Certainly the highlight of my summer was spending time with my beautiful bride and our boys, extended family, and old friends. A close second is the time I shared with our students in the Boundary Waters of Minnesota, where we endured wind and storm fronts and man-eating insects while travelling fifty-three miles over land and by canoe. A big shout out to our crews of intrepid explorers! I encourage you to be on the lookout for our summer 2015 trip announcement, which will be posted in the next week or so.
We have been busy preparing for your arrival. Major summer projects included the construction of a new Elementary playground and the overhaul of the Pennock Field House parking lot. The latter now has a sidewalk connecting the Oxman Early Childhood Center (OECC) to all other campus areas, a much-needed improvement. Our playground now incorporates a circuit course based on the unscripted play concept, as well as a series of natural elements: stones, logs, stumps, and plants, that call to a time when nature was our play space. There is also an additional playground element located next to the elementary school. We have a few more things to do to complete the space, including the addition of new seating areas. This new space is much different from before...you will need to supervise your children directly if they are to play on campus before and after regular school hours. This playground is designed for elementary age children and is not intended for younger children.
You will see a number of other improvements. We replaced large sections of roof throughout our campus. We added new locker space for middle school students. We resurfaced the OECC interior playground deck. We completely repainted the Elementary quad. We replaced the senior bohío. We completed the Giving Tree. We improved curbing in a number of areas. Finally, we have been refreshing our landscaping, focusing on worn out areas. We are also trimming the majority of our trees to improve tree health and lighting. ¡Muchas Muchas Gracias to our amazing maintenance crew and Ismael Roman, our Facilities Director!
We are still fine tuning our security system changes. Our campus alarm system is fully operational. Most of our new cameras and systems are in place. A security arm has been added at the main gate in addition to the new sensor system. We will be handing out electronic security tags for your cars soon. We are finalizing all of our new security protocols and running our system checks. I appreciate your patience as we complete this important upgrade.
Our teachers continued training this summer in the areas of unit planning and assessment across all grade levels. Our primary focus as we implement the International Baccalaureate (IB) program is to better serve our learners. This means getting clear about the concepts and skills we teach, the order in which they are taught, the content that best facilitates their development, and the ways in which we assess how well students understand and retain them. One of our major conversations this year will be about assessment, and how we use diagnostic, formative, and summative assessment to provide critical feedback that informs and shapes our students' learning. We will be offering workshops for parents to help you understand the changes we are implementing. I want to acknowledge the faculty for all of their hard work and dedication to your children.
I look forward to a wonderful new year!
See you around campus.
We have been busy preparing for your arrival. Major summer projects included the construction of a new Elementary playground and the overhaul of the Pennock Field House parking lot. The latter now has a sidewalk connecting the Oxman Early Childhood Center (OECC) to all other campus areas, a much-needed improvement. Our playground now incorporates a circuit course based on the unscripted play concept, as well as a series of natural elements: stones, logs, stumps, and plants, that call to a time when nature was our play space. There is also an additional playground element located next to the elementary school. We have a few more things to do to complete the space, including the addition of new seating areas. This new space is much different from before...you will need to supervise your children directly if they are to play on campus before and after regular school hours. This playground is designed for elementary age children and is not intended for younger children.
You will see a number of other improvements. We replaced large sections of roof throughout our campus. We added new locker space for middle school students. We resurfaced the OECC interior playground deck. We completely repainted the Elementary quad. We replaced the senior bohío. We completed the Giving Tree. We improved curbing in a number of areas. Finally, we have been refreshing our landscaping, focusing on worn out areas. We are also trimming the majority of our trees to improve tree health and lighting. ¡Muchas Muchas Gracias to our amazing maintenance crew and Ismael Roman, our Facilities Director!
We are still fine tuning our security system changes. Our campus alarm system is fully operational. Most of our new cameras and systems are in place. A security arm has been added at the main gate in addition to the new sensor system. We will be handing out electronic security tags for your cars soon. We are finalizing all of our new security protocols and running our system checks. I appreciate your patience as we complete this important upgrade.
Our teachers continued training this summer in the areas of unit planning and assessment across all grade levels. Our primary focus as we implement the International Baccalaureate (IB) program is to better serve our learners. This means getting clear about the concepts and skills we teach, the order in which they are taught, the content that best facilitates their development, and the ways in which we assess how well students understand and retain them. One of our major conversations this year will be about assessment, and how we use diagnostic, formative, and summative assessment to provide critical feedback that informs and shapes our students' learning. We will be offering workshops for parents to help you understand the changes we are implementing. I want to acknowledge the faculty for all of their hard work and dedication to your children.
I look forward to a wonderful new year!
See you around campus.