Peace & Justice Festival 2010

"Peace is our gift to each other."

-- Elie Wiesel

Our 8th annual Peace & Justice Festival was held at school on a beautiful, sunny May Day. Teacher Eva spearheaded the festival and did a great job with arranging for speakers and organizing the event (while volunteer Mary Steinberg-Pichey arranged for a wonderful spread of food donated by local businesses). Several students helped set-up for the event and clean-up after all the festivities were done for the afternoon.

The program began with a presentation on "Fair Trade" by Melanie Bigalke from Cafe Mam. Martin Jones followed with a talk about Beyond War and "How Military Expenditure Impact Economic Problems" (see video below). Next up was Wes Shirley from the Eugene-Springfield Solidarity Network who spoke about the labor movement in our area. Samantha Chirillo followed with a talk about the Oregon Fair Trade Campaign as well as her personal experience of networking for social justice.

Here's a video of the Beyond War presentation by Martin Jones, MD.

Head of School, Dennis Hoerner, moderated a student/teacher panel which explored the topic of "Teenagers, Jobs, Fairness." Members of the panel included recent graduate, Mo, current students Nataya and Emily, teacher Eva, and parent-jobs specialist, Laurel Henry. Everyone shared their experiences in getting a job as a teenager (or not) and shared their ideas about what would be helpful for young people seeking employment.

Our thanks to everyone who helped and participated in the festival (especially Eva!) and to the businesses who provided food and refreshments: Cafe Mam, Sundance Natural Foods, Eugene City Bakery, Toby's Tofu Pate, and Dana's Cheesecake.

See you next year on April 23 for our 9th annual Peace & Justice Festival!

NOTE: See more photos on our Web Albums.

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Students Evaluate Staff Members

In late spring each year, our students are asked to provide a written evaluation of their teachers and other Wellsprings staff members. They're given a form that allows them to give confidential feedback to the staff.


In the instructions, students are asked to think about their interactions with individual staff members since the current school began. For each person, they're asked to give sincere and thoughtful feedback to nine questions. The first five utilize a rating scale of "1" as most positive, to "3" as neutral, through "5" as very negative:

1. I have had at least one class this year with this staff member. Yes or No
A. Her/his class is usually interesting.
B. I learned a lot in her/his class.
C. In course planning, s/he takes my input into consideration.
D. I would recommend to other students that they take classes with this person.
2. S/he was helpful to me as an advisor.
3. This staff member helps to maintain an environment during class and around the school that is emotionally and physically safe.
4. S/he is easy to approach.
5. I feel heard and respected by her/him.

The last four questions give students a chance to express their perceptions of each staff member in their own words:

6. Describe the way this staff member makes you feel.

7. what does this person contribute to the Wellsprings community?

8. What could this person improve on?

9. Other comments?

The responses from students are then compiled anonymously for review by staff members to see what they are doing well and what they might do better. This evaluation is just a small sample of the interactive environment our learning community continually creates to enhance personal growth and academic (or professional) achievement for everyone, students and adults alike.

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An Absolutely "Cozmic" Benefit Concert

Once again, our Benefit Concert at Cozmic (yes, with a "z") Pizza was a great success with a large enthusiastic crowd of students, parents, and friends of Wellsprings on hand to cheer the performers. This year we had more student musicians performing, along with a student who recited her poetry and another who belly-danced. Of course, our talented group of teachers -- Paul, Bob, Chanci, and Tyler -- played and sang in their bands and Rio, an "old" graduate of the school, topped off the evening with his rappin'.

For a look at happenings during the evening, here's a gallery of photos taken during the event which supports our school's art and music programs (Click on a photo to enlarge for better viewing):

If you'd like to listen and view videos of several of the performances, here's a selection of the groups and individuals to enjoy:

ChanciPants & The Educators



Alex & Laura



Axle - Jammin' with Paul & Tyler



Strum Theory



Chayla, Our Poet Extraordinare



Nataya



Rio the Rapper

Thank you to everyone who attended our benefit concert and for your generous donations (and to Cozmic Pizza for the great venue)! Plus a big round of "cheers" to all of the students and teachers who entertained us with their talents.

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Community Spirit on a Snowy Mountain

Along with creative classes, community spirit is at the heart of the Wellsprings experience for our students. Community means starting each day with Morning Circle, sitting in Silent Meeting every Friday morning, sharing in Community Meetings, and taking time to have fun together in community activities.

One of our annual all-school outings is a trip to Hoodoo for some snow play and tubing on the mountain. We had a beautiful day, some sunshine, lots of snow, and great time together in the lodge and on the bus. Here's a selection of photos taken by teacher Chanci (just click on a photo to enlarge the image).




Thank you, Chanci, for taking all the pics ... and many more!

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Photos of the Week

Blossoms, blossoms, everywhere this week. And some local creatures have been scurrying around and enjoying the sunbeams.

Must be going to rain soon!

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Making Sushi & Stir-Fry: Community Building Class Creates Lunch

A couple of weeks ago in morning circle, a student asked why we have never had sushi for lunch. Well, officer manager/teacher Yancey decided to make it happen and got the ingredients. On Friday morning right after circle, teacher Eva's community-building class started working on creating our sushi and stir-fry lunch. Here's a photo album showing the process and tasty outcomes from their work. Yummm!



Thanks to everyone who made it happen! Looks like we'll have to do it again soon.

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Photo of the Week

Every so often, cooking class with teacher Chanci makes tacos and other delights for school lunch. Here's a photo of taco and cookie making is progress.


In just two hours, all of our students and teachers will be sitting down for lunch and enjoying the tacos and cookies made by their friends in cooking class.

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