Thank you for voting for Gillispie School for "Best of" La Jolla! Gillispie placed second in the Best Private School category and first in the Best Preschool category! Thank you so much for your support! We are very proud of our learning village....
Students in Grade 6 have been reviewing the concepts of beat, rhythm, and texture. After watching a CNN report with behind-the-scenes footage of the group STOMP, Grade 6 students formed groups, picked out unique objects such as brooms, bubble wrap, buckets, paint sticks, tubes, and aluminium pie pans from a collection of gathered objects and created their own version of STOMP! Near the end of class, each group had to perform their creation in front of their peers. This covers...
Veronica Herrera joins our Early Childhood faculty as the new Outdoor Classroom Learning Specialist. She answers some questions about herself below! What inspired you to work with kids? It’s really true when they say that one person can make a big difference. When I graduated high school, I had no idea what career path I wanted to take. I took a few classes at community college and that is where it all changed. I took Child Development 101 as...
[caption id="attachment_8537" align="alignright" width="246"] McNeill's 3-year-old American Bulldog, Albus Dumbledore[/caption] Sarah McNeill joins our Early Childhood faculty as the new preschool co-teacher in Juniper Room. She answers some questions about herself below! What inspired you to work with kids? My grandmother had an in-home daycare and growing up I would spend my summers helping her. Watching the love and patience she had with those babies was so inspirational, she seemed to genuinely be happy and fulfilled every day. What...
Shannon Howard joins our elementary faculty as the new Gillispie School Grade 4 teacher! Learn more about her by reading our latest blog post: What inspired you to work with kids? I have been around a lot of people my whole life, coming from a big family of 9 children. I very much enjoy meeting and being around people, especially children. I started working with children as a mother’s helper at the age of 10, and since then...
This year, Gillispie students have a new class called media literacy. Media literacy helps students become competent, critical, and literate users of print and digital media. Because reading is the core of both academic and personal competencies, media literacy classes include time in the library to develop students’ love of literature and foster their social-emotional development. The course will also include: research skills, keyboarding practice, and digital citizenship. We are excited to work with students and partner with...
A warm welcome to our new Atelier Support and Aftercare Teacher Denise Bryan! She answers some questions about herself here: What's your favorite teaching moment? My favorite teaching moments have come from working with preschool age children. The joy of working with young children is that you never know what they are going to come up with. As a teacher, you can’t have a prescribed, predetermined way that an activity you plan will work out. Instead, your teaching...
Grade 2 teachers received this beautiful "Thank You" letter from St. Vincent de Paul Village for the Grade 2 Book Drive donations that they'd like to share. Please pass this message along to your children who were kind enough to bring in books for others to enjoy: Dear Students and Teachers: Imagine your life without books. Imagine experiencing your childhood with a very narrow view of the world. You only know what you see and what you hear the...
Gillispie Grade 4 students spent an afternoon on the field with their Spanish pen pals from Stella Maris Academy! Ms. Gersten and teachers from Stella Maris led the students in fun learning activities like musical chairs en Español, a Spanish vocabulary relay race, and Spanish Twister—mano derecha en color azul! The students had a great time connecting with their pen pals and participating in a day of fun together. At Gillispie School, we believe that learning is a journey...
Grade 2 students impressed their families and teachers with amazing presentations last week. Each student chose a person of historical significance who they viewed as an inspirational hero, researched the individual, and wrote a two-page biographical report explaining a bit about their lives, accomplishments, and interesting or surprising facts. Working with their teachers and technology instructor Ms. Moore, students used the interactive iPad drawing tool Osmo Masterpiece to illustrate portraits of their subject. Additionally, they created videos with...