Looking to bring a bit of new excitement to the last several weeks of school, our Health and Wellness teachers are challenging students to compete in fun, friendly, low-key competitions during some of the Recess periods. The “Recess Activity Challenge” begins this week with the Jump Rope Challenge. It’s nice to know that while the children are jumping hard, laughing and enjoying themselves, they are also improving their cardiovascular fitness and engaging in a lifetime fitness activity! I love to see students taking risks.
The Imperatore Library was very busy in April (National Poetry Month), with events ranging from original student and faculty poetry at Write Night to a journalist’s take on the fake news phenomenon. Check out the Library’s blog, the BLIMP for a brief recap and some photos. Write Night in particular (see photos above) is a wonderful event that encourages our budding MS poets to take a risk and share their growing command of the power of words.
Pack the Theater 2017. In a word: WOW! What a tremendous turnout for our student-written and performed play, “Likes”! I am continually amazed by the work of Ms. Moriarty and her assistant, Mrs. Quirk; they take the meaning of ‘student-centered learning’ to heart. Dr. De Jarnett often talks about the value of intrinsic motivation and how difficult it can be to obtain in school settings. He cites three essential factors — autonomy, relevance, and relationship — that all need to be present in order for students to pursue learning for learning’s sake. If you were in the audience last Friday and/or Saturday night, you, like me, witnessed a large group of students who were committed to communicating their message about social media because they wrote the script about their lives and brought it to life. For a few photos of scenes from “Likes” please see above.