Happy New Year!  It has been wonderful to be back at school these last few days.  People seem to be feeling refreshed and ready to dive into new projects.

Today some students came up into the school asking what to do with bag of trash items they had picked up in the outdoor area surrounding the school.  It turned out that they are a newly formed Pickup Patrol, and are planning a weekly cleanup.  They did a very thorough job!  Thank you Pickup Patrol!

School Meeting planned and hosted a wonderful winter festival this past weekend.  Students decorated, made art and crafts to sell, organized a cake walk and potluck, and participated in an excellent talent show (with some fabulous parent and staff talent as well!)  It was a great success and lots of fun!  Thanks to everyone who came!

Can’t wait to do it again next year!

posted by Abbe

Students consistently work to the best of their ability, noticing on their own when their product doesn't fit their vision, fine-tuning their skills until they reach a satisfying level of mastery. Spelling and other skills are gradually perfected over time, in an atmosphere of non-judgement.

I was in elementary school, and we were given the assignment to illuminate a short text, as monks did in medieval times (The text, mysteriously, was “Money is the root of all evil”).  I remember it clearly, to this day, because of the unprecedented thing that happened while I was working on the assignment.  I remember using my pen and ink and starting the “M”, (with a snake wrapped around it), and then quickly realizing that I should have done it a different way.  I knew that it would look much better if I had a chance to re-draw it.  I must have said so out loud, although I didn’t expect to be granted either the time or permission to start again.  But, shockingly, the teacher responded by saying “It’s ok.  You may have another piece of paper.”

ANOTHER PIECE OF PAPER!!!  I couldn’t believe my ears.  In all my schooling, I don’t think I’d ever had the chance to start over after making a mistake!  We were always in a rush to move to the next thing, whatever it was.  I started afresh, and this time the drawing matched my vision more closely.  I remember being deeply satisfied at having this time to correct the mistake and to integrate a new skill into my brain and hands.

Of course, this happy incident only occurred because I had been pulled from my regular classroom to attend an enrichment program for gifted kids (whatever that was supposed to mean).  It would never have happened in my home classroom, where mistakes simply earned you a bad grade.  But because of this mistake, and the offer of a fresh piece of paper,  I learned in my bones what a gift it is to have time, space, and permission to mess up and try again.

Video games require constant trial and error. Mistakes (or "epic failures," as I often hear them called) are taken in stride until the game is mastered.

During my time at Rising Tide School, I’ve had the chance to get more and more comfortable with mistakes.  They don’t feel as scary to me, because we all make them all the time, and because the school gives us time, space, and permission to see our mistakes, learn, integrate an improved way of doing things, and move forward.

Here are a some of us from Art Corp., mistaking our way through our first time silkscreening.

The goal of the project was to learn how to use our equipment, so that we could teach and certify others.  Some parts of the process went smoothly.  Polly created the design (she did several drafts before coming up with one that was just right).

I prepared the screen, after watching some Youtube videos and reading the instruction manual.  I installed the hinges backwards at first.

Then, following the instructions, I transferred the design to the screen.  It worked!  The drawing fluid washed out and the screen filler stayed on.  That was exciting.

Then we began to print.  The first print, on scrap paper, came out pretty well.

The next one was trickier.  Orianna experimented with spreading the ink different ways, trying for a smoother result.  I had a go, but for some reason didn’t have much luck getting the ink to transfer fully to the paper.  The screen seemed too loose, and the ink was coming out with a funny texture. Polly persisted, and discovered a few tricks that made the prints come out better.

We ended up with a nice pile of posters for our December fundraiser, Winterfest.    They have a handmade, funky look that I really like.

Tomorrow, we’ll finalize the certification that we created through this learning process.  Because of the mistakes that we made and corrected, we’ll not only be able to help others learn to print, we’ll be able to help them troubleshoot when things don’t go right.  What’s more, because nobody was grading or assessing the project, we were able to relax and enjoy the whole process, understanding the inevitable mistakes as what they are–an integral part of any learning process.

posted by Abbe

Our winter Open House is on Sunday, December 4th, from 1:30-3:30pm.  Come meet the staff, get a tour, and participate in a presentation and Q & A about Sudbury education.  Prospective students, parents, and interested community members are all welcome.

On Saturday, December 17, it’s Parent’s Night Out!  Drop your kids off for an evening of fun activities and a yummy dinner, while you do some holiday preparations or go out!   Parent’s Night Out is from 6-9:30 pm and the cost is $20 per student/$15 per sibling.  For ages 4-12.

We also invite you to join the fun for our first ever Winter Break Camp!  Camp will run from December 19-22, from 9am-2pm each day.  We’ll offer a balance of planned creative activities and student-led time.  We’re looking forward to lot of fun!  Camp is for ages 4-11 and the cost is $175 per child.  Space is limited.

We hope to see you!

posted by Abbe

What we saw inspired us, challenged us, and gave us new ideas for techniques and forms.

This ancient Kwan Yin is in an art museum, rather than the sacred space for which she was sculpted.  Discuss.

Simplicity.  Form.

Viewing a video of a performance piece in which a car is destroyed in a ritual manner.  Or…?

We spent a while at this one.  ”It’s about weight.  And balance.”  ”Or…education?”  (Later, I read a bit about it.  The artist, Heide Hinrichs, says ”It is much more a pedestal disguised as an idea of a shelf.”)

On the train home, I noticed myself seeing things with new eyes, with art eyes.

Pattern, form, and color are everywhere, food for the part of us that yearns to express what we see/feel/know in visual terms.  Thank you art, for being a place for ideas of ideas, for inviting our stories to interact with your objects, and for helping us see through and into ordinary life in a whole new way.

posted by Abbe

Please come to our Summer Information Meeting, Thursday August 4th at the Olympia Timberland Library!  We look forward to seeing you there.

This week, we finished a truly wonderful year of school.  It has been a gift to be immersed in the growth and learning of 20-plus amazing young people.  Not only did we celebrate the our first graduating student this spring, we celebrated all the everyday moments of learning and transformation among the students.

The school is also growing as a whole, and in fact, beginning to outgrow our current space.  This spring, a group of students, staff, trustees, and parents got together to create the school’s first Visioning event.  Together, we designed a process for playing with the question: “What do we want in an ideal Rising Tide School?”  The design group met several times to create an event that would engage people in this question and produce a graphic recording of the conversation, which we plan to use as a springboard for future conversations.

The event was a lot of fun!  We began by gathering ideas in small groups, then came together to create two large recordings.

Our blank pages were gradually transformed into colorful Mind Maps filled with ideas and inspiration.

Living and learning together has taught us a lot about what we want and need in a permanent home.  It is exciting to begin the work of creating this future place together.

We wish everyone a wonderful summer!  We’ll have an info meeting in August, and feel free to contact the school if you are interested in enrolling for 2011-2012.  There are still some spaces available.  You can reach us at (360) 753-0820 or by email.