At least 3 C's were well covered during this busy week . . .

Critical Thinking: Guest presenter Dr. Marc Chun, an educational researcher and expert in authentic assessments, delivered a lively lecture on Tuesday morning. Among other many thought-provoking points, Dr. Chun argued that critical thinking skills are more important than ever in determining a student's long-term success in their educational careers and beyond. In a complex, shifting world, students need to be agile thinkers who able to apply knowledge, skills and experience to novel situations. Such dexterity makes them better citizens of a democracy as well. Accordingly, schools need to continue to find ways to shift the old educational paradigms; it is more essential than ever to teach transferrable skills and topics in depth. One way to measure students in critical thinking is through the Critical Work and Readiness Assessment (CWRA) that we have given to 9th and 12th graders for the past two years and which will be administered to freshmen again during the week of Oct 22. (I will address the CWRA and the Upper School's focus on critical thinking at greater length in my November Highlights article.) Like several SPEAK presenters before him, Chun highlighted perseverance as an essential quality we want to help develop in our students. Over a hundred people attended the talk, part of this year’s CA SPEAK series.

 

Character: another guest speaker, Stu Cabe, provided freshmen with an inspirational message on character, kindness and inclusivity. Ultimately, Cabe hopes that all students will take active roles in definiing their school climate--and of course we concur that at CA we would like everyone to contribute to making the school a positive place both socially and academically.  Mr. Cabe also presented to lower and middle schoolers.  I have added a link to his website on the Upper School page if anyone would like more information.

A group of freshmen in Ms. Hill's advisory also became the first this year to take part in what has become a CA service tradition. Working first with our food service team from Sodeixo, students learned first-hand what it means to prepare lunch for 900+ hungry students, faculty and staff. After lunch, they worked on various campus projects for our dedicated Operations staff, gaining some perspective on taking care of our facilities. Every 9th grader will have this experience at some point during the course of the school year. For questions or feedback, please contact David Colodny, our Service Learning and Leadership Director.

 

College: well, I know this isn't one of our usual "C's" but it does bear mentioning that nearly 100 college representatives came through the Welborn House this week. In town for the massive college fair in Denver, these college representatives also made the trip to our school while in town. These informal and informative sessions are designed to give students more information about colleges and universities in which they are interested and for these admissions representatives to get to meet our students. The complete list of colleges represented is posted on the college counseling page of the website.