Notes from Oak

• Friday, November 15th- Reader's Parade for Kindergarten - 10:00 am on blacktop

• Wednesday, November 20th - Friday, November 23rd - 4th Grade to Coloma

• Monday, November 25th through Tuesday, November 26th- Parent-Teacher Conferences

• Wednesday, November 27th through Friday, November 29th- Thanksgiving Holiday Break

• Sunday, December 1st - Festival of Lights Parade

• Thursday, December 5th- Kindergarten & New Parent Informational Night- 7 pm in the MUR

• Wednesday, December 12th - Linden Tree Book Faire

• Thursday, December 12th - Vision Screening for K, 2nd & 5th Grades

• Monday, December 16th- Winter Concert and PTA Bake Sale

• Monday, December 23rd- January 3rd- Winter Break

• Monday, January 6th- Classes Resume

I hope you had a wonderful week, I thought I would share this timely article about the productive struggle as we send out report cards this week. I have always believed that learning is a process and journey, not a destination. Sometimes parents share concerns that their child isn’t showing mastery in all areas. This is normal. It is part of learning, as teachers should want our children to struggle a bit.

The author of this piece is Jo Bolar. It is an excerpt from her book, Limitless Mind: Learn, Lead & Live without Barriers. Please read further...

As parents and teachers, we do just about everything we can to make sure that children don’t struggle. It turns out we are making a terrible mistake. Research shows that struggling is absolutely critical to mastery and that the highest achieving people in the world are those who have struggled the most. The more I communicate this message to parents and teachers the more stories I hear of complete personal transformation.

Neuroscientists have found that mistakes are helpful for brain growth and connectivity and if we are not struggling, we are not learning. Not only is struggle good for our brains, but people who know about the value of struggle improve their learning potential. This knowledge would not be earth shattering if it was not for the fact that we in the Western world are trained to jump in and prevent learners from experiencing struggle.

When students look at me and say: “This is hard,” I say, “That is fantastic.”

An international study of mathematics teaching found that teachers in Japan put their students in places of struggle 44 percent of the time in classrooms—they saw this less than 1 percent of the time in U.S. classrooms. What do we parents and teachers do instead? We jump in and show the way, offering steps to a solution to help save our students from struggle. This is in large part because this new science is not widely available and we are culturally trained to feel bad, and to rush in and help, when this is probably the last thing we should do.

The research on the impact of struggle turns out to help adults too—in all sorts of jobs. I interviewed sixty-two people for my new book, “Limitless Mind.” Many of them shared similar accounts of how they used to go into meetings afraid they would be found out for not knowing something. After learning about the importance of not knowing and of engaging in struggle they now proudly show up and say “I don’t know, but I will find out.” They display a mindset of discovery and curiosity, which has helped their lives in many ways.

Once we stop the charade of knowing everything, and embrace knowing less, with a willingness to sit with uncertainty, unexpected things happen.

When I was teaching middle schoolers in a research math camp a few years ago one girl stood out to me; she was nearly always wrong in her thinking, but she was always engaged, arguing her case, pushing to understand better. An observer of the class would have described her as a low achiever, but she improved more than any other of the 84 students we taught that summer. Her standardized test score in mathematics improved by 450 percent after 18 struggle filled lessons. Our messages to the students—that struggle would be valued and mistakes are productive—had helped her feel good about struggle and embrace it.

When I tell young learners that struggle and mistakes are the best times for our brains it is freeing. Students no longer give up on problems when they find them hard—they push through the struggle to the wonderful places on the other side. When students look at me with a puppy dog face and say: “This is hard,” I say, “That is fantastic. That feeling of ‘hard’ is the feeling of your brain developing, strengthening and growing”.

We cannot achieve anything creative without being comfortable with mistakes and struggle

In 2016, two young computer scientists rocked the world of mathematics by solving a previously unsolved math problem, an event that many described as audacious. The two young men reflected that it was knowing less that allowed them to solve the difficult problem. It freed their mind to think in better ways.

I am not arguing that knowledge is bad or knowing answers is not helpful. What I am saying is that knowledge is less important than a mindset of discovery and curiosity. We cannot achieve anything creative without being comfortable with mistakes and struggle—and we should all embrace times of struggle, knowing they are helping our brains. When we adopt a limitless perspective, approaching different jobs and conversations with a comfort with uncertainty and struggle, with a willingness to learn from others and with a flexible approach to problems, outcomes improve—in learning and in life.

Millions of students start the school year each year excited for all they will learn, but as soon as they struggle or see someone solve a problem with ease, they start to doubt themselves and mentally shut down. This starts a less productive learning pathway for them. Instead they should value the time of struggle and know that they are on their way to being better, wiser and equipped with a stronger brain. Getting answers right is OK, being stuck and finding them hard is fantastic.

Jo Bolar is the Nomellini-Olivier Professor of Education at Stanford, co-founder of youcubed.org and author of the new book, Limitless Mind: Learn, Lead & Live without Barriers.

Oak Avenue School Tours

Have you heard your neighbors talking about wanting to know more information about Oak School? Perhaps a new family just moved into the area and they are looking at different school options. Maybe a neighbor has preschool-age children and they are inquiring about Oak School.

Please let families know Oak School is open for tours. Feel free to pass along my email address. I would be happy to set up a time to provide a personal tour and answer questions about the Oak School community. kattell@lasdschools.org

Dear Oak Families -

It was great to see so many of you at our PTA meeting yesterday. Thank you for coming out to support our school by staying involved. Congratulations to Oak for our California Distinguished School nomination!

PTA Highlights

One of the questions we hear most frequently is “Where does my PTA donation go?” In October, as we were thinking about Halloween and trick-or-treating, you PTA donations covered:

• Classroom supplies

• Library books and magazines

• Multiple science and ELA curriculum

• Walk-a-thon

• UpToUs support

• Computer Equipment

• International Festival

Oak’s lifesaver this week is:

Christina Selle, our PTA treasurer. She has put hours (and hours) into collecting information and filling out forms to file our taxes and other necessary forms for the PTA. Thank you Christina!

Sara Payne

Oak PTA President

oakptapresident@gmail.com

Oak Apparel

OAK SCHOOL PTA ANONYMOUS SUGGESTION BOX

Double Your Donation

The District Nurses will be doing vision screening, both near and far, at Oak School for all Kindergarten, 2nd, and 5th grades on 12/12/19. If your child has glasses or contacts, please make sure that they wear them to school on the day of the screening. The nurse will mail a referral form to the parents of students who do not pass the vision screening.

You’re Invited to the Third and Final Workshop!

Thank you to all of our community members who have participated in the Community Engagement Process for Facilities. We are truly overwhelmed by your enthusiasm and appreciate you adding your voice to this very complex issue.

Due to extremely high demand and participation in our last community engagement workshop, we are hosting a third and final workshop to help us understand levels of support for various potential options to house Bullis Charter School in the long term.

Final Workshop

Monday, November 18, 2019

Open House: 6-6:30pm

Workshop: 6:30-8:30pm

Egan Junior High School Multipurpose Room

The workshop will allow participants to review potential facilities options and show their support for each possibility. To review materials for the workshop, including translated materials in Japanese, Mandarin and Spanish, please visit our Community Engagement Webpage.

Please only attend one workshop. The format is the same for all workshops. There is no need to participate in more than one. Attendance is limited to 400 people. Please give others the opportunity to participate on November 18th if you have already had the chance to participate in a workshop. Participants and community members are asked not to distribute materials related to the facilities discussion at the workshop.

Thank you for your ongoing support for our students, our schools and our community.

Did you know that your donation to LAEF is spent this school year?

You can help fund teachers and staff working hard to provide an excellent education for your student each day. Many generous LASD parents have now given 70% of what’s needed to fully fund this school year.

We need your help to finish the job.

If you have yet to give, please donate to LAEF today.

Once you’ve made your donation to LAEF, increase your impact by requesting a corporate match today. Find out if your company offers corporate matching.

Parent Education event Adolescent Wellness Series

with

Dr. Moira Kessler

November 20

6:30-8 pm

Springer Elementary - Multi

1120 Rose Ave., Mt. View

Session 2 on 11/20:

Learn about typical and atypical adolescent development, the signs and symptoms of depression and anxiety in teens, and about risks factors for and protective factors against suicide

Evento de educación para padres Serie de bienestar para adolescentes

con la

Dra. Moira Kessler

20 de noviembre

6: 30-8 pm.

Springer Elementary - Multi

1120 Rose Ave., Mt. View

Sesión 2 el 20/11:

aprenda sobre el desarrollo adolescente típico y atípico, los signos y síntomas de depresión y ansiedad en adolescentes, y sobre los factores de riesgo y factores protectores contra el suicidio

Join your friends and neighbors for an amazing Los Altos holiday tradition! Since 1977, the Festival of Lights Parade has brought "A Child's Holiday Fantasy" to life.

Visit www.losaltosparade.com for a route map and viewing guidelines (for example, please do not set up before noon on Sunday, and do not use chalk or tape to mark your spots), or even to volunteer.

Our Oak Cougar Mascot will be marching in the parade -- We look forward to seeing you and your family at the parade!

Mission: It is Oak School’s mission to ensure high levels of learning for all students. Every day we respectfully collaborate to develop confident, resilient, joyful learners who care about the Oak School community and become responsible citizens.

Email: kattell@lasdschools.org
Website: https://oakschool.org/
Location: 1501 Oak Avenue, Los Altos, CA, USA
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Oakavenueschool/
Twitter: @OakPrincipal