Meeting with the Police Chief

The 8th-grade class recently finished reading the novel All American Boys. The story is told by two narrators, Rashad and Quinn, whose lives are forever changed by an act of police brutality.

The 8th graders were split into two groups to create character posters of each of the narrators, including a drawing of the character, a list of adjectives/phrases that describe the character, descriptions of how the character changes in the story, and relevant quotes from the character. The students reviewed their own annotations and quotes they had selected and analyzed throughout their reading of the novel, then discussed and decided what to include on their character poster.

The 8th graders explored some of the issues addressed in the novel from the police perspective when they met with Moraga Police Chief Jon King. Saklan parent Gary Hill arranged this meeting for the class and participated in the discussion.

Before the meeting, the 8th-grade students answered some questions about the Moraga Police Department website. They then prepared their own questions to ask the police chief, including:

  • What is your favorite/best part of your job?
  • What is the hardest part of your job?
  • What do you want to achieve as a police officer?
  • What is an average day like?
  • As a citizen, how do you think I can support my local police department?
  • What measures or training are in place to help prevent bias from impacting the work of members of the Moraga police force?

Meanwhile, Gary and Chief King prepared for the meeting by reading All American Boys.

Police Chief King shared his view that the police should be accessible and helpful partners in the community instead of playing the role of an intimidating presence wearing a uniform and driving around in a police car with closed windows. He explained that he wore his polo shirt instead of his full uniform so that he could be more approachable and send a friendlier message to the Saklan students.

In addition to sharing some of his own stories about the Moraga police department’s policies for fighting crime and addressing citizen complaints about police misconduct, Chief King explained how the conduct of some police officers like Paul in the novel results from a mix of knowledge and emotions. He spoke strongly about the contrast between officers’ behavior, like the fictional Paul, and the training his officers receive in Moraga. Chief King also shared the shocked and saddened reactions among the entire Moraga police force when they watched the news about the murder of George Floyd in 2020.

Gary shared his own stories about his encounters with the police. He encouraged the students to stand up to racial injustice with courage and compassion.

We extend our heartfelt thanks to Chief King and Gary Hill for sharing their time, wisdom, and personal stories with our 8th-grade class!

#SaklanCompassion #SaklanCourage

Bagging Apples

The 7th-grade class started off the week volunteering at the Alameda County Food Bank in Oakland. Most of the class remembered helping out last year, but for a few, this was their first visit.

During this trip to the food bank, the students were tasked with bagging apples. After 90 minutes of filling and tying bags of apples, the group had prepared 4,800 pounds of food. This equated to 3,984 meals as a group or 234 meals per volunteer.

The staff and volunteers at the Food Bank extended their gratitude for this community support. Nice work, 7th grade!

#SaklanCompassion

Lower School Musical

All Saklan community members are invited to join us for The Saklan School’s 3rd – 5th grade production of Disney’s The Aristocats KIDS on Friday, December 20th at 10:30 a.m. The show will take place in the Holy Trinity Cultural Center (next door to Saklan). Doors will open at 10:15 a.m.

If you will attend and haven’t already done so, please RSVP here. There is no cost to attend, but we want to ensure we have enough seats for all!

#SaklanCreative #SaklanCourage

Project Culminations at Saklan

A key element of Saklan Project Based Learning units is a public product. This looks different depending on the division and, hopefully, over the last month, you have had the opportunity to share in a culminating event on campus! 

In our Early Childhood Education program, our projects culminate with a public event where students share all the expertise they have gained over the course of the project. It’s a joyful time to celebrate their hard work with family, friends, and other students and staff. It is also a rich opportunity for them to be the experts in the room and develop their speaking and listening skills. Recently our Pre-K (Hoot Owl) class culminated their project unit on farmers’ markets. 

In our lower and middle school projects, products are created for an audience beyond the teacher and students in the classroom. One key aspect of a public product in these divisions is that it must raise the stakes of the work in a meaningful and authentic way. Students aren’t doing something just for the sake of doing it or solely regurgitating information learned from teacher-directed lessons.

Instead, the work students engage in mirrors what adults do in their various career pursuits. After student-led inquiry and teacher guidance to address the content standards, students make or do something that serves some purpose in the Saklan or broader community. Students are creating, educating, or advocating beyond the context of our classrooms. Some examples of recent products that answer the driving question and serve an authentic public purpose are below:

GradeDriving QuestionPublic Product
2ndCan animals survive in any habitat?Lunch table mini posters advocating for food swaps that help avoid palm oil. 
2ndHow can we use color to communicate feelings?Design and creation of the concert backdrop for our Spring Concert at the Lesher Center
3rdHow can we show respect to the people whose ancestral land our school is on?Research, design, and creation of the hopscotch and four square murals on the sports court to reflect the Saklan Bay Miwok culture.
6thWho do artifacts really belong to?Public art graffiti stencils to share options on repatriation of artifacts with the community. 

The final products differ but all include authentic sharing and action beyond our classrooms. At Saklan, students feel a sense of purpose that is hard to replicate in other styles of teaching and learning. This brings the work alive and prepares them for the critical thinking challenges, complex communication needs, and creative problem-solving they will encounter in high school, college, and beyond.

If you’d like to dive deeper into the various design elements of a Project Based Learning (PBL) unit, check out the recording of our October 22nd Saklan Projects! virtual event. And we hope you can join us at our culminating events next week.

Upcoming Project Culminations

  • Preschool (Owlets)- Nocturnal Animals Culmination Celebration at 8:35 a.m. on December 12th
  • Kindergarten- Names Unit Culmination at 8:45 a.m. on Thursday, December 12th

#SaklanProjects

Similar Figures and Scale Factors

In pre-algebra, seventh-grade students recently learned about similar figures and scale factors. After noticing that when they dilated shapes on a coordinate plane, the angles and shapes were always the same (as long as they multiplied the x and y by the same number), the students began to compare shapes in several different ways. They cut out paper shapes, used tracing paper to compare, and investigated the relationship between corresponding sides.

The seventh-graders found that the ratio of the corresponding sides of two similar shapes could be used as a multiplier to find other unknown parts of the similar shapes. These scale factors were very useful and will continue to be used as they move on to studying area ratios.

#SaklanHandsOn

Tremendous Support

Thank you, Saklan, for your tremendous support of this year’s Annual Giving Fund (AGF) campaign.

Our goals for this year’s campaign are to raise $200,000 and have 100% participation from the Saklan community. To date, we have raised over $187,000 with participation from 89% of our community (a record for this time of the year at Saklan). The chart below shows you where each class is towards reaching the 100% participation goal.

The outpouring of support from the Saklan community this year is humbling and will make a powerful impact on our ability to continue challenging students to think creatively, act compassionately, and live courageously.

If you haven’t had the chance to donate to our AGF campaign, it’s not too late! You can make an AGF gift via the following methods:

  • DONATE ONLINE through our secure site; or
  • Write your check made out to The Saklan School with “Annual Giving Fund” written on the Memo line and deliver it to our office.

If you would like to discuss your gift further, please contact Emily at ewilliamson@saklan.org.

On behalf of all of us at The Saklan School, thank you very much for your support.

#SaklanCompassionate #SaklanAGF

Inner Courage

On the Friday before Thanksgiving Break, Saklan students took the stage to showcase their talents during Fall Follies. This is a fantastic and fun event, and like every year, we were astounded by the students’ performances. Their singing, acting, and performing were remarkable and their enthusiasm was infectious. Many of our students are truly in their element when on stage! It is impressive how each of the performers was willing to take risks with their performance and showed their inner courage. We commend the students on their excellent performances and the audience on being supportive and compassionate. Check out images from the event below!

A big thank you to Saul, Lauren, Dianne, Yette, and Maria for working with the performers, moving props, and organizing a wonderful show!

#SaklanCreative #SaklanCourage

70th Anniversary Auction Gala

Save the date for Saklan’s 70th Anniversary Auction Gala! This adults-only event will be held on Saturday, April 26th at Lafayette Park Hotel.

The Saklan School’s Annual Auction is always a great community-building event. Saklan faculty, staff, families, and friends attend, and proceeds from the auction are invested directly back into your children’s educational experiences, in and out of the classrooms. Book your babysitter today, you won’t want to miss this event!

Auction Planning Meeting

All Saklan community members are invited to join us for an Auction Planning Meeting on Monday, December 16th at 8:35 a.m. in the Pavilion. We want this year’s event to be a great celebration of Saklan and would love your time, energy, and ideas to make it the best auction yet!

Can’t make the meeting but want to help? Check out the volunteer roles available here.

#SaklanAuction

Head’s Corner: Fifty Years of Lessons & Love

Some 50 years ago, my Grandpa Schulte taught me how to throw a baseball and took me to Tiger games. The seats were as lousy as the Tigers, and I never did become Aurelio Rodriguez. My Grandpa O’Connell let me drive his rusty red tractor around the farm and taught me how to play poker—much to my mother’s chagrin. Today, there isn’t a single living plant in my house, and I gave up on the idea of making a profit from poker when I was ten.

What stands out, though, isn’t the skills my grandparents tried to teach me but the unique love and support they gave along the way. Grandparents have an unparalleled ability to validate feelings, offer patience, and bring a sense of calm when life gets tough. But most of all, like a good teacher, they connect with you and let you know you matter. 

This brings me to Grandfriends’ Day.  At its heart, this day reflects a core value of our school: the power of connection. Hand in hand, they stepped into classrooms to see a kind of education vastly different from what they experienced as a child. An educational approach that leverages relationships and real-world experiences. They joined morning meetings that emphasized cross-generational understanding and emotional connection. They engaged in conversations about projects and fieldwork, gaining a deeper appreciation for the world our students navigate each day.

But the real magic of Grandfriends’ Day lies beyond the activities. It’s in the opportunity it gives our students to share their world with someone special. Grandfriends listened, learned, and bonded more deeply with the young people in their lives. For both child and adult, it was a moment of validation, a chance to say, “What matters to you matters to me.”

To those of you who shared your grandfriends with us today, thank you. These moments of connection remind us about the importance of connection.

With gratitude,
David

Nocturnal Animals

The Owlets have been studying nocturnal animals, and recently they enjoyed investigating some of the most misunderstood nocturnal animals! At first, many of the Owlets thought skunks and raccoons were “bad guys” of the animal world, but after discussion, they realized they were just trying to live their lives, just like humans. When the preschoolers started learning about skunks, they described them as stinky and mean animals that spray people for no reason. But they soon discovered that skunks only spray when they feel scared or threatened. This led to a conversation about what Owlets feel like when they are scared. The class imagined how a skunk might feel if something got too close to its babies or den. These discussions helped them see skunks in a new, more appreciative light. This also introduced them to the idea of defense mechanisms, which are special adaptations animals use to stay safe.

Next, the class turned their attention to raccoons. The Owlets started off thinking of raccoons as pesky garbage eaters, but soon uncovered the truth: raccoons love the same kinds of food people do, so they’re just after our leftovers! While it might seem like they could make friendly pets, the preschoolers learned it’s never safe to touch a wild animal—or even an animal they don’t know. During circle time, Colby asked, “What would happen if a raccoon came into our house to get our trash?” This sparked an important conversation about wild animal safety. They talked about the importance of finding a grown-up to help and discussed how places like the Lindsay Wildlife Center in Walnut Creek are experts in helping injured or misplaced animals. After learning so much about skunks and raccoons, the Owlets agreed: these animals aren’t bad at all! They’re just a little misunderstood.

The Owlets can’t wait to share what they’ve learned with the rest of the school at their upcoming Nocturnal Animal Project Culmination on Thursday, December 12th at 8:30 a.m.

#SaklanProjectWork