I would like to apologize for misspelling Daunte Wright's name in last week's Monday Musings. I understand the importance of names, and Mr. Wright deserved more. Thank you to those who brought this to my attention.

-Sara

April 19, 2021

Focus: Fun and Play!

Dear Colleagues,

Congrats to everyone on finishing grades and comments for Spring Term 1! While on duty in Carter Hall over the weekend, a tenth-grade student hung around to chat after check-in and said, "I don't know why, but the Spring Break days felt really long this week. Maybe it was because of all the rain, and we couldn't really play much outside." The inter-term period might have felt more like a "blink" to me, but this student's insights made me think about how important "fun" and "play" are for our students –– especially as we enter the homestretch of a long and challenging year.

Over the weekend, it was great to feel a buzz back on campus in the afternoons with a number of teams squaring off against Hotchkiss. Students are also hard at work with final preparations for an outdoor performance of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. I'm not shy in my love of musicals and have heard fantastic things about this show, so I am looking forward to seeing it!

In my last post for Monday Musings, I wrote about the importance of beginning to think about what we might take with us from this year. In Curriculum Committee we have had early conversations about curricular adjustments that might need to be made in anticipation of the varied student learning experiences throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic exacerbated education-based systemic inequities, and we are hardly immune to those on the Island. This is something that is being discussed at the Higher Ed level ("Freshmen and Learning Loss") as well as in secondary schools ("Too Much Focus on "Learning Loss" Will Be a Historic Mistake").

Personally, I struggle with labelling anything from the past year as a "learning loss." In our current moment, I worry that any sort of remedial work to minimize this "loss" could very well be detrimental to long-term student learning and engagement. As excited as we all are to return to some sense of normalcy next fall, we have to spend some time thinking about curricular adjustments that might need to be made so that all students can be met where they are. Moreover, in a year that has robbed so many children of normal "fun" and "play," we should continue to maximize opportunities to help our kids simply be kids –– both in and out of the classroom.

In closing, I would like to thank our colleagues who have done important work to best prepare us and our students in advance of the outcome to the Chauvin trial. Please know that any of us in the Kravis Center are happy to speak with anyone who wants help preparing for or unpacking conversations on the trial with students.

Take care, everyone,

Harrison, on behalf of the Kravis Center

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Summer professional growth and learning opportunities

Sign up here for Canvas training Cohort B or C.

May 7-8, 2021 DEI workshop with Dr. Eddie Moore:

Engage in Deeper Learning – Guidance and Support for Deeper Learning

during COVID-19 (deeper-learning.org)

Challenge Success

If you are interested in learning more about the neuroscience of teaching and learning or Mind, Brain, and Education science:

Learning and the Brain Summer Institutes (various dates, depending upon interest)
The CTTL Summer Academy, July 26-29, 2021

Helping Teachers Grade More Equitably (various dates available)

The Catalyst Conference | GOA (globalonlineacademy.org), April 22-26, 2021

The Institute for SEL

For Individuals & Small Teams | PBLWorks: You can attend as an individual or as a team. If you are interested in attending with a group, let Sara know.

Fellowships — Athena (teachathena.org), Research sharing, Collaboration, and Professional Development

Earth Month Design Challenge Resources

Gratia Lee has collaborated with most of the teachers mentioned below (and probably many others who are not mentioned!) about bringing their classrooms outside. Gratia is an amazing resource and is happy to either help get you started on using the outdoors as a classroom or to brainstorm any ideas that you already have.

Reach out to Gratia and/or the following teachers who have already taken on this challenge: Neil Chaudhery (Adv Bio); Sara Deveaux (French); Dan Dowe (English); Ned Heckman (CL Enviro); Rachel Nisselson (French); Stu Remensnyder (Stats); Andrew Watson (Literature of the Environment)

Please complete this Interest Form if you would like to pursue this opportunity.
The Alvord Center Engaged Citizenship Matrix provides a framework for building your lesson
Marley's PowerPoint from Friday's Faculty Meeting
What is Place-based Education

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