Community Re-Opening Update, July 31, 2020

Dear Manzanita Community,

Greetings! Our full staff came together this past week via ZOOM to address the challenges of our planned school re-opening, scheduled for August 20th, just two weeks from next Thursday. Our team studied comprehensive health directives from the county and state, reviewed best practices for online and hybrid learning, developed schedules and curriculum, and reconnected as a community of educators and mentors. It was very productive week for Manzanita’s teachers, and followed summer-long planning by the administrative team.

Also during the past week, members of our administrative team participated in two 60-minute teleconferences with Dr. Barbara Ferrer, the Director of Public Health for the Los Angeles County Department of Health. These meetings included other members of leadership within Los Angeles county schools, as well as city and health officials. Presently, the county of Los Angeles is still awaiting clear directions from the state concerning the waiver process for re-opening schools within California counties that have high COVID-19 numbers (counties on the state’s ‘watch list’). I discussed this in last week’s update, which you can review here.

What we do know at this time is this:

  1. The waivers to re-open will cover students in grades K through 6th

  2. The county will work diligently to expedite the waiver approval process

  3. The waiver application will require both county and state health department approval

  4. Waiver applicants will have to demonstrate re-opening plans that adherence to all county and state health mandates regarding disease prevention and mitigation  

  5. Each county will be required by the state to consider local epidemiological data on COVID-19 cases when granting waiver requests within different regions of that county  

This last piece of information is especially important for Manzanita School, and I would like to provide as much information as I can on this point. As most of you probably know, Los Angeles County is very large. In fact, there a total of 78 different school districts in Los Angeles County alone.  Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) is the largest, followed by Long Beach Unified. In their teleconference yesterday, the county health directors informed us that they would be partitioning the county by school district boundaries in determining which schools (public and private) would be allowed to submit a waiver to re-open K-6th grades for in-person learning. That is, if a private school is located within a public-school district’s geographic boundary, and if that region has particularly high COVID-19 numbers, then that school would not be eligible to apply for a waiver. The specifics of this information is among the points which the county is waiting to receive from the state health department. I have formally submitted my question to the county concerning LAUSD, whose boundary encompasses Manzanita School. Being a very large district (about 800 square miles), I have asked Dr. Ferrer’s office if they would look at the six sub-districts within LAUSD as separate geographic regions. This information will be very important in determining if MNZ will be eligible to apply for the waiver to re-open the lower grades for in-person learning. (As a school leader, I was given a private line where I could submit my question, since not all questions could be answered on the teleconference call. I am looking forward to the reply).

As I have indicated, this waiver application process will become much more clear once the state provides the information on waivers to each of the counties. In yesterday’s call, Dr. Ferrer was confident that this would happen today (Friday), and that we schools could therefore expect to see the county’s application for the waiver as early as this coming Monday. This application information will include that important local epidemiological data indicating whether the school is within a region eligible to apply. Manzanita is located within a geographic area (the Santa Monica Mountains) which currently has low COVID-19 cases per capita, when compared with other parts of Los Angeles county. It will be important for us to see how the county reflects on the regional data within the LAUSD boundaries. As noted, we will update you all as soon as we have this information.

In the meantime, Manzanita is planning for multiple contingencies. We are working tirelessly to ensure that all MNZ students and families will have an engaging and safe educational experience, whatever the circumstances. Specifically, if all classes must begin online, we intend to structure these virtual learning groups in the same ‘pods’ of students and staff with which we would operate as pods on campus and in-person. This will allow for the most seamless transition back to the physical campus when that time comes. We understand that the waiver process applies only to students in grades 6 and below, which means students in grades 7 through 12 will need to wait for countywide COVID-19 numbers to come down before we can come off the state’s ‘watch list’ and return to in-person learning. While it is unlikely this will happen before August 20th, Dr. Ferrer expressed optimism that LA County is trending in a better direction than it was three weeks ago. We on the MNZ team remain optimistic that we can find a way to offer in-person instruction and connection for our community this year, so as to not have all students remaining in Manzanita Virtual Bridge. This is our commitment, and the creative wheels of our remarkable and imaginative team are truly spinning to make this happen. With all that said, we do appreciate the magnitude of uncertainty in this current situation, and the myriad challenges that this reality has set before us.

In addition to planning for diverse instructional scenarios, we are diligently putting together those components of the waiver application which we know will be required, including demonstrated acquisition of adequate PPE (personal protective equipment), indicators of support from key stakeholders including staff and parents, outlining of schedules for on-campus instruction, and clearly articulated protocols to meet the state and county safety requirements.

We will be revising our published “Plans for Re-Opening,” which we originally sent to families on July 19th, and which can presently be viewed again here. Once this plan has been updated, we will send it to you. Additionally, we will be holding a series of online orientation meetings for parents, to be scheduled for within the next three weeks. We will ask that all enrolled families attend one of these meetings. We will look forward to that, as it will be very nice to connect with you all, and to get ‘current’ together about our lives, circumstances, and school’s plans and protocols moving forward. Please keep an eye out for these communications coming your way.

We genuinely appreciate how truly stressful this ongoing uncertainty is for all of you, and also for our beautiful students. Please continue to support your children in remaining positive and hopeful, as that is such an important medicine for them in these times.

We remain grateful to be in this unique moment together, as a community, with the best intentions for our youth in our hearts and in our minds.

In Gratitude and With our Love,

~Dr. Paul & the MNZ Team

Community Re-Opening Update, July 24, 2020

Dear Manzanita Community, 

Greetings! Thank you to the many families who joined our Question & Answer sessions held last week. We continue to meet daily as an administrative team, and this Monday we will convene our full instructional staff to continue our robust preparations for the fall. We have several contingencies in place, and families can rest assured that Manzanita will always have well-considered and creative solutions to whatever challenges we are facing in the time of this pandemic. Whether in-person, or virtually, Manzanita will offer an exceptional program for our students and families. 

As we shared last week, Los Angeles County is currently on the state’s “Watch List” which means all public and private schools in Los Angeles County are prohibited from conducting in-person instruction until the rates of COVID-19 drop below 100 cases per 100,000, for 14 days in a row. Los Angeles is one of 33 counties (out of 58 statewide) that are on this list. As of today, the state watch list shows Los Angeles County at 343 daily cases per 100,000 people. Importantly, this table reflects a 7-day ‘lag’ period, meaning these 343 cases shown represent the data from about a week ago. Fortunately, in looking at the local data trends for our county, updated daily, the rates of infection appear to have dropped by about 30-40% in just the last five days. This drop is likely due to renewed mitigation enforcement, and increased public awareness. We remain hopeful and optimistic that this trend will continue, allowing Los Angeles to come off the watch list, and allowing in-person instruction to resume. We also recognize that there are many unknown variables, and considerable uncertainty in this time. We are therefore preparing for any and all contingencies. 

You may have heard in the news that there is one exception to this mandated campus closure for watch list counties; this is via a ‘waiver’ process available to students in grades K through 6th. This means that school districts and the directors of private schools may apply through Los Angeles County for a state-approved waiver to have students receive instruction in-person and on campus. As noted, this is restricted to younger students, up to and including 6th grade. Our contacts at the county inform us that the specific application criteria will be forthcoming in "the next few days.” Once the criteria are made public, Manzanita will apply for a waiver to allow in-person instruction in grades 3 through 6. We do not presently know how long this process will take, nor how many waivers will be granted, but we remain convinced that younger students can safely return to campus with the program we have outlined. Under the current government mandates however, MNZ students in 7th through 12th grades will return to the Big Rock campus only after Los Angeles County has sufficiently reduced rates of COVID infection to below 100 daily new cases per 100,000 residents. Despite these restrictions, we have recently witnessed increased social and political pressure on the California state government to reconsider its criteria for re-opening, in favor of more local flexibility. We trust that innovative models for in-person instruction will continue to receive special consideration in these ongoing discussions. 

We feel strongly that our reopening plan, which includes serving a small number of students outside, on 21 acres of land, in small pods, remains a safe option for staff and students. Therefore, we are working to get the attention of local health and safety representatives to make them familiar with our program and to bring awareness to the benefits of outdoor schools in relation to COVID-19, in an effort to support additional avenues for re-opening. 

Please know that we will always remain proactive and vigilant in gathering and analyzing available information and data, and in communicating regularly with our community. Please stay tuned for an additional update next week.  

Thank you dear families. 

In Gratitude, 

Manzanita School Leadership Team

Manzanita Alumni Reflections

A group of our Alumni recently shared their reflections about college life and the role of their Manzanita education in supporting their successes. We are excited to report that all of our graduates are doing wonderful work in college (maintaining a collective 3.75 GPA!)

Martina explains the role of self-motivation, respect, empathy, and self-awareness in navigating college life.

Benjamin highlights the powerful literacy education he received at Manzanita, while also speaking to the power being present and authentic in the adjustment to college.

Ila describes how the skills of conflict resolution, her confidence in approaching professors, and her self-awareness and world view, have shaped her college success.

Maddie reflects on her relationship to college classes, and how Manzanita taught her to love learning. She also explains how nature immersion is a powerful alternative to drugs and alcohol in dealing with the stresses of college.

Manzanita School & Institute's Anti-Racism Statement

Dear Manzanita Community,

The staff of Manzanita School has spent the last week processing our outrage and horror at George Floyd's murder at the hands of police and the violent and inflammatory police response to protests for racial justice. These events lay bare the long history of systemic racism and white supremacy culture ingrained in our country.

We hold deep sorrow and sympathy for the families and communities of George Floyd,

Breona Taylor, Manuel Ellis, Ahmaud Arbery, and the countless other victims of racialized police violence. We offer our voice of support for the broad movement of Americans of all backgrounds who are putting their bodies on the line to act for racial justice and to end police violence.

These events motivate us to deepen our commitment to leveraging our privilege and power to dismantle the culture of white supremacy in ourselves, in our school, our community, and our country.  We welcome our school community to join us in this vital conversation. These conversations may be uncomfortable for many of us. This discomfort is a necessary part of transforming racism, and a small burden when compared to the everyday trauma and threat of violence that racism brings to Black communities. To truly support racial justice we will need to lean into this conversation, and the discomfort it may bring for many of us, as we move into the future.

We will put this commitment into action in the following ways:

●      This summer, members of our administrative team will undergo training in dismantling white supremacy in schools, and commit resources over the coming summer break to generate action steps for our school to center anti-racism in our curriculum and school culture.

●      This summer our entire staff will read Robin DiAngelo’s book "White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism," to strengthen our ability to identify and challenge racism and white supremacy culture within our organization.

●      Our 8th grade social studies curriculum entails an exploration of the origins of racial conflict in America, and our high school curriculum includes a semester focused on gender and race studies. We commit to reviewing our curriculum across all grade levels to ensure that a strong anti-racist education is present for our entire student body.

●      As an immediate action, we will begin donating organic vegetables from our school garden to local Black communities with little access to fresh foods.

●      Manzanita Institute, under the direction of Jennifer Carey, will lead our racial justice education and activism initiatives for the larger school community and the public.

We acknowledge that Black Americans are forced to learn about racism through lived experience in their everyday lives, while members of white communities can move through life without needing to acknowledge racism. Thus, white people must take it upon themselves to learn about the history and impact of racism in our country, and how to take action towards racial justice. If you feel called to do this, you can follow this link to a powerful resource to get started.

These are sensitive topics to discuss with children, but they must be discussed. We encourage you to refer to the resources in this link for support with age-appropriate approaches to discussing race, violence, and the current protests with children.

We will keep you updated on Manzanita’s commitments as we move forward.  In the meantime, we wish you all safety and good health through these tumultuous times.

With gratitude,

You can download a pdf version of this Anti-Racism Statement here.

You can download a pdf version of this Anti-Racism Statement here.

25-Year-Old Grammy Winner Live Steams Hallelujah

One of the seminal young artists who have emerged in the last few years is the young Brit Jacob Collier. He's a 25-year-old singer, composer, arranger and virtuoso multi-instrumentalist. He's won four Grammy awards. In this rendition of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah," he modulates (changes keys) in precious mysterious ways. Please enjoy this magical art from our shared pandemic time, recorded at 3am in his living room.

Saami Reindeer Herder Lives Alone In Arctic Wilderness

Ms. Natalie, our gifted teacher of "Cultural and Geographic Literacy” has introduced students to many remarkable communities around the globe through her innovative lessons. This short video about the reindeer herders of Lapland (in northern Finland) is beautifully filmed, and deeply compelling. Please enjoy, as the students did. 

Petri is a Saami reindeer herder who lives in Finnish Lapland, within the Arctic Circle. Like his ancestors before him Petri has a very close relationship with the wilderness. During the reindeer calving season he lives out in the woods looking after the mothers and newborn. Petri shares some of his thoughts on a live led outside following the rhythms of nature.

Manzanita Bridge Virtual School: Overview of Programs and Schedules at week six

Just eight weeks ago, on Sunday, March 8th, Dr. Paul sent an internal video to the Manzanita staff discussing the growing spread of coronavirus, and reviewing protocols and considerations moving forward. He sent an updated version of that video to Manzanita parents the following Wednesday, March 11th, which was the same day that the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a “Global Pandemic.” Friday of that week (March 13th), Manzanita School dismissed students early from the Big Rock Campus. This was the last time we were all together at the same location. Five days later, on Wednesday March 18th, we launched Manzanita Bridge Virtual School.

During this time, our programming has supported students’ personal development, academic learning, nature connection, and community connections. We have been steadfast in our commitment to our Schoolwide Learner Outcomes (listed below) in the conceptualization of our programs, while also recognizing that: (1) learning in times of crises must look differently; (2) screens are a challenging medium for engagement; and (3) families are experiencing considerable upheaval and turmoil that requires our flexibility and responsiveness. In addition to our student programming, Manzanita has provided weekly opportunities for parents to convene in formal and informal settings online, and has continued to send both visioning and pandemic updates in our weekly bulletin, The Manzanita Message. We have also established a COVID-19 information page on our website, which you can access here.

This report describes the current programming and scheduling of all MNZ Bridge classes and includes an explanation of where we are prioritizing instruction in these unusual times.

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National Research on School Closures

A number of rigorous national surveys have been conducted over the past 8 weeks, of teachers in public and private schools nationally. The majority of teachers do not have daily interactions with their students, and less than 10% of teachers report multiple daily interactions with students. At the end of March, nearly a fifth of respondents reported zero interactions with their students since the school buildings had closed. Still, by April 8th, more than 60% of teachers reported interacting only weekly, at most. Also, the majority of reported interactions were by email, not through video-conferencing. It is therefore rare for teachers nationally to be offering instruction and interaction on a daily basis to their students, and to do so in ‘real-time’ through video conferencing. While only 16% of districts and teachers reported being “ZOOM-bombed” in which there was an inappropriate access to their ZOOM classes, a large number of districts prohibited the use of ZOOM due to the perceived risks. This, despite the company upgrading many of their security measures. Nationally, only 6% of high school teachers have interacted with their students via video-conferencing. On average, teachers are reporting that upwards of 21% of their students are effectively ‘truant,’ not participating in school at all at this time. Manzanita has not experienced truancy since launching Manzanita Bridge. All students are present and accounted for. You can learn more about the results of this study at this link.

Results from national survey of public and private school teachers, March and April, 2020

Results from national survey of public and private school teachers, March and April, 2020

In consideration of these unusual times, with respect for our Schoolwide Learner Outcomes, and acknowledging the unique structure of virtual learning, all student work and engagement at this time falls into these five categories:

1.     Academic Learning –620 minutes weekly, and comprised of Unit of Study, Daily Sit Spt Journaling, Numeracy, Literacy, Independent Study Blocks, Cultural Studies for 4th-8th, and Spanish for High School. 

2.     Embodied Learning –385 minutes weekly, and comprised of Stewardship Class, Naturalist Class, Stewardship Projects, Nature Connection, and Sit Spots. 

3.     Creativity, Movement, & Choice Learning –175 minutes weekly, and comprised of Visual Art, Vitality, Drawdown Arts, and Explorations.             

4.     Community Connections –235 minutes weekly, and comprised of Morning Check-In, Class Council, Community-Wide Assembly, and Closing Gratitude.

5.     Personal Connections –90 minutes weekly, and comprised of Office Hours, Moxie Block Meetings (High School only), Stew Mentor Office Hours, and Naturalist Mentor Office Hours.

The time allocations for instruction within each of these five categories are shown in the table below. This table is followed by more detailed descriptions of each of the five areas of instruction.

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OVERVIEW: Our Instructional Minutes Online and Offline

When looking at instructional minutes in the table above, you can see important priorities and emphasis for our MNZ Bridge program.

During the regular MNZ school day (that is, when we were on campus), we were in school from 8:30am-3:30pm. Accounting for lunch, recess, and passing periods, our total instructional time was approximately 5½ hours daily. Adding homework to this, MNZ students on average experienced about 6.5 hours of schoolwork daily, before the lockdown. During this pandemic however, this total number has changed. Presently, our instructional minutes comes to 5 hours daily, with 3 hours of it online, and 2 hours offline. (NOTE: this total is averaged across the week, remembering that Tues. and Th. have less screen time than M-W-F).  This means that during the pandemic, students are experiencing 30% less schoolwork, in terms of ‘time on task.’ How MNZ Bridge has prioritized the allocation of minutes is also different. Due to the impersonal nature of digital learning, 10% of our ‘on-screen’ time now at MNZ Bridge is dedicated to one-on-one meetings with mentors (via Office Hours) to support our students in sustaining connections to their teachers and mentors, and the important feeling of ‘belonging’ which research shows is essential to healthy adolescent development. Similarly, with respect to ‘embodied learning,’ (Stewardship and Nature Connection) which are central to our Schoolwide Learning Outcomes,’ we have addressed this commitment through the introduction of one-on-one Stew and Naturalist office hours, regular Stew and Naturalist class sessions, and carefully monitored independent work outside of the ZOOM rooms. While our direct instructional minutes for Numeracy and Literacy during MNZ Bridge are less than they would be during on-campus learning, they remain considerably more than most other public and private schools nationwide during this pandemic, where schools are reporting very limited video-conferencing as part of their regular instructional offerings (NOTE: this allocation difference between MNZ and other schools refers to ‘direct instruction’ in an online class, not independent work which students are doing on their own).

We now turn to a discussion of the specific instructional domains within each of the five categories above, describing what MNZ Bridge is offering within: (1) Academic Learning; (2) Embodied Learning; (3) Creativity, Movement & Choice; (4) Community Connections; and (5) Personal Connections.

Academic Learning

            As noted above, this category includes five diverse academic areas. Additionally, there are independent work assignments scheduled on a daily basis for students. As educators, we are aware how the stresses and traumas of these times will impact students, and in particular how emotional disruption can impact normal capacities for academic learning. Leading researchers are describing the importance of Social Emotional Learning (SEL) at this time. Manzanita is grateful for our ongoing commitment to providing these personal support systems, as we describe below. You can read some of this important research on Social Emotional Learning, and the traumas of pandemic for students here and here.

Sit Spot Journaling is conducted immediately after (or shortly after) the Sit Spot is completed, and is an independent activity. There are writing prompts developed by each class’s teachers (usually the naturalist in collaboration with the Unit of Study teacher). Sometimes students also draw or sketch as part of the reflection. Students submit their journal entries for review by teachers (15 minutes daily, Academic and Creative Learning).

Unit of Study class is held 2-3 times weekly (twice one week, three times the next). Unit of Study in the second semester at Manzanita is focused on The Great Turning, an interdisciplinary class emphasizing cultural changes relevant to our contemporary situation as a community, with a special focus on changes which indicate general shifts in humanity towards more egalitarian structures. With the recent pandemic, teachers have been meeting to re-conceptualize this content so that they are addressing the current themes impacting our lives, looking in particular at such things as equity, and how the virus has impacted groups differently based on race and socioeconomics (125 minutes weekly, Academic Content).

Numeracy class is held three times over two weeks in grades 4 through 8, and twice weekly in high school. Our focus is on maintaining the levels of learning achieved thus far in the year. The introduction of new content has prioritized accessible material, as well as math knowledge that is relevant to these times, such as probability, statistics, and exponential growth (70 minutes weekly grades 4-8, 110 minutes weekly, high school, Academic Content).

Literacy class is held weekly. It has been redesigned to serve primarily as an adjunct to Unit of Study, where writing can support the interdisciplinary content of our science-humanities program. Additional writing happens through daily journaling, which is focused in experiences at the Sit Spot, and is reviewed by class naturalists and UoS teachers. (45 minutes weekly, Academic Content).

Drawdown Arts class is held once weekly for all classes. This is a new offering which we added to provide a time for weekly work to address climate change during this pandemic, recognizing the correlations between coronavirus and human impacts on the natural world. Ms. Cecilie provides directed lessons, independent work, and creative projects during her classes (20 minutes weekly, Creativity, Academics).

Spanish class serves grades 9 through 12, and includes activities focused on the methods of “Total Physical Response” (TPR), as well as vocabulary building and grammar (45 minutes weekly, Academic Content).  

Cultural & Geographic Literacy class serves grades 4 through 8, and brings students into contact with diverse cultures through their music, rituals, home ecologies/geographies, foods, customs, and beliefs. (45 minutes weekly, Academic Content).  

Independent Academic Blocks includes work that is assigned and completed outside of school hours, usually divided among Numeracy, Literacy, and Unit of Study (240 minutes weekly, Academic Content).  

Embodied Learning

            We are especially sensitive to the profoundly therapeutic role that nature connection can have for students in this time. We have dedicated considerable staff resources to supporting regular ongoing daily time in nature, as well as helping students initiate their own land stewarding projects at home. You can read more about the importance of nature for coping with stress here.

Sit Spots are a daily, independent activity completed outdoors, and involves students returning to the same location daily in their yard, on a balcony, or in a nearby natural space. This is an observational, still, listening activity. At times, there is a prompt for a specific noticing or reflection (15 minutes daily, Embodied and Experiential Learning).

Stewardship Class group meets weekly. This is a cross-grade-level group that has been together since the beginning of the school year. The group meets to discuss students’ individual projects at home, which range from gardening, to cleaning, to composting (50 minutes weekly, Creativity, Embodied Learning, Community Connections).

Naturalist Class meets weekly with the grade-level classmates. The group meets to discuss students’ nature connection work, to break down the Daily Sit Spot prompts, and to undertake nature connections practices in the home environment and report back to the group (50 minutes weekly, Creativity, Embodied Learning).

Stewardship Projects are undertaken weekly on an independent basis, off-screen and at home. The structure of these is dependent upon student capacities and home resources, and support for these is carried by the Stewardship mentor during the Stew Mentor Office Hours (105 minutes weekly, Embodied Learning).

Nature Connection is undertaken weekly on an independent basis, off-screen and at home. The structure of this nature connection work is dependent upon student the ecology of the home environment, and support for this work is supported by the Naturalist mentor during the Naturalist Mentor Office Hours (105 minutes weekly, Embodied Learning).

Creativity, Movement, & Choice Learning

            We are grateful that Ms. Melissa is supporting students in stretching and movement, while Ms. Cecilie and Ms. Jenny are providing engaging creative lessons through the Visual Arts and Drawdown Arts classes. Additionally, we have created a choice-based Explorations class. Both our Office Hours and Explorations give students greater sense of autonomy, which research shows is very important for engagement in learning. You can read about that here. If you haven’t read about the correlations between the arts and learning, you can do so here.

Vitality class is held at least once weekly for all classes. Ms. Melissa provides directed stretching, core work, and cardiovascular exercises (45 minutes weekly, Movement).

Visual Art class is held at least once weekly for all classes. Ms. Jenny provides directed lessons, and independent work during each class. Student show or upload their work. One of these lessons was featured in a slide show during the MNZ Bridge Ceremony on April 24th (45 minutes weekly, Creativity).

Drawdown Arts class is held once weekly for all classes. This is a new offering which we added to provide a time for weekly work to address climate change during this pandemic, recognizing the correlations between coronavirus and human impacts on the natural world. Ms. Cecilie provides directed lessons, independent work, and creative projects during her classes (25 minutes weekly, Creativity, Academics. NOTE: This class meets for 45 minutes, of which 20 minutes has an academic focus, and 25 minutes a more creative focus. For this reason, it appears under both categories of instruction, with the minutes divided appropriately).

Explorations class is an elective that meets each Friday, and which provides students with a chance to be in smaller, cross-grade-level groups, and to connect with a favorite mentor, while engaging in self-selected projects (60 minutes weekly, Creativity, Community Connections, Academics).

Community Connections

            During the pandemic, we have continued to build powerful mechanisms for students to see their larger school community in the Schoolwide Assembly, and have small group interactions with their classmates during morning and afternoon check-ins. Additionally, beginning after Spring Break, we have build regular weekly Council into the schedule on Tuesdays and Thursdays. This more extended block allows for in-depth sharing of stories with classmates.  There has been growing evidence that feelings of loneliness and isolation among youth are becoming increasing mental health challenges during the time of the pandemic. We are grateful to support regular feelings of inclusion and group connectivity, even in this virtual medium.  You can read about some creative uses of ZOOM here.

Morning Check-In happens at the beginning of every day, within the Unit of Study, grade-level ZOOM classroom. Students usually share briefly about a recent experience and they may share a gratitude (10-12 minutes daily, Community Connections)

Class Council happens twice weekly. This is a more formal means of building connection and facilitating the student community. (30-40 minutes, Community Connections)

Community-Wide Assembly happens three times weekly and involve all students and all staff coming together in one big ZOOM room. There are announcements, student work profiles (usually ‘how-to’ videos), inspiring messages, and some academic content with followup assignments. These are usually hosted by Dr. Paul or the high school students, and provide an opportunity for school-wide connection around program changes, important protocols, and current information (45 minutes weekly, Community Connections, Academic Learning).

Closing Gratitude represents the last 10 minutes of every day, when grade-level peers come together with their Unit of Study mentor for a closing gratitude (50 minutes weekly, Community Connections)

Personal Connections

            In an early survey of our students during the pandemic, there was considerably favorable support for our use of “Office Hours” at Manzanita Bridge. We have since expanded this format to allow Stewardship mentors and Naturalists time to meet with their students in this more personal setting.

Office Hours are held every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and students sign up to meet with a mentor for 10 minutes, one-on-one on each of these days. Students who are identified as struggling in any area (attendance, emotionally, academically), can be booked for double slots with specific mentors. Office Hours are a significant commitment of our school at this time, as we find that one-one-one connections are very important to the emotional lives of students. There is choice for who students will visit during office hours. Additionally, we maintain active digital files on all students, noting any challenges they may be having. Mentors review these documents before holding office hours so they can support students around specific issues. All 25 mentors slotted for Office Hours at Manzanita see 3-4 students on each of the three days, for an average of over 220 one-one-one mentoring meetings each week (30 minutes weekly, Personal Connections).

Moxie Block Meetings are held for the high school students only, with their MXB mentors. These meetings are generally held during Office Hours, and are usually double-blocks (20 minutes) at a minimum (20-30 minutes weekly, Personal Connections, Academic Content).

Stew Mentor Office Hours are held with individual students and with small groups from the cross-grade-level stewardship team. These meetings help to trouble-shoot and brainstorm for the home-based stewardship projects, and to build connection with the Stew mentor (15 minutes weekly, Personal Connections, Community Connections)

Naturalist Mentor Office Hours are held with individual students and with small groups from their grade-level class. These meetings help to support home-based stewardship nature connection work, and to build connection with the Naturalist mentor (15 minutes weekly, Personal Connections, Community Connections)

The weekly schedule below shows where each of the instructional areas appear during the course of the week. We appreciate the importance of routines and consistency for students during this difficult time, and we have sought to make limited changes to this schedule. You can learn about the importance of routines here and here. 

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Conclusion

During this global pandemic, we have all been restricted to our homes, venturing out for necessary activities like shopping, to move our bodies for exercise, to play with our children in the fresh air, and to attend work in essential jobs. At Manzanita, we are grateful to leverage technology to stay connected as a community, and to support our unique programming for our students.

That said, converting Manzanita School to an online program has faced challenges not typically found in other schools. Many of Manzanita’s “Schoolwide Learner Outcomes” (SLOs) –which answer the question of ‘why are we here as a school?’- are directly contrary to screen-time and require intensive personal mentoring. Nature-connection, land stewardship, and the tending of a student’s ‘intrinsic gift,’ to name a few, all suffer in the absence of land, space, and direct human contact. Our 12 Schoolwide Learner Outcomes (SLOs) are arranged into three categories: (1) Core Academics; (2) Embodied Learning; and (3) Guiding Principles/Central Questions. Only the first of these is quickly amenable to digital learning, and meeting this challenge has propelled our creativity as a virtual school.

We are aware that students are feeling anxious and uncertain, they are lonely and restless, cooped up and frustrated. Adding to this list, parents experience the reality of financial uncertainty, caregiver exhaustion, and an existential-type crisis as we adults attempt to predict an uncertain future by understanding a complex present. Nothing is particularly easy.

As a team of educators and mentors, we have considered these many realities in deciding how Manzanita Bridge Virtual School should look, and what it would offer to students and families.

The teachers and administrators at Manzanita are discussing all of this regularly, in long, after-hours meetings, during Spring Break and weekends, pushing through the haze of ZOOM-FOG to hold this precious school and beloved community closely in our hearts and effectively in our ZOOM Rooms, while simultaneously working to tend ourselves and our families. We have made concrete decisions to provide a very specific schedule of activities and assignments to keep students engaged, connected, learning, and hopeful. We are proud of our successes and our ongoing evolution, and we trust you can feel our abiding love, commitment, and dedication.

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Parents, please look out for a brief survey coming your way as we collect some of your experiences during this time of Manzanita Bridge Virtual School. —Thank you!

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NOTE: You can view and/or download a PDF version of this report at this link.

Quote of the Day from David Abram

“'That’s the Milky Way. Don’t you remember learning about it?' 'Yeah…,' the boy answers. 'I just didn’t know that you could actually see it.' The father looks back up, then removes his glasses. They both stare and stare. Luminous beauty in the midst of shuddering terror. Interpersonal solidarity—layer upon tearful layer of empathy for one another—in the midst of enforced solitude and loneliness. The paradoxical, ambiguous nature of this moment."

-  David Abram

Need a Boost? This Week's Most Uplifting Coronavirus Clips

The Guardian Newspaper has been assembling weekly videos to lift our spirits! Enjoy this one. YOU HAVE  TO WATCH to the end. It's just a couple of minutes long.

As the world battles the coronavirus pandemic, communities around the world are coming together to support each other through difficult times. From dressing up as Spider-Man to leaving out food for strangers, here are some of the small things people are doing to keep each other's spirits up.