We're Baaaaaaaack........

Greetings, Marin SEL Community (and world!),

I'm sure you've all been wondering what happened to our regularly updated blog from last year as we began our program, and we have definitely taken a while to get the ball rolling...but here we are! Our new (now newish) freshman class will be cranking out blog posts from here on out, and we sincerely hope you will take the time to read, comment and share with your friends as Marin SEL grows as a presence in our school and community. The kids are super stars, they work hard, and the goal of this blog , as always, is to draw connections between the various Marin SEL classes and activities they partake in each day. Sometimes these connections are academic, but often times (as last year), kids make connections that are moral, even spiritual and emotional.  It's very cool to see what all our collaboration, communication, and inspiration as teachers can provide for "our" kids in terms of their learning experience and the kind of critical, thoughtful insights they often reveal here. We hope to make what we learn and how we learn it transparent to the larger community!

It's a LOT of work--not gonna lie, as they say--but not enough teachers get the chance to work collaboratively at this level, nor do we get to forge relationships with distinct groups of kids over many years. Thus, it's worth it--and makes coming to work to see the MSEL Family a whole lot of fun. Hopefully you'll be able to see that in these posts, and share in the unique, at times crazy, always interesting and challenging--and sometimes challenged--program that we build as we grow.

So, just so you know, a few changes: because we have a back up of two blogs, I will post the first two pretty quickly, then we will be back to our about every two weeks schedule. And--also so you know--the blog here on out will be the domain of the Honors students. This will ensure that every honors student has a chance to write his or her OWN blog, and in addition to the extra book and project they complete, will comprise the honors section of the class. I do this partly because we only have one semester left, but also because these kids willingly take on extra work, and it's up to me to create it for them.  If we have more time at the end of the year--or if a non-honors student really wants to write a blog post? You can bet I'll make that happen, too. Oh--and another thing! If you have great photos from MSEL activities, outings, or just funny shots you'd like to share from either our freshmen or sophomores, please feel free to send them my way at teagenleo@hotmail.com. You'll note the photos up now besides profiling our bloggers are of the annual retreat, this past August at Wesminster woods.

So, welcome back, happy blogging and reading, and enjoy!


All the best,

Teagen Leonhart
(Ms. L)