I hope everyone enjoyed February Break. It was fun for my wife and me to connect with good friends and to dial back the pace at least a little bit. 

 

Once again, the Middle School students and faculty have adjusted to the new mask-optional protocols. It is great to see kids both in masks and not in masks, depending on the child and family's circumstances. I have worn my mask one day and then not the next; although, as of next Monday, I will probably land on my own personal choice in that regard. We continue to appreciate families keeping ill students home, as it is a prudent way to protect our community and maintain the attendance gains we are making. It is great to see so many students learning at school, day in and day out.

 

We had a terrific ThinkingLAB Parent Association meeting yesterday. ThinkingLAB is the name for all of our intentional efforts to prioritize the teaching of CA’s 6C skills: critical thinking/problem solving, creativity, collaboration, communication, character, and cross-cultural competence. These workshops tend to be “hands-on,” so I always appreciate the parents who put themselves out there to join us. This year’s workshop put a spotlight on our Seventh Grade debate unit and was ably facilitated by our terrific Grade 7 social studies teachers—Forbes Cone, Elisa Stolar, and Jessica Campbell. Participants learned just how difficult and fun it is to participate in a debate in which your “side” is chosen immediately before the debate starts by a flip of the coin.  Of course, these abilities to create and assess logical arguments and truly know BOTH sides of an argument are important skills for every young person. If you missed the ThinkingLAB workshop this year, don’t worry. We will have another opportunity for you to join us for some fun, as well as insight, into how we teach these important skills next year!

 

I hope you are looking forward to next week and the chance to join us for March Conferences. (Can it be March already?!)  Our conference process is intended to get the best of both worlds—in October, parents get a chance to meet and create a relationship with each of their child’s teachers, and in March we have an advisory conference facilitated largely by your child. We believe the March conference format is particularly valuable because it puts the child in the driver’s seat of their own learning. 

Every student thinks carefully about their progress as a student and person in advance of the conference and then has the chance to articulate how things are going (both the good and the “needs improvement” aspect), and then lays out a path forward. This movement from school being something that is done to them, into something that each student guides and is responsible for, is essential to long-term growth. Spring conferences are an opportunity to help students make this transition in a guided way. At the end of the conference, teachers will try to reserve a few minutes for adult-to-adult conversation by asking the student to step out of the room for those few minutes. 

 

In anticipation of conferences, parents will receive their child’s trimester grades electronically. If everything goes as planned, these will “go live” at 4:15 p.m. on Wednesday. Because we will be conferencing shortly after these are sent, these will resemble mid-tris in only showing the class, teacher, and grade. The exception is for a child who is earning a C+ or below in a particular class. In this case, the student will also receive a narrative comment from their teacher.

 

I look forward to seeing many of you on campus next week for conferences. If you have any questions, or if I can be helpful in any way, please do not hesitate to contact me.

 

Best,

Bill