What is mythology? Is war ever justified? How does language shape the way that people see the world? These are just a few of the questions that sixth graders grapple with in their study of ancient civilizations and empires. The humanities curriculum wraps the examination of literature and history together with the study of vocabulary, writing, and creative expression.

We begin our year with the study of Mesopotamia and the ancient Middle East. Our first writing assignment was “write your own myth,” an excellent way for students to get a taste of the guidelines of formal writing in a creative way. Some of the phenomena explained included “Why Eggs Don’t Talk” and “How Orville Redenbacher Came to Be.” Your students constantly amaze me with their originality and free-spirited approach to every task that is set before them.

This week, we moved to ancient Egypt, examining the development of this much talked-about civilization through studying its art and mythology as well as its geography and history. We began with a study of Tutankhamun and the discovery of his tomb in the 1920’s, providing a jumping-off point that is not only familiar to most students but also lets us examine the ethics of archaeology and its relationship to colonialism: who should own ancient artifacts, and why?

Students have also begun a regular vocabulary program with occasional quizzes. This program, which continues through seventh and eighth grade, familiarizes students with new vocabulary though short literary passages from books many of them have read or are reading. The acquisition of new vocabulary through this program, combined with the new words that students learn through their independent reading, ensures that they will leave PHS with communication skills that are as effective as possible.

In addition, we are reading Shadow Spinner as a class. This novel describes the story of a young woman, Marjan, who struggles to find her way as a storyteller in medieval Persia. It’s a delightful, colorful story that not only connects with one of the historical areas we are studying, but also illustrates the central role of myth and storytelling in ancient civilization.

In this, my second year at PHS, it is delightful to be in an environment that embraces all kinds of learners and all types of learning. I come to work each day amazed at the diversity of approaches and attitudes that your students bring to the material, and the unique satisfaction that each gets from this study of the ancient world. I look forward to many more days this year of creative stories, fascinating discourse, and challenging questions.

Last year a group of parents came together under the leadership of Ann Meissner to form the steering committee for the first ever PHS Parents Group on Learning Differences (LD). We had a very fun and successful first year. We hosted several general meetings throughout the year covering a variety of topics. Some of our meetings were in the form of a support group for parents while others provided a forum for outside presenters. We also hosted our first summer fair for children with learning disabilities which was advertised throughout the bay area and attended by over 200 people.

This year we are off and running again. Our first meeting was a presentation by Johna Lunn, an educational therapist, and Ann Meissner on how to build a successful partnership with your child’s school. Ann also shared information about how the faculty and staff have been working together to better understand and support the experiences of children with learning differences in the classroom.

I have been asked to share my daughter's experience with you. As most of you probably know, at Presidio Hill, students have the same teacher in fourth and fifth grades. Sarah is a fifth grader this year and is spending her second year with Erainya. Sarah is a bright creative girl with learning disabilities. She is, in very general terms, "classically" dyslexic. The following is Sarah’s experience.

It was only the second week of school when Erainya called Sarah out of class. Sarah tried to recall what she could have done to deserve a "hallway talking to", but nothing came to mind. Erainya and Sarah walked to a bench outside and sat down together. Erainya began to convey to Sarah her experience at the International Dyslexia Association learning disability simulation that she had attended at PHS a few weeks earlier. Erainya described the two hour simulation in which she participated as a student while the facilitator acted as the instructor. The instructor asked the students to participate in a variety of tasks as if in a classroom setting. The activities simulate a beginning reading problem; an auditory figure-ground discrimination problem; a visual-motor and writing task problem; a fine motor problem on a written task: a visual perception and processing problem; and a hearing problem.

Erainya shared with Sarah how "stressed out" she felt in that short two hour period. How, even though the instructor was nice, Erainya felt that she was mean and she felt pressured because she was always so far behind and the class was moving so fast. She told Sarah how she has known about dyslexia and its manifestations for a long time but until this exercise she never realized what it was like to walk in those shoes.

Most empowering, for Sarah, was the fact that her teacher had opened up to and empathized with her. Erainya told Sarah that she could not imagine getting up every morning and having to face school if it felt like that and how brave Sarah was to come to school everyday. By this time Sarah was practically in tears, as Erainya hugged her and told her again how brave she thought Sarah was. They entered the classroom again with Sarah feeling "proud and happy that her teacher understood" the difficulties and frustrations she encounters daily at school.

In my subsequent conversations with Erainya, she expressed that she felt that every school year should start with some type of program like this. It made a profound impression on her and in turn on Sarah.

Children with leaning differences/disabilities make up a noteworthy portion of the student population in most schools. They provide our community with an opportunity to see life in a whole new way. They have strengths and talents that we celebrate. They are part of what makes PHS the diverse community that we are so proud to say that we belong to. Learning differences/disabilities span borders, ethnicity and economic circumstance. They affect families from every walk of life, in every language. They cannot be seen from the outside but certainly can affect a child inside. Thank you to the PHS community for seeing the value in and providing the support for the unique attributes of every child. I would also personally like to thank Erainya for being able to see Sarah for who she is - strengths, weaknesses, successes and struggles.

Please feel free to contact any member of the LD Parent steering committee if you have any questions regarding our group. Please join us at one of our upcoming meetings. Our next meeting will be on Thursday, October 23, 2003 from 5:30-7:00 p.m. We will view a short video presentation of a panel of teens with LD talking about their experiences which will be followed by a group discussion. All are welcome!

8th grade families will find the following high school-related flyers enclosed from the following schools: Branson (about the visit process and dates to visit, neighborhood coffees and a schedule of school events), IHS (about open houses), and One Smart Kid (tutoring services, etc.)

If you are considering Saint Ignatius, please note that the priority filing date is November 17, 2003; this is earlier than the other Catholic secondary schools, so don’t miss out! Mark your calendars now. Reservations for their student visit program can be made a maximum of two weeks in advance, so you will probably still be able to schedule a visit for your child. Also, their open house is November 9 and you don’t need a reservation. Please contact S.I. for more information about their process.

Town School will host its annual boarding school fair on Saturday, October 18 from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. If you need more information about the format of the fair, please contact Rochelle Dorfler at Town School.

If you haven’t already done so, now is the time to sit down with your calendar and mark all the open houses you might want to attend. This allows you to see where your conflicts may be and plan accordingly so that you don’t miss anything. Also, attend open houses of schools you are unsure of or unfamiliar with.

If you are requesting special accommodations to take the SSAT, please note that your registration is due earlier than the general registration deadlines. Please read the information in your SSAT booklet carefully, or contact SSAT for more information.

In past years, some high school admissions offices have sent staff to talk to 8th graders at middle schools in order to introduce their school to students. Some schools would contact us, some schools would wait for us to invite them, and some schools wouldn’t do the visits at all. After many years of high school counseling and even more years in admissions, I have determined that we will not have any high schools visit our 8th graders during the school day. When we made attendance mandatory for all kids, this seemed like a waste of the kids’ time. When we made attendance voluntary, it was often a waste of the high school’s time because the only kids that would attend already knew they were applying. A few times we had no kids attend the sessions, which was awkward at best. I think all the information you need is available through the school fairs, printed materials, open houses, student visits and interviews with high school staff. If you keep an open mind about your options and avail yourselves of everything out there, I promise you will thank me for saving your children’s time during the school day.

Many of you have already started asking me about how to submit recommendation forms to PHS. Don’t worry, we still have plenty of time for that. But for those of you who can’t wait to know this juicy little detail…once you finalize your list of schools, you submit to ME (not the teacher) ONE copy of the math, English and principal recommendation form, and ONE copy of the transcript release form. Please remember to sign the forms authorizing us to submit that information. Simply check the box next to the schools to which you are applying. We do not need envelopes so PLEASE, save your stamps and your time. We usually have many students applying to the same schools so we use big PHS envelopes to submit all those papers. The little return envelopes provided by the high schools do us no good!

Remember the homework I gave all of you? Don’t say that you don’t! It is overdue, folks. Some of you submitted it to me in May but many of you did not, so get going! This is great practice for your applications, if you haven’t already noticed.

Enough for this week! Have a great weekend and loosen those facial muscles; this won’t be so bad.
Sunan!