Odyssey East Builds Community in A1

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On September 7th, 2 busses traveling in parallel routes departed Great River School on September 7th, 2017 for the A1 Odyssey. Students through the sand dunes of Indiana, the city of Detroit, and the upper peninsula of Michigan to learn the history of the industrial revolution and build community. 

A1 Odyssey Off to a Good Start

Odyssey Update #2 From Feneti Mohamed

View the full trip album here! 

11th Grade Students Explore Colleges & Careers on Northstarquest

The North Star Quest is a key experience at the beginning of a student's junior year at Great River School. It consists of visits and tours to the following post secondary schools, including: University Of Minnesota Duluth (MDU), the North House Folk School, Northland and a choice between St Olaf and Carleton.

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“The purpose of the trip was for us juniors to learn more about what colleges we want to apply for, and to gain a deeper understanding of the college application process.”

-Guthrie Pritchard and Micah Swanson.

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Early on Monday morning about fifty, mostly tired, juniors showed up to the Great River parking lot, ready to camp, sweat, and tour colleges. They loaded all their bags and selves on the bus, before John, the bus driver, took off! The trip to Duluth went smoothly, thanks to gorgeous weather and plenty of food.

Two hours and one broken window later (John, the wonderful driver, met his match with a stop light in Duluth), they arrived at UMD. After listening to an info session about the school they dispersed into small groups to go on a self guided tour for an hour, before getting back on the bus.

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Finally the juniors, their guides and John arrived in Grand Marais. In groups of three or more, they went out to explore the town, the surrounding beach area, and cook dinner.

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In the morning they entered the folk school, splitting into groups and completing different traditional crafts. These included: blacksmithing, wood carving, bread baking, mallet making and felting. As the bread came out of the oven, John and the bus appeared, to whisk the buccaneers and their guides away.

The next day, they took off for Northland. It was almost unanimously agreed that Northland was Great River School reincarnated into a college. Before embarking on their longest journey yet, our weary travelers satisfied their hunger in the Northland cafeteria. A sundae bar made itself available, to the great excitement of the students. Five long hours later, students poured out of the bus into a rustic campsite, buggy and humid, right outside Northfield. In honor of their last night, pizza was provided and devoured for dinner.

The sun rose only an hour or so before they woke up, took down their tents, fueling up once more for the last college tours. Given the time constraint and location of the next two colleges, students had been asked to choose between St. Olaf, a school known throughout the A3 as having the best cafeteria, and Carlton. Half the students got off the bus at St. Olaf, where they received a student led tour and info session. The other half went to Carlton, where they were greeted by crisp autumn leaves, old collegiate buildings and a woman named Carla. Carla gave them a long info session before letting them go wander around campus.

After lunch, everyone met up at a square in downtown Northfield, and loaded onto the bus. An hour later they arrived back at Great River School, where they unpacked the bus, and headed home.

View Full Album here. 

-Guthrie Pritchard, Beatrice Ibes, & Micah Swanson 

Photography by Stacey Kreger

PEG Bridge Hosts S'mores Social

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The Parent Engagement Group (PEG) 6th Grade Bridge Program ambassadors, Cynthia Putz-Yang and Erin Westenberg, hosted a S’mores outing for the new 6th Grade students and their families on September 17. We had great weather, a roaring fire, lots of s’mores, and the kids got to spend some time together outside of the classroom.

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All of the 6th grade bridge students are new to Great River this year, but you wouldn’t have guessed this if you were an outside observer. Games of Frisbee, football, running around, and a lot of laughter made it look like this group has been together a lot longer! It’s so heartwarming to see them building community already.

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The parents and families were also invited, and we definitely took advantage of this time to get to know each other and share our experiences from the first few weeks of school. A few of us are GRS veterans because we have other children at school, but many families are new this year. And I must say they are a great addition! A true testament that expanding our school can be a positive for our community. 

If your level has not had a social yet, stay tuned. Your PEG ambassadors are likely in the planning stages right now! 

- Erin Westenberg (6th Grade East Bridge Ambassador)

The Purpose of Key Experiences

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This week many of our students are participating in Key Experiences.  These experiences are designed to challenge students, take them out of their comfort zone, and to build community amongst students and faculty. 

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Students at Great River report a deep connection to the community at the school. We intentionally engage in key experiential learning trips that take students out of their normal learning environment and out into new experiences in the world. We call these expeditions “Key Experiences”. The novel environment and shared sense of discovery among the group creates a key experience of shared vulnerability. This shared vulnerability of self, combined with responsibility for one another and the group, bonds the cohort of students together through overcoming shared challenges. 

Elementary trips include travel to farms and local sites for 1st-3rd grade, and overnight camping for 4th-6th grades. Junior high experiences include extended travel across the country, overnight trips, shared projects of producing a theater production, and essential work of running a real business (bike shop or cafe), as well as biking 100 miles together over the course of 4-5 days. The high school experiences travel overnight and focus on real agricultural work, visits to colleges and postsecondary options, and expeditionary trips focused on leadership. These experiences create a shared sense of responsibility for the group and the community and help to establish a strong foundation of interpersonal connection.

Beyond the classroom, however, our key experience trips provide a model for experiential learning where students are engaged in field trips, real-world experiences, community service, internships with professional settings, expert mentor visits in a discipline of interest, and civic engagement while at the same time working to master state standards through their works. Rather than spending time addressing social-emotional growth and separate time mastering state academic standards, Great River School structures learning to accomplish both at the same time. These settings are an integrated part and anchor for curriculum. 

When a student is both in a real world setting and completing standard-aligned academic content, efficiency and multiple benefits are gained. Our overnight trips, camping, and intensives which formally occupy two dedicated weeks per year, are landmarks of the real word experiences that we seek to integrate into our everyday learning.

We can't wait to share pictures from the fall 2017 Key Experiences! 

Welcome Night brings families together!

"I think nearly all new families to Great River School are here, this is fantastic!” - D.Martinez, PEG Chair

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Close to 100 individuals (parents, grandparents, guardians, and siblings of incoming Great River students) attended the annual Welcome Night at Horton Park this past August 10th. Everyone who attended had a color-coded name tag based on their grade level, which made it easier to identify potential classmates. While parents and guardians interacted with each other, students could be seen climbing trees or playing a variety of games provided by the Parent Engagement Group (PEG). Pickle Ball was a crowd favorite, with the final game ending just after 8:15pm.

Midway through the event, David Martinez, PEG Chair, and Sam O’Brien, Head of School, welcomed everyone and encouraged attendees to get to know each other…..which they did! Overall, the event was a tremendous success and the entire PEG team was pleased to see so many new families in attendance. The rain showers just prior to the event had a few event organizers worried, but the sun made it’s way out just minutes prior to the start of Welcome Night.

Welcome Night is PEG’s kickoff event, so everyone was very excited to have such great momentum to kickoff the school year. The Parent Engagement Group consists entirely of parent volunteers and there is always a need for additional support. If you are interested in serving in a leadership role, in a volunteer capacity, or as a general member of Great River School’s Parent Engagement Group, please send an email to peg@greatriverschool.org. For additional information regarding PEG, please visit: http://www.greatriverschool.org/peg/ or contact your grade/level ambassador below:

Lower Elementary:

Upper Elementary:

Adolescents:

-David Martinez, PEG Chair

A1 Families Meet & Greet

A1 Families had the opportunity to get acquainted over dessert on August 15th at PEG's first A1 Social of the school year! 

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There was a good turnout of students and parents at Newell Park in Saint Paul - and finally, no rain!  PEG A1 Ambassadors Heather Thomas & Etta Dreher presented information, fielded questions and showed examples of A1 student gear. Specifically, they showed parents the 3" zippered binder and a mess kit, two necessary pieces of equipment for trips.

The students played games and did a few ice breakers on their own.  The next A1 Social will be during the Odyssey on September 12th, 7-9pm at Half Time Rec in Saint Paul.

-Etta Dreher, PEG A1 Ambassador

Volunteers Needed at Harvest Fest!

See our Signup Genius page to view all opportunities!

About Harvest Fest

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Harvest Fest is our annual family fall festival. This year it takes place on Saturday, October 7th from 2-5pm. We serve "Stone Soup" where the broth is made by students, and you bring the ingredients! We need face painters, soup servers, bread bringers, and help with setup and takedown. Thanks in advance for helping to make Harvest Fest a success! 

Welcome Elementary School Families!

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The elementary community gathered together the morning of September 9th to transform the remodeled rooms into rich and layered Montessori environments. Over 60 Parent volunteers and more than 20 student volunteers contributed to a hugely successful day moving in all the Montessori materials and furniture. In just 60 hours, our first phase of remodel was transformed into 8 Montessori environments ready for Elementary back to school night! The Montessori environment is the primary tool for our educational program, and we cannot thank enough each person who came to lighten the burden on September 9th!

This year is one of carefully planned growth for the elementary. In addition to welcoming new first and fourth year students to our community, the  elementary program has added 7 experienced guides to the great river family, and 10 brilliant additional new staff to our program this year. We are so full of gratitude for the amazing attention, hard work, collaboration, and resourceful wisdom of our teachers, staff and supportive families and volunteers. This community truly is one that is built and grown renewed each year, as the seasons bring opportunities to build relationships with old friends, acquaintances and new people! 

Below are some resources regarding Montessori philosophy and practice for you to go deeper into understanding what lies just beneath the shelves of inviting sensory materials. 

Comparison model

How Montessori differs in its aims

https://amiusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/ami-usa-montessori-vs.-mainstream2.pdf

Montessori from a parent perspective

https://amshq.org/Montessori-Education/Introduction-to-Montessori

Separating/Letting Go

Stories highlighting the gift of letting go of our children at different stages

https://amiusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/amiusa-the-greatest-love.pdf

Role of Parent

Useful resource for setting limits while giving choice at home

http://www.mariamontessori.com/2013/12/18/a-parents-role-how-it-differs-from-that-of-a-guide/