Head of School Update
A Young Poet Points the Way
Dear Clairbourn Families,
Yesterday I was moved by Amanda Gorman, the 22 year old poet laureate, that spoke at the Inauguration. Two lines from her powerful poem have stuck with me. One was, “But one thing is certain, if we merge mercy with might, and might with right, then love becomes our legacy.” The other line is, “For there is always light. If only we’re brave enough to see it. If only we’re brave enough to be it.”
Both of these made me think of the Clairbourn students. Our mission of Creating Scholars and Leaders with Heart certainly embodies the sense of mercy merged with might and right. If that makes our legacy love, we are contributing to our community and our world one of the most valuable things there is to offer. I also see the Heart as that sense of light that our students are brave enough to BE in our world. I am so grateful to be in a community that values Heart and strives to live it in everything we do.
Amy Patzlaff, Ed.D.
Head of School
Inspiring Amanda Gorman Facts
- She is only 22 years old and the youngest person to serve at a presidential inauguration following in the footsteps of Maya Angelou and Robert Frost.
- She's local and lives in West L.A.
- She majored in sociology at Harvard.
- She intends to run for President of the U.S. in 2036.
- Her mother is a teacher and showed her how young people can become empowered thorough language.
- Her first public speaking experience was in 2nd grade.
- She struggles with a speech impediment (sounding the letter R) and shares, “I don’t look at my disability as a weakness. It’s made me the performer that I am and the storyteller that I strive to be.”
- In the 3rd grade, hearing the poem "Dandelion Wine" by Ray Bradbury inspired her love of poetry.
- In 2014 she was named L.A.'s poet laureate.
- She has performed in front of Lin-Manuel Miranda and Malala Yousafzai.
- Her first young adult book called, "Change Sings" is coming out in September.
- She wrote her inaugural poem "The Hill We Climb" only two weeks prior to the inauguration while watching the Capitol building being stormed on TV.
- She says the overall point of her poem is, “America is messy. It’s still in its early development of all that we can become. I can’t ignore that or erase it. I crafted an inaugural poem that recognizes these scars and these wounds. Hopefully, it will move us toward healing them.”
Annual Fund Donations
Only 18 Days to Reach 100% Giving Goal
Everyone matters in this giving campaign! We can't do it without you. Let's show the strength of the Clairbourn Community with a powerful participation rate!
We're in the final stretch of working to reach our goal of 100% participation in the Annual Fund. Gifts of any size matter and are deeply appreciated.
JPK – 67% Participation
PK – 56% Participation
Kindergarten – 96% Participation
1st Grade – 71% Participation
2nd Grade – 70% Participation
3rd Grade – 78% Participation
4th Grade – 54% Participation
5th Grade – 47% Participation
6th Grade – 42% Participation
7th Grade – 51% Participation
8th Grade – 58% Participation
Faculty/Staff – 95% Participation
Board of Trustees - 100% Participation
Please donate by February 8th.
Annual Fund Donation Levels To Consider:
Life Benefactor - $20,000 and Up
President Circle - $10,000 - $19,999
Founder Circle - $5,000 - $9,999
Trustee Circle - $2,500 - $4,999
Head of School Circle - $1,000 - $2,499
Cougar Circle – Up to $999
Donate Online
You may also mail a check, payable to "Clairbourn School.
Every donation counts, and your gift makes a difference in all aspects of your child's Clairbourn education. Your donation is also tax deductible.Have Questions?
Please contact your Class Captains or email development@clairbourn.org.
Sorry About Your Couch...
Today (Thursday) Clairbourn kicked off its annual Engineering Design Challenge with a Pillow Fort Building Project so students could use their engineering skills from the safety of their homes using available materials. Middle School Science Teacher Guen Vinnedge introduced the challenge and the requirements in the Morning Assembly, and teachers provided additional inspiration by showing videos during class of two professional engineers who taped video messages providing advice to our students.
Dr. Stefanie Wachter is a current Clairbourn parent of 7th-grader Kiri H. She works as a systems engineer for Carnegie Observatories, and she is involved in building instruments for telescopes used to study stars and galaxies. She has a Ph.D. in astrophysics and previously worked as a researcher studying blackholes, binary stars, and neutron stars. Today, she is responsible for providing clear, written specifications for scientific instrument builders working on their projects across the globe. She also monitors how the parts are being built and how they work together.
When it comes to pillow-fort building, as an engineer, her approach always begins with two steps:
1. Looking carefully at the specs (the requirements), such as how big...where do I have to build it...does it need a roof?
2. What materials are available to me, what can I use and what is not allowed to use?
 Civil Engineer April Shewry shares why her work mattersApril Shewry, is a Civil Engineer for Turner Construction Company and she is in Chicago, Illinois. She manages two construction sites for hospitals. She likes civil engineering because it makes her feel good to make buildings that will improve the lives of people in her community. She also is proud of being someone who is building parts of her city. Pillow forts are right up her alley--anything with structure! Her insider tip is use brooms as props for all four corners of a blanket or sheet to support and widen the ceiling of the fort.
Please Send in Your Photos ASAP -
All photos are due on January 28
PrestoPics sent everyone and email with instructions for how to take an upload our school photos for this year.
Didn't get the email? Check your email junk folder and contact Jeanette Zamora ( jzamora@clairbourn.org) if no email reached you.
What to Do:You are asked to capture a head-and-shoulders photo of your child from a device of your choice, log in from a browser app, and upload your photo. It’s very simple and takes a minute or so. Please view the "how to" video or visit the Presto Pics website for additional help.  PrestoPics "How-To" Video
Important Due Date: We kindly ask you to submit your school photo to PrestoPics by January 28.
Parent tips:
- Have your child dressed in school uniform (no spirit t-shirt)
- Photograph only one student at a time (no group photos)
- Take the photo in good lighting with no shadows on the face
- Be aware that you have two free tries to send in your photo. You can purchase more tries if you would like.
Today is Last Day to Sign Up for Parker-Anderson Enrichment
Kids Fun & Fitness Academy! Grades K - 5
Mondays: 1/25, 2/01, 2/08, (no classes on 2/15), 2/22, 3/01, 3/08 | Time: 4:00 - 4:45 pm | Cost: $90
STEAM Lab: Brain Games! Grades K - 5
Tuesdays: 1/26, 2/02, 2/09, (no classes on 2/16), 2/23, 3/02 | Time: 4:00 - 4:45 pm | Cost: $80
Kids Acting Workshop! Grades K - 5
Wednesdays: 1/27, 2/03, 2/10, 2/17, 2/24, 3/03 | Time: 4:00 - 4:45 pm | Cost: $90
TechKidz: Video Game Design! Grades K-5
Thursdays: 1/28, 2/04, 2/11, 2/18, 2/25, 3/04 | Time: 4:00 - 4:45pm | Cost: $90
Cute and Cuddly Animals! Grades K - 5
Fridays: 1/29, 2/05, (no classes on 2/12), 2/19, 2/26, 3/05 | Time: 4:00 - 4:45pm | Cost: $80
To enroll, please visit www.parker-anderson.org
Deadline to enroll: Thu, Jan 21
All sign-ups and payments are handled by Parker-Anderson. Classes are held online. Zoom meeting information is sent in a separate email.
We're Still Taking Pre-Orders for Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Till Jan. 26!
The CFA is having a Krispy Kreme Doughnut fundraiser. Pre-order your dozen(s) doughnuts now through January 26th and we will have fresh doughnuts ready for you to pick up at school by transportation on January 29th between 1-3pm.
Cost:
Dozen original glazed doughnuts - $12
Dozen chocolate-iced doughnuts - $14
Pickup Procedure:
Please keep health and safety in mind by staying in your car and wearing a mask. When you pull up to transportation, the CFA Chair will load the doughnuts into your trunk for a contact-free delivery.
Have questions?
Please contact Ting Sung, Lucy Balikian and Miriam Cruz
Isabella J. Helps Others By Donating
First-grader Isabella J. packed a backpack of her old clothes for donation to her church, First United Methodist Church of Pasadena. Isabella also donated two bags of tennis shoes and more clothing items (and a stuffed animal!). The items will go to the Foster Children Program that the church partners with, or to the church’s own Social Service Program. Want to help? If you would like to donate food items for the church’s pantry or clothing items, please visit the church’s website at www.fumcpasadena.org. More GameGala2021 Winners!
Congratulations go to 7th-grader Zachary Z. who won first place in the GameGala2021 G7-8 division competition. This is his second win of the first place spot for his division. Zachary started taking coding classes in 2018 as a fifth-grader. He began coding with Roblox Studio (3D game software) which uses “Lua” coding language to link game functions to game assets. He then moved on to learning Python because it has more uses and wider functionality. Zachary’s GameGala project is a website that scans Ebay for books. He used Python and HTML to create the site. He also used Beautiful Soup to scan Ebay’s information and gather book product names and images. Bootstrap was used for the look of his website. Way back in 2019, Zachary built a similar information gathering website used to scan the web for COVID-19 masks. He adapted that concept for this book search site which he entered into the competition. Check out his project. Way to go Zachary!
Additional congratulations go to fourth-grader Jerry W. who won first place in the GameGala2021 Division G4-6 competition. Jerry coded a game project named "Zombie: APOCALPSE" in Roblox studios. It is a multiplayer battle game with an objective to destroy zombies. The players have to cross invisible underwater parkour and adjust their eyes to a maximum light chamber in order to set off weapons to destroy countless zombies. But, watch out! The zombies can eat the castle. If players don't defend it, they’ll lose. He also coded a game currency dubbed "battle points." With battle points, players can buy equipment to help them battle with zombies.
About GameGala:GameGala invites K-12 students to showcase their self-developed digital game projects so they can become a game creator and developer--not just a player. Students may enter the competition individually or with a team.This year, Gamegala had a record high number of entries--more than 500 submissions from all over the world--which makes the wins by Clairbourn students even more meaningful. Learn more.
App-Makers Nina Luo and Caroline Kwan
For elementary school students, early technology training, a growth mindset, and teamwork skills can help them make the most of opportunities that come later in life. Former Clairbourn School students Nina Luo and Caroline Kwan, from the Class of 2018, exemplify this perfectly. The following article describes their new app, “Dishcovery,” and how Clairbourn School provided early educational advantages that helped them to take on this later technology challenge:
As food enthusiasts who frequently eat out and enjoy discovering new dishes, Nina and Caroline realized they wanted a way to quickly identify the customers’ favorite items on restaurant menus. So they decided to build an app that could determine the preferred items mentioned in user reviews and then list the top ten dishes at restaurants... Read the Full Article
Morning Assembly
Catch up On Morning Assembly Messages
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MLK's Birthday
Monday was a holiday honoring American Baptist minister and non-violent civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. He had a lot to say about justice, love, and getting along with others. Here are three inspiring quotes to honor his legacy of leadership and vision for humanity:
"I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear."
"We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools."
“An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.”
-Martin Luther King Jr.
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Scholarship Thoughts:
Albert Einstein was a genius and displayed one of the most intelligent minds the world has ever seen. He worked as a theoretical physicist who developed the theory of relativity.
It is interesting to see what Einstein said about learning and problem-solving:
Regarding how we should learn in the 21st Century, he said, “You don’t have to know everything. You just have to know where to find it.”
Regarding persistence in working through problems, he said, “It is not that I’m so smart. But I stay with the questions much longer."
Regarding knowledge, he said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.”
-Albert Einstein
Source: Medium.com
Clairbourn is "Creating Scholars and Leaders with Heart!" |
Staying Healthy: Discover Purpose
In earlier times, purpose in life was predefined. Today there are limitless options which can paralyze the motivation of young people and lead to anxiety and depression.
Only 1 in five people, ages 12-22, are clear about what they want to accomplish in life, have a defined purpose, and can explain why they want a particular path.
Success writer, Eric Barker explains that the typical strategy of, “Get the degree and you’ll figure out why later,” actually leads to many students wandering aimlessly through life lacking fulfillment and direction. So how can parents help? He agrees with the advice from Director of the Stanford Center on Adolescence William Damon. His book The Path to Purpose: Helping Our Children Find Their Calling in Life recommends these four things:
1. Follow and support your student’s interests--listen, encourage, and present possibilities.
2. Talk about your own work on a regular basis and share how it gives you purpose.
3. Find mentors for your child and encourage them to have an entrepreneurial spirit in pursuing their ideas.
4. Help them understand that what they do matters. Their life will have meaning if they can make a difference to others with their work and and their life.
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Parenting Tip:
Cultivating ResilienceAccording to Dr. Markham of ahaparenting.com, "There's a common misconception that children develop resilience by failing. Actually, children develop resilience by dealing successfully with failure.
When children have the support to get up and try again, they learn they can survive adversity and come out okay. When a child doesn't have that support, all he learns from failing is that he's the kind of person who fails.
So what kind of support can help your child turn failure into the confidence that no matter what happens, he/she can handle it?"
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Spread the Word!
Grant Money for Pasadena Small Businesses:
The online application portal for Pasadena's Small Business Coronavirus Relief Grant Program opens Monday, January 25.
The Pasadena Community Foundation will review and select applicants and subsequently disburse grant funds. The program is designed to provide up to 50 small businesses with grants of $7,500 each.
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Jan. 24 is National Compliment Day!
With Clairbourn's admissions season wrapping up, now is a great time to share your love for the teachers or your overall Clairbourn experience in honor of National Compliment Day on January 24, 2021.
Post a compliment on your social media accounts or on one of these school review websites.
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Student Accomplishments
Send in your student updates! Did your student win an award, learn a new skill, make something cool, have an adventure, or do a service project? We'd love to post it in the eCourier!
with the details including a photo or video if you have one.
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Computer Support
If you need technical help for CougarNet or device help, contact our computer teacher Mr. Barker. pbarker@clairbourn.org |
Community Support
Check out our COVID-19 Resources Page designed to help kids keep busy, families stay healthy, and parents be supported. |
Stay Connected
Follow us on these social media accounts.
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