Mueller Charter School Blog

Our third article, “Pearls Before Breakfast”, was very different from the first two.  At first glance, it seems to have nothing to do with education.  But it has everything to do with “balance”, with paying attention to things that matter, with finding beauty in surprising places.

Instead of guiding questions today… here are some guiding answers: 

• It is a reminder that when we go to the Chula Vista Nature Center we should leave our IPods at home!

• If we see a street musician, especially a concert violinist playing Bach, we should stop and listen. (And leave a dollar in the violin case)

• When everybody else is rushing past the virtuoso, the children will pull us back– if we let them.  

Other answers?

The American Indian Public Charter School in Oakland serves a population that is similar to Mueller’s… but they get much different results.  They are widely praised for achieving an amazing API of 967, one of the highest scores in the entire state!

Last night we read an LA Times article about the school.  Here are some questions to reflect on:

• Would you send your child to the American Indian Charter School?

• The article quotes a donor from the Koret Foundation in the Bay Area as saying: 

“They really should be the model for public education in the state of California. What I will never understand is why the world is not beating a path to their door to benchmark them, learn from them and replicate what they are doing.”

Are they a model? Should we be “beating a path to their door” to replicate what they are doing?

• This may be an excellent article to help us align our core values with our actions and our efforts here at Mueller:  Who are we as an organization?  What do we stand for?  What are we willing to do to get results like the American Indian Charter School… and what are we NOT willing to do?

What guiding questions would you pose to your colleagues about this article?

“School Connectedness - Strategies for Increasing Protective Factors Among Youth,” emphasizes the tremendous capacity that that schools have in facilitating school connectedness.  This publication asserts there if students feel more connected and engaged in schools, then they are more likely to have positive educational and health outcomes.

Below are some prompts for us to consider:

• As you reflect on your own personal experiences in schools, what protective factors kept you connected to school?  Were there any specific factors that played more influential roles in your academic, emotional or social development than others?
• As we envision this new year together, how can the six evidence-based strategies outlined in this publication better inform our work in each classroom, within each grade level, and across our entire campus.
• What are we, as a charter, doing well as it relates to school connectedness?  Where can you continue grow as and educator?  Where can we all continue to grow as an organization?

Feel free to respond to any of these prompts OR create your own…