Roadstead Montessori High School

This is the power of a real community! Our beloved partner 757 Makerspace had to relocate on a short notice. Immediately a network of support got formed spontaneously to help Beau Turner and his team make it happen. This coming week, our Makerspace session will be to take part in growing the new location.

🌟 Hello, friends! 🌟

Quick update from the front lines of our Makerspace NFK move: We’re making headway at the old location and it’s emptying out fast! If you’ve got even an hour to spare today to help load and unload trucks, we’d be incredibly grateful. 🙏

Here’s the scoop:

• Where? Meet us at 237 W. 24th Street Norfolk, Va 23517
• What’s happening? We’ve got two box trucks doing shuttle runs between the old and new spaces. We’re estimating about 10 trips in total, followed by a final clean-out.

Yesterday’s Triumphs:

• On Saturday, we made massive progress – old equipment cleared out, lots of purging done. Our studios are about 90% dismantled.
• Over at the new spot, we’re revitalizing one of the large rooms with fresh paint, installing new lights to really make the place shine, and beginning to unload and sort items.

Your help and presence are more than just assistance; they’re a crucial part of this whole operation. With your support, we can transition from our old space to the new one faster, getting us back up and running for the community. 🚚🛠️

Let’s do this together! Every helping hand brings us closer to our goal and breathes life into our new Makerspace. Hope to see you soon - and thank you for being part of this amazing journey! 📦✨

There is an open house at NASA Langley from 9am to 4pm today.
https://oh.larc.nasa.gov/oh/openhouse/ #

The world lost today one of its greatest educators and human beings, Hanna Gudovitch. For many years, Hannah was the Head of Lifta High School in Jerusalem, Israel. With her endless compassion, love, generosity and authenticity she made the school a rare place of hope for generations of teens, who, until then, experienced their life as hopeless. Hannah also had a huge impact on all of us who were fortunate to work with her. She was our mentor, friend, moral compass and, oftentimes, substitute parent.

Everything I know about the real meanings of education I learned from Hannah Gudovitch. May the DNA of Hanna's Lifta always be imprinted in Roadstead Montessori High School. Thank you so much, Hannah, I love you, rest in peace.

Eran Livni and the Roadstead community

One of our most longstanding work-study locations is the Culinary Institute of Virginia. The students learn how to maintain soil-based, hydroponic and aquaponic plants at the college's greenhouse. In return for their work they receive cooking lessons (pictures soon).

The 2023-2024 school year started last week with Roadstead's traditional orientation days. It was so moving to see how, within a very short time, the students got to know each other, created teams which arranged together the school's physical space, and began shaping their own community. The students also worked in Downtown Norfolk Community Garden and ate ice cream together at the nearby aLatte Cafe. The orientation concluded with the weekly school cleaning which, as is the case often, ended with a short impromptu dance party.

Today we launched the academic schedule of this year, Roadstead's tenth year of operation!

School sessions are on summer break, but the preparations for the new school year are in full gear.

Here you may read a new blog post that tells about a unique study that we have been doing, a Montessori study of our home place:

A Montessori Study of Place: Downtown Norfolk, VA Roadstead Montessori High School students study our homeplace, Downtown Norfolk, VA, by participating in the revival of its urban landscape

It took 3 years and LOTS of trial and error. But this year's chemistry class was successful at making a HUUUUGE Ruby!

Our school building was originally built in 1913 to host live music events. Its high ceiling and wood molding create an incredible acoustics. We were so fortunate to enjoy it last Saturday created by the great Indian tabla master, Sandeep Das https://www.sandeepdas.com/. Thank you Virginia Symphony Orchestra for scheduling his master class at Roadstead. We are looking forward to hosting more VSO live music events in the next concert season.

When high school students go on a deep dive into books, they should have the best diving guide, someone like Claudia Isler-Mazur, our literature and writing teacher. Here you can read this year's literary dive into the stormy water of banned books.

American Literature: Banned Books · Roadstead Montessori High Roadstead students learn in literature seminar how to understand the reasons that bring people to ban books in the US

Today our Biology class extracted DNA from strawberries.

We are honored to host this amazing masterclass at Roadstead. Thank you Virginia Symphony Orchestra for bringing such a great tabla master to Hampton Roads. Thank you Spacemakers, Inc for sponsoring the master class.

We are thrilled to announce the opening of enrollment for the 2023-2024 school year.

Next year we will be arriving at another landmark in the history of our Roadstead Montessori High School. That will be our tenth year of operation. So much growth we have experienced since the first school day in early September 2014. Then, we were no more than three students, one teacher and a vision incubated within the middle schoolers of Ghent Montessori School. A decade later, we are a recognized program with a fabulous teaching team, an expanding network of partners, a loving and highly diverse student community, and a gorgeous historical building in Downtown Norfolk. We also take pride in the line of alumni who sailed to the world from our roadstead to RIT, NYU, SCAD, ODU, Sweet Briar College and more.

Our nesting period in the new building is still evolving. The renovations are finally over and now we are embarking on the next phase, the interior design of the space. The students are going to be actively involved in the process. We formed a highly professional, creative and enthusiastic designing team. We are confident that when it is done, the space will become a most inviting learning environment.

We launched three new exciting partnerships in the 2022-2023 school year: one with Virginia Symphony Orchestra, the second with Virginia Stage Company and the third with the Downtown Norfolk Community Garden. The students produced two instructional videos for the VSO, which soon will be uploaded to VSO’s website. They have also been ushers at the student matinee performances of the VSC and have assisted with the building of theater stage sets (that is what you see in the pictures). Finally, the students have learned how to maintain and grow vegetables in the school's raised beds. We will meet during the summer with our partners to brainstorm the next phase of our partnerships. Based on the successful experience, we are expecting to grow further in the next school year. Our teaching team is committed to the ongoing development of Roadstead’s highly respected academic program.

Millions of words have been written about how to reform high school education. There is one high school that actually does it, Roadstead Montessori High School. Give us a call and come to check us out.

First time ever competing in a robotic competition, our team Roadsters made it to the quarter finals, took the 15th place out of 32 and won the Rookie of the Year award. Great job guys! We are so proud of you. Next year we'll aim even higher.

The Roadstead Montessori High School robotics team is in 12th place out of 32 teams this morning. This is our first year competing against teams who have been doing this for decades. Here is a link to the live stream of the event. It doesn't start for a couple of hours.

firstchesapeake1 - Twitch FIRST Chesapeake 2023 FRC Portsmouth District Event Day 2

https://www.wavy.com/black-history-month/hidden-history-norfolk-regions-domestic-slave-trade-exposed/

You may now watch the video news report about our cooperative slave trade research project. Thank you Regina W. Mobley and WAVY TV 10 for bringing it to the public

Hidden History: Norfolk region’s domestic slave trade exposed While researching the Underground Railroad, Norfolk State University Historian Cassandra Newby-Alexander learned there was a slave jail in Norfolk.

Hidden History: Norfolk region’s domestic slave trade exposed While researching the Underground Railroad, Norfolk State University Historian Cassandra Newby-Alexander learned there was a slave jail in Norfolk.

As part of Black History Month, WAVY-TV 10/WVBT FOX43 will air tonight (Wednesday) at 5:30pm a special news report about the historical research our school has been involved in in the last six years. The project is called and is a partnership between Roadstead Montessori High School, Slover Library and Norfolk State University. The project is funded by the Mellon Foundation and Virginia African American Cultural Center.

Stay tuned!

Sold Down River – Tracing the Domestic Slave Trade ROADSTEAD Montessori High School, the Joseph Jenkins Roberts Center for the Study of the African Diaspora at Norfolk State University and the Sargeant Collection at Slover Libraries, Norfolk Public Libraries are working together to find their stories.

Roadstead Montessori High School robotic team will soon be ready for its first competition. Here is quick intro to their evolving creation

IMG_4286.MOV

The students have been complaining that there wasn't enough room around our school's dining table....so they built a new one 757 Makerspace

Yesterday we concluded the 2022 part of this school year with a day of celebration: secret Santa gift exchange, ornament making and a lunch with salad made with vegetables we harvested from our community garden. As always in our community, the entire day was planned and led by the students. Students also volunteered to come early to decorate the school. The day ended with the weekly deep cleaning, which was, as usual, completely student-led.

This strong communal spirit--our trademark--is what we build together every day at Roadstead. In so many different ways, our students learn that, to be independent, means giving, not less than receiving. It means being helpful and reliable. It also means making a constant effort to communicate in order to create win-win situations.

Happy holidays and upcoming 2023!

There are schools with fierce and scary mascots. We have Dede

Now in Hampton and Norfolk VA on Instagram: "Our LED Matrix class electronics project is complete and installed with @roadsteadmontessorihighschool" Now in Hampton and Norfolk VA shared a post on Instagram: "Our LED Matrix class electronics project is complete and installed with ". Follow their account to see 741 posts.

Yin yoga class, this is how we bring the week to a calm closure

Downtown Norfolk Community Garden Water Install, organized by John Miller On April 30, 2022, we opened the Downtown Norfolk Community Garden.… John Miller needs your support for Downtown Norfolk Community Garden Water Install

We are having a whole day anapana meditation course tomorrow. The room is prepared. We are looking forward to sharing good vibes.

We love our partners at the Virginia Stage Company. Our students love to walk to the breathtaking Wells Theater, a block away from us, and be the ushers in the student matinees, like today's show "The Hobbit."

Slowly but surely our school building is regaining its original beauty. Last week we hit a visible landmark. The awning that covered the building's facade since 1970 was allowed to retire.

We are looking forward to hosting a public masterclass with the Violist Masumi Per Rodstad. Come to enjoy great music amplified by the acoustics and beauty of our space. The masterclass is part of Roadstead's new partnership with the Virginia Symphony Orchestra.

Here is the latest addition to our science lab! This is a chemical fume hood for our Chemistry class. It arrived unassembled. Ronnie, Chloe, Gigi and Steve had to decipher the hard to follow instructions and build it. Mounting it will be a herculean task. It weighs 400 lbs!

This is the greatest compliment, when your student design the logo of the school on his beloved shoes.

After almost a year of planning and renovations, we finally passed yesterday the final inspection and received the Certificate of Occupancy. The renovation work is not done yet, but today we could have our first day at our new school home.

Today our students spent a work day @ Assembly. They had a chance to hang out on the open roof and got a tour inside this gorgeous co-working historical building in the heart of Downtown Norfolk. Thank you Drew Ungvarsky and Assembly staff for welcoming us. It was an inspiring day.

Having so many great nearby cafes is one of the best parts of being in Downtown Norfolk. Yesterday we went to meet our new neighbors at