Events for the week of October 24-28th:

25th AM and PM Kids Sale on the FN Campus
25th Boys Basketball FN vs. Heard 6:00 at Herrera
26th International Children's Day Celebration
27th Boys Basketball FN vs. Edison 7:00 at Herrera
28th Picture Day!
28th 5:30-8:300 Fall Fun Fest at FN


Hello Faith North Community,
International Children's Day is approaching. This is a great opportunity for you to work with your children on the heritage of your family or one that is of interest to your child. The work of research and learning about cultures from around the world is just one small part of the day; the essence being toleance, honor and peace.
The Benefit of Multi-Age Classrooms in Encouraging Peace:
Observing that children learn best in environments likened to family and home, Montessori designed her classrooms to include children of three sequential ages. Her extensive studies of children and how they learn led her to divide children into four planes of development and sensitive periods of learning. The children are grouped together in multi-age classrooms to meet the needs of the child. In the Montessori classroom, the younger children feel encouraged and capable of achieving mastery of work when they see older students completing the lesson. These groupings benefit older students as well because older children will feel capable, confident, and competent serving as mentors and role models to the younger children. Ideally, the children spend three years in the same Montessori classroom with the same teacher who nurtures and educates the child with a continuum of development.
Practical Life Develops Self-Esteem and Empowers Children to Solve Their Own Problems:
Montessori also believed that children should be empowered to become independent, stating, “The essence of independence is learning to take of oneself.” Practical life activities, such as scooping, pouring, sweeping, sewing, gardening, and conflict resolution, encourage independence, responsibility, confidence, and competence. The children feel valuable, capable, and empowered. Such feelings cultivate a compassionate, secure child who feels no need to bully or degrade others.
Multi-Cultural Cosmic Curriculum Encourages Students to Be Respectful of all Human Beings:
With multi-cultural curriculum and classrooms, children learn to be respectful of all human beings from all corners of our Earth. Students learn the names of each continent’s countries, capitals, flags, and landforms, as well as examining customs and cultures of people throughout our globe. Montessori believed that children who know about the Earth and its inhabitants would be the peacekeepers of our world. With knowledge and understanding for other cultures, children develop feelings of compassion and cooperation as human beings. Thus, the Montessori method is perhaps even more relevant is today’s global village.
Lessons in Conflict Resolution are Prevalent in the Montessori Classroom for Creating Peace:
Finally, peace may prevail in the Montessori classroom because the children are instructed in conflict resolution with a talking stick, a peace table, and a multitude of lessons regarding how to speak with one another to share feelings and needs when a problem occurs. Maria Montessori was committed to creating peace in our world through the education of our children and developed lessons specifically for children to learn how to solve their own problems peacefully.
All the best,
Susan Engdall

Hello Faith North Community,

Events for the week of October 17th-21st
Wednesday 10/19/11 Phoenix Elementary School District's 140th Birthday Celebration 3:30-6:00 Dunbar School
Wednesday 10/19/11 Site Council at 5:00 PTA at 6:00 Shaw Media Center and Cafeteria
Thursday 10/20/11 & 10/21/11 PTA Kids Sale at FNM@Shaw at dismissal

Hello Faith North Community,

What a beautiful week it has been to enjoy extra time with your children during our Autumn Break. We are looking forward to seeing you all again on Monday, October 17th refreshed and ready to go!


The Arizona Department of Education (ADE) announced a new accountability system for schools, and as of October 12, 2011 the ratings for each school were released. ADE believes that the new A-F letter grade system better informs parents on how different schools measure-up on total academic performance because it evaluates both academic outcomes and academic growth. Including student academic growth in an accountability system takes into account the unique student demographics of each school, and the different challenges those raise. For example, the challenges facing suburban, inner-city and rural schools are quite different from one another. Overall, the A-F letter grade system provides a clearer picture of school performance to parents and compares schools on a fairer, more equitable basis. Faith North received a Performing Plus rating under the old accountability system and the letter grade "B" under the new system. ADE defines “B” schools as demonstrating an above average level of performance. Should you have any questions regarding our new label or the new rating system please let me know or you can log onto the Arizona Department of Education website for a more detailed explanation of our new accountability system.

All the best and enjoy the day!
Susan Engdall
Principal

Events for the week of October 3rd-7th:
5th Parent education evening for primary and elementary parents in the Faith North Multi-Use room at 5:30
10th-14th Autumn break, no school!

Hello Faith North Community,

This week you will notice newly framed information on the importance of the uninterrupted 3 hour work cycles in the Montessori environments in both the office on the main campus as well as the FNM@Shaw campus. We invite you to take a look at this information and consider it when making a decision to pick up your child early or drop them off late. While we know that sometimes situations arise and early pickup or late drop off is unavoidable we would like all parents to be aware of the implications for your child, the other children and the flow of the work cycle. For those of you that are "followers," I have included the information below!

Best Practices in a Montessori Environment
Preserving the uninterrupted three-hour work cycle

What makes Montessori unique?
It’s insistence on freedom within a prepared environment.
We don't "mandate", we "invite", and we "entice".
To do this we must have a 3-hour uninterrupted morning work cycle.
This is one of the basic tenets of a Montessori education.
Maria would have said that any school without this was not doing the work of a Montessori school.

In effective Montessori programs, the school day is structured to provide learners with at least one daily,
uninterrupted work period appropriate to the age level of the children in each class.
At the early childhood level and elementary level,
this has traditionally been understood as a two-and-a-half or three-hour uninterrupted work cycle in the morning.
At the secondary level, this objective may be met in a somewhat different form, but the objective is the same.

The purpose of long, uninterrupted blocks of work time is to allow students to select work freely,
eventually becoming absorbed in work that has a particular fascination for them at this point in their development. Interruptions, no matter how valuable the alternative activity might seem to be,
disturbs the fragile development of the child’s focus, concentration, and intellectual exploration of their own.

Please join us Wednesday night for a presentation of the Grace and Courtesy in the elementary years. It promises to be fun and informative!

The week of October 10th-14th school will be closed for autumn break. The weather promises to be beautiful. Get out and have a fun staycation with your child seeing Phoenix, visiting delightful places and enjoying one another!
All the best!
Susan Engdall
Principal

Events for the week of September 26-30

Wednesday the 28th Events Planning Meeting 8:00 FN office
Thursday the 29th AM and PM Kid's Sale to support the upper elementary Washington D.C. trip
Friday the 30th AM and PM Kid's Sale to support the upper elementary Washington D.C. trip

Hello Faith North Community!

A big thank you to all who attended last evenings Board Study Session. Dialogue was begun with regards to the planning and healthy expansion of the Montessori program as well as the identification of a free standing campus.
The Position Statement created by the work from our Site Council reads:
There is a need to develop a 3-5 year strategy for the Montessori program in order to provide an exceptional, state recognized program.
*Elimination of school within a school model
*Continue to grow a free standing school to allow for continued program expansion
*Continued support for Montessori teacher training, until there is a solid local option, continue to send teachers out of state for training
We need to provide excellent customer service, as parents have many options in the area for education, we would like to increase retention.

Coming together as a community to assist the administration in our district in making strong, sound decisions to accomplish this goal will be necessary as we move through the process this year. As meetings continue for planning, you have the opportunity for your voice to be heard. Our Site Council meetings will be one forum to discuss and plan a shared vision. We hope to see you at our next meeting on Wednesday, October 19th at 5:00 in the media center at FNM@Shaw.

10 more school days until autumn break! Just does not seem possible.

All the best,
Susan Engdall
Principal

Calendar for the week of September 19th-September 23rd

Wednesday the 21st Mom's Night at The Vig Fundraiser. Come to the Vig located at 16th St and Bethany Home to enjoy food and fun with the ladies. 20% of what we spend will be returned to Faith North!

Thursday the 22nd and Friday the 23rd--Parent/Teacher Conferences

Thursday the 22nd Board Study Session on the Montessori Program, 5:30 in the governing board meeting located at 1817 N 7th Street.

Friday the 23rd, 6:30, Evening at the Ballpark. Proceeds to help offset the cost of the Washington DC trip for our upper elementary students.

Hello Faith North Community,
This week many of our after school classes began. It was fun to see so many children participating this time. Most classes filled with the exception of our Etiquette class which we will try another time.

On Wednesday evening we were treated to a primary parent education evening, "Passport to Montessori." The turn out was simply amazing. So many new and returning parents attended. The staff presented the areas found in each of the primary classrooms and an overview of the work of the child as well as extensions for the home. If you did not receive an email with these suggestions, please let your child's teacher know and they can provide you with a paper copy.

Our elementary education evening is coming up on Wednesday, October 7th at 6:00, FN Multi-Use room. The staff and students will be presenting Grace and Courtesy in the elementary years. It sounds like and informative and fun presentation! Mark your calendars.

We look forward to seeing all of you on either Thursday or Friday for Parent/Teacher Conferences as our children present their portfolios to you and show you their work of the fist six weeks of school. Teachers will be presenting your child's progress reports.

All the best!
Susan Engdall
Principal

Events for the week of September 12th-16th

Monday the 12th afterschool classes begin
Wednesday the 14th at 5:30 Passport to Montessori for primary parents on the FNM@Shaw campus
Thursday the 15th Fresh and Easy Fundraiser from 4-8, Indiana School and 7th Avenue
Friday Camp Sparky visits the upper elementary classes on the FN campus to share Biology projects!

Preparing for the Tenth Anniversary of 9/11 with our children

As we near the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, it is natural that we
pause to remember that tragic moment in history. We who were old
enough to know about and remember the images on TV, the heroism of fellow
citizens sacrificing life and limb to save the lives of others, and the subsequent
debate about how America should respond cannot help but re-experience some
of the thoughts and feelings we had in those September days a decade ago.
We may also remember the “fight or flight” responses that gripped our country
then. Some were eager to fight back; some wanted to flee the new reality,
pretending that the conflict was only the aberrant behavior of a few misguided
criminals. Some, however, found the resources for a deeper look at the situation.
Vietnamese peace activist Thich Nhat Hanh remembered his
meetings with American government officials during the height of the Vietnam
War, and said, “I was able to see that the real enemy of man is not man. The real
enemy is our ignorance, discrimination, fear, craving, and violence.”
Donna Bryant Goertz, a fellow Montessorian writes, “Our children need to understand how people can differ on issues, while respecting one another as fellow human beings. Whatever our heated adult passions, we owe our children the benefit of our cultivated abilities for cool analysis and balanced commentary. Our efforts will not only
benefit us as well as them. Living with children in the best way is the best
thing we can do for ourselves.
With children as our constant witnesses, we should live the value of
variety and inclusion, the ethic of compassion. Nothing we do to
support the child's self-development and education is as important as
those convictions; no math, geometry, or history deserves more emphasis.
And those values cannot be learned as subjects in class but must be lived
deeply in the home, neighborhood, and school through the responses of
adults of character to their encounters in daily life.
These unusual times are our opportunity to model the understanding, appreciation, and practice of something our children may not encounter without our deliberate intention: working urgently for our own cause rather than fighting viciously against someone else's. Our home and school communities may be the only place our children
continue to experience adults persevering for a cause rather than attacking
the causes of others.”

The Story of Human Love
by John R. Snyder
[This story can be told to children of ages 6-12. It comes after one of the Great Stories of the Montessori elementary, “The Coming of Human Beings.” In that story, the question is posed, “If human beings are not the biggest, strongest, fastest creatures – if they cannot swim like the fish or fly like the birds, what are their special gifts?”]

“Remember the story about how we humans first came to live on earth
and about our three special gifts of Human Intelligence, Human Hands, and
Human Love? We humans have intelligence instead of instinct to guide us
through life. Unlike the animals that are driven by instinct, we can choose how to
live, depending on our circumstances.
Many times we make wrong choices! Sometimes our love grows weak and we
practice slavery or war or vengeance. Sometimes we make things better for
ourselves but worse for other people, plants and animals, air and water.
Sometimes we unfairly take more and more for ourselves, leaving less and less
for others. Sometimes we exclude people who are different or difficult.
Yet, often our love joins with our intelligence to make something beautiful and
wholesome. Nothing we know in the universe is as powerful as great
intelligence guided by great love.
What have we learned about our gift of human love? We humans love our
families, friends, and neighbors; we have even learned to love them as much as
we love ourselves. We have a special love for our children and would give our
lives for them. Some of us would even give our lives for a friend.
We have learned to love those we cannot see, those who live far away. We have
learned to love those who came before us and those who will come in the future.
We have learned to love those we don’t understand, those whose ways and ideas
upset us. We have learned to love those we cannot even like, those who are so
sick and wounded in their minds and hearts that they hurt or even kill other
people. We have even been learning to love our enemies, but that takes our
greatest effort and constant practice.
We have learned that love is not just a feeling; it’s not just liking someone very
much. Love is also an action; it’s acting for the good of the loved one. This is
how we can love people we haven’t met or don’t like. This is why love is
measured by what we do, not by what we say.
We humans love our earth with all its plants and animals, its lands and waters,
and its skies. We like to think new thoughts and ideas, exploring, discovering,
and inventing. Sometimes we get so excited about loving things and ideas that
we forget about loving people. We are learning to remember.
Our human hands are the tools of our love and intelligence. With our minds and
hearts we imagine a better world, and with our hands we make it so! The more
we make and the more we do, the more skillful our hands become and the more
intelligent our minds become.
Sometimes our love grows weak and we misuse our intelligence and skill to
bring destruction to nature and to other people. This is a great tragedy, but we
can always turn around and do better, for that is our nature, too – to always seek
to improve.
Our gifts are so strong! We continue to work together to know how to use them
wisely and for the good of all. Little by little, we human beings are learning to
use our gift of love as it was truly meant to be used.
Peace to you,
Susan Engdall
Principal