Category: Head’s Corner

Dear Saklan Community,

Today marks the end of our first full week of regular classes, and I have been very pleased to see how easily our students have gotten back into the routine of school and how quickly our academic program has gotten into gear. At Flag today, Saklan received a Wastebusters 75% Plus Award from the Central Contra Costa Waste Authority for our recycling efforts during the last school year. Under the leadership of our Science teacher, Vickie Obenchain, our entire faculty, staff and student body made a concerted school-wide effort to reduce waste and recycle, and in fact we achieved a recycling rate of 83%.  I was informed that only one school in Contra Costa surpassed us with 86%, so we now have a new goal for this year.

The presentation of the Wastebusters Award was made by Roger Wykle of the Moraga Town Council. In addition to a nice plaque that will be displayed in the school office, we received a check for $1,500. A big thank you and congratulations to Vickie Obenchain, who is the driver behind our recycling program, as well as all of our faculty, staff and students for an outstanding community effort to address this important issue and demonstrate our mindfulness to the environment.

I would also like extend a big thank you to Kim Manning for again running the school uniform exchange. It was nice to see so many parents walk away from our BBQ with articles from the exchange, which are totally free. I have been very pleased with the excellent degree of adherence to the school’s dress policy. For your reference, this policy is articulated in the Parent Handbook which is available on Renweb, where you will also find the school directory. Please contact the office if you have not been able to log into Renweb, and please do not use the information in Renweb for any commercial purposes.

I look forward to seeing all of the PreK and Lower School parents at our Back to School Night on September 7.

Have a great long weekend!

Peter

Dear Saklan Community,

Welcome to the start of the 2017-18 school year and to my first blog of the year. School has been in session now for only a couple of days, but already a lot has happened that indicates what a great year we have ahead of us. With 34 new students starting the year, a considerable number of school improvement projects completed over the summer, and a great sense of school spirit and positive energy, I could not be more pleased to see our doors open to this academic year.

A big welcome goes out to all of our new students and families, and to the new faculty that have joined us over the summer. Our new Spanish teacher for Grades 4-8 is Ms. Ivonne Padilla, who comes to us after teaching last year at Bishop O’Dowd High School.  Our new Grade 5 teacher is Ms. Elizabeth Peters, who previously taught at Sleepy Hollow Elementary School in Orinda and was on the faculty at St. Mary’s College. And finally, we are very pleased to have increased our Extended Program team with the addition of Cameron Brandt and Stefany Wall, both of whom were instructors in our Summer @Saklan program.

While many of you were enjoying a well-deserved summer break from school, some interesting things were still going on at Saklan. Our summer camp grew by 23% and hosted a total of 287 students in three 3-week sessions focused on language and culture.  This proved to be a very successful program which once again won four Best of the East Bay Gold awards from Parents’ Press which were:

• Best Academic Summer Camp
• Best Foreign Language and Cultural Immersion Summer Camp
• Best General and Traditional Summer Day Camp
• Best Preschool Age Summer Camp

In addition to these awards for our Summer Camp, Saklan also won the following awards for our regular school program:

• Best Independent Elementary School
• Best Alternative Learning Styles Elementary School
• Best Independent Middle School
• Best Independent Preschool
• Best Child Care

This summer we also ran our Culture and Language Trip to Japan. This was open to both parents and students in the upper grades and proved to be our biggest group ever with a total of 42 participants. A second summer trip for Saklan alumni involved a group of 13 participants going to the Global Leadership Summit in Paris. Next year, the trip goes to Germany and the Alps and we already have a good number of participants signed up.

A number of campus improvements also occurred this summer. These included installing a new water fountain, eliminating the trip barriers in the pre-kindergarten playground, adding a sink to the art room, and repairing the roof in the math room.  However, the biggest improvement involved our Fund-a-Need Project, which was the complete renovation of our old science room into a new STEM lab. Thank you again to all parents who helped fund this project.

It was so great to see the big turnout of parents for the Beautification Day and the Back to School BBQ, which is hosted by our Parent Association. The 2017-18 year has gotten off to a great start with much enthusiasm, and a determination to make this a great year at Saklan!

Have a restful weekend!

Peter

Dear Saklan Community,

Today was our last flag of the school year.  It is amazing how fast this year has gone by, but equally amazing how many wonderful things have happened at Saklan. Our flag was hosted by two Kindergarten students, Arik Lopez and Narayani Chandra, who showed the confidence and courage to speak in public, which is a trademark of Saklan. At flag, we also recognized our student council and gave out student council awards. Our two Co-Presidents, Mikayla Perrin and Kylie Choi, have shown outstanding leadership this year, which is another trademark of Saklan students. A big thank you to our Middle School Dean, Kim Parks, for advising the student council and helping to develop the skills of leadership, community service and collaboration, which we have seen grow stronger in our student body.

Another area where great leadership has been shown is in our Parent Association. The well-attended, well-supported, and well-organized community events this year, such as our stellar Family Fun Night, is due to the efforts of our Parent Association. A big end-of-year thank you to our PA Board, which is made up of:

Co-Presidents: Vivian Ma & Jen Cogen

Secretary: Sandy Lo

Treasurer: Jenny Park-Choi

Communications: Lori Anders

Room Parent Coordinator: Sandy Lo

Next week is our last week of school and on Monday, our students will have fun participating in the Family Group Field Day. This is the last event in our Family Group program and is one that highlights the sense of community and “being at home” which our students feel while they are at school.

Enjoy your weekend!

Peter

Dear Saklan Community,

This year’s Family Fun Night truly lived up to its name as there were lots of families and it was FUN. What a great idea to get us ready for the summer with an event that combines relaxing on our turf, a wonderful BBQ and a good movie. Many thanks to the Student Council and Parent Association for organizing this event and a particular shout out to Jenny and Mike Choi for providing the delicious barbecued pork.

Thanks to our parents, their families and friends, The Saklan School has a long-standing history of being voted BEST OF in this annual contest put on by Parent’s Press which remains open until the end of May.  Please take a moment to vote for your favorite school and note that there are separate categories for: 1) Preschool  2) Elementary School  3) Middle School  4) Summer Camp. Just follow this link to vote. This is one of the easiest things you can do to benefit our school!

A big thank you to all of our families for spreading the word about Saklan to friends and neighbors. In reviewing our marketing data from this past year, we see that once again parent referrals are a big factor in attracting new students to Saklan, and we would like to hear your ideas on how we can best get the word out in your communities. We will be holding an open meeting on the topic of how parents can support the marketing of Saklan on Friday, June 2, at 8:45in the Library. This meeting is intended for everyone interested in sharing ideas on how to attract great new students to our school. Coffee will be provided.

All parents are invited to our Graduation Ceremony on Thursday, June 8 at 10:00AM at the Holy Trinity Cultural Center. Come and hear what our graduates say about their experience at Saklan and share their goals for the future. This is a great opportunity for our community to see what is in store for their children and celebrate the students that have graduated with a Saklan diploma.

Have a good long weekend!

Peter

Dear Saklan Community,

This last week has been a whirlwind of outstanding activities and events at Saklan. It started last Friday with a magical production of The Drowsy Chaperone at the Town Hall Theatre in Lafayette. It was wonderful to watch the enthusiasm and talent of our middle school in putting on this clever and extremely funny musical. A standing ovation goes out to Grace Chaffey and all of our middle school students for this delightful feat of courage, confidence and creativity.

This was followed by an impressive Spring Arts Festival. Art of all kinds, and from every student, was displayed throughout the Saklan campus. As you know, creativity is an important cornerstone of the Saklan mission, and the level of creativity seen in the art on display was remarkable. I was also pleased to see the Family Groups integrated into the Art Festival and was very much impressed by our Family Group leaders who they took their groups through the different stations of the exhibit and engaged the students in discussion and reflection on the works of art. Many thanks to Natalie Palms for organizing the Art Festival, and more importantly for inspiring the students to produce such great works of art. Also, thanks to Mrs. C and Miss Amanda for contributing art from the PreK. Please look for an ongoing display of the art on our video monitor in the entrance way.

The Art Festival also resulted in many parents visiting our Book Fair. Thanks to Book Fair Coordinator, Vivian Ma, and her team for offering an interesting variety of books. To make the Book Fair truly special, we were able to host four local authors on campus to share their works and talk to our students about the creative process and the art of writing.

To wrap up this great week at Saklan, we are all looking forward to Movie Under the Stars, which starts tonight at 6:00PM.

See you there!

Peter

 

Dear Saklan Community,

On Thursday, May 18th, we will have the annual Spring Arts Festival. Our art teacher, Ms. Palms, has been doing great work with our students and I am confident that you will be impressed by the quality and variety of art that has been produced here at Saklan. Come see for yourself. The art show opens at 3:00PM and runs until 4:00PM. Each student in grades PreK-8 will have at least one piece of art on display.

The Book Fair, organized by the Parent Association, runs from Thursday, May 18 to Friday, May 19 in the Saklan Library. We have again collaborated with Orinda Books to offer a great selection of books for all ages. Included in this will be a large selection of books from the Summer Reading Lists for grades 2-8. Please come and visit the Book Fair which will be open from 8-10AM and 2-4PM on each of the days.

In conjunction with our Book Fair, we have organized a series of author visits next week. On Wednesday, Lily Williams, author and illustrator of “If Sharks Disappeared,” will talk to our PreK-3rd grade students. On the same day, Mitali Perkins, author of ten books for  9-13 year olds, “Tiger Boy” and “Rickshaw Girl” will speak to our 3-8th graders. On Friday, we will have two popular local authors visit. Lisa Bakos will speak to our PreK-2nd graders and Penny Warner will speak to our 3rd-7th graders. Books for all of these authors will be on sale at the Book Fair.

While visiting the campus next week, have a look at our lost and found bins that are currently overflowing.

Have a good weekend!

Peter

Dear Saklan Community,

As part of our Parent Speaker series, this morning Cherilyn addressed the much discussed issue of students and the use of social media in her talk, “Get Smart With Social Media.” This workshop is the third in a three part series and follows two previous workshops, one with 4-6 graders and one with 7-8 graders.

Cherilyn started her presentation by telling us that for teenagers social media, “is a scoreboard for a real time, 24/7 popularity competition.” She shared a wealth of information and data from many recent studies on social media use, as well as data that emerged from her workshops with our Saklan students. For example, the average 13 year old checks in with social media sites 100 times a day and is in some way connected online for 9 hours per day. In one study it was discovered that 90% of 4-8 graders surveyed have phones or tablets in their rooms and 33% indicated that they are regularly online after midnight on school nights. This goes up to 60% on weekends. In an indication of how unaware parents are of what their children are doing, it was found that only 11% of the parents in the study believed this happens on school nights and 38% on weekends.

Data from our own students showed that 40% of our 4-6 graders had YouTube channels, 48% were on Instagram, and 30% were on Music.ly. In her workshop with our 7-8 graders, only 21% indicated that their social media activity was monitored by parents.

Some of the big ideas that emerged from Cherilyn’s presentation were that stress caused by online activity was very much the same as that of real life experiences and it increased through the teen years. In order to effectively navigate their futures, students need to learn how to interact with others online in safe and mindful ways. Beyond monitoring their online activities, parents should engage with their children in ongoing dialog about the realities of using social media.

A big thank you to Kim Parks for organizing this important and engaging workshop.

Have a good weekend!

Peter

Dear Saklan Community,

One of the important presentations at Flag this morning was the message of gratitude given by the faculty and staff to our wonderful parent community for this week’s Teacher Appreciation Week. This is always one of the best weeks of the school year and we have been astounded, amazed and pampered with the wonderful meals and gifts organized by our parents. We are delighted by the new baking ovens that we can use for our school and extra-curricular programs, and feel truly appreciated with the many touching and personal messages that have sprung up on the campus walls and windows. We are thankful for the wonderful community that supports our efforts and inspires us to do our best in our work at Saklan. A special thank you to the Tai family for offering the food truck on Wednesday, which was one of the highlights of the week.

This week, I was officially informed by the National Geographic Society that Vickie Obenchain has been recognized as a Nat Geo Certified Educator. Certified Educators are committed to teaching their students about the world and how it works, empowering them to succeed, and make it a better place. This award comes at a perfect time as we have just had an outstanding Earth Day program, organized by Vickie, which saw our Family Groups engage in a series of activities to raise awareness about our planet. This included a visit by the Marine Science Institute that gave our students very close encounters with a series of sea animals. The next time you come on campus please look at the vertical garden of native succulent plants made out of recycled materials. It is on the wall by the middle school lunch area. Also have a look at the Family Group Sustainability posters which are on the entrance way bulletin board. We are fortunate to have Vickie as our Science teacher and applaud her work and latest accomplishment.

Next week, our students in Grades 4-8 will be taking the ERBs. This stands for the Educational Records Bureau Comprehensive Testing Program. This school-wide assessment program has been used at Saklan for many years and is a widely used tool in independent schools for looking at individual and school-wide achievement. While the test gives some measure of the educational program at Saklan, it is important to know that we do not teach to the test. Nor does the test assess many of the skills that we feel important in our program, like creativity, leadership or collaboration, to name just a few. The best preparation for this week of testing for our Grade 4-8 students is to make sure that they get plenty of rest, exercise, eat healthy meals, and get to school on time.

A big thank you to the entire Saklan community!

Have a good weekend!

Peter

Dear Saklan Community,

Did you know that this Sunday is the official World Book Day? The date of April 23 is  symbolic for world literature and it is on this date in 1616 that Cervantes, Shakespeare and Inca Garcilaso de la Vega all died. It is also the date of birth or death of other prominent authors, such as Maurice Druon, Haldor K.Laxness, Vladimir Nabokov, Josep Pla, and Manuel Mejía Vallejo. It was a natural choice for UNESCO’s General Conference held in Paris in 1995 to pay a world-wide tribute to books and authors on this date, encouraging everyone, and in particular young people, to discover the pleasure of reading and gain a renewed respect for the irreplaceable contributions of those who have furthered the social and cultural progress of humanity. With this in mind, UNESCO created the World Book and Copyright Day. For more information on this go to: http://www.un.org/en/events/bookday/

At Saklan we naturally celebrate books and reading every day, and many of our students actually become authors during the school year. We also love having professional authors visit our campus and every year we introduce our students to a number of celebrated writers from our area and beyond. This coming Friday, our PreK through 2^nd graders will meet author Frans Vischer who worked for the Walt Disney Company on such films as The Princess and The Frog and Who Framed Roger Rabbit.  He is the author and illustrator of Fuddles and Fuddles and Puddles.

I am also happy to report that we have four authors lined up for our three-day Book Fair which runs from May 17-19. The authors are Mitali Perkins (Rickshaw Girl and Tiger Boy), Lily Williams (If Sharks Disappeared), Lisa Bakos (Wrong Side of the Bed and Too Many Moose) and Penny Warner who writes the popular middle grade mystery series, The Code Busters Club.  Every year, our Book Fair gets better and better and this year looks to be stellar!

Have a great weekend with a good book!

Peter

Dear Saklan Community,

As I write this week’s blog, our 4th grade class is in Coloma on their annual overnight field trip to study the Gold Rush, and the 5th graders are in Marin Headlands on their three-day overnight field trip. These are the last two of overnight field trips in the calendar this year; which also saw our 6th graders spend a week in Yosemite, our 7 graders travel to Hawaii, and our 8th graders study US Government in Washington DC. All of these exciting educational experiences are made possible through the support of our wonderful parent community through donations and direct participation.

Today is officially Good Friday, which precedes the Easter, and I wish all of our families that celebrate this holiday a Happy Easter. In the spirit of creativity, which clearly runs strong at Saklan, and in connection with our goal of promoting happiness, our Hoot Owl students are celebrating the little known, but definitely engaging and enchanting, International Moment of Laughter Day. This day, which falls on April 14, is an unofficial holiday created by humorologist Izzy Gesell, who encourages people to forget the stresses of daily life, and give into the healing and relaxing power of laughter. Medical studies have shown that laughing reduces stress, increases blood flow, and lowers blood sugar levels. Some studies have found that people who laugh just before going to bed are much more likely to sleep better than those who did not. In addition to its health benefits, laughter also has social advantages. People who are jovial tend to be quickly accepted in social groups and have an easier time making friends. Laughter is a way to spread joy and happiness, and bring cheer in the lives of other people.

Our Hoot Owl students and families clearly had many moments of laughter this morning, which is a fitting way to prepare for a happy weekend. Thanks to Mrs. C and Miss Joy for coming up with this creative idea!

Have a great weekend,

Peter