Mrs. Burt's musings.....

So, I have a new favorite thing to do every Sunday evening.  Since school started, at about 5:00pm on Sunday nights, I get an email from Seesaw giving me a report about the latest news and posts that have happened during the week at school.  I always thought I had a pretty good sense of what was happening each day, but I am having so much fun catching up with student's work, their activities, the recordings of their thinking, etc.  I get to see everything that's been posted during the week.  We have such amazing students!!  Some highlights from this last week - 5th graders at the MOMA in San Francisco, pictures from all the action field trips of our 3rd, 4th and 5th graders, 1st grade published writing (with student voices recorded!) and 2nd graders sharing their thinking about global learners. But what makes me smile the most is reading the comments back from parents giving encouragement, comments, or just love notes back to their student.   Can't wait for next week.....

It was a special day at Bel Aire today.  We celebrated the opening of our new labyrinth as a place of peace surrounded by our beautiful redwood trees at the back of our campus.  The labyrinth will be a way for students to practice mindfulness and reflection.  A labyrinth may be new to some of you, but they have actually been around for thousands of years.  It is not a puzzle or a maze with dead ends and choices but a pathway that is laid out in a circular pattern to take the walker on a journey to the center.  As you walk along the path, it is a time to reflect, find calm when you're in conflict, and appreciate the joys of life. The labyrinth was a perfect setting for our celebration of peace.  We talked about the 50th anniversary of our International Baccalaureate Organization.  The IB began 50 years ago in the aftermath of a war torn Europe from the International School of Geneva.  That insightful group of educators had a vision that children from all over the world could learn

We had such a fun time today at our annual Great Zucchini Race!  We had about 40 students enter a zucchini car that they built and decorated in some really unique ways.  In addition to being a great community builder, this race gives students the opportunity to use their creativity and critical thinking skills to design a racer using simple physics and engineering. But my favorite part is seeing evidence that families worked together on a hands-on project.  Some of the most memorable and happy times for our kids is when we create and play together.  Thanks to all those that participated and those that came out to cheer on the kids!

I am happy to introduce this blog that hopefully will help you to get a better picture of day to day happenings at Bel Aire Park.  With our new theme of communication and media, I wanted to stretch my own learning using a communication tool that is new to me.  My hope is to capture meaningful moments during our days at school that will give parents and community members a taste of the wonderful things our students are doing and saying as they learn and discover their world. Our theme this year is Find your voice; Tell your story so I will attempt to give voice to our students' stories.  One of my favorite poets is Langston Hughes and I will share his poem again that I shared at Back to School Night:  Final Curve When you turn the corner And run into yourself Then you know that you have turned All the corners that are left. I think that to really become who we are meant to be, we have to keep turning new corners and finding new things to discover.  This is my goal for our