From the Head of School

Value and Virtue
As Ruffing’s Head of School, I have multi-faceted responsibilities that arise from the various elements that comprise our school culture. On any given day, I have contact with our children and parents, staff, board, alumni, prospective parents, colleagues – all requiring response and follow up. It goes with the territory; it’s both challenging and rewarding, helping me to never lose sight of the higher calling that brought me to this role.

One of the most important aspects of my position is to articulate clearly our values as a school, and promote us as a virtuous learning community. I have said many times that true leadership lies not with a top-down, hierarchical structure of management, but within the values shaping our culture. Values unite us as a community and allow us to act as a school with integrity, where our shared priorities dictate our every decision. The strength of this statement is the connectedness it promotes among members, resembling a family or other close-knit group.

Does this ideal really translate over to the true needs of our students, families and faculty? I would respond emphatically, “yes,” because research now shows that when a school is truly value-based, all members then feel that higher standards are the norm. I speak of higher creative, intellectual and social relationships that have foundations in value and virtue that elevate them from the start.

Recent research has also shown that Montessori students have a much higher level of intrinsic motivation related to schoolwork and peers than those students who are traditionally educated. I contend that this is a natural by-product of a virtuous learning community.

At Ruffing, our goals as a virtuous school include creating self learners and self managers. We honor respect, partnerships, and work - with reciprocal and interdependent rights to participate and benefit, but with obligations to support and assist.

Thank you for being members of this family. We are very fortunate to have each other.

You’re Special, Too!
Last Wednesday, November 11, we showcased our specialists in an evening of music, dance, artistic endeavors, archery, rock-wall climbing, technology, and travels to Spanish-speaking countries. The dominant feedback was on how much fun our specialists were having, and consequently, so were the parents.

My thanks to Francine, Ann, Jennie, Lauren, Lili, Albi and Erika for helping make Ruffing such a “special” place for your children.

Communication at Ruffing
Ruffing’s Communications Committee continues to meet this year to discuss how we can clearly and effectively impart information to the school’s many constituencies. The school-wide survey completed a year ago overwhelmingly favored email distribution of messages and news over any other means of delivery, and we have increased the utilization of this method. To address requests for greater depth of information for parents on classroom activities and planning purposes, a concerted effort has been expended to ensure that the website is current with student homework, news, class notes and class newsletters. We are requesting your feedback on the improved practices we have adopted. Has this accessibility been useful to you? Do you feel you are more informed than formerly? We welcome your input and suggestions for areas of improvement.

Gordon L. Maas, Head of School

November 50th Anniversary Quiz Challenge
Last month’s trivia question (matching five Ruffing teachers with their undergraduate colleges) had several correct responses. The first was by parent Brian Gran, who received a vintage “dinosaur logo” Ruffing t-shirt.

October’s question and the answer: Match each Ruffing teacher with the undergraduate university from which they received a bachelor’s degree:
1. William Losacano - Southern Connecticut
2. Susan Gray - Bowling Green
3. Kathie Freer - Ohio State
4. Lili Rose - Texas
5. Francine Barnett – Jacksonville

November’s question: In the years prior to the dedication of the gym in 1989, Ruffing’s elementary and middle school classes left campus for physical education classes. Where did they go for gym, how did they get there, and what (be specific) occupies that space today? (The first person to send the correct answers for all 3 parts to Cary Seidman at carys@ruffingmontessori.net will receive a free 50th anniversary Ruffing t-shirt.

Admissions
The November 8 Open House this past Sunday was a success! I want to thank all of our volunteers, as well as the faculty and staff, for their efforts in creating such a warm and welcoming atmosphere for our guest families! In particular, I extend my sincere gratitude to volunteers: Rima Akhrass, Ashleigh Anderson, Erin Bartman, Andrea Burns-Crayton, Phillis Campbell, Meredith Exline, Julie Comber-Martin, Victoria Martin (’09), Karen Davies, Clare Ditchman, Carrie Doerr, Jane Duff, Erin Hobey, Linus Falck-Ytter (’06) Amita Frawley, Emma Freer (’08), Jennifer Gidlow, Lisa Hunziker, Susannah Hyatt, Stanka Kordic, Mike Martinez, Lisa Navracruz, Catherine Howe, Betty Poffenberger, Martha Schubert, Jessica Smith, and Pippa Winder.

Also, classroom observations are still ongoing. If you are interested in seeing your child “in action,” contact Julie Haffke at julieh@ruffingmontessori.net or 216-321-7571 to schedule your classroom observation. We will be scheduling classroom observations through April , 2010.

Do you sing and/or play an instrument?
Sandpaper Letters is hosting an Open Mic Night for parents of the Ruffing community. All
musicians and singers are welcome. The First annual Open Mic event called "Musicians Among Us" will take place on December 3 at 7:30 pm in the Ruffing Middle school.

If you are interested in performing or have any other questions, please email Derek Navracruz (derek@navracruz.com) for more details.

Food for Thought Cookbooks Final Sale
With gift-giving season ahead, we have the last 30 copies of the Food for Thought cookbook for sale. They are $16 each and available in the Development Office. A high quality book at a nice price. These are what we have left of the final reprinting, and once these copies are gone, there are no more.

Request for Green Matter for Composters
Ruffing is requesting donations of grass clippings and hay for its composters. In order for a composter to work efficiently, it is helpful to layer food scraps with grass clippings or hay, to balance the carbon and nitrogen levels, and to allow for easier aeration. Ruffing produces plenty of food scraps, but the school’s mower mulches what little grass we mow, so we’re unable to produce our own grass clippings. This will be an ongoing need, so even if you’ve already put your mower away for the season, please keep us in mind in the spring! Please contact Susan Olsen in the Development Office if you think you may be able to help. Susan can be reached at susano@ruffingmontessori.net.

Helping Hands
Helping Hands at Ruffing is a group of parent volunteers who have been assisting our teachers and staff with a variety of projects for over 8 years. We help to create or maintain classroom materials. We have been asked to copy, collate, laminate, color, cut, clean, assemble, label and organize. We meet twice monthly throughout the school year. We always welcome parents to share their time and talent in an atmosphere of community service. Please consider joining us. We meet in the workroom on Thursday mornings from 8:30-11:30 am. Our remaining dates include November 19, December 3 & 17, January 7 & 21, February 4 & 18, March 11, April 15 & 29, and May 6 & 20. If you'd like to be reminded as dates approach, please send your email address to Jean Kloos at jhkloos@sbcglobal.net. Thank you for your consideration.

UNICEF Collection
The 2009 Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF campaign at Ruffing was a big success, collecting $587 for the United Nations organization to support their work in providing food, medicine, and educational opportunities for children in the developing world. Recent natural disasters in the Philippines and Indonesia have put a strain on UNICEF's resources, and Ruffing's generous donation will help in their mission.

Ruffing Promotes Wellness
Rapidly rising healthcare costs aren’t the only reason we have decided to implement a wellness program for the faculty and staff at Ruffing. A wellness program also promotes healthy lifestyle choices, improves productivity, reduces absenteeism, and helps us manage stress in our day-to-day lives. Ruffing’s program, which rolled out just this month, includes physical activities for our faculty, like yoga classes after school, an informal walking challenge, and a weekly zumba dance class taught by our own Jennie Rozsa.

Other components of Ruffing’s wellness program include a smoke-free and drug-free workplace (a no brainer), on-site first aid training, and educational materials on health and nutrition. We’re also offering such benefits as on-site health screenings, personal wellness profiles, and rewards for keeping up with those annual doctor visits for routine preventive care. Francine Barnett even promises a rock climbing class for grown-ups to support our venture.

The wellness program has been well received by our faculty and staff and we are all excited to support each other in our efforts to take charge of our health and wellbeing. Kudos to the Wellness Committee for stepping up to support and develop Ruffing’s employee wellness program – Francine Barnett, Lynne Breitenstein-Aliberti, Bob Fleischhacker, Susan Gray, Debra Mitchell, Kelly O’Melia, Lili Rose, and Stacey Wilker.

A side note – Why stop with faculty and staff? If you have an interest in starting an evening yoga, dance, or other fitness class for parents at Ruffing, please contact me at debram@ruffingmontessori.net or call the school. If enough parents are interested, we can provide the space at Ruffing.

Debra Mitchell

Snow Fun returns this year!
Ruffing presents two opportunities for you. If you and your children would like to get in a little skiing or snowboarding this winter, Alpine Valley has offered a discount to Ruffing families. Every Saturday, beginning in January, from 10 am-2 pm, you can ski and receive a one hour lesson. The cost is $165/person including rental for the entire season. Your child must be six years old by January, 2010 to be eligible to participate.

Registration forms will be available at the school shortly. If you have any questions you can contact Ruffing Dad, Steve Paulini spaulini@mac.com. More details will be available soon.

Alternatively, Mary Beth McCormack, Upper Elementary Directress, is coordinating the 2009-2010 season of Ruffing’s Ski and Snowboard Club. Contact her at marybethm@ruffingmontessori.net for more information.

Parent Association
The school year is well underway, children have adapted to the school routine, and you have hopefully had a chance to meet your fellow parents during at least one of the Parent Association's events. Of course, even if you have not yet managed to connect with other Ruffing parents, you're in luck, because there's still time. See the events below.

On Sunday, December 6, from 6-9 pm, Joseph Beth Booksellers in Legacy Village opens their doors to the Ruffing Community for our annual Book Fair. Today, special invitations will be sent home with the youngest or only child in each classroom. Check your child’s bookbag! Bring your pajama-wearing children, your friends, and your holiday shopping list and enjoy the fun. Finish off your holiday shopping early, and help the school while you're at it (20% of proceeds from bookstore purchases, and 10% from Bistro purchases go to Ruffing). Last year, I actually went a few days ahead of time - sans kids - to select my purchases, and put them aside so I could buy them during the book fair. Of course, this year, with the sale of the gift cards, even that is not necessary! And storytime with Gordon Maas promises to be a precious event for children of all ages to enjoy. As usual, we could use some volunteers for the event (gift wrappers, babysitters, Franklin costume-wearer), so please consider offering some of your time to help make this event memorable. If you're interested in helping, contact Doug Fleck at doug.fleck@gmail.com.

Don't forget another great way to help the school while mingling with fellow parents: Helping Hands. If you're free between 8:30 am - 11:30 am on Thursday, December 3 or 17, stop by the school and help Jean Kloos tackle some projects for the teachers. The projects vary each time depending on the teachers' needs. If you find yourself with a little down time during the
day, consider lending your own helping hand.

At your service,
Nivi Engineer
PA President
niviengineer@gmail.com

Lost and Unclaimed
Two brave parent volunteers sorted, hung and arranged the contents of the Lost & Found bin under the gym, rendering the items to be recognizable and attractive. Please, please, if your child is missing clothes, shoes, boots, etc., check out the display before winter break. Remaining items will be donated on Friday, December 18. Thank you!

Graduation Speech
As many of you know, each Ruffing graduate prepares and delivers a farewell speech at graduation. Here is the speech given by Ben Whitehead, a 2009 Ruffing Graduate and a freshman at Hawken School.

The number three is not common in nature; in fact, it is odd. Throughout our lives, we find that numbers like two or four are more common, except of course in the case of Gabe and me who came in two, which is unusual in itself. However, Ruffing has more than a few hidden threes within its roots. The old and beloved Ruffing symbol pictures a triceratops, which has three horns. In Lower Elementary we studied the origin of life, which included a trilobite, which had three lobes, and through the grade levels at Ruffing, each class with the exception of the Middle School consists of three grades. As I look back on the past eleven years of my life at Ruffing, I picked three unique aspects of my Montessori education.

I realize that I not only gained knowledge of the traditional reading, writing and arithmetic, I also learned life lessons that continue to shape the person that I am. From my first experiences in Natalie’s class where I learned to prepare food, set tables, and finally clear tables after lunch, to the Middle School where I learned to motivate myself to achieve a goal, I am better prepared to face the future.

One of the Montessori philosophies is the idea that “a child’s work is to create the person he/she will become.” Here I have realized that self-motivation is a key component of learning. Montessori education requires that the student learn at his own pace and learn because he/she wants to learn. On many occasions throughout my time here, I have found that I completed something not because I received a grade or a reward, but rather because it was fulfilling and I wanted to feel that I could do it without being told.

Being self-motivated is having the ability to propel yourself to get something done, but this could not happen if we could not choose how we wanted to excel. This leads me to my second subject, independence. In the Children’s House, this independence allowed me to choose whether I wanted to use the bead game or the map puzzles. In the Lower Elementary, this independence was a springboard to long division and multiplication. In the Upper Elementary, it expanded to my creative writing. And in the Middle School, I chose to study Spanish with Senora Lili instead of French and to decide where I would attend high school. Who knows where this sense of independence will lead me next?

Some people think that because I attend a small school I will not be prepared for high school, where I will encounter many more people. But I believe that I am better able to connect with other kids my age and with adults. We have learned to treat each other with respect and treat our elders with respect as they do us. The popular phrase, “at Ruffing, we’re all one, big, happy family” suggests that we, the students and faculty, have a special bond. The genuine connection that we feel is stronger than the usual relationship between a fellow student or colleague. The ability to make those connections and foster those deep relationships is a skill that will help in everything from my personal to my professional life.

These aspects of my education at Ruffing encompass three of the values that I will take with me to high school, college, and throughout the rest of my life. Ruffing has been a catalyst in shaping who I am and has taught me how to help others. It has been a great beginning to my life, academically and socially. My brother and I now end seventeen years of the Whiteheads at Ruffing and I know that I will use what I have learned. I am ready to move on to high school, but after so many years as Ruffing has become a home away from home, I can’t help thinking about how much I will miss it.

Upcoming Events
Friday, November 20 Pizza Lunch

Monday, November 23 Girls Basketball 4 pm; Boys 5 pm @Ramah

Wednesday, November 25 No School – Thanksgiving Holiday through Sunday, November 29

Friday, November 27 Alumni Party for classes of 1977-2002, 5-7 pm in the Middle School

Monday, November 30 JV Girls Basketball 4 pm; Boys 5 pm @ Agnon