School News Our Community School Gives Their Students the Education Every Child Deserves! With the latest Academic Performance Index (API) scores just released, Our Community School, a tuition-free, public charter school (K-6th) in North Hills, shines as the bright beacon of hope for educational success within the Los Angeles Unified School District. Currently in its 2nd year, the increase of OCS's API by 50 points proves that greater academic success is achieved by students in an environment where they are not only challenged, inspired and motivated by an exciting and rigorous academic program but where they are also treated as individuals, with respect, in a small yet ethnically and socio-economically diverse school. OCS utilizes a standards aligned, developmentally structured curriculum based on integrated humanities and constructivism. Since the school's inception, in fact, OCS has garnered quite an impressive array of grants and support from many sources including the LAUSD school board, the California Department of Education (CDE) and The Riordan Foundation. Last Spring, the LAUSD School Board, in realizing Our Community School's academic achievements and successes, granted a 3 year charter extension to this progressive alternative to the traditional public school. That action by the School Board not only proves that the District recognizes the success of Our Community School, it validates the efforts of the school's administrators, teachers, and parents who have worked together to create a school where students thrive academically, emotionally and physically. The California Department of Education (CDE) has also granted Our Community School $360,000 to further enrich the school's flourishing progressive learning community. Another supporter and contributor to OCS is The Riordan Foundation, which chose OCS to participate in the foundation's Computers in The Classroom program, and has since provided the 4th and 5th grades with computers, in turn, allowing the core curriculum to be enhanced by computer based technology. Yet another important affirmation of the successful implementation of the OCS educational philosophy was receiving WASC Candidacy Status. The Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) is the major accreditation organization in the Western U.S. The House of Blues Foundation shares Our Community School's belief in the importance of music in the schools and has provided generous support through grants for instruments, which has added to the already exemplary music program in which all OCS students participate. With so many public schools failing to educate our children, Our Community School provides each student with the education that all students deserve as well as every opportunity to achieve success. Our Community School stands out and differs from other public schools in myriad ways. At OCS, the students develop a life long love of learning in small, democratic classes, wherein they create codes of conduct, develop and vote on rules to address ongoing classroom issues and provide peer support. Music and the arts are also an integral part of Our Community School. The students have an amazingly talented, multi-instrumentalist music teacher who works with the students on ORFF instruments (wooden xylophones), drums, and voice. A visual and theatrical arts program is also offered to OCS students by award winning arts partner BLUEPALM. OCS has school wide Community Service programs developed by each class and Bi-monthly all school assemblies, led by the students, which provide a venue for each class to share knowledge, experiences, play Orff instruments, drums, and sing, further fostering their strong sense of community. Located at 16514 Nordhoff St. in North Hills, Our Community School (OCS) is a progressive, public charter school serving grades K-6th and is currently enrolling all grades for the 2007/2008 school year. Call (818) 920.5285 for a School Tour. www.ourcommunityschool.org. At OCS every child is honored. Riordan Grant Provides Computers and Opportunites for Students at Local Charter School Our Community School, a tuition-free progressive elementary charter school in North Hills (K-6), is a small learning community in which parents and educators work together creating a nurturing and supportive environment where our children are respected and achieve success. At Our Community School (OCS) students participate in a rigorous and stimulating academic program attentive to individual needs within a physically and emotionally safe educational setting. With a generous grant from the Riordan Foundation, the 4th and 5th grades will now have computers in their classrooms allowing the core curriculum to be enhanced by computer-based technology furthering the academic success of each student. Danielle Boucher (4th grade teacher) and Jude Stabiler (5th grade teacher) have been chosen to participate in this year's Computers in the Classroom program as both have technological experience and both teachers want to spearhead the school's computer integration plan by mentoring other teachers as additional computers are added in the future. In the fourth grade classroom, students will work on programs such as the Mavis Beacon typing program; Excel, which will support their Math Curriculum; Math for the Real World which allows students to set up and manage businesses while applying math to the world around them, and the students will use the new Powerpoint and Hyperstudio programs to present their social studies or science projects to the class and/or school. In the 5th grade classroom, the students will utilize the First Thousand Words computer program to enhance their expository writing and research skills of the standards aligned study of pre-Colombian Native Americans. As publishers of the OCS Times, the 5th grade students will also learn Print Shop Deluxe and MS Office for use in writing, editing, printing and distribution of the school newspaper. Finally the class also plans to connect to online banking to oversee the budgeting of revenue generated from OCS Times ads, create EXCEL spreadsheets and make invoices for their clients. Our Community School is located at 16514 Nordhoff Street in North Hills. Call the school office for more information or for a tour: 818-920-5285. www.ourcommunityschool.org. At OCS Every Child is Honored. 'Our Town' as seen through the eyes of and built by Kindergarten and First grade students at Our Community School With the only stipulation being to let their vision and imagination run free, John Foley's combined kindergarten and first grade class at Our Community School designed, built and decorated their interpretations of the homes in which they live; a hands-on approach to learning in this humanities based core curriculum study unit on families and community. Using different sizes of cardboard boxes, the students worked excitedly, creating their houses; some homes had chimneys and peaked roofs while some were large enough for visitors to enter through the front door and sit down for some stimulating conversation in the living room. Once built, the students painted their homes and hung decorations, which corresponded to their families' holiday observance. Still in use today during the classroom's circle time, each student also designed and constructed his or her own personal chair. Each child chose fabric, which they sewed to create a slipcover over the frame of their chairs, made from duct-tape, newspaper and Styrofoam. For the culmination of this unit, the students built a town replete with roads, stop signs, and trees painted on cardboard boxes, while blue butcher paper painted with white fluffy clouds hung from the ceiling. The kindergarten and first grade students proudly wrote some of their first reports ever about their architectural beauties. Our Community School (OCS), a small school community of 190 students (K-6 th), in North Hills, is an alternative to the traditional public school. At OCS, children develop a life-long love of learning, feel safe and valued within their school community and actually are excited about going to school! All students develop strong skills in language arts, mathematics, science, history and the humanities, as well as the visual and performing arts. OCS nurtures the whole child, addressing the intellectual, social, emotional, creative, physical and collaborative aspects of your child's education. At Our Community School, all stakeholders, students, parents, teachers, and administrators, work together to create an inviting and engaging learning community wherein the students become effective problem solvers, critical thinkers and self-motivated learners. Our Community School is now enrolling for the 2007/2008 school year. To take a tour of Our Community School, please call the school office at 818-920-5285 or visit the school's website: www.ourcommunityschool.org. At OCS Every Child is Honored. THE STUDENTS AT OUR COMMUNITY SCHOOL (OCS) DRUM UP SUCCESS THANKS TO THE INTERNATIONAL HOUSE OF BLUES FOUNDATION Through a generous grant from the International House of Blues Foundation, Our Community School, a tuition-free, progressive elementary school in North Hills, has received nearly twenty African drums made by Remo. These drums are used in conjunction with the school's already flourishing music program and open the students' world to creating rhythms and reading music in a group setting. Studies show that children who participate in music programs improve in all academic areas, especially math and memory. While every child at Our Community School has been and will continue to enjoy these beautiful drums throughout year, this May, the 5 th and 6 th grade students will have the privilege of participating in a music recital on the stage of the House of Blues in Hollywood. Through enthusiastic participation, this grant can be ongoing for years to come. Our Community School is located at 16514 Nordhoff St. in North Hills, CA 91343. To find out more about Our Community School, please call the school office at (818) 920.5285 or visit the school's website: www.ourcommunityschool.org. At OCS Every Child is Honored.