Wednesday, November 30, 2016

Historical Perspective, Sense of Place and Community



A sense of place and historical perspective is so important to a culture and community.  Moreover, symbols, rituals and traditions reinforce a school’s culture.  Wakefield Lower School’s Grandparents’ and Special Friends’ Day with its theme Home Sweet Home:  Celebrating 20 Years at Wakefield’s Archwood Campus did a remarkable job providing this historical perspective in song, prose and photos while reinforcing our strong values centered around perseverance, hard work and solid character.  We are a community of “Fighting Owls”, who since our school’s founding in 1972, has consistently and vigorously worked to provide an engaging learning environment within a caring community.

Hearing our JK-5th grade students sing about our Earth and how “lucky” we are to experience and learn through the great outdoors that our scenic campus provides, to how we climbed and claimed Archwood Hill to build our beloved school, to singing for the first time as a unified Lower School team our recently blessed proposed alma mater, “Virtus et Sapientia” - our pride was displayed brightly and loudly!  And thank you, Fighting Owls, for enriching my own knowledge about this remarkable place where I spend my time.

Tuesday, November 1, 2016

Creating Rules, Developing Character and Reaching our Expectations


Character education defines our Wakefield education, and we work hard to interweave it into everything we do. This week’s Lower School assembly gave us the perfect opportunity to solidify a foundation of justice, prudence, fortitude and temperance. These are big words for our Lower Schoolers, but they are learning the definitions well. As adults we model them, guide our students, and “catch” them living these values.

In order for students to live these values, we need to have high expectations of them. When students are involved in the process of creating those expectations, they take more ownership of them, and work harder to live up to them. This is why we involve our students in the process of identifying the expectations of the classroom - their classroom rules. At the start of the year, students and adults identify and articulate their classroom hopes and dreams - what they want to learn, work on and excel in throughout the year. With those complete, the classroom teacher asks: What does our classroom need to look like, sound like and feel like for all of us to accomplish our hopes and dreams? Through brainstorming and discussion, each classroom creates and commits to their classroom rules. Here is a Responsive Classroom article about rule creation.


On Wednesday at assembly, representatives from each classroom “handed over” their rules to Mrs. Hurst and me. As a Lower School community, we reflected and committed to our rules for the year. Then, fourth graders shared each of the 17 Wakefield courtesies with us in language that our youngest Owls could understand. Throughout the assembly our students showed their understanding very well!  They displayed exceptional manners, sat properly, listened attentively, and actively participated. We were very proud of them.  It was a wonderful way to end this month’s emphasis on courtesy and encourage them to practice it the rest of the year.