Special Edition | Seth Pozzi - Head of School
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What Parents Need to Know
This Winter Surge
I started penning this article a couple weeks ago, excited to share some of our gradual plans for getting parents back on campus and resuming normal activities. With the proliferation of the-variant-that-must-not-be-named, we have to hit pause temporarily on some of these plans and also redouble prevention efforts. Here is what parents need to know as we go into January.
Masks (upgrade immediately) - All WHPS staff and students must wear surgical or respirator masks. Cloth masks are not providing enough protection from Omicron, which builds up much faster and at higher levels in the respiratory system. Well-fitting surgical masks or respirators are now recommended for indoor settings.
Modified Quarantine - TK-5th grade will temporarily revert to universal outdoor masking from January 3 - February 4, 2022. Under Modified Quarantine, the classroom can remain open if a case is identified (and certain conditions are met). Rest assured, we will always report any cases or potential exposures to you.
Testing Cadence - During the surge of this more transmissible variant, Elementary students will begin testing twice weekly, and Preschool students will begin testing weekly.
Splitting Classes - Whenever possible, we will work with our teachers to split the classes into smaller groups and leverage outdoor learning spaces as long as weather permits.
Vaccinations - Health officials continue to stress the importance of getting children vaccinated as quickly as possible. Vaccinated students and staff do not have to quarantine if exposed, unless they develop symptoms. Once a class has most or all students fully vaccinated, we will no longer need to close and switch to distance learning in most circumstances.
Extracurriculars - We are continuing to move ahead with after-school extracurriculars! Students are staying masked any time cohorts may combine, but we are excited to have the classes back. Collins campus classes have already started, and you can find the Oxnard classes here.
Field Trips - These will go back on hold, temporarily, until the surge comes down. When trips resume, we are starting with only low contact outdoor settings. The 4th and 5th grade Catalina overnight trip is planned to happen April 6-8, after being postponed the past two years. Students must be fully vaccinated to go on the overnight trip.
Morning Assembly - We planned to resume with parents present on January 10. We are postponing until the surge comes down.
If there is any good news, it’s that the surge is expected to be relatively short. I remain hopeful that conditions will improve soon and we can resume plans for more parent involvement and some of the activities that make WHPS so special.
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Elementary News | Jacey Dexter - Elementary Principal |
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The GOLD Standard in Teaching
Project-Based Learning
Project-Based Learning (PBL) is a unique component of the WHPS curriculum. At its most basic level, teaching/learning can come from a textbook and worksheets. "Doing a project" at the end of a unit of study is a nice way to assess what students learned. But, PBL is different. With PBL, students have choice and voice throughout the unit and choose how they will show mastery of the topic.
 Think about your everyday work environment. Often, you have an issue to solve or initiative to push forward and use your ingenuity and creativity to accomplish the goal. That's PBL.
Quality PBL is designed as meaningful real-world work. We start with a Driving Question students will investigate. We engage in Sustained Inquiry, a rigorous process of developing and researching questions. We also seek Expert Advice. During this step, students may make further modifications and revisions. The final step is to present the finished product to an Authentic Audience.
CALIFORNIA REGIONS COMMERCIALS
One of our classrooms recently completed a PBL unit on the CA regions. Here are some of the steps they went through (final products linked at the bottom).
- Driving Question: How can we, as California experts, determine the best location to film a Hollywood movie and convince a Hollywood producer that our region is the best?
- Sustained Inquiry: Students brought in pictures from places they have traveled in California. We spent a day organizing our pictures into four categories. From there, we determined what made those areas unique and then introduced the concept of California's four regions. We formed learning groups that would each specialize in a region. Each group decided what they could do to promote their region as the best region for filming a movie.
- Expert Advice: Now it was time for experts! Several parents in the class are producers or have jobs directly in the entertainment industry. These are the very people our students needed to convince, so we set up Zoom calls to allow the students to discuss their project with them. Our producers gave us insight into what worked well and what we might want to do differently. With all of this in mind, students worked to revise and edit their plans.
- Authentic Audience: Finally, it was time to film. Students created short commercials to convince producers their region is the best choice for filming their movie. With all their filming "in the can," we just wrapped up editing before winter break. Now, you get to be part of the authentic audience!
You can see the commercials on the WHPS YouTube channel. Be sure to subsctibe to our channel, where you can keep up to date on what we're up to! |
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Collins Campus
Robin & Ailin |
Oxnard Campus
Vivien & Christine |
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Anti-Bias Education
In Action:
Early Childhood Education
Anti-Bias education is an important component for the WHPS curriculum. Our staff have been engaged in ongoing professional development on this topic. At last month’s preschool professional development session (both campuses), we screened a new film, Reflecting on Anti-bias Education in Action: The Early Years. We looked at vignettes demonstrating effective anti-bias teaching strategies and reflected on our own teaching practices. While the film is geared toward Early Childhood Education teachers, we encourage parents to check out some of the interesting ideas and language discussed.
There are four areas of anti-bias education that we believe are part of a high-quality program. The more parents and teachers can embrace these goals, it will help make an even better future for our children and society.
Goals of Anti-Bias Education
- Identity - Nurture children in feeling strong in their identity, without feeling superior to others. Helping children to be comfortable in their home, as well as their school culture. This goal aims to develop each child’s confidence, self awareness, family pride and social identities.
- Diversity - Promote each child’s comfortable, empathetic interaction with others from diverse backgrounds. Help children learn to express comfort and joy with human diversity, use accurate language for human differences, and form deep, caring connections across all dimensions of human diversity.
- Justice - Foster each child’s capacity to critically identify bias and nurture each child’s empathy for the hurt bias causes. Help children increasingly recognize unfairness (injustice), have language to describe unfairness, and understand that unfairness hurts.
- Activism - Cultivate each child’s ability and confidence to stand up for oneself and for others in the face of bias. Help children develop a sense of empowerment and the skills to act, with others or alone, against prejudice and/or discriminatory actions.
You can read more about these goals from The National Association for the Education of Young Children. It is important to continually revisit and refine these habits in our lives at school and at home. One concept from the film that we will be exploring further is persona dolls. We are excited to share more information in the coming months.
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| "Our Barnyard" News | WHPS Science & Nature Center |
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Mr. Matthew
Animal & Nature Specialist |
Mrs. Tanja
Barnyard Manager |
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Hi Barnyard Friends!
 Everyone in Our Barnyard hopes you had a wonderful holiday season. The rain is finally here, and that fills our barnyard with mud, mud, mud. Don’t worry, classes are not canceled, instead Mr. Matthew brings animals directly to the classroom. We had fun making forts to get out of the rain and also to model how animals use shelter to keep dry. We also had a visit from our bearded dragon, ball python, and rabbits. They love the chance to get out of the rain and into the warmth.
In Elementary, we will come back in January with a quick review of the rules and our lessons so far to help us jump right in after break. Then, it's right back to new lessons. In Animal Care, we will discuss the weather, both in winter and in general, and how that impacts different animals. Some don’t mind the cold and wet, while others like it warm and dry. How do we change our care when the weather changes? For Ecology, we will learn how to observe animals and their behavior. This might sound easy, just watch them; however it is hard not to let our own assumptions influence our observations. We have to learn how to remove ourselves from the equation to determine why an animal really chooses to do anything. Finally, in Evolution, we will look into phenotypic plasticity. This is just a big word to describe how some animals' bodies change with the seasons. Why do they do this, and how does this help them survive?
Preschool will start with some review on the year so far through fun games and activities. Remember Boney, our skeleton friend or the Chicken Scratch game? Some of these lessons were taught while Mr. Matthew was away, so it will be a great chance to revisit our learning from a slightly different perspective.
While most of the rain should be over in January, remember the weather can’t stop Barnyard. Mr. Matthew and Mrs. Tanja may not be able to stay dry during these rainy days, but we sure hope you do!
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The WHPS Science & Nature Center on Instagram @whpschool
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| Check out our Google Calendar for all upcoming events!
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