News & Events

Volunteer Training Schedule and Procedure

by Dara Darlington, PA Volunteer Training Coordinator

Greetings and Salutations, WMS Families!  Welcome to the new school year.  Woodinville Montessori School is a vibrant community thanks to its wonderful teachers, staff and enthusiastic parent volunteers. 

In order to be able to volunteer in the classroom or in any capacity working directly with the students, you must attend a volunteer training class and pass a background check.  The volunteer training class schedule for the upcoming school year is listed below.  Please RSVP to attend a class by sending an email to Dara Darlington at volunteer@woodinvillemontessori.org.

Once you have registered for a class, a reminder email will be sent the day before.  If only one person is signed up for a class, it will be canceled for that session and an email will be sent out from the school announcing the cancellation. Any changes to the schedule will also be noted on the school white boards, which are posted each day outside the buildings at both campuses.

You only need to attend the class once.  Class typically lasts about 30 minutes. Once you have taken the class, your background check will be processed. When the background check is approved, the teachers, staff and you will be notified that you are ready to volunteer!!! 

If you find that you are unable to attend one of the scheduled classes, individual training can be arranged.  Please email us with individual requests and you will be contacted to set up a time.

Thank you very much!  We look forward to a great year.

Volunteer Training Class Schedule:

*prior to Parent Association Meeting

Success Story: Woodinville Montessori School

School District: Private
School Locations: Bothell and Woodinville
Began participating in the Green Schools Program: September 2009
Level One of the Green Schools Program: Achieved in May 2010

Waste Reduction

• Woodinville Montessori decreased overall solid waste generated by an average of 580 pounds every month. 
• The school expanded Waste Free lunches from one day per week to everyday.
• All classrooms use “reuse” containers for paper.
• The school changed its snack menu to use food on hand before it becomes waste.
• All Early Childhood classrooms now have reusable cups and elementary students use reusable water bottles.
• The school significantly decreased its purchase of paper dishware by increasing the number of reusable plates and bowls for classrooms to use during regular lunches and special events. 

Recycling

• Woodinville Montessori increased its recycling rate from 48 percent to 72 percent, a 50 percent increase.
• The school worked with Cedar Grove Composting to initiate food scrap and food soiled paper recycling in November 2009 at both campuses, and now diverts 75 pounds of compostable material from the landfill every week.
• Upper elementary students coordinated with the City of Bothell, which provided the school with food scrap containers for every classroom and bio-bags which are compostable bags used to line the food scrap containers.
• Two classrooms began to vermi-compost with worm bins.
• Students in all grades separate recyclable materials in their classrooms, allowing the school to recycle not only items collected by the local recycling company but also plastic lids, additional plastic containers, juice boxes, glass containers and frozen food boxes.  Staff members volunteer to take these additional recyclable items to acceptable collection venues. School staff states that this weekly task is an important component to engage and empower students about recycling and to receive feedback on what materials can and can’t be recycled.
• Provided by the Green Schools Program, stickers listing what can and can’t be recycled were placed on school recycling containers.

Education and Outreach

• Outreach and education is based on feedback from sorting and lunchtime observations.
• Students are involved in ongoing education through class meetings.
• Parents are kept informed of “green” school activities through classroom and school newsletters.
• Students from each program level accepted responsibility for becoming informed about one section of the Green Schools level one criteria.  They then went to other classrooms to give presentations about recycling, vermi-composting, food scrap composting and waste reduction.  Students created posters that listed worm “yum/yuck” items and that displayed recyclable and non-recyclable items.
• Junior High students researched air hand dryers, foam soap dispensers and responsible electronic recycling companies.

General

• The school hosted a brainstorming and information session on sustainable building design and operation as a part of creating the plan for their next facility.
• School staff chose to make healthy, sustainable food choices an area of school focus.  During summer 2010 the school will serve as a pick up location for a Community Supported Agriculture program that offers fresh, local fruit and vegetable food boxes to school families.  Students in each classroom maintain a garden.

For more information about Woodinville Montessori School’s conservation achievements and participation in the Green Schools Program, contact Nancy Kestek, Elementary and Junior High Program Director at nkestek@woodinvillemontessori.org

“Working with the King County Green Schools Program has proved to be a valuable partnership in integrating a strong Montessori curriculum, in which a global perspective of science and environmental education is a central strand as are our everyday practices here at school.”

– Nancy Kestek, WMS Elementary & Junior High Program Director

WMS Takes Top Honors at National Interscholastic Orienteering Races in San Jose, CA

Dedication, training, speed and focus…. That’s what it took to earn the National Orienteering Interscholastics win over competing Intermediate age schools near Hollister, California on April 16-17^th.

Our school was represented by Tyler, Andy, Erik, Yola, and Nikhil for the Intermediate, and Yula for the Primary Division as an individual competitor.  The races took place over a 2 day period at Pacheco Pass State Park in the rolling hills covered with wildflowers, large oak trees and grasslands. Over 400 people took part in the event where map reading on the run, finding the correct control markers in order and successfully racing in to the finish for a best time was the goal.  WMS has now earned a place on the trophy plaque 4 times in 8 years.  Congratulations team and see you in the woods!

For more information on how to enjoying orienteering all year long, please visit www.cascadeoc.org or contact Eileen Breseman eobreseman@gmail.com.

Don’t miss this great article from the Wall Street Journal about “The Montessori Mafia.”  It highlights the connection between the Montessori approach and the strategies of successful alumni, such as Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Google’s Larry Page and Sergei Brin. This piece poses the question:  “Is there something about the Montessori approach that nurtures creativity and inventiveness that we can all learn from?”