e-Newsletter: December 2007

IN THIS ISSUE
11 and 12 Year-Olds Next Year
Geocaching is Intense, at Least at PSCS
PSCS Student Selected for Local Writer’s Workshop!
Wittmann Cardinal Fund Challenge
December - What's Happening

11 AND 12 YEAR-OLDS NEXT YEAR
What would it look like to develop a cutting edge educational experience for a group of 11 and 12 year-olds that combines the humanistic values PSCS has practiced for over thirteen years with the kind of principle-based skill-building being championed by some of the most forward-thinking people of our time? That audacious question has been at the fronts of the minds of PSCS founder & director Andy Smallman and staff consultant Anoo Padte. They have posed it to people like Howard Gardner, Daniel Pink, Kevin Carroll, Stephen Covey and others, as well as referred to their books and online materials. The result of Andy’s and Anoo’s work is the formation of a brand new middle school program that PSCS is offering beginning next year.

We intend to enroll no more than 12 children who will work together with a core teacher and an assistant over the course of two school years. The program will center on what Anoo and Andy are calling the program’s five core disciplines: Self-Awareness, Community, Passion, Responsibility, and Synthesis. Activities organized under these discipline headings will help students develop a deep understanding of themselves, the local and global community, the natural world, and the diversity of cultural habitats to which our lives are increasingly exposed. Additionally, the program will help students develop the ability to think critically, analytically and scientifically in an age of ever-increasing information, and to do this by using technology and media in a meaningful manner.

Outside of having a deep understanding of the five disciplines, at the end of two years these middle school students, much like their PSCS high school counterparts, will each have created a project that furthers a personal passion in a way that is meaningful to them and the world around them, as well as have presented a statement of who they are and how they are evolving. They will then be prepared to hit the ground running when they enter high school at PSCS, an experience we already know helps young people grow and develop into creative and thoughtful global citizens.

GEOCACHING IS INTENSE, AT LEAST AT PSCS
The first full week in November was the school’s first Intensives Week of the year. Students met in one of four staff-facilitated groups, choosing Physics, Rock-Climbing, US History or Geocaching as the basis for a week-long study. For those of you not familiar with the sport of Geocaching, it involves finding hidden treasures ("caches") using handheld GPS (Global Positioning System) receivers. Two students, Miles & Simon, learned all about the sport under the guidance of teaching staff member Scobie Puchtler.

In addition to understanding the coordinate system, finding caches can involve puzzle solving, math, travel, and lots of walking. Many caches draw attention to public art, or teach history. One of Miles’s, Simon’s & Scobie’s favorites was an astronomy cache that led them on a tour of the solar system rendered to scale over 14 city blocks. They learned that if the sun were the size of a soccer ball, the earth would be about the size of half a pea and would orbit about 30 feet away. Pluto would be more than half a mile from the “soccer ball sun” and be the size of a pinhole!

PSCS STUDENT SELECTED FOR LOCAL WRITER'S WORKSHOP!
Congratulations to PSCS student Josie Olney who has been accepted to participate in Seattle Center's Young Critics Workshop, a project of the center’s Teen Tix program. Designed for highly qualified and motivated 11th & 12th graders who are interested in learning about critical writing, the workshop is providing twelve local students the opportunity to work with Brendan Kiley, Performance Editor at Seattle's weekly newspaper, The Stranger, for five months. They will also get to attend and review art shows at some of Seattle's most prestigious arts venues and meet with and learn from professional critics and artists. Over the course of the workshop, much of the young critics' work will be posted on this blog.

WITTMANN CARDINAL FUND CHALLENGE
We are thrilled to announce that the Wittmann Cardinal Fund, representing a founding PSCS family, is challenging our supporters to donate funds to the school during the month of December. They will match, dollar for dollar, any donation made to PSCS in SPECIFIC RESPONSE to this challenge and in this timeframe up to a total of $1000.

This is the sixth of the ten years committed for this challenge. PSCS supporters have met it in each of the previous years and it is the sincere hope of the school that it can be done again. And remember, donations to PSCS are tax-deductible!

Send your check to:
Puget Sound Community School
Wittmann Cardinal Fund Challenge
5031 University Way NE, #111
Seattle, WA 98105 

DECEMBER – WHAT'S HAPPENING

VISITATION DAY
Our next visitation day is Wednesday, 12/12. It is difficult to understand PSCS without coming to school and observing our activities and student life. Seeing the school in action can make the difference between having a basic appreciation of our philosophy and the aha! of really "getting" how it works. For more information visit PSCS Admissions.

NO SCHOOL - WINTER BREAK
There is no school on Friday, 12/21 through Friday, 1/4 for winter break.

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