I spent the majority of my day in the classroom today -- in multiple classrooms actually.
As part of our ongoing effort to gather great content that helps tell the Darlington story, a member of the Communication Office staff will spend every Thursday with ELA-8 students at Thatcher Hall. (We even created a hashtag for this exciting, new initiative, so keep an eye out for our #ThursdaysatThatcher updates on Twitter each week!) Anyway, today was my day and it was AWESOME.
Here are just five of the many things I learned today:
1. The capitol of Angola (Africa) is Luanda. I learned this from first grade. I started my day at the Harrison Heroes' weekly spelling bee, which the students absolutely LOVE by the way. Though he told me he was really nervous beforehand, first-grader Brent Bell won by correctly spelling Luanda. Aryana Patel and Bryn Merritt took second and third place with equally stellar performances, and all were rewarded with a phone call home, sofa time as the class finished their morning literacy activity, a visit to Head of School Brent Bell's office to share their great news, and the coveted opportunity to sit with Mrs. Harrison at lunch. The really heart-warming part, though, was how the students supported and cheered for one another even when someone missed a letter.
2. Bats use echolocation. I learned this from kindergarten. I visited Mrs. Deaton's K5 students as they worked in a variety of math literacy stations this morning, many of which had clever fall and Halloween themes. After spending some time at "Tally it Up" with Trey Moore and Max Mayes (where we rolled dice, counted the hashmarks and wrote down the corresponding number on a worksheet), it was time for the class to gather back together and sing a fun little song about bats.
5 little bats hung upside down
Deep in the cave, high up off the ground
One flew out to find a snack
He let out a screech and
The sound bounced back
“Echolocation!”
3. Mrs. Harrison can text the tooth fairy. First-grader Madeline Earnest invited me to sit next to her at lunch today and she shared with me that Mrs. Harrison knows the tooth fairy. She went on to tell me that Mrs. Harrison can text her and often does! It just so happened that classmate Ava Ann Woods had lost a tooth today, so Mrs. Harrison texted the tooth fairy to remind her that Ava Ann would be expecting a visit from her tonight. The tooth fairy texted right back to say she was looking forward to it and hoped Ava Ann would leave her a letter or picture along with her tooth tonight. Pretty cool connection for a first-grade teacher to have!
4. Myles Twyman is going to be president of the United States. I first met Myles at the spelling bee. Mrs. Harrison introduced me to him and said, "This boy is brilliant." He added, "And funny," without missing a beat! At lunch, he shared that he was going to be president of the United States and his classmate, Brent, could be his "assistant" (aka vice president). I loved hearing this little Tiger talk confidently about his hopes and dreams!
5. Sixth-grader Aiden Cloud wants to change the world. Mrs. Kinney's Robotics students are each working on a project for their upcoming First Lego League competition. The theme of the competition is "Education Innovation," and each student must design a prototype of something that will enhance education and build it out of Legos. Aiden shared that it makes him sad to see poor children suffering around the world, so his prototype is an electronic device that will help them learn and practice colors, words and spelling in any language. He has even thought through some of the learning activities that would be offered and how the keypad will work. Aiden's hope would be that servant leaders could provide these devices to children they meet, thereby helping these children learn and make a better life for themselves. So impressive!
It was a GREAT day all around and I have only hit a few of the many highlights (I didn't even mention Mrs. Foster dressed up as Darth Vader for library time with second grade!)
I left Thatcher Hall today very proud. Proud of my colleagues at ELA-8 for the creative and inspired work they are doing with our students each and every day. Proud of the relationships our teachers have built and the love they share with their students so that Darlington can be a safe place to learn and make mistakes. Proud of our students for their confidence, drive, talent, empathy, manners, level of engagement, kindness and so much more. And proud of Darlington School for living its mission day in and day out --
to empower students to learn with passion, act with integrity and serve with respect.
The communication staff can't wait to visit more classrooms and share more stories as the year goes on! Stay tuned...
