Cafeteria Confidentials

More Lower School BLOGs Added to the List

Spanish teacher, Janet Glass, has added her third through fifth grade Spanish BLOG to the growing list of Lower School blogs available. To view it now, click on here. It will also always be available by a click below the welcome banner on the Lower School Notes. D-E Explorers now has its own blog too.

Cafeteria Confessionals

Fifth Graders

I have several feel-good experiences that I can look forward to almost every day. First comes greeting students at drop-off each morning. This provides an opportunity to build relationships with most students just about every school day. The second is eating with first through fifth graders in our cafeteria. There are three seatings: the fifth graders eat early, first and second graders eat next, and after them the third and fourth graders. Unless I have a meeting over the lunch period, I often enjoy eating with students during one of the three lunches. 

Fifth Graders

Many of us may look back on lunch time at school, especially in Middle or Upper School, and remember how bad it felt when no one made room for you at their table. Well, for me it is just the opposite. Even at my advanced age it is an ego boost when students at several tables make room and actively invite me to join them. Sometimes I have to make promises that I will sit with a particular student or table the next day. It is not always easy to arrange my legs so they fit through the low bench seats or sit on the miniscule individual round stools, but it sure is worth it. The conversations vary with students of different developmental stages, but they are always interesting. For first and second graders, I am always invited to see their loose teeth or the newly created gap. I get

Second Graders

to know who has play dates, and sometimes I hear about who is having difficulty with friends on the playground. Third and fourth graders plan their recess activities very carefully, and boys and girls do not sit together quite as easily as they once did. Fifth graders often share their out-of-school interests and activities or want to run assembly ideas or other initiatives by me. Most recently the topic has been around Halloween and costume selections.

A question that I get no matter who I sit with is why I take two glasses of water. It doesn’t occur to them that I am at least twice as big as most of them, and that I don’t want to have to unfold myself from the table in the middle of the lunch to get a refill. I also get questions about our dogs Graham and Gracie, what Mrs. Davies and I are planning and about our kids.

I feel honored to be invited to share in their world and to have conversations about a wide range of

First Graders

topics. Yes, it is often noisy and hard to hear. Yes, sometimes I do have to play my principal role and ask some students to sit down and pay attention when it is announcement time. However, this is not my primary duty or motivation when at lunch.

Of course, I also take pleasure stopping by the kindergarten rooms where they are eating lunch to borrow a banana so I can talk with lunch supervisor Senora Harrison on our “banana  phones.” This never fails to get smiles from the kindergartners as we yell into our bananas across the room. Preschoolers also always like to show me what their moms have pack for their lunches when I visit them in their rooms during lunch time.

I know some principals who do things differently by asking students, on a rotating basis, to join them for lunch in his or her office. Some teachers have also suggested this approach. I think this is a fine idea, but it is not for me. I have to confess, that I like visiting with students on their terms. I learn a great deal about them in the process. It also serves as a reminder of things that are important to children that we adults sometimes forget.

Molly

As many parents may have already heard, Molly, our beloved rabbit, who lived in Ms Lemire’s science room, passed away early last week. She had had difficulty with her hind legs since the summer. Some students speculated that she had gotten her legs caught in her cage. It may have been sickness or just old age.

Students Speaking at the Memorial Planting

For three and a half years she had greeted students every day in the science room. She could stay outside of her cage, as she felt comfortable on the rug in the middle of the room, but not beyond. For many students, their relationship with Molly was the first that they had had with a pet, and learning to gently and respectfully care for her has been important in developing their sense of empathy. Molly never failed to be the center of attraction as potential new students visited the school. Preschoolers through fifth graders, even teachers, who were having a bad day found solace in spending one-on-one time with Molly.

The way we decided to respond to her passing gives an insight into the culture of the Lower School and how we chose to engage our students in building our community and their own individual character.

In discussions at an adult level, it seemed to make sense that we use some time at the end of our weekly assembly to honor Molly’s passing. Since we did not want students taken by surprise during the assembly, we had made sure that all students were aware of Molly’s passing the day before.

Three fifth graders, who had known Molly her entire life, chose to lead that part of the assembly. They made brief comments, led a moment of silence and presented Ms Lemire with a sympathy card. In this way our oldest students modeled for the assembled school, as preschoolers and kindergartners sat in their fifth grade buddies’ laps, how to honor and respect those who we care about. The fifth graders said that a flowering plant would be planted to honor Molly by one of the fences near the school gardens and that students would have a chance to attend and to speak about her. Fifty students showed up and almost all took a turn expressing their feelings. For others, there will be an opportunity to add a page of their own design to a memory book that will remain in the Science Room.

At every step, there were powerful messages about caring and opportunities for all members of our community to learn to express their feelings.

Don’t Miss This Presentation!

The Parent Education Partnership (PEP) theme for 2011-12 is RESILIENCY. With the guidance of expert speakers, hands-on workshops and interactive discussions, parents will learn to help their children navigate the social and academic stresses and pressures from Lower to Upper school years.

To kick-off this year's theme, please join us on Wednesday evening, November 16 from 7:00-9:00 pm in Hajjar Auditorium to learn from nationally renowned speaker Dr. Robert Brooks about "Raising Resilient Children and Adolescents".