Starting with a Pile of Dirt

If you were like me, the night before the first day of School was an exciting time. Sure, you are going over checklists and double checking if you have packed everything for the next day, set the alarm a little bit earlier and had a hard time sleeping. But the thoughts of new friendships,  new grades and teachers made the day before exciting. My afternoon walk to soak it all in, to stop by the school and walk the hallways and walkways, was interrupted quickly as a large pile of dirt had materialized over the past few hours. A quick look around made it clear it was not a prank or excess from a hauling truck; it appeared that AyA had left the supply of fresh filler here to help with a future plug of a water break. A pile of dirt to start the School year.

Upon letting our teachers know of the pile (and issues of traffic forthcoming) our High School principal, Mr. Chris Brown,  reminded us that, “…we start with a pile of dirt, we eventually will move mountains.” And so the year has begin moving mountains.

In the high school, such foundations were laid early on as all students signed our High School Honor Code. As a work in progress over the past two years, the high school has implemented a CDS Honor Code as an important guidepost in their education. Early in the week, every student and teacher started with conversations about integrity, honesty and trust, followed by vignettes to help ‘practice’ decision making. On Wednesday, August 18^th, students gathered in the Forum for a ceremony to sign our based on the community’s belief that personal and academic integrity are as important as academic achievement; every high school student, teacher, and staff pledged commitment to the Honor Code and signed our Libro de Actas. Adherence to our Honor Code creates a community of trust among students and faculty by establishing principles for everyone to follow. Throughout the year faculty and students will discuss what it means to make good decisions in a community with honor and to develop with these skills as a contributing member of society.

In the elementary school, an informal poll was taken by the director the first few days to see what everyone’s favorite part of school was…almost without reservation the answer was “Recess”. Ah, it will ever be thus. Students at that age thrive on the social connections and the ability to get physically active. Indeed, many schools around the world are worried that this time has been cut away. At CDS’s elementary school, teachers worked on several approaches to recess over the past year and implemented a schedule change in its design. In grades 1 through 5, all students are set to recess before lunch, and after the first week of School, our teachers are pleased with its outcomes. Students are focused when they return to class as they have time to digest their food, not rush through lunch to recess, and enjoy the meal (and the lesson thereafter). If interested in more reading and research, we recommend taking a look at this recent NY Times article or research from Education World.

Being in the middle (school) provides a specific set of challenges and rewards, and setting up the framework to talk about such issues has been an early focus. Each middle school student is assigned an advisor as a point person, an alternate adult in the lives of our pre-adolescents.  Advisors are communicators, they are facilitators and they can be confidantes and arbitrators. The first week in the Middle school is spent establishing these relationships, holding regular meetings with an advisory (or peer) group and figuring out goals for the year. With Dr. Nolan, teachers plan activities ahead of time on topics of interest and social development time (i.e., Friday dessert in the advisory). We as educators know that students thrive in environments in which they feel safe and valued. The advisory is one organizational way we create this security at CDS.

Our youngest children in the ELC probably have the most fun with dirt and creativity this week. They see the whole campus as a brand new world of exploration, and through stories, arts, and dramatic and active play our ELC students are building basic skills to communicate and create in School. As you can read further on the ELC blog, every moment is a new exploration for those just starting their school and this transition period is a critical time for our young ones to hear just how special and amazing they are.

And so our first two weeks of School are behind us, with so much more ahead of us. We will keep you updated on how our piles are becoming mountains….