Young Child Education Part I by Fr. John Chakos

This session will include a presentation of the program of the Three Hierarchs Eastern Orthodox School and address the steps a community must take to start an early childhood program.

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From: http://www.goarch.org/resources/conferences/cl2002/childprog/childed2

Young Child Education Part II by Dr. Cristal Chaney

This session will include a presentation of the program of the Three Hierarchs Eastern Orthodox School and address the steps a community must take to start an early childhood program.

The class favorites were The New Bear at School, Ella, and Brave Horace. Our hallway outside of the library was turned into the Library Café. Tables and chairs were set up so students could enjoy eating warm pretzels and apple cider with their classmates.

Students got to “Fall into Reading” by reading books to create a fall wreath. For each book a student read, Mrs. Doncic wrote the title of the book on a leaf and then put the leaf on their individual ring to create a colorful wreath. The students thoroughly enjoyed listening to books and reading. One student said, “This was a great day!”

On one Friday a month, the first and second grade class will be celebrating reading in the library. In November our theme will be “Being Thankful for Books”.

He also explained to us that we were very blessed to have this icon visit our school, because he does not choose where the icon goes, the icon chooses where it visits and it chose us on this day!

Before we left the icon, we all had the opportunity to venerate it and be blessed with the myrrh that is continually streaming off of it.

- Mrs. Chahine

All of creation is our classroom in the fall! We spend as much time as we can looking at the changes taking place right outside our door. We found interesting leaves and pods on the playground. We felt the wind and watched the flag blow. Some of the children gathered leaves to put into our play table.

The children discovered sticks and seed pods in the leaves and watched how they crumbled as they dried. The children used the leaves to hide toy animals and used their imaginations in all sorts of ways.

We looked at many different kinds of seeds and how a plant grows and what it needs to grow. We’ll soon be planting some seeds ourselves. We talked about all the different kinds of food and where we get the food that we eat. It’s interesting to watch the children begin to understand that our food doesn’t just magically appear in the grocery store.

Our whole room is decorated with the colors of fall. We even have snack plates shaped like leaves!

Of course, we have pumpkins and gourds and Indian corn! We had a huge sunflower in our room and we harvested the seeds to feed the birds. We have books about fall and little pumpkins to count in the math area. We painted leaves and pumpkins, too.

We visited a local farm and went on a hay ride. The guide told us all about the vegetables and fruit that grow there. Back in class, the children tasted apples and cider from the farm. Some of our parents made us pumpkin muffins and bread to have for snack. We’re going to bake one of our pumpkins and make something for snack.

All of our studies of nature bring us back to the One who created it for us. We always remember to thank God for our beautiful world.

Download and print the flyer.

After students finish the school year, it’s time for teachers to go to school. In mid-June all teachers attended an amazing one-day workshop at the Allegheny Intermediate Unit. The workshop was entitled “Cerebrodiversity in the Classroom: Welcome to the Future Where Diverse Brains Thrive”.

The first presenter was neuroscientist Dr. Gordon Sherman from the Newgrange School and Education Center for students with language based and associated learning disabilities in Princeton, New Jersey. For years, his area of research has been early development of the brain and changing brain networks, especially with dyslexia and reading. Dr. Sherman said that teachers should expect developmental differences, diversity in learning styles, and strengths and weaknesses in their students. Students need a multisensory designed curriculum that facilitates attention and perception. He encouraged teachers to be brave by trying new strategies while keeping their best practices, making accommodations for students, encouraging creativity and using technology.

The second presenter, Dee Rosenberg, M.A., LOT/C, is the director of the Newgrange School. Her emphasis was on effective literacy programs. She highlighted the research of Orton and Gillingham. From their language research, the Wilson Reading Program was developed. (T.H.E.O.S. uses the Wilson Fundations Program in Kindergarten, First and Second grade). She talked about the importance of early identification and intervention in preschool and kindergarten. Predictors of literacy to watch for are: complex speech sounds, sequencing sounds, phonological and phonemic awareness, letter knowledge, auditory/working memory, early language impairment, and familial history. Students need to be assessed at regular intervals and the results used to help them achieve standards.

Rosenberg also focused on reading in the upper grades. One study done showed that the biggest predictor of students continuing on to university was not socio-economic factors, race, or culture but a student’s vocabulary. A large and varied vocabulary and a command of the English language is what made the difference! Vocabulary is central to reading, writing, communicating, and probably thinking. English has 650,000 words compared to German, which has 184,000. Russian and French each have less than 100,000. She recommended that schools teach Greek and Latin word parts (50 Latin and 50 Greek words make thousands of English words). Schools should also teach a systematic approach to remembering words (webs, charts, tiers, categories). The most valuable instruction includes a robust subject matter, daily direct instruction, a playful approach, lots of opportunities to practice and high expectations for achievement.

Finally, every school can work towards enhancing cerebrodiversity in the classroom. Techniques for collaboration and school changes are as follows:

• Ask the right questions
• Diagnose, plan development, implement change
• Where are we now?
• Where do we want to go?
• How will we get there?
• How will we know when we go there?
• How do we sustain focus?

Students were first challenged to identify a question that could be answered with a test or an experiment. Next, each student created a hypothesis that predicted the outcome, worded as an “If ____(I do this)____, then ____(that will happen)____” statement. Students then carefully wrote down materials lists and procedure steps in the same manner that a scientist would, so that each experiment could be repeated by another scientist, if desired.

The hardest part of this project for most was identifying the variables – students had to select only one independent variable to vary and test, then identify and collect data on all of the dependent variables that resulted from the experiment. Finally, students were challenged to strictly maintain as many controlled variables as possible, to ensure that only the independent variable affected the results.

Following the experiment, students collected their data in a table and displayed it using a bar or line graph. Conclusions were drawn, and students discussed future considerations and suggested what could be done differently and better if the experiment was repeated again.

On Science Fair night, each student stood by their project while parents, friends, and our three Science Fair judges admired their work. The students gave short presentations and answered questions for their visitors. The Science Fair judges scored each project based on the steps of the Scientific Method, and chose winners at the end of the evening. We are very proud of our young scientists!

7th-8th Grade, 1st Place: Oriana “WIFI Signals – What Affects Them?”	5th-6th Grade, 1st Place: Chrisanthos “Does Bleach Affect Plant Growth?”
7th-8th Grade, 2nd Place: Peter “Trebuchet – How Far Will It Fling?”	5th-6th Grade, 2nd Place: Joseph “Does Miracle Grow Potting Soil Make Plants Grow Taller and Thicker?”

A few days before Mrs. Gage came to visit our students sat down and brainstormed some questions to ask her! This was a really wonderful and enlightening experience for our students! They learned a lot about being a writer, how to become a writer and that while being a writer is super fun, it’s definitely not easy!

Thank you for spending time with us, Eleni!

The Spanish classes at T.H.E.O.S started learning about this special holiday five weeks before it actually took place. They read a book and made projects including tissue paper flowers, Mexican folkart pictures, and “papel picado,” a traditional paper-cutting decoration that is turned into a banner. Students also learned about the history of the symbols on the Mexican flag and colored their own to hang up for our celebration.

The classes celebrated by learning and performing the Mexican Hat Dance, “El Jarabe Tapatio,” and even used maracas and sombreros as props. Students had the opportunity to try on a “sarape” for the boys and folklore dress for the girls, and take turns getting their pictures taken in the Mexican attire! Afterwards, each class sat at tables and enjoyed chips and salsa while mariachi music played in the background. It was a great fiesta for all!