Dear Friends,

I've been spending alot of time in the lunch room this past month, trying to "sort out" the new sorting line for the commercial composting. Mostly it is working fine, with Reynaldo, the custodian, stepping up to the critical last station, stacking trays and trying to get the mac and cheese or mashed potatoes to unstick from the trays. Jessica, Waters mom, former student and Right at School lunchroom monitor has also gone out of her way to make the system work. Please give a pat on the back to these two when your see them.
Some 8th graders have also jumped into the breach during last period lunch, including Russel Miller, and my compost kids Moises and Israel. I've also had help from several parents during the first manic rush of Kindergartners.
These youngest kids are going to be an ongoing bottleneck, not because the aren't capable, but because they need alot more time to think things thru. Time that is not available in our crowded lunch schedule.  
I am going to try to continue assisting at the sorting line during that 11:15 -11:45 time slot until I feel the kids are comfortable and able. But my teaching and field trip schedule are going to tighten up in January, and I will not be available on many days.If anyone would be able to assist during those times and days it would be very helpful. It is an amazing thing to see these small people making there way through this rushed, adult world: making decisions, taking in all the chaos, and bravely going on. Let me know.

Being in the lunchroom has made me more aware of the status of our menu and the manic pace that the lunchroom staff has to keep up.
They literally run from one position to the next. Recall that we used to have 3 kitchen staff. Now we have two. It occurs to me that something has to give. One thing lost was the salad bar. Fresh vegetables and fruit, when offered,  have to be portioned, three cherry tomatoes tied into a plastic bag, slices of cucumber set into little plastic tubs, This takes up precious time from our kitchen workers. And the en-capsuling of these things adds a step to our kids very short lunch period. The plastic is not recyclable. So what I have observed is that most of these things make their way to the sorting line untouched, where the kids, or us helpers, have to take the fruits or vegetables out of the container, dump the food, and landfill the containers. This is nuts! A waste of time at both ends of this silly dance, a waste of food and a waste of plastic. We are trying to get
"permission" from Aramark to allow fresh fruits and vegetables to be self-served  from bins, to avoid the waste.
Worse yet, when staff has no time or fresh food available, they have to serve these prepakaged fruit cocktail or applesauce in sealed containers. This stuff is almost never touched, and ends up at the sorting line being opened dumped and landfilled. Ka-ching! Another dime for Aramark.
One solution is to urge our kids to reject and refuse these prepackaged nutrition-empty offerings, and force Aramark to provide the fresh foods that are featured so prominently in their ads.
That's what the students at Roosevelt did, and were joined later by a half dozen other schools.
Actions like these disrupts Aramark's  profit spigot, a spigot supplied by public funds. When the BOE privatized the lunchroom they cut staff by 33% and added a well paid CEO and investors. This is nuts! Why should anyone make profits off our publicly funded school lunch program?

Well, quite a grinch like rant, I know.
I just watched the Holiday show and was bathed in all that beauty, and energy, and enthusiasm, and love.
And I wonder how our City and BOE leaders can justify treating them like widgets, like funding tokens for a warped system of wealth transfer.
A change is gonna come.
Sooner the better.
I'm off to the lunchroom for the last time in 2015.
Blessings to all our school family!

Mr. Leki

Funny compost video here!

GARDEN WORK
Tomorrow, and Friday, 8th grade will foray into the gardens to continue their good works: leaf raking, compost hauling, trash pick-up, wood splitting, etc.
Each class comes out for 45 minutes at 1:15 p.m.. Last week we had 5 adult supervisors which vastly increased the amount of work done, and the fun.
Please join us, including parents with kids in the primary and middle grades,  if for no other reason, to see what the future holds in store for you.

Also on Friday, at 8:30 a.m. , 2nd Grade, Room 203, will do the Water Cycle, Water molecule, unique history, necklace activity. We will have 9 stations, so we need at least 27 parent volunteers. (joke). At the end of the process we will need to tie off the necklaces that have been created: anxious kids, tiny knots.  Each necklace will be unique, representing the almost infinite paths a water molecule will make during its billions of years on this pretty planet. Come join the fun. But, be ready to answer these basic ecological questions:
The Chicago River is connected to the  ________;
which is connected to the __________;
which is connected to the  _________;
and which jazzy city does it go through?;
before it enters the Atlantic  through the _________.

Also related to the Water cycle:
There are two great powers on either end of this saw.
One pulls down the water molecules, the other raises them up.
What are the names of this otherworldly duet?
(Hint: ask your 2nd graders)

ZERO WASTE PROJECT
Finally.
Commercial compost.
We are doing....
.....
.....
..... all right, I guess.
We are making the transition from having lots of helpers,
to leaving the whole process in the hands of our kids, the custodians, and Right at School good hearts.
It is working pretty well.
But for the first wave, at 11:15 a.m., with the Kinder kids, then the 1st graders, no custodians are there.
So, it's up to those lovely children, those colliding planetoids, those amazingly brave young humans,
to negotiate the sorting line.
I think we need dedicated volunteers there for ....?
another month? ...
Before these kids will internalize the many choices for waste reduction.
If you think you might be able to free your self, from 11:15 a.m. until 12:00 p.m., it would make a huge difference. Plus you get to have a peek at this whole process.
I am still amazed at the way these tiny kids interact with multiple adults, make multiple decisions,
make there way through lines,
tray wobbling, grab a spot, and/or reach reach for a ketchup packet, while their tray tilts disastrously,
find a place at the table,
like or dislike the food,
rise when bidden,
enter the sorting line
totally lost or totally confidant,
but always... verrrrry slowly.
As the line builds into a mob.
It is a beautiful thing.
Let me know,
Love,
Mr. Leki

Hello!
8th Grade comes to the garden today at 1:15 p.m. to do some last minute tasks: wood chipping, log splitting, and leaf raking.
We'll also have a fire burning.
Adults supervision welcomed.
Here is a photo of some of our 8th graders posing with bench that they restored,
Thanks,
Mr. Leki

8th Grade Garden Work
This week, weather permitting, 8th grade will try to have one more turn in the garden, raking leaves, moving wood chips, picking up trash, repairing benches and splitting wood. Thursday and Friday at 1:15. Come join us!
 
1st Grade Leaf Collection Labeling
Next week, Monday Dec. 7, the 1st grade will be labeling their leaf collections as we begin our weekly lessons on the Trees of Waters School. Parent helpers are welcome to help us make sure that the Silver Maples don't get labeled as Black Walnuts and the Locust are labeled Catalpa. Room 205, 11:30, Room 111, 12:15, Room 211, 1:20. Come! Test your ID skills.
 
2nd Grade Water Cycle
Next week Tuesday I do a lesson with 2nd grade about the water cycle in preparation for the Water Cycle Probability Necklace-making activity that will take place on Tuesday December 15. For Room 210, 1:15, for Room 208 2:15. Room 203 will do the activity on Friday, Dec. 11, (time to be announced).  

That's when we will need a hand (actually 18 hands would be perfect, two for each station) This is where a rolled die decides the next place that a water molecule might go on its never-ending journey through the water cycle. Will it go from cloud to glacier, where it might spend 200 years (5-6 dice throws?). Or from an aquifer to a spring releasing into a river? Only the dice know. At each go, the child takes a bead, specially colored for that station. By stringing the beads sequentially, each child will walk away with a unique water journey. Then we tie on jewelry clasps to finish off a beautiful, meaningful, gift quality necklace. 
 
One can imagine the perils of this activity. Nine large dice being thrown all over the room. Strings of beads coming loose and colored beads bouncing all over the floor like Lotto balls. Kids crying because they didn't get to travel inside the body of an animal (the coveted red bead). It all works out in the end, but many hands help.
 
Commercial Composting
Today, (Tuesday, Dec 1, 2015) will be our fourth day of Commercial Composting. We have had helpers from Seven Generations Ahead, my interns, and some wonderful 8th graders to remind the students about the new system. The results have been striking! Check out the pie chart below and the document PDF link. Farther down in the document it reviews the sorting options. We went from 8 bags of landfill (garbage), to one bag. Much of that one bag are those awful fruit cocktail cups (#6 plastic) and sporks, provided by Aramark. We are going to ask them to get rid of these cups and provide compostable sporks. That would leave only plastic wrappings, juice pouches, yogurt cups and straws  heading for the land fill. 
 
By heading towards Zero Waste, we get not one penny, one extra position, or more fresh fruit. We probably won't even get an "Attaboy" from Central Office. But, we are doing way better by Mother Earth, and setting a good example for our students. Please check out the documents below and ask your children about the new program.

Many Thanks,
​Mr. Leki

Hello!

I was a little bit laid out with a fever during the Thanksgiving holiday. I didn't get around to saying Thanks to you, blessed volunteers, for making the ecology program possible. I was leafing through the pages and pages of sign up sheets from my field trips. More than 200 people helped out. And I like to remind everyone that on our trips volunteers are not just chaperons (tho' that, too, is an important and necessary job), we are co-adventurers, seekers, and teachers. We are out to see the wonders together, ready to be bit, stung, and/or knocked off kilter by spectacular animals, and flowers, and vistas that take your breath away. Thank you for finding the time.
 
Thank you also to our partner organizations: the Forest Preserve District, Friends of the Chicago River, and Friends of the Parks. To the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District that leases us the east bank of the River for our use as a river studies site, and NeighborSpace and the Riverbank Neighbors for caring for it daily. To the Corinthian Yacht Club for letting us use their beautiful space at Montrose harbor for shelter during our visits to the Lake. To Evanston Water Utility for showing us how water is purified and pumped to our homes, and opening their space for us to take lunch.
 
To People's Gas and the Field Foundation for their ongoing critical support.  To Meredith at CPS for soldiering on with the citywide Composting Cohorts that help support our program. To Waters Today and all the kaleidoscopic subsets within it that raise the funds, keep the books, get the word out thru Green Notes, write the grants, and support our teachers and kids.  Thanks!
 
To Waters School gardeners and neighbors, to my interns and special helpers. Thanks.
 
To our students, whose enthusiasm and fresh take on each day keeps us afloat. (Yesterday a child handed me a note. It said, "Raccoons are people, too!")  No doubt.  Thanks!
 
To our teachers who try to stay flexible and resilient under the constant pressure from City, State, and National Dementors. Thanks and stay strong. This too shall pass.
 
And to Ms. Crespo and Ms. Alvarez, our 'office staff, custodians and food servers, who manage to maintain hope and a smile under very tough circumstances. Thank you.
 
Finally thanks to Mother Earth for each bright blessed day, and each dark, sacred night.
 
Okay, enough thanks! 
Onwards to the next post...
 
Many Thanks,
​Mr. Leki