AEA Gardens Yield Bounty

Returning to my office from a late meeting today, I was surprised to find a basket of fresh greens on my desk.  The basket contained chard, lettuce, and broccoli, all products of the AEA garden.  I arrived home with the key ingredients for a tasty, healthy salad.  My daughter was very pleased, as you can see from the photo.

Thanks to the tireless work of Terri Hughes-Oelrich, Stephanie Jennings, Board of Trustees member Rudd Schoefel, as well as various parent volunteers, students, and teachers, the AEA gardens are thriving and yielding their bounty.  In addition to vegetables, there is a fruit tree orchard and herb garden, with plans to install international gardens as well.

In these difficult economic times, and considering the epidemic of childhood obesity, what could be better than to have school gardens providing our community with healthy, organic produce?

If you are interested in volunteering in the AEA gardens, the group meets every Saturday at 9am at the A Street campus entrance.  For more information contact Terri Hughes-Oelrich at thugheso@sdccd.edu

Student Engagement in Sixth Grade Math

I have been invited to share in a 6th grade math lesson and am very impressed by the level of student accountability and ownership of their learning. Sixth grade teacher Ms. Small has organized the class into families of 4 students. Their task in this activity is to present problems and solutions related to the CA standard that requires students to solve problems involving percent and interest rate.
When I entered the classroom I had to look hard to find the teacher; she was sitting quietly at the back wall while student teams led the instruction, posed and answered questions, and exercised real ownership for their learning. 

This is not to suggest that the teacher is not involved in the instruction- quite the contrary. She is assessing students based on a rubric that the class has reviewed, and when needed steps in to explain or deepen understanding or pose additional questions. The point is that the teacher is the facilitator, not the exclusive owner and purveyor of learning.

I encourage parents and community members to look for examples of student engagement and problem solving when you visit our campus. These examples deserve to be celebrated and shared throughout the school community. 

--
David Sciarretta, Principal
Albert Einstein Academy
Charter Middle School
3035 Ash St, San Diego, CA, 92102
tel: 619-795-1190
www.aeacs.org
Principal's blog:
http://aeacmsprincipalscorner.blogspot.com/

Teaching our children today to advance our shared humanity tomorrow.

Pennies for Peace Tally

This morning I received an email from our IBMYP and ELD Coordinator Libby Krueger regarding the tally of pennies collected during the Pennies for Peace initiative:


Welcome back everyone!  It took the bank about 2 weeks to count the pennies in total!  Congratulations to all the efforts of the entire Einstein Learning Community, we raised $1800.00 to be donated to Pennies for Peace.  PLEASE be sure and share this total with your students (so many were asking before break).


This is yet another example of AEA coming together to support a worthy cause in keeping with the tenets of IB. Thanks to everyone who made this level of collection possible.


Our next k-8 project will be Books of Hope , in which students create books to be used by schoolchildren in Uganda.