Mulberry School | Glossary of Terms

CCPPNS (www.ccppns.org): The California Council of Parent Participation Nursery Schools (CCPPNS) is a state-wide community of parents and educators committed to teaching and inspiring families through parent involvement and mutual support. Parent participation nursery schools and preschools are founded on the principle that the best education will result from an active partnership among parents, teachers, and children.
Coeducational: Used to describe an educational environment that includes both male and female students.
Common Ground (www.commongroundspeakerseries.org): Common Ground is a coalition of Bay Area schools that have joined together to provide parent education to their communities. The coalition provides opportunities for parents to learn from experts in the fields of education and parenting, to share ideas with other parents, and to support each other's efforts to enrich our school communities.
Constructivism: Students learn (and teachers teach) by fitting new information together with what students already know, building or constructing new and deeper knowledge and understanding.
Developmental Education/Progressive Education (ww.progressiveed.org): Wikipedia: constructivism, cognitive development, progressive education
Predictable age-related developmental changes affect children's intellectual, social, emotional and physical abilities. Teachers prepare the learning environment and plan experiences based on where groups of students are developmentally. Each child is celebrated as an individual with a unique personality, learning style, family background, and pattern of growth.
ESLRs: Expected Studentwide Learning Results
Gesell Developmental Observation (www.gesellinstitute.org): Mulberry uses this screening assessment as one of the tools to determine a child's developmental age and thus appropriate grade placement. The Gesell Developmental Observation is a standard procedure for direct observation of a child's growth and development. This assessment is conducted by a trained examiner who makes discriminating observations of a child's behavior and then evaluates these observations by comparison with normative patterns developed for each developmental age. The Gesell Screening Tool has no right or wrong responses.

Hands-on Learning: Comprehensive understanding and the ability to use knowledge in new situations requires learning in which children study concepts in depth. Providing students with direct experience with materials, objects, and phenomena allows them to build a more complete functional understanding of what they learn, and to become independent learners.
Integrated Learning: Subjects are integrated into projects and learning activities that reflect the interests of children, allowing students to learn abut the interconnectedness of different subjects and disciplines. Seeing inter-relationships increases students' understanding of the "big picture". With meaningful context, students acquire knowledge and enjoy learning.
Mulberry "Magic": Parents are invited to come see for themselves and talk to current Mulberry parents, students and alumni to discover the essence or magic of Mulberry. The secret behind the magic is LOVE: love of children, love of childhood, love of teaching, love of learning, love of a community spirit, love of wonder.
Multiple Intelligences: (Wikipedia: multiple intelligences)
Multi-sensory, hands-on approach: learning by doing. (Wikipedia: progressive education)
NAEYC Accredited (www.naeyc.org): Mulberry has achieved NAEYC accreditation since 2002. For more than 80 years, the National Association for the Education of Young Children has worked to raise the quality of programs for all children from birth through age eight. To achieve NAEYC Accreditation, early childhood education programs volunteer to be measured against the most robust and rigorous national standards on education, health and safety.
Non-profit: An incorporated organization which exists for educational or charitable reasons, and from which its shareholders or trustees do not benefit financially.

Nonsectarian

Private educational institutions or other organizations not affiliated with or restricted to a particular religious denomination.

Parent Participation

Please view our Parent Participation page for more information - click here.

Parent "Coop" (Cooperative)

A parent cooperative preschool is organized by a group of families with similar philosophies who hire a trained teacher to provide their children with a quality preschool experience. The preschool is administered and maintained by the parents on a non-profit, non-sectarian basis. The parents assist the professional teachers in the classroom on a rotating basis and participate in the educational program of all the children. Each family shares in the business operation of the school, thus making it truly a cooperative venture. Parents, preschool children and their teachers all go to school together and learn together.

Positive Discipline

Portfolio: Work Sampling System (view here)

Mulberry uses the Work Sampling System developed by Pearson Early Learning to create a portfolio for each student. This portfolio follows them from grade to grade, giving teachers background on each new student and providing students with a history of their work and progress. The Work Sampling System reflects current thinking in standards and assessment. It focuses on high standards of learning and instructionally meaningful, developmentally appropriate teaching. Work Sampling provides insight into how an individual child learns and targets the following areas: Personal and Social Development, Language and Literacy, Mathematical Thinking, Scientific Thinking, Social Studies, The Arts, and Physical Development and Health.

Progress Reports

SCVC: Santa Clara County Valley Council of CCPN (www.explorerpreschool.org - Word Document)

The Santa Clara Valley Council of Parent Participation Nursery Schools exists to: facilitate the sharing of ideas, and successes, and the resolution of problems, among parent co-op schools; promote high standards of preschool education in parent co-op nursery schools, and to supplement the educational programs of the member schools; acquaint the community with the aims and purposes of parent participation nursery schools.

Six Plus One Traits of Writing (www.sccoe.org)

Mulberry uses this writing program throughout the elementary curriculum. Developed by Ruth Culham, the "six plus one" writing traits are certain key qualities that define good writing. The "six" writing traits are:

Ideas: Good writing contains ideas - it conveys a message.
Organization: Good writing has organization - this means that the writing has a logical structure.
Voice: Good writing has its own voice - a personal tone and flavor chosen by the writer. 4) Word choice: Good writing shows a thoughtful approach to word choice - the writer uses the right vocabulary to get the message across.
Sentence fluency: Good writing has sentence fluency - there is a rhythm and flow to the writing that helps it convey the message.
Conventions: Good writing shows correct use of the conventions of written English - as the gramminator knows, these are grammar, spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and usage.

+1 Presentation - Good writing looks good on the page. Good presentation means that it is ready to read! If people can't read it, the message won't get through!

SPARK (www.sparkpe.org): This is the PE program Mulberry uses in the Elementary School. SPARK stands for "Sports & Active Recreation for Kids". The focus of SPARK is the development of healthy lifestyles, motor skills and movement knowledge, and social and personal skills. It is expected that SPARK Physical Education/Physical Activity students will: Enjoy and seek out physical activity, develop and maintain acceptable levels of physical fitness, develop a variety of basic movement and manipulative skills so they will experience success and feel comfortable during present and future physical activity pursuits, develop the ability to get along with others in movement environments (e.g., share space and equipment, employ the "golden rule" of competition-be a good sport, and demonstrate cooperative behavior).
Special Needs
TEAM: Please view our Parent Education page for more information - click here.
Theme Centers/Interdisciplinary Education: (Wikipedia: interdisciplinary teaching)
WASC Accredited (www.acswasc.or): Mulberry is accredited by WASC. The process developed by the Accrediting Commission for Schools, Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC), involves a dual purpose that continues the expectation that schools must be worthy of the trust placed in them to provide high quality learning opportunities, but with the added requirement that they clearly demonstrate that they are about the critical business of continual self-improvement.
Whole Child Development: Development has several inter-related dimensions. These include physical, cognitive, social, spiritual and emotional development, each of which influence the other and all of which are developing simultaneously. Progress in one area affects progress in others. Likewise when something goes wrong in any one of those areas it impacts all the other areas. For example, children who are malnourished are not able to learn; children with learning problems frequently have low self-esteem, etc. Developing a program based on an understanding of holistic development means taking the whole child into consideration, providing attention to the child's health, nutrition, cognitive, and socio-emotional needs.