CAB:
This month, the CAB committee focused on creating a list of diverse readers, resources, and picture books for classes. We looked at various sources, including Waldorf schools and booksellers, Indigenous-owned booksellers, outdoor education resources, and others. We will be working toward procuring sets of diverse books on a variety of topics for all grade levels. If there are books you would like to recommend, please email cab@thegardenmarietta.org. We know our community is our best resource!
We understand that a sense of community and belonging is important for our students and families, as well as for our teachers. As one way to appreciate and support our school faculty, we created and distributed official faculty IDs to employees of The Garden School. These IDs will allow our teachers to access educator discounts offered by a variety of businesses. We are also creating a list of such discounts to help our teachers know what is available to them. If you have or know of a business that offers a discount to educators, you can email this information to cab@thegardenmarietta.org, and we will add it to our list.
Faculty Study:
Faculty Study has been using biography as the subject of speaking and listening practice. After getting more feedback from the participants on this experience, the focus will move to how to carry this interested consciousness into conversations requiring an eventual decision. Following the guidelines of The Art of Conversation, the faculty will practice during discussions of this book, focusing on the listening aspects of conversation.
Festivals:
Grandfriends Day is just around the corner, and we welcome extended family to our campus for a look at what it means to be a student at The Garden School. Early Childhood will gather in their respective classrooms for refreshments and a circle time led by teachers. Grades families will gather for a short assembly followed by light refreshments outside. We have organized this event a little differently this year to help alleviate some known challenges (like long check-in lines) by adding better signage and improving communications to help orient our guests to their respective classrooms. We hope that all who come enjoy their time and get to know more about how we endeavor to educate the whole child.
Additionally, we are focused on managing auction details through regular and after-hours committee meetings. Preplanning and ordering have begun, as well as organizing an outline of volunteer roles, soliciting donations, and otherwise preparing for a successful fundraising event!
Colleagueship:
This past month, the Colleagueship Committee had the pleasure of beginning the interview process for several teacher candidates. In the coming weeks, candidates continuing the interview process will be on campus, observing the rhythm (Early Childhood) or schedule (Grades) of our day. All candidates who are interested in Lead teacher positions will return to share a story and craft with a class (Early Childhood) or to teach a mini-main lesson (Grades). Members of our Colleagueship Committee are present to observe these lessons. Our process allows us to witness how an applicant communicates with adults and, more importantly, how they interact with the students at our school.
In addition to interviewing candidates as teachers, the members of the Colleagueship Committee are working on further defining the duties of the various administrators and those who support the administration. Our efforts are aimed at enlarging the administrative support staff in the coming year.
Gardens & Grounds:
Hooray for the faculty and The Garden School!
Our school is one of the first to achieve the new Platinum level with the Green School Initiative. The lead teachers submitted five plans, each of which addressed environmentally conscious lessons, including one related to water in our environment. While we understand that being immersed in the natural world in a positive way throughout the seasons is the best teacher of environmental stewardship, our teachers go a step further and incorporate specific lessons to encourage our students to understand the natural world around them. Congratulations, Garden School, for going Platinum!