we assess growth, changes and the needs of our campus. In assessing our needs, we make new plans that will benefit each student the most on their educational journey.

To mark this significant year, we have some exciting new endeavors. Our new software system, Sycamore, will improve parent communication and financial options for paying accounts and receiving real-time information. We will have a soft rollout of the features Sycamore offers and hope to expand its use over the year.

We will also be launching the start of our in-house assistance program for students, Collaborative Academic Resources for Education (CARE). By developing CARE, we will be able to provide more coordination between parents, teachers, and services needed to assist each student. Our emphasis is supporting students to help them be successful.

To promote parent education this year, we will host Ted Braude, Director of the Boyworks Project, who specializes in understanding the dynamics of how boys learn, how they interact with girls, and how they are motivated in and out of the classroom. Mr. Braude will be part of our Parent Lecture Series on October 12 and will be our first guest for a Q&A with Montessori Parents In Action (MPIA) on October 13.

Montessori Parents In Action (MPIA) will be a new initiative to support our parent involvement. These parent gatherings will focus on continued learning, guest lecturers and on opportunities to support each other within our community. 

As you begin this year, we encourage your involvement in our community as we strive to provide an amazing educational experience for your child.

“Be a part of something bigger” and be an active member of our community.

Peace and Happy School Year,

Kathleen Trewhella-Grant

Executive Director, Five Oaks Academy

A Message from the Executive Director

I was asked to lead a three-day Montessori Leadership Seminar with Dr. Paul Epstein, sponsored by the Polish Montessori Institute in March. Before beginning the seminar, I had the opportunity to tour the city and visit several Montessori schools. My observations were that Poland was a fascinating mix of the old and new. Since freeing themselves from communist rule in 1989, they have emerged as a modern, creative and entrepreneurial force in all areas of growth. Their cities have been rebuilt and areas like the old town, which used to have only one restaurant under the communist regime, is now blooming with all types of innovative cuisines.

Their emphasis on food was fresh and sustainable with an influx of cuisines from around the world. In a formerly old factory building, now stands an improved and newly renovated building that houses a sushi restaurant, a beer garden, a place to enjoy French crepes, delicious fine dining, Polish traditional fare, and even a tea market. The culture definitely appreciates fine food and beverages.

Before presenting five individual sessions at the 3-day Montessori seminar, I had the amazing opportunity to visit Montessori schools in the area and was surprised by all of them. Some were brand new, modern, and chic while some updated older spaces to look brand new. One looked like a traditional “forest” school. They are all experiencing growth in their programs and wanted advice on rapid expansion. My experience in Montessori education and the rapid growth experienced at Five Oaks Academy made me a great resource to exchange ideas and answer many excellent questions.

As an SCMA Board Member, I have also seen the same type of growth explosion in my own state in Montessori education. South Carolina currently holds the lead in Montessori schools in the United States. Aside from touring their beautiful facilities, learning about the quality of their educational development, and experiencing their thirst for improving Montessori in Poland… it was a truly heartwarming experience for me. The educators who attended the 3-day Montessori seminar were anxious to learn practical details about running a school as well as new best practices for a Montessori school. I enjoyed giving presentations on brain research and the connections between resilience, grit, happiness, and gratitude and how that can improve learning and school guidance. I received such positive feedback throughout my three days of teaching; it leaves me with thoughts of wanting to return to Poland to share more.

It’s rare that I get the chance to consult with a group of people who are so thoroughly committed to Montessori. The group I consulted with shared stories of grit and perseverance that allowed them to break through many obstacles when attempting to make Montessori education more readily available for the students of Poland.

I am fortunate to have met such a resilient and grateful group of educators who have defined “True Grit” as they advance Montessori education in their developing country.

Peace,

Kathleen Trewhella-Grant, Executive Direc

 

Duke TiP Scholars 2016 – 2017

Middle School Scholars Front Row: Brigitte, Laney, Ariana, Zoe, Saxon, Ranjan, Gracie Keel Middle Row: Savannah , Sam, Joplin, Tristan, Xandria, Samuel, Nathan Back Row: Caitlyn, Maddie, Riley, Smith, Morgan, Hal, Jefferson. Not Pictured: Maura

Five Oaks is proud to have 28 students qualify for the Duke TiP (Talent Identification Program). This talent Search program is open only to 4th – 7th grade students who achieve a qualifying score at or above the 95th percentile on their recent grade-level standardized test. Congratulations to these students on this achievement! For more information on Duke TiP, visit their website at www.tip.duke.edu.

Upper Elementary Scholars Left to Right: Avanti, Kayden, Montgomery, William, Chase

FOA’s Middle School Model United Nations Team Experiences Extreme Sucess at This Year’s Conference

This year our Five Oaks Middle School Model United Nations group included 24 middle school participants, the largest number to have taken part from Five Oaks yet. These 24 students represented 10 countries and each group researched their country’s culture, celebrations, government, currency and other important details. Using these details, they created display boards and selected an issue their country faced and wrote a paper detailing the issue along with an in-depth solution to that specific problem.

These months of work each year culminate in a two-day conference where students present their ideas to rooms of peers for debate and discussion. Groups who are ranked highly by their peers in terms of being prepared, presenting debatable and effective solutions and speaking well, progress to speak in front of larger groups of students in General Assembly or Plenary. In General Assembly, two sessions are held simultaneously and all students in attendance are sorted into one of the groups to hear certain proposals again and debate them in this larger setting. In Plenary, all students attend a single session and hear a few of the groups present and debate their topics in front of the whole convention. Each time that students debate their proposals, the groups they present to vote to pass or deny the resolution. Of the Plenary groups that pass, they get one additional opportunity to share their issue and solution and those few final proposals are ranked in order of importance.

Typically one group is selected as having the issue of the greatest importance and possible solution and that group receives a $500 donation to a charity of their choosing related to the topic they researched so thoroughly. This year, two groups were selected and both were from Five Oaks! Bangladesh, represented by Emily Meade, Brigitte Pinochet, and Grace Ireland was one of those groups and they spoke on the issue of rampant malnutrition in their country. Ethiopia was the other group that took this top honor and was represented by Ranjan Jindal, Jefferson Summers and Gabrielle McGraw speaking on the topic of research-based effective farming practices.
The group representing Bangladesh also received an award for “Outstanding Proposal” which is awarded by a panel of community members who assess the proposals prior to conference time with all student names and school identifying markers removed. Aside from the groups who made it to Plenary, three other Five Oaks groups made it to General Assembly and they were Burkina Faso (represented by Ariella Alfieri, Smith Summers, and Ben VanPelt), Brazil (represented by Caitlyn White and Ariana Alexiou) and Germany (represented by Laney McKinney, Hal Freeland, and Brooke Garrett).

Overall, of the over 80 groups present at this year’s event, only 18 make it to General Assembly or Plenary.  Five Oaks  Academy represented 5 of those 18 groups! We are so proud of all of our Middle School Students that represented our school so well!

FOA Participates in the 3rd Annual iMAGINE Upstate STEAM Festival

Five Oaks Academy is pleased to announce that we are participating in the 3rd Annual iMAGINE Upstate STEAM Festival on April 1 from 11:00 am – 5:00 pm in Greenville’s beautiful West End.  This is a free event and open to all ages!

There are more than 70 STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics) related organizations involved with booths and activities spanning the entire length of S. Main Street, from Augusta Street to Fluor Field Stadium.

The Five Oaks Academy booth will be located on S. Main Street across from Zen and we are featuring our Earth Networks WeatherBug station.  Five Oaks Academy is the only school in the Upstate of S.C. that has a weather station utilizing a live weather camera.  We are featured almost daily on Fox Carolina Weather segments and the station utilizes our data to help determine their forecasts.
For general event information, visit https://imagineupstate.org

For directions and parking information, visit https://imagineupstate.org/ festival/directions

Food Truck Row will be located on O’Neal Street and Wardlaw Street.  For a list of food truck participants, visit https://imagineupstate.org/ food-trucks/

About iMAGINE Upstate

The mission of iMAGINE Upstate is to create meaningful experiences that promote a culture of lifelong learning and career readiness with an emphasis on science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics (STEAM), innovation, and entrepreneurial activity in Upstate South Carolina. iMAGINE Upstate is a program of South Carolina’s Coalition for Mathematics & Science (SCCMS) at Clemson University.  http://www.sccoalition.org