The Library In Your Pocket

The Yavapai County Library system is participating in the eBook system called Overdrive. What this means, for people willing to spend a little time figuring things out, is that you can access a catalog of digital ebooks and audio books. With the proper software installed you can read or listen to these books on a wide variety of devices.

Kindle, the eBook service offered by Amazon is one of those software providers. If you are not familiar with that, you can go here and download the software for your device.

Once you get that done, you then go to the Sedona Public Library site, sign on to your account, find a book to read and a couple of clicks later, you can be reading or listening. Given the fact that the only thing you pay for is the cost of your device and internet connection, this is an amazing arrangement.

Parent Partnership Meeting, Wednesday, Sept.28th, 4:30-5:30 in UE

Come meet with us to find out more about what's up & coming for the fall! Children are welcome to attend as well. There will be members of the babysitting club on hand to watch kids in the playground area (no charge).


This year, I'm going to try my best to end promptly at 5:30 because I know we all have very busy schedules!


Thanks Everyone! Wendy Weidman

Parent Partnership Chair

SCS Winter Gala 2011 at Los Abrigados: September Special!

The ticket sales are going well since the announcement of the
"September Special"! In the month of September, tickets are only $35 and only available to Sedona Charter families & friends at that price.
In addition to the email notification of the event, flyers & money envelopes went home in the take home packets last week so if you haven't received one, check with your child or the office. Each envelope has a place to record your meal choice: Beef Coulotte w/ Thyme, Chicken Marsala (both served w/ butter crushed potatoes & seasonal vegetables) or Vegetarian: Stuffed, roasted acorn squash finished with a red pepper sauce served with quinoa and seasonal vegetables.
In addition, for $5 per child, the Babysitting Club will be offering childcare at the Charter School for the duration of the event.

Ticket prices go up to $45 beginning October 1st & will be announced to the public. Be sure to get yours today and save!

Any questions you may have can be directed to Wendy Weidman at florange.signs@gmail.com or to the SCS office.

Pay your taxes here!

No time better than now to line up your end of year  planning.

 Get set up today to manage your personal Tax Credit participation needs for 2011.

 The addition of a new internet payment service* makes this easier than ever before. Click on the link below to get set up for this today.

*Sedona Charter School is now up and running with QGive.  An internet payment system designed specifically for schools such as ours, QGive provides additional options for you to interact with the school financially. Click on the link below to go there now.

Sedona Charter School Tax Credit Internet Payments

Don't forget to find a friend. Every tax payer in Arizona can participate!

MOVIE NIGHT SEPT. 9TH!

Movie night is BACK!!
Bring your Family & Friends!

This is an outdoor event in the lawn area of SCS full of fun, food, drinks
& of course a movie!!

Seating begins at 6:45pm

We will be showing Wall-E, rated G. The trailer is here if you'd like to check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZisWjdjs-gM

Entry to movie night is $5 per person.

Refreshments will be available- Popcorn: $1.00
Soda: $1.00
Water: $1.00
Hot dogs: $2.00
Pizza: $2.50 per slice

Bring your lawn chairs, blankets and maybe a sweatshirt (the night gets a bit chilly)!

~The movie will begin at 7:20pm and it is 98 minutes long~

See you there!

Save the date for our next Movie Night October 6th. We'll be showing Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightening Thief, rated PG.

A message from PP chairperson Wendy Weidman

THANK YOU to all the families who attended the Family Social yesterday!  It was a great way to get to know each other a little bit better, hear a bit about upcoming plans and enjoy some TASTY food.  Everyone who provided appetizers, dinners, desserts, drinks, plates, cups, ice and utensils... A BIG THANK YOU!! 

Movie Night Coming Up!

The next event coming up quickly is an All-School Outdoor Movie Night, hosted by Upper Elementary as a fundraiser for their classroom.  This is happening Sept. 9th (next Friday). Everyone's invited! This takes place in the grassy area so bring your lawn chairs, blankets and kids for an evening under the stars.  There will be a small entrance fee and refreshments for sale.  Anyone wanting to help out at this event, please contact Marsha Johnson in UE at sedonacharterue@gmail.com.

Keep the Winter Gala in mind for December 2nd!  This event quickly sold out last year so to avoid that, we're starting early and figuring out a way to accommodate everyone.  More info will be coming on the details for this year -- tickets will be available starting at Movie Night.  Save the date!

Anyone interested in information about school event planning is welcome to drop in our Parent Partnership meetings the last Wednesday of every month from 4:30pm to 5:30pm.  If you can't make it and would like to have the highlights emailed to you, be sure to let me know if you haven't already gotten on the email list in the beginning of the year or yesterday at the Social. 

The next Parent Partnership meeting will take place September 28th although anyone interested in helping out at the Gala (set up, obtaining auction items, music planning, helping out the night of etc) please contact me as soon as possible b/c we'll be meeting before the 28th! (date to be determined)


Thanks again everyone! 

      

Error Is your Ally

Chapters 17, 18, 19 from Montessori Madness

 Here are some excerpts from chapter 24 of The Absorbent Mind. These are, as you will see from your reading, the basis of the ideas for the three chapters on error in Montessori Madness. There are a few things that you can note and keep in mind as you go through the material. 

1. This is a core principle in the system (i.e. a Montessori based system of learning)
2. If you think about the system as cyclical this would come very early in any cycle. 
3. If you can not "get this" then the rest of the steps become incrementally more difficult.

Supposing we study the phenomenon of error in itself; it becomes apparent that everyone makes mistakes. This is one of life's realities, and to admit it is already to have taken a great step forward. If we are to tread the narrow path of truth and keep our hold upon reality, we have to agree that all of us can err; otherwise we should all be perfect. So it is well to cultivate a friendly feeling towards error, to treat it as a companion inseparable from our lives, as something having a purpose, which it truly has.

 So we come to a scientific principle which is also a path to perfection. We call it"the control of error." Whatever is done in school, by teachers, children or others, there are bound to be mistakes. So we need this rule as a part of school life: namely, that what matters is not so much correction in itself as that each individual should become aware of his own errors. Each should have a means of checking, so that he can tell if he is right or not.....if--at first--I treated my own mistakes as unimportant, I have now become interested in them.

 ...., unless I can correct myself, I shall have to seek the help of someone else, who may not know any better than I do. How much better it is if I can recognize my own mistakes, and then correct them! If anything is likely to make the character indecisive, it is the inability to control matters without having to seek advice. This begets a discouraging sense of inferiority and a lack of confidence in one's self.

......what science and practical life both need must surely be accepted from the start as necessary in education.

This is the possibility of  "recognizing one's own mistakes." We must provide this as well as instruction and materials on which to work. The power to make progress comes in later measure from having freedom and an assured path along which to go; but to this must also be added some way of knowing if, and when, we have left the path. If this principle is realized, both in school and in daily life, then it does not matter whether teachers and mothers are perfect or not.

  From all this awareness of mistakes, there springs up a kind of brotherhood. Errors divide men, but their correction is a means of union. it becomes a matter of general interest to correct errors wherever they may be found. The error itself becomes interesting. It becomes a link, and is certainly a bond of fellowship between human beings. It helps especially to bring harmony between children and adults. To detect some small error in a grown up person does not produce lack of respect in the child or loss of dignity in the grownup. The error becomes impersonal and is then amenable to control.

 In this way, small things lead to great. - The Absorbent Mind Chapter 24