Whole Schools

01/29/2017

Yesterday we hosted lunch at our home for 2 vibrant families and their children. We ate, strolled through our woods, fed chickens, had pony rides on my ancient horse, and pet my goats. We needed to use Google translate for a few conversations- as these families were immigrants from Syria- but most of the time, we were able to understand each other. Laughter is a universal language. We had much more in common than not.

Their occupations in Syria- a chef, a high end sofa maker, a teacher and a homemaker. One of our visitors shared with pride that his home in Syria dated from the 1500's. We asked if he knew of its fate and he mimicked an explosion. We told him how sorry we were. He replied, we are here now.

One of our visitors brother is in Jordon with all of his papers to come to the US to stat his new life and now he can't.

I share this not story to give Trump's latest executive order on immigration a human face.- when we interact human to human all these metaphorical walls disappear.

We were introduced to these families through a Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/WelcomeHomeRefugees/. You can request to join if you want to.

For those interested, here is an article with some action steps to take against the immigration ban: http://u.pw/2keSGSO

Thank you.

The president's executive order is a shocking reversal of American values.

01/20/2017

Super interesting. I have been hearing and more about mindfulness being applied in schools. Definitely something there.

01/13/2016

Awesome!

http://www.today.com/parents/want-kids-listen-more-fidget-less-try-more-recess-school-t65536

01/07/2016

Exactly.

'The children that I get off of the bus are exhausted. They are frustrated. They are overworked. They are burned out.... I would blame the teachers for this bleak attitude, but I was one, and I know that the teachers are just as tired, frustrated and overworked. '

12/10/2015

Yippee! NCLB is officially gone.

Today, the Senate passed the Every Student Succeeds Act--my bill to fix the badly broken No Child Left Behind law. Read my letter to you on what this means for education in Washington state and across the country, here:

10/07/2015

AWESOME!

It was May of 2014. I had just picked up my son from his wonderful play-based preschool, and, as we headed home, I turned on the radio. Usually, my son would demand that I “turn off the boring news” and put on his favorite break beats for the ride home—and usually he’d get his way. But this time, a…

10/01/2015

Wow!

10/01/2015

Reality is not pretty.

When people talk about “balancing work and family,” they’re usually talking more about the workplace than what’s going on at home. Now we’re starting to get data on what the workaday life looks like from a kid’s eye view, and it doesn’t look good.

09/30/2015

Today I am attending a train the trainer workshop about how to incorporate active play into pre-school. I would love to bring this to you! Please let me know if you want to learn more!

09/17/2015

Important stuff.

According to federal data, 1.36 million children were homeless during the 2013-2014 school year.

09/15/2015

Please check out my latest blog post and let me know what you think!

Carolyn KramerCultivator of Healthy Schools and Healthy CommunitiesFollowUnfollowFollowingLoadingThe Missing Link in Educational ReformSep 14, 201515 views0 Likes0 CommentsShare on LinkedInShare on FacebookShare on Twitter Education should be the pathway out of poverty. However, in the United States…

09/14/2015

Very interesting article making me go hmmmm.

Thompson, H. R., Vittinghoff, E., Linchey, J. K. and Madsen, K. A. (2015), Public Disclosure to Improve Physical Education in an Urban School District: Results From a 2-Year Quasi-Experimental Study. Journal of School Health, 85: 604–610. doi: 10.1111/josh.12286