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Nueva Stories

Every now and then we post interesting stories about Nueva and its Alums. If you have one, please email it to Matt.

This story comes from Lynne Greene: During the summer after our daughter's freshmen year in high school, she was still best friends with her lifelong Nueva friends. She invited her three best friends from Nueva to visit us on vacation. Each girl got off the plane with something creative and new to share with the others; a silk screening kit, a bag of recycled material from SCRAP in SF, and a sewing machine.

The four girls spent the week learning skills that none had ever tried before. They laid out the fabric, silk screened their own designs to create new fabric, figured out how to make an original pattern for clothing they designed themselves (yes, applied math was fully discussed), and then taught themselves to sew their own clothes. They were, and still are, simply amazing, talented can-do and will-do creative kids. Typically Nuevan!

As icing on the experiential cake, they sang in four part harmony while working together. They called a local restaurant that had an open mic night and asked if they could perform. They were told no, but decided to arrive in their new clothing and ask again. When they came up to the stage, the audience was clearly viewing them as young teens who had no business interrupting their evening entertainment. By the end of the first song, there was a hush over the crowd. They were awestruck at their talent and maturity. They sang several songs and left the stage to wild applause. The owner of the restaurant asked them to return again.

It is in juxtaposition to our next group of visiting friends that the Nueva influence on these girls was so clearly shown. A few weeks later, two new high school friends came to stay with us. As they came down the airport corridor to meet us, they were already plugged in to their iPods and texting on their cell phones. When asked about what to do during their stay, they wanted to go rent a video. They were both smart, nice girls, but the spark and gusto and creative life-force of the Nueva group was nowhere to be found.

Nueva Stories
Friday, 30 July 2010
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6th Grade Spanish Project Print E-mail

Integrated Subject: Foreign Language

Spanish Teacher Bibi Millet charged her students with creating a presentation on a Spanish-speaking country “in a way that has never been done before.” The emphasis in this project, from a Design Thinking perspective, was on the Research/Deep Dive and the Generate Ideas stages. Students did on-line research both in the I-Lab and as homework. Armed with this information, they worked to brainstorm novel ways in which they could present their research and the fun facts that they had learned (Research).

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1st Grade Secrets Print E-mail
Written by Kim Saxe   

Integrated Subject: Social and Emotional Learning

The first graders were led through many of the stages of the Design Thinking process as they created an experience for their families to share. After having the first graders concentrate upon the experience of receiving a gift, they were asked to interview their parents about things that their families like to do together (Research/Deep Dive).

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I-Lab Academy Print E-mail
Written by Kim Saxe   

For nine weeks this fall, a team of five students worked through the many steps of the Design Thinking Process. "Let's build a rocket!" "No, I think we should build a nuclear power plant." "Let's make things that explode!" The five students of the first I-Lab Academy were full of big ideas as they entered the Innovation Lab.

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5th Grade Utopia & Bill of Rights Print E-mail
Written by Kim Saxe   

Integrated Subject: Humanities

Our new 5th grade Humanities teacher, Jenna Greenfield, created an exciting way to engage students in the topic of Rights and Responsibilities this fall. Jenna had an idea. “I’m thinking we could do something around the theme of Utopias ...” That was the beginning of a project that engaged the students’ imaginations and intellects. This project had two parts.

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Located in the San Francisco Bay Area, The Nueva School is a nationally recognized independent school serving gifted students and emphasizing integrated studies, creative arts, and social-emotional learning. For more than 40 years, Nueva has remained committed to its original vision: to inspire a passion for lifelong learning, foster social and emotional acuity, and develop a child's imaginative mind. Nueva creates a dynamic educational model to enable gifted children to learn how to make choices that will benefit the world.