Friends,
The Crossroads campus has been a busy place this week. New colleagues arrived on Monday and spent the day with School Director, Kim Townsend, and yesterday, I welcomed the entire faculty and staff to the 2015-2016 school year! I never underestimate the power of beginnings, and I believe that we had a great first day together. We began with several brief conversations about mutuality, capacity building, collaboration, and learning. Kim also had us reflect on defining moments in our careers, those moments that confirm that we are in the right place at the right time. Teachers and schools build stories, and it was great hearing so many yesterday.
Today we spent the morning with a consultant from the St. Louis Learning Disabilities Association (St. Louis LDA). The faculty participated in a learning differences simulation. Empathy is a value and a practice at Crossroads, so spending a couple hours in this experience gave us a sense of what students with learning differences might experience. We are diverse in multiple ways, including how we learn, so increasing our repertoire for students with learning differences benefits the learning of all our students.
I’m really looking forward to tomorrow when we will gather for a workshop on design thinking and how it relates to our Makerspace and our teaching. The design thinking process begins with empathy, so we continue to be on mission as we prepare for what the Makerspace will offer our students immediately and what it might offer our students potentially as we experience and grow with it.
Teachers have also been meeting in departments, as grade groups, and as advisors to prepare for our first day. It’s also been exciting to see classrooms come alive again as our teachers anticipate both what and whom they will teach.
I hope to see all of you Monday at the All School Picnic. We are at our most vibrant when we are experience events, like the beginning of school, together as a community.
With great expectations,
Jason