Welcome Back!
Week 1 of the new school year is in the books, and we can’t thank everyone enough for your support, tenacity, humor and love as we welcomed back our staff and students! Teaching & Learning in the Age of COVID is complex, surprising, rewarding… and hard. It challenges each of us – student, teacher, parent/guardian – to consistently problem solve, often using new tools in new ways. It demands that we keep patience and perseverance at the fore. And most of all, it requires near-endless supplies of empathy and lightness as we support one another, and ourselves, as we move together through this phase of our journey.
Joy, feeling one’s own value, being appreciated and loved by others, feeling useful and capable of production are all factors of enormous value for the human soul.
~ Dr. Maria Montessori
Our Staff Opening Days were especially full this year. Our goal was to create time and space for professional learning, preparation, planning in academics as well as social/emotional and physical health. We hosted a 3-hour training about the trauma for children and adults related to the current pandemic led by Ashleigh Mondoux of Counseling Services of Keene; a 1-hour session with Dr. Laura Chan, a Naturopathic Doctor (ND) and Acupuncturist about the Immune System Foundations; a 3-hour Professional Development session with our Montessori Coach, Elizabeth Slade of Public Montessori in Action, about instruction in our Hybrid & Remote Models; our Annual CPR/First Aid Training led by Len Angelli, and on our final day, Yoga Instructor & Owner of White Swan, Rosy Latona, led a 1-hour class for staff. All of this was designed to prepare our staff for the start of this unusual year.
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