If Project Learn Walls Could Talk

By Jamie Polson  

Early PLS before the two buildings
merged.

In 1970 the ribbon was cut on Project Learn School, 43 and a half years ago.  What you might not know is that Project Learn originally had a different location in a church nearby. But what was the 6525 Germantown Ave building before it was a school?  PLS’ building used to be a pill factory, with apartments on the third floor.  This is according to Donna Allender, one of founders of Project Learn School, and a teacher of the Journalism class at PLS.  Karyn Johnson, the early care teacher at PLS, remembers, “You could smell the pills from the school.  The pills were made and then taken to the drugstore, next door.”   

   When the building was for sale, the community put together money to pay for the building. It ended up being more than they collected so they needed to get a mortgage.  Ten of the original families guarantied the mortgage by putting their homes up for collateral.    

    The first rule at PLS was created when the first kids entered the building. They were the kids of the founding teachers who came to clean the building. The first thing those kids did was to slide down the banister on the third floor to the first floor -- when the banister was still weak, creating the rule if you slide down any banister you are automatically sent home.  

    In the early years PLS students would go to the drugstore (which was next door) to get candy during lunch or after school.  The candy was pretty cheap. Dr. and Mrs Riebstein owned the drugstore, which is now the Community Room.  The Riebstein’s lived on the second and third floor above the drugstore.  When Dr. Riebstein died, Mrs Riebstein sold the building to PLS. There were lots of renovations that had to be made, that’s how the bridge was built between the two buildings.  

    Richard Finch was the builder at the time, and was the son of Sue Finch, the school’s secretary.  Peter Fox, who had been a student at PLS, was the architect for building the bridge and connecting the two buildings, and the son of Fran Fox, one of the founding teachers.  

    PLS has had a long, interesting history and hopefully it will continue with a long future.      

At Closer Look at Some Fall Electives

By Cece Mulchay

Project  Learn  School  (PLS)  electives  are  classes  for  students  to  choose  and  take.  They  are  offered  in  the  fall  and spring and  kids  get  to  choose  two  each  semester.  They  are on  Monday/Thursday  and  Tuesday/Friday  from  11:15 to noon.  The  staff  thinks  electives  are    important  because  kids  can  choose  what  they  want  to  learn,  instead  of  teachers  deciding  for  them.

The  Mural  Arts  elective  is  on  Mondays  and  Thursdays.  It  is  taught  by  Joan  Fox  and  Roni  Anton.  Nadja  Anderson-Oberman  chose  Mural  Arts  because  she  really  wanted  an  elective  with  an  art  perspective.  Nadja  said  “The  elective  is  really  cool  so  far.  I’ve  never  done  a  clay  mural  before.”  Nadja  thinks  taking  electives  is  important  because  “School  is  mainly  about  learning  and  needs  a  bit  of  fun.”

Joan and Nasya working on the mural.

Joan  started  the  Mural  Arts  elective  because  “Most  people  commented  on  the  mural  in  the  office, and asked 'Can we do something like that?'" This elective is designing a mural for the local Fire Department. It will be displayed in the special space that the Fire Department is making so everyone can see the mural.

Sean Leber, a new teacher at PLS, teaches the Indoor/Outdoor Games Elective on Tuesdays and Fridays. Sean chose to teach this elective because, "I really like board games, and I wanted to get people to learn about each other through games." Sean said that he wants the elective to go outside one week, then inside the next to learn some fun games. They have had ping-pong and Egyptian Rat, a matching card game, tournaments. Sean said, "I think the electives are important, because it give students and teachers a chance to interact with each other in a not social, not academic environment. It's a little bit of both."

A completed knitting project.

One  of the  other  the electives  taught  on  Tuesday/Friday  is  the  Knitting  elective and is  co-taught  by  Aisha  Anderson-Oberman  and  Lisa  Pack.   Lisa  said,  “The  eight  students  are  knitting up a storm.  I  love  knitting,  so  I  like  sharing  that  with  the  kids  at  PLS.  The  elective  is  going  wonderfully. It  seems  like  no  one  is  having  any  problems.  We  hope  to  offer  it  throughout  the  school  year.”

One of the many other electives is Journalism, co-taught by Lisa Pack and Donna Allender. Lisa says “The elective has been challenging for some, and a new writing experience for all. We are making a blog, and it will have a hard copy of the paper.”
These are just some of the electives offered at school. There are several more that are just as interesting.

Building Improvements Occur Over the Summer

By Evan Spann  

Have you seen the new look on the front door at Project Learn School (PLS) - or the Community Room? All of this  work was done over the summer and early fall of 2013.

    Roni Anton, Project Learn School Community Coordinator, organized getting the work done in the building over the summer and early fall. Some of the work was done by parents and some was hired out. For instance, Judd Friedman, a landscaper, was hired to clean the backyard and  take out the weeds and brush. Lauren and Tony Halloway, new parents to PLS, also helped him.

    Other people came to the school to work on other projects. Joan Fox, Lisa Pack and Roni Anton plus the parents John Holbrook, Lisa Kelly, Chris and Kate Garrity, and John and Susannah Grubb all helped prep and paint the Community Room. David Wootton refinished the front the door all by himself. Donna Allender, one of the founding teacher/parents, was thrilled when she saw the door. She said, “It is so beautiful and such a fine way to welcome people to our school." 

 There were two work days to help get PLS ready: one on September 7 and the other on September 15. Lots of families came to help get school ready before the first day of school. Thank you to everyone who helped make PLS ready for staff and students.

PLS front door refinished by David Wootton, a new parent in Jane's Group.

PLS Hires 3 New Staff

By Sophie Gala

  Did you know that Project Learn School (PLS) hired three new staff members for the 2013-2014 school year? They're names are Sean Leber, Rebecca Zeldin and Dorian Dean. All were hired over the summer, which is a challenging time to hire teachers.

    The process for hiring  a teacher at PLS has many steps, each of the three new staff members at PLS had to go through them. First, the PLS Personnel Committee met and wrote an ad for the position and then put the ad for the position in many different places, one of which was the Chestnut Hill Local. As the resumes came in, they were looked at by the committee and some were eliminated. After a second look through, phone interviews were conducted with some of the candidates. Of those who were interviewed on the phone, a few were chosen to come to school to teach a sample class, which was followed by an interview with the whole committee. The Personnel Committee had to come to consensus on who would be the best fit. The job was offered to that applicant.

Jordan Shapiro, PLS Lead Parent, said the hardest part of doing this was finding someone who would fit in with the culture of PLS. The other challenge was coming to consensus on the decision. Jordan went on to say, "There were several reasons PLS needed three new teachers this year. Liz Ben-Yaacov retired over the summer, and it was important to replace her with a new math teacher. Also, Liam Galagher taught English to the Jr. High last year, and the staff felt it was important for him to have time to teach science to the younger groups. Plus, the staff wanted to get a teacher who would teach English and Spanish to the Jr. High. Jane's Group this year was so large, it was important for her to have an assistant."

    

Sean Leber on the third floor.

Sean Leber, the new math teacher, was born in Boston, Massachusetts and went to the University of Massachusetts, at Amherst. He did not  graduate from college to be a teacher. However, after he joined 'Teach for America,’ a program committed to helping kids from all backgrounds, he discovered how much he loved to teach. He taught at Olney Charter School for two years. A couple years ago he did sample classes with Liz's math class and really enjoyed his experience.Then  he traveled across the world and taught African refugees in Israel for  two more years. He came back to the USA and began his search for a job. Sean’s hobbies are music and technology. He collects head phones, and has one cat named Jeffery. He thinks the hardest and best part of teaching at PLS is enjoying the chaos.

   

Dorian Dean with some of her students.

Dorian Dean was born in Baltimore, Maryland and went to college at Tyler School of Arts at Temple University. Dorian has always been interested in teaching and  taught ceramics at multiple schools prior to this year, plus she ran an after school program. She was wondering what it would be like to teach full time when Debbie Pollack who used to teach art at PLS told her about  the assistant teaching position. Dorian's hobbies are cooking and art. She collects stones and has one cat named, Fifty. She thinks the hardest thing about teaching at Project Learn School is teaching kids to “make choices through freedom. “ The thing she likes the most is the sense of community and the passion of the other teachers.  

Rebecca Zeldin outside her room.

Rebecca Zelden was born in Washington D.C and went to Haverford College. She has always been interested in novels, and she has wanted to teach since she was ten years old. Rebecca knew she wanted to work in a cooperative environment  and Project Learn School is certainly that. Rebecca said she likes the people at PLS. She thinks the most difficult thing about PLS is how well other people think she does her job. Her hobby is hiking and she has one cat. Rebecca doesn’t collect anything, but she used to collect snow globes; she said she used to have over two hundred of them. All three teachers are fitting nicely into the school culture. Make sure to say hi when you see them.

    

New Face in After School

By Zack Waxler  

Donna Waxler, After School Coordinator

After-School at Project Learn School (PLS) has a new face! Donna Waxler has recently been hired as the new After-School coordinator for PLS. She is excited to be working at PLS and looks forward to each day.

    Donna says she applied for the job because she likes working with kids, and she has many ideas. She prepared a lot for the job over the summer as she collected a bunch of stuff for the After-School room. She even went to yard sales to find new toys and games in order to save money for the school.

    Donna has many exciting plans for each day. She plans to do themed days in After-School, such as Harry Potter day, or spy school day, etc. Donna is cooking each week with the kids, making a variety of good food choices for them. They have made baked potatoes, hot chocolate, pasta and lots of other delicious snacky foods. “The worst part of After-School is having to unstop the toilet,” she said recently. Her favorite part of being After-School coordinator is getting to know the kids and helping them negotiate their relationships. One of her other responsibilities in this job is to make sure the Community Room, kitchen and bathroom are cleaned up everyday before she leaves. She has also gotten good feedback for doing this.

 Lisa Pack, one of the members of the hiring committee, says that the reason Donna stood out from the other applicants was because she really impressed the hiring committee with all of the creative ideas she had. Lisa also said, “Donna has a clear understanding of what Project Learn School is all about.” Lisa added that Donna is doing a great job at having a variety of entertaining activities for the kids.

Eighth Grade: A Year of Celebrating at Project Learn School!

By Jamie Polson

     8th grade…  What an exciting year!  So much to look forward to.

     Liam Gallagher, the Junior High science teacher, said, “The 8th grade year is a good celebration for all that the students who have been at Project Learn School.  They work on systems thinking, collaboration, and setting big goals. Collaboration is a very important skill to have anywhere you go; systems thinking is when you have a project with multiple steps or things that need to get done and people need to be assigned to certain tasks; and setting big goals is trying to see the big picture first, then trying to get there. In order for the 8th graders to practice these skills they have a lot of projects throughout the year to work on such as the Haunted House, weekly food sales, and the Costa Rica trip.”

     Earlier in the fall, the 8th grade went on a trip to Silver Lake in the Poconos. They were invited by Surya Bromley's family to their house. Liam's favorite part of the trip was "watching the kids go crazy over the rope swing as I watched from the kayak." The goal of this trip was to come up with fundraising ideas for the trip to Costa Rica and for ideas for the Haunted House. David Bromley, Surya's dad, Liam Gallagher, and Linda Pollack-Johnson, the mom of this reporter, were the leaders of this trip. 

     The Haunted House is a project that the graduating class does during the Halloween season. They make up costumes, plot lines and characters for the Haunted House, which they construct in some of the Jr. High rooms. On Halloween the rest of the school goes through the Haunted House. Sean Leber, a PLS Jr. High teacher said, " I was looking forward to seeing what the 8th grade put together. Although I didn't know much about it, I was looking forward to seeing their creativity." The Haunted House is kept a confidential activity so that it's not spoiled before the other groups go in. Joan Fox, the PLS art teacher, remarked, "I like going to it and being a little scared."

     In the Spring, the 8th grade goes to Costa Rica on a service learning trip. In order to raise money for their trip, they do weekly food sales, which are put together by the 8th grade students, Liam and Joan. Some of the items sold at these sales are spagheti and garlic bread, tomato soup and grilled cheese, tacos, and mashed potatoes with toppings. A drink is included with each meal. The cost of the lunch for the rest ofthe school is $5.00. Zack Waxler, an 8th grader, said, "Spaghetti is my favorite food sale idea." The Costa Rica trip is what the 8th grade looks forward to all year. Joan said,  “The staff at PLS has always been looking for ways to culminate the 8th graders’ time at PLS.  Five  years ago we decided to have that be in another country and through research, we decided that Costa Rica was the place we wanted to go to.”  

     During the whole school year, the 8th grade tries to raise enough money to go to Costa Rica, where they stay with local families and do service projects for the community.   Zack said that “ I am looking forward to being away from school for a week.”  They will be going with Liam and Joan, who have brought the 8th graders to Costa Rica for the past few years.  There are nine 8th graders this year. If you want more information or have questions about the 8th grade contact Jake Grubb, Elya Kaplin, Surya Bromley, Jamie Polson, Zack Waxler, Tania Crowell, Kyle Adams, Jhakur Hall, or Nasya Howard.  Look for them around the building; they are easy to spot.

 

8th grade students at Silver Lake in the Poconos.

Restaurant Review: Honeygrow

By Cece Mulchay

Honeygrow is a restaurant with two locations in the Philadelphia area that serves dishes made with locally grown ingredients. Their motto is “ honest eating + growing local.” The owner, Justin Rosenberg came up with the idea of his restaurant when he started a strictly plant-based diet. He wanted people to experience wholesome and simple foods.

The main dishes at Honeygrow are stir-fry dishes featuring different types of noodles made with egg whites, rice , and other grains. There are also salads and smoothies available. My favorite part of this restaurant is the Honeybar, where you can create your own fruit parfaits. To place your order, you walk up to the counter and use one of the many touchscreen kiosks. The counter people are very friendly.             

Lunch time seems to be a popular time at Honeygrow. If you want fresh food fast, it makes a great lunch, and Honeygrow is a perfect restaurant for kids. Kids can order what they want and it's fun to place an order on the touchscreen kiosks.I went for dinner one night, and it was not so crowded.

Since orders are made through a kiosk, the food comes fairly fast. At my last visit to Honeygrow, I ordered a create-your-own stir-fry with edamame, shrimp, cashews, and noodles made with egg whites, in a sour cherry barbecue sauce. It was very flavorful. The sauce was sweet and tangy, which went well with the shrimp. There sure is a lot of food for the cost; two people can easily share a meal! The average cost of a meal starts at $7.95, and you can also create your own stir-fry with shrimp, vegetables, chicken, and other tasty ingredients for an additional price.

Another advantage for customers is that there are stations to recharge smartphones. When I have been there, all of the smartphone chargers have been in use. They seem to be used often.

Honeygrow has two locations; one in Bala Cynwyd, in the Bala Shopping Center on City Avenue, and the other is in Center City, on S. 16th Street, between Walnut and Chestnut Streets. It is open daily from 11 am to 10 pm. Honeygrow is a wonderful restaurant, where it is fun to place an order and where you get a lot for your money. I would rate it 4 1/2 stars out of 5 stars.

KidsCare Blooms at Project Learn School

By Fae Lobron

Painting the flowers for KidsCare.

Imagine walking into a museum and seeing artwork  made by children alongside artwork made by professional artists. This is what happens every fall for the KidsCare exhibit at Woodmere Art Museum.   

    KidsCare is a collaboration between Woodmere Art Museum, WXPN’s Kids Corner, St. Christopher’s Hospital For Children, and about 20 Philadelphia area schools. Project Learn School (PLS)  has been participating in KidsCare since it began, and PLS has only missed one year in twenty years. Public and private schools in the Philadelphia area participate in KidsCare, other schools have one or two art classes to make the art. PLS is different because PLS is the only school where everybody in the school participates in making art. PLS has mixed up ages working together so younger students can spend time with the older students.

     Every year there is a theme that the art projects are designed around.This years theme is based on an artist named, Peter Paone.The thing that Joan Fox, PLS art teacher, found most interesting about his art was his flowers. So flowers are now the theme for PLS. Each student made two ceramic flowers; one to keep for themselves and the other to give away. The flowers are then painted and glued to wire to create flower gardens.

    The art projects that were made are given to St Christopher’s Hospital For Children. The gifts are given to the sick kids during the winter holidays. The hope is to give them something exciting and cheerful for their room and to make sure they know someone is thinking about them.

Mixed-up Group partners working together making the presents for the kids at St. Christopher's.

   Joan says, “Art can be healing and a powerful way to make people’s lives brighter.”, Joan also thinks it is good for the PLS students to make art and give it away, and to be generous to others. PLS originally found out about KidsCare because a former PLS parent, Meri Adleman, happened to be part of the program and she asked if PLS would participate. A PLS student, Nadja says that she,  “can only imagine the smile on the children’s faces as they get their art presents.”

Please look at the December 5 edition of the Chestnut Hill Local where Fae's article was published.

Project Learn Lawns Signs Get New Design

By Dylan Allender

Dylan Allender and Elie Lubin show the Project Learn lawn sign.

Colorful and bright Project Learn School (PLS) lawn signs are on the lawns all over the Philadelphia area. Project Learn has been using this type of advertisement for many years. This year the signs are very different. The colors, blue, yellow, orange and white, were chosen to look like the new PLS brochure. They were made by Eric Moore, a PLS parent. He was chosen to design the signs because he is good with computer images. Eric said it was not hard to make the sign; he used a program called Adobe In-Design so it did not take long. He started on Sept 10th with the design and was finished on Sept 14th. Eric’s favorite part about making the signs was, “all the lovely colors.”  He worked with Aisha Anderson-Oberman, the admissions director of the school, and PLS parents, Janet Gala and Donna Waxler.

The lawn signs are used to let people know when PLS is having an open house. The signs have the school’s phone number on it  so people can contact Aisha.  This helps Aisha plan for the open houses.

    You may not see many signs in Mt.Airy because most of them were stolen from people’s lawns. The school does not know who took the signs, but Donna Allender who put them out, is sure it was not a Henry School student. “I placed a sign on Sedgwick Street on the lawn of a friend at 12:30 and went to the Co-op around the corner. I stopped for coffee and at 2:00, I drove past the house. The sign was gone. School was still in session so it had to be an adult who took the sign,” said Donna. People used to think that missing signs were taken by children, but now it’s clear that it’s not always them. All the signs in West Mt.Airy were stolen, but none in East Mt.Airy and Chestnut Hill were taken.The school hopes whoever is taking the signs will stop.

Look for PLS’ beautiful signs whenever you are in East Mt.Airy and Chestnut Hill.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

The Halloween that Almost Wasn't

By Surya Bromley

Every year, for around eighteen years, at Project Learn School (PLS) there are a bunch of Halloween festivities run by the Jr. High students on Halloween. This year Hurricane Sandy delayed the celebrations until the Friday after Halloween. Even though it was two days later, the kids still made sure it was as much fun as ever.
    The 6th and 7th graders do a carnival with games and prizes which Liz Ben-Yaacov, the Jr. High math and grammar teacher supervises.  At each booths they give out some kind of prize like pencils, candy, and snacks like pretzels and chips. This year there were about seven booths; some of them were: K and N Course of Terror... If You Dare, run by Nasya Howard and Kennedy Alstin-Lucky where you raced someone else in a series of obstacles---like running through tires and throwing a ball through  a hula-hoop. Barbies Beauty Boo-tique, run by Zoe Gold and Surya Bromley was a booth where you could get your face painted or get your hair colored with colored hairspray. Ball of Fire,  run by Jimmy Murphy and Jhakur Hall was a game where you threw a ball at stacked cups and tried to knock them down.
    The 8th grade at PLS is always in charge of making a haunted house for the rest of the school to go through with help from Liam Gallagher, it happens in one of the classrooms that the teachers generously let the eighth grade use for the week of the haunted house. This year the theme was a haunted circus.  Emma Dudnick, one of the students involved in the Haunted House said, “I enjoyed working on the Haunted House and coming up with the ideas. I think it turned out well and everyone liked it and everyone was scared.”  One of the challenges the 8th graders have each year is making the Haunted House experience scary enough for the older kids but not too scary for the younger kids. This year’s Haunted House was just right. Nasya howard a seventh grader at PLS said that “The haunted house was really scary this year. My favorite part was when Matthew Wilson, one of the eighth graders, dressed as a evil clown jumped out of a tunnel that they made from the back staircase and started screaming at us.” Another thing that is hard is to decide on a good idea for the Haunted House. “We all brainstormed ideas and some people wanted to be certain parts like the villain or the clown,” said Emma, “ a lot of it revolved around our idea for the tunnel.”   
    “The Halloween Festivities were fun. I liked the Haunted House and thought it was well done!” Zack Waxler, a seventh grader at PLS, said when asked how he thought the day went.

New Project Learn School Brochure is a Big Hit!

By: Elie Lubin

  Project Learn, has a beautiful, colorful, wonderful, brochure. The brochure was made, because it is an easy way for people to learn about the school without coming in. The brochure quotes what kids and grown-ups say about the school. It helps make publicity for the school. Sometimes people pick up the brochure at coffee shops, bookstores, and other kinds of shops. They read it, call Aisha Anderson-Oberman, the Admissions Director, and schedule a time to tour the school.
      The main headline of the brochure is “A Cooperative School Community” It tells about the different activities, classes, and other fun stuff that is happening at P.L. It tells: How we are cooperative school community, academics, facts about the school, and the mission statements. It also tells about why the parents and teachers think that the school is good. Here is a quote: “At Project Learn, the kids get to choose some of what they learn, and some of the activities that they get to do.”
     There is a committee that puts the brochure together, and they are called the Marketing Committee. The names of the people that are on the Marketing Committee: Donna Waxler, the chair, leader of the Committee, and, Janet Gala, Jordan Shapiro, Shawnee Brown, and Aisha Anderson-Oberman. They talk about what to put in the brochure, like the answers to the questions that people ask a lot. They also talk about other things that are happening, and worthwhile to hear about. The committee puts the brochure out in the different places you see them. After they are ready online, they print it, in color. When that’s done, the committee takes it to a professional printing company, and have it printed there.
      The brochure is a helpful thing used for many reasons. All of the reasons are important, so the brochure does a lot of good for the school. When the brochure is made for the year, people see it, and love it, and that is what the school tries to do, bring smiles to peoples faces, (And help them learn.) so we feel happy at the school, knowing we have done our job.