And just like that, our school year comes to a close, and what a year it was! Last week, the students gave their oral presentations on their research projects. I assigned this project because it seemed like a good use of our unexpected at-home time to hunker down and work on a research project. I was unprepared for what a transformative process and culminating event it turned out to be. The students seemed to mature before my eyes this week. They did such a great job of researching and presenting their topics. I learned so much from each of them, and the other students were all interested and enthusiastic about each other's topics. We learned about raising sheep, libraries, furniture making, archery, Rube Goldberg machines, and making cookies!
For our last day of class, we continued the week's theme of public speaking. We talked about gratitude and reviewed the impact that gratitude has on well-being and brain development that we had learned about way back in the first week of school when we studied Growth Mindset. We discussed the importance of developing public speaking "Toastmaster" abilities as a useful life skill. The students spent some time answering warm-up questions about gratitude, and then they each took turns giving a "toast" to the class about the school year. I loved hearing their thoughtful and hilarious acknowledgments.
The overarching theme across their toasts was an emphasis on how much fun we had this year. I agree wholeheartedly! We had so much fun learning together, being together, and working hard together. I have tremendous gratitude for the effort and perseverance the students put forth this year. They accomplished so much and grew and pushed and stretched themselves in academics and character development. I am grateful to have been witness to their growth and development and look forward to continuing our journey next year. Thank you for sharing your children with me and The Garden School. They are loved and cherished here and each of them was a shining star in the constellation of our class. Your commitment to our school and your support of our community was essential to making this year successful.
I put together a photo album and slideshow review of the school year that we watched in class on Friday. I'm including the link here for any parents that would like to see our year in pictures and a few videos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/RTSTke2qfJmHN7hv9 . This year our yearbook publisher allows you to customize two pages in your yearbook. The photo album I shared will be a good source of photos for creating your customized pages, and I'm sure the students would also be interested in designing the pages themselves.
The Google classroom will remain open for the summer for anyone that needs to finish assignments. I will be assigning summer reading assignments and light academic activities to prepare for fall and posting them to the classroom in a few weeks after everyone has had a chance to decompress from school for a bit. I also hope to get the class together in person for a summer party when health guidelines permit. Stay tuned!
Enjoy your summer and stay safe and healthy!
