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Past news

Preschool Parent Book Talk

Recently a preschool parent book talk, facilitated by school librarian, Esme Raji Codell, was held in the library, followed by a family story time featuring parent Jill Calian. With over 8,000 children's books published each year, the goal was to help parents navigate the literature and offer the latest and greatest to their emergent readers.

Here is a brief bibliography of the titles touched on at the early childhood book talk:

Katie Davis website with kindergarten links: www.katiedavis.com Visit Ms. Codell's book recommendation blog, www.planetesme.blogspot.com, for more suggestions.

 

Tag You're It!

The 2007-2008 Baker Annual Fund Campaign kicked off Monday, October 1st. Please join me in supporting this campaign. Our two main goals are to raise a minimum of $250,000 and reach 100% in family participation. With everybody's best effort, we can come together to garner the enthusiasm, support and resources of the entire community, and exceed our Annual Fund goal for this year!

Each year the Baker Annual Fund Campaign raises sustaining funds to help meet our day-to-day operating expenses. This ensures that the quality educational opportunity we offer will continue. Making a gift to the Annual Fund demonstrates that you believe in Baker.

I am thrilled to be this year's Annual Fund Chair. I can't imagine a better place for my children to experience the unique mixture of academic excellence, creative enrichment, and whole-child perspective that is Baker's own. Click here for more info.

Liz Reeves
2007-2008 Annual Fund Chair

Ice Cream Social

Thank you to the Baker Parent Organization (BPO), our first community event was a complete success. At the Ice Cream Social every child had sticky fingers and smiles, the weather cooperated, and the ice cream was of the best quality (thank you Homer's). Join us in recognizing those who volunteered on Saturday; after all it is the volunteers who make these events so pleasant....more

 

Baker Founders Donor Wall Unveiling

The 2004-2006 Baker Founders Donor Wall is complete. This elegantly crafted piece was created by Jeff Miller of J. Miller Handcrafted Furniture. Please look for it in the first floor lobby after the unveiling at Saturday's BPO Ice Cream Social.

Thank you to everyone who made a contribution to the Baker Building Capital Campaign. The Capital Campaign Annual Report is available in the Development Office or online.

 

El Dia de los Aztecas

On Tuesday, September 11 the "All School Team" will host its annual "Dia Especial," a day dedicated to Spanish and Latin American culture.

This year's theme is "The Life and Culture of the Aztec Natives of Mexico." Beginning at 10:30 a.m., the students from grades 2-5 will gather in the gym and be "transported back in time" to the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan. Throughout the day, they will learn about Aztec life by studying various topics such as: Weaving, Art and Architecture, Cooking, Aztec Drumming, Myths and Stories, Masks and Sports. Towards the end of the day, students will be given the opportunity to reflect on the day's theme:

To end the celebration, we will snack on sample Aztec-inspired foods in the cafeteria.

 

Baker: A Teaching School

Baker has a unique teaching environment where our associates play a key role in the quality education we provide. The associates are hired to work in tandem with our lead teachers for the school year. The associate program not only benefits our students, it brings new methodologies and fresh approach to the established practices of our faculty.

We are pleased to welcome our '07-'08 class of associates. These individuals come from a variety of schools including Northwestern, DePaul, and National Louis University (NLU). Some of our associates are called "interns" and are receiving credit through NLU. As associate Julie Eisenhut from Melissa Makagon's class explained "working as an associate for a full year immerses you in the classroom and truly helps your professional development as a teacher."

Also as part of our continued work as a teaching school we have student teachers who earn their state accreditation in our classrooms. Suzanne Balaban, in Jane Stenson's class, is earning her early childhood certification and will be with us for 10 weeks. We also have Mallory Hade as a student teacher from De Paul University. She will be completing her B.A. in elementary education with an Illinois teaching certificate for grades K-9. Ms. Hade will be in Peggy Young's classroom.

We are honored to these passionate professionals as members of the Baker faculty.

 

Over the Summer

Over the summer Baker got a thorough polishing and some upgrades. Technically speaking, 85 new computers arrived. Twenty-five will be used for a wireless enabled laptop cart and the Tech Lab got twenty-five new desktops with 17in. flat-screen monitors.

Environmentally speaking, 430 new earth-friendly hall lights where installed. These lights are part of a $40,000 grant for energy efficient upgrades to our lighting systems. The grant was issued by the Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundations.

Latin Students Achieve Perfect Score

Baker Demonstration School is proud to recognize several students for their high achievement on National Latin and Mythology exams. Seventh grade students Solveig Herzum and Sophie Kornbluh are two of only 463 Students out of the 16,553 worldwide participants to achieve a perfect score in the 2007 Introduction to Latin National Exam. Students from Australia, Canada, China, England, Italy, Japan, Mozambique, New Zealand, Poland, Switzerland, the United States and Zimbabwe took this exam.

Other Baker students excelled in additional exams, Ariel Miller (6th grade), Erik Baker (6th grade), and Virginia Fox (6th Grade) received the honors of Magna Cum Laude or Cum Laude for their scores on the Exploratory Latin Exam.

Students Emma Wolfe (7th grade), Sophie Kornbluh (7th grade), Erik Baker (6th grade), Ariel Miller (6th grade), and Jonathon Jue-Wong (7th grade) received Silver (94-99%) or Bronze (88-93%) medals for their accomplishments on the National Mythology Exam. This mythology exam was voluntary and only administered only to interested students who prepared on their own by reading the suggested bibliography. Baker's Latin faculty were available for support but individual test preparation was voluntary.

Official Press Release (PDF)

 

Sneaker Week

Thanks to Physical Education Teachers Ms. Snoei and Mr. Beck, Baker just completed our first-ever "SNEAKER WEEK." Each day students experienced different and very special gym classes (one hour versus the usual 30 minute daily classes) where they had several choices of activities. The activities where designed to teach that physical activity can be fun for everyone and meet each child's individual needs.

Local experts volunteered to teach the activities. As Ms. Snoei explained "Many expressed great interest in coming back soon. I have had great feedback from the participating organizations on how impressed they were with Baker and the kids." The volunteers included:...more

 

Arts Night 2007

Baker's Annual Arts Night was a delight for all the senses with every area of the newly improved campus busy with activity. As Ms Codell, the school's Librarian, explained

"there were lines out the door to see the second grade rock band "Green Fire" in the music room, I was mostly in the library for an hour of steady takers on open mic, which had some really great highlights: Ms. Makagon's first graders dressed as beatniks in berets and black sunglasses doing Ginsberg-like renditions of Jack Prelutsky, 7th grader Blake rocking out to "Pinball Wizard," 3rd grader Rena singing a doleful "When September Ends," 7th grader Erik bringing people to tears with his description of spring and 3rd grader Beatriz inspiring screams of laughter with her extraordinary original poems."

Read on for more about the festivities and stay tuned for a photo gallery of the fabulous student works.

"Another outstanding Arts Night... Many kudos to Mr. Gnutek, Ms. Gocke, Ms. Wilson, Ms. Goldfine, faculty, staff, parent volunteers, and everyone else. This event is one of the many reasons that makes Baker so special" Mr. Melsheimer, School Director

"Bravo! Bravo! This is one of my favorite Baker events and last night continued the tradition. The art, the performances, the energy...all fabulous!" Ms. Wood, Grade 4 teacher

"Here, here. It was fabulous; the gathering of students to hear LaRon Williams, master storyteller, the gathering of pick-nicking families on the field, the very creative art work and talents of the Baker students. It's all so Baker...it's all so wonderful. Kudo's to Mike and Marilyn and all who worked so hard to make this such a very special evening." Ms. Tripp, PreK faculty

"The turnout was terrific and the parents and grandparents were thrilled...the Green Fire Band was a force to be reckoned with, they felt like real rock stars. I loved the library doings and the collaboratory was truly innovative and fun." Lizanne Wilson, Drama

 

Baker Receives Clean Energy Grant

This week Baker got some fantastic news, the school was approved to receive a grant of $40,000 for energy efficient upgrades to our lighting systems. The grant was issued by the Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundations.

Special thanks should go to Peter Carlson, Baker Finance and Operations Director, and those who helped him in completing the grant application. Together they show leadership in demonstrating the value of investing in the energy efficiency of our school. These lighting upgrades will not only affect Baker's bottom-line energy costs, they will help protect our environment.

 

Baker Earth Week: April 23rd-27th

Officially Earth day is recognized on Sunday, April 22nd. To educate our students on the state of the planet, the Environmental Awareness committee is organizing a series of events for the week of April 23.

Kicking off the celebration, Earth Day posters will decorate the hallways and Faculty will include environmental topics in the week's curriculum. The committee will provide Earth Week buttons for Faculty; the buttons will be handmade & recyclable. For parents, flyers regarding various earth-friendly strategies will be offered at carpool and sent home in backpacks.

Celebrate Earth Week, REDUCE, REUSE, and RECYCLE. Bring old batteries and sneakers to school where collection boxes will be set-up in the hallways. The committee will see that the items get into the proper "recycling hands" such as Nike who will manufacture new playground material out of the shoes.

Baker's Earth Week is sure to make a great impression on students and teach simple "green" steps that everyone can take.

Get Involved
The Baker Environmental Awareness Committee is working to make Baker more environmentally progressive. In partnership with faculty and school administration, the committee is also sponsoring ongoing projects including:

If you would like to get involved contact Julie Richards or Catherine Head; current committee members include Julie, Catherine, Katherine Peterson, Jeanne Pinsof, Ethel Gillespie, Rebecca Wolpinsky, Blair Lele, Beth Sycamore and Maria Lettiere-Roberts.

Earth Day History
The first Earth Day observation was held on April 22, 1970. Over 20 million people participated and it is now observed each year by more than 500 million people and national governments in 175 countries. For more information on Earth Day check out:

 

Celebrate Spring with the BPO Spring Plant Sale!

The Spring Plant Sale has begun! Order plants and flowers from Anton's Greenhouse of Evanston to benefit our school. Gift certificates are also available so you can choose plants at your convenience.

Order forms were distributed in backpacks. If you need an extra form you may pick up a form in the front office.

Orders are due on Friday, April 27th. Your order will be available for pickup at the Baker school entrance on Saturday May 12th between 9am and noon.

 

Third Annual Progressive Educators Conference on April 16, 2007:
Higher Order Thinking Through Integrated Curriculum

Baker Demonstration School is proud to host the third annual "Progressive Educators Conference" on April 16th, 2007. The conference will examine the ways in which educators plan, prepare, teach and assess integrated curricular units in a progressive setting. Providing children with opportunities to examine issues in depth in an integrated format allows them to develop their analytical, evaluative, and cognitive skills. This Conference will explore this perspective and answer the following questions:

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS:

Regional Conference Registration Form (PDF)
Speaker Application (PDF)
Schedule (PDF)

The Emperor's Groovy New Clothes

Everyone is needed to make the show a success. To manage an integrated arts production with 64 students such as EGNC requires guidance from faculty and parents. For example, Ms. Kohlman, as teacher supervisor for costumes, is working with Ms. Oberman, the parent supervisor. Together they have taught the cast costume design, sewing, and construction. To get a behind the scenes perspective check out Ms. Wilson's Blog. Also be sure to see Mia's student Blog for daily updates on the progress!

The Emperor's Groovy New Clothes opens on Monday March 26th at 7PM, closing the evening of Thursday, March 29th. For those of you lucky enough to get tickets ($5 ea.), you can retrieve them at WILL CALL before the show. Families of all ages and sizes are welcome, the 50 minutes show is appropriate for all children.

 

AUTHOR, AUTHOR!

The Baker School library has had the privilege of hosting two award-winning guest authors in the past month! Amy Timberlake presented her Golden Kite winning picture book THE DIRTY COWBOY, and spoke about her novel THAT GIRL LUCY MOON, which tied into the leadership theme recently explored by Team in the Middle. She shared wonderful slides that took us through the process of book creation, and underscored the very real places from which fiction originates. Fast on the heels arrived Caldecott award winning superstar David Shannon, who showed over 125 children how to illustrate the hero of his title NO, DAVID! and took us all on a swashbuckling romp through the pages of his latest, PIRATES DON'T WEAR DIAPERS. " We are so fortunate to have such literary guests to celebrate in our library, so that our students can continue to make the connection that there are real people behind the books we read and love," says Esme Raji Codell, school librarian. "With the cooperation of teachers, the children were familiar with the works of these creative people before they arrived. That made a big difference in their level of appreciation."

 

All Kinds of Minds

March begins the third month of our school-wide Diversity Program: "All Kinds of Minds". This title is taken from Mel Levine, M.D. the nationally known neurodevelopmental pediatrician and Founder of All Kinds of Minds Institute and Allkindsofminds.org. He is also the Director the University of North Carolina Clinical Center for Development and Learning and the author of several books, best known of which are A Mind at a Time and The Myth of Laziness.

The aim of the month-long program is to open a dialogue around the issue Dr. Levine has so aptly described: "Millions of children struggle in school daily because of differences in learning. The causes are often unknown, specific problems can be difficult to pinpoint, and long-term effects hard to predict. Struggling children are often misunderstood by the adult world. Helping parents, teachers and students to appreciate differences in learning is the first step. Helping them celebrate the differences is the goal."

Be sure to attend the "All Kinds of Minds" panel on Thursday, March 22 From 6-8 p.m. in the Baker Library. For details: "All Kinds of Minds" Panel Speakers (PDF)

 

Community Leaders Visit 4th & 5th Grades

Diane Wood (teacher, 4th grade) and the 4th and 5th grades recently welcomed Colleen Connell, Attorney for the ACLU of IL, into the classroom. Ms. Connell was invited to Baker because the classes are studying "leaders from the community who may not be famous, but are making an impact on the community."

To help with this project, faculty went to parents and parents found leaders who could discuss the essential questions being explored in the classroom. The essential questions included:...more

Diversity Potluck

This past Tuesday, Baker celebrated family diversity. Families and extended families shared favorite dishes followed by a short program honoring Dr. King's birthday. Among the activities, Aaron Potts read Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" speech and Teacher Peggy Young lead students in singing Stevie Wonder's "Happy Birthday" song. Student artwork based on the question "What is Family," decorated the school. Over 120 were in attendance and "everyone pitched in and did what they could to make this a success. I feel that the energy is right and the momentum is strong enough to carry through our very ambitious plan" exclaimed Elizabeth Peterson the Diversity Committee Chair....more

 

Annual Swim/Walk-a-thon

The Baker Student Council led the Annual Swim/Walk-a-Thon on Friday, February 2nd. Each year students swim or walk to benefit school trips and a local community cause of choice. This year the Student Council studied the missions and services of four local organizations and decided to sponsor the Youth Organization Umbrella of Evanston (Y.O.U.). This local nonprofit provides tutoring, advocacy and crisis intervention for students in the Evanston public schools.

The event was a great success with 231 Baker students (grades 1-8) completing 3,694 laps swam and 11,166 laps walked. The Kindergarten classes also got involved by collecting money with their "Penny Walk". All the students are now collecting their pledges and totals will be announced in March.

 

PI Day

On March 14th the Middle school will celebrate the number pi with an entire day devoted to mathematics. Special math projects will include investigating fractals, writing numbers in bases other than ten, exploring proportion in drawing the human form or face and working on classic math problems studied by famous mathematicians.

 

Faculty Welcomes Loyola Professors

faculty inservice

Recently Baker's faculty welcomed Maria Vidal de Haymes, Ph. D., Professor and Marta Lundy, Ph. D., Associate Professor from Loyola University Graduate School of Social Work. As clinical social workers, Maria & Marta discussed various forms of family diversity.   

This in-service faculty presentation was the first of many scheduled events for the 2007 Baker Diversity Program. The program was created to help pave the way for further implementation of the Baker Diversity Goal: “Five Years from now Baker will have a diverse (racial, gender, socioeconomic, religious, learning needs, etc.) student body and faculty.

The ’07 program is based on the theme: If the World Were a Village; taken from the book of the same name; a Book about the World's People (Ira Children's Book Awards, International Reading Association) by David Smith, Shelagh Armstrong. Each classroom has a copy to use throughout the school year.

 

Alumni Event a Complete Success!

Baker Alumni recently celebrated their first Annual Event. Approximately 90 Alumni and families toured the new facilities, listened to Jane Stenson's animated story-telling and enjoyed mingling with old friends and teachers.

"Thank you...for bringing back many happy memories. The selection of food, drinks, and live musicians were excellent" commented Scott Baran, class of '87. Jennifer Schack explained that "With the help of: Scott Baran '87, Robb Berry '94, Todd Bruggeman '85, Jamie Chrobak '02, Diona Kelley '91, Cinda Lester '87, Corbett Ryan '93 and Abbey Winograd '97 the gathering came off without a hitch. It is fantastic to have the support of both Campagnola in Evanston who provided the appetizers and the talents of Andrew Schultz and Philip Simmons who preformed 'Songs from the Renaissance'." Everyone agreed this is the first of many great alumni events to come.

If you are an alumnus and missed this event please contact Jennifer Schack, Development Director, to get involved with future activities.

 

Students Celebrate Harvest Festivals from Around the World

In early December the second (Ms. Cucinotta & Ms. Rappin) and third grades (Ms. Young & Ms. Wolter) studied harvest celebrations including the Jewish Festival of Sukkot, the Nigerian Yam Festival, the Chinese Moon Festival, the Pilipino Festival of Ati-Athan, and Native American harvest festivals based on the lunar calendar.

The children worked very hard in pairs on their research posters which summarized what they had learned. To complete their studies, the students gathered in the cafeteria for a celebratory market. Mrs. Cucinotta commented "The event was great fun! The cafeteria was...set up as a marketplace with student' posters, crafts, and prepared foods displayed." All the children had the opportunity to teach others what they had learned and visit each display.

The food sampled included:

The crafts included:

It was truly a multicultural celebration and marks the end of the unit on plants and harvesting.

 

Latin Happenings

The middle school just celebrated Baker’s annual “Latin Happenings.” At Baker, language is not studied through books alone. Rickie Crown and Alexandra Vastardis bring Latin culture, history and customs alive with two days of Latin immersion. Middle school students explore every element of Latin life with the help of professional storytellers, performers and artists. Among the various activities students created theatrical masks with artist and published poet Kate Hovey (www.KateHovey.com). Award winning storyteller, Megan Wells (www.MeganWells.com) also joined the festivities with her tales of Greek mythology. This emphasis on Latin study provides students with a solid foundation to excel in the sciences, romance languages, and the vocabulary sections of standardized tests.  

 

Librarian Travels to Japan

Our librarian and resident author, Esme Raji Codell www.planetesme.com has just returned from a tour of Japan. As Sakura Award nominee, she was invited to visit International Schools in Tokyo. Codell’s meeting and working with students and educators from various European and Asian countries will enhance the use and understanding within our own library.  

 

Creating Tribal Instruments Empowers Students 

Recently our students studied tribal heritage through music and interactive art. Under the teachings of David Stocker, the visiting artist-in-residence, students developed their skills of abstract thought and problem solving. Canjos, flutes, drums, shakers, guiros, and dijeridoos were created throughout the six week program. Each grade (PreK-8) learned about the traditions related to their instruments.  Activities included assembly, animation, decoration and the playing of their handcrafted instruments. Students also explored the symbols and pictographs of various cultures including Aboriginal Dreamtime symbols, the Native American picture dictionary and African Adinkra symbols as they decorate the instruments. 

"Creating working instruments empowers students" explains David Stocker, who received a Masters of Fine Arts in acting from Yale University School of Drama and is an Artist-in-Residence with the Illinois Arts Council. David's program focuses on establishing a connection to the past for students through story telling, singing and the creation of tribal instruments. This connection helps students understand that children just like them created the very first flutes or drums in human history.

This year's Artist-in-Residence program ended with a compilation of the student's reflections in a "Book of Baker Wisdom", from which students read at the concluding assembly, The Gathering of the Tribes.

Baker in the News

Baker Goes on its Own
- Chicago Parent Magazine - January 2005

Kid's Corner - Try this Chalkboard Science Experiment
- Chicago Parent Magazine - October 2004

Baker To Go Separate
- Evanston Review - September 2004

The Hallowed and the Ivy: Why good private schools are necessary, even on the North Shore
- North Shore Magazine - August 2004

Creating an Innovative Playground Through the Collaborative Process
- Recreation Management - November 2003

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