Clara Barton Open School

Barton Hosts Board of Education and Town Hall Meetings Monday

Barton will host two Minneapolis district events on Monday, May 1st.  Family and community members are invited to attend and share their ideas and concerns.

Special Discussion Meeting of the Board from 4 - 5:30 pm.  The topic of discussion is the 2006 - 2007 budget.

Superintendent's Town Hall meeting from 6 - 7:30 pm.  The meeting is an opportunity for the public to receive updates about initiatives and ask questions of Interim Superintendent Bill Green and district staff members.

Parent Leadership Summit

Parent United for Public Schools and the Minnesota PTA is sponsoring a Parent Leadership Summit on Monday May 15th from 8:00 am to 3:30 pm.  Findings from the Itasca Project's "Mind the Gap" study will be presented and a responders panel of education and policy leaders will discuss the impact for public schools, public policy and greater Minnesota.  Click here for a flyer that describes the details.

Middles Math Masters

5^th and 6^th graders recently participated in the annual District Math Competition. 

On March 11^th, twenty 6^th graders multiplied, square rooted and Venn-diagrammed their way to one of the best showings ever!  The team took home honors for Fact Drill, Overall Team First Place, Overall Team Honorable Mention, and individual awards for First Place, Second Place, and Honorable Mention.

Last Saturday, thirteen 5^th graders factored, sequenced, identified patterns and solved problems all morning long in six individual and three group rounds.  They were awarded honors for Fact Drill and Individual Honorable Mention.

The coaches, teachers, and parents are proud of the achievement of all of these students!  They volunteered for weeks of extra homework and after-school practices, and took on new roles as team members to tackle some really hard math!  Thank you to parent coaches Kim Anh Tong, Shefali Gori, Anne Sterner and Steven Lassiter.  Congratulations!

Oceanariums

Some students from Robin's kindergarten and first grade class display their oceanariums.

School Board Candidate Forums

There are two candidate forums for the Minneapolis School Board in April.  The forums are an opportunity to meet the candidates and hear how they plan to create significant change in our public education environment.

Weds, April 19, 7-9pm
Eastside Neighborhood Services
1700 Second Street NE
Minneapolis
612-781-6011
Sponosred by PEN (Public Education Northeast)

Thurs, April 27th, 6:30-8:30 pm
Ramsey Fine Arts
1 West 49th Street
Minneapolis
612-668-4040
Sponsored by Area C Work Group

Candidates as of this writing include:
Pam Costain, Jill Davis, Fred Easter, Joe Erickson, Polly Harrison Townsend, Judith James, Tom Madden, Doug Mann, Chris Stewart, and T Williams.

City Expo

The students from rooms 102, 104 and 106 had a lot to show and tell Thursday 3-30-06 at their "City Expo." During the past eight weeks, the students learned about the history of Minneapolis, what makes the city
special, and how to explore and learn about the city on their own.

Each student made a brochure describing a special place in Minneapolis, a building for the model city "Bartonville", a book of maps and a personal timeline. The work was presented to parents and students in the commons. They especially enjoyed putting "Bartonville" together for the first time, complete with airport, school, firestations, and of course, lake front homes for everyone!

The City Expo was the culmination of the unit Timelines and Skylines. Watch for news of the next focus for rooms 102, 104 and 106 Body of Knowledge. More photos of this event are available at Room 102's site.

Life Cycles

In Julie and Patrice's classrooms students are learning about life cycles by tending their own mealy worm. This student is feeding it listening to it, and watching it grow!