New Beginnings

Look at who and what grew over the summer!

I am sure that we have all shared the same feelings whenever we are headed toward something new. So we can relate to the feelings of our children and our students as they anticipate the approach of a new school year. For some, it is a return to a familiar school, and for others it is the beginning of an entirely new adventure. The days before school begins brings a tension between enthusiastic excitement and that sinking feeling, as worrying about making new friends and being able to keep up with the work keeps creeping in. Even those very successful at academics and social relationships wonder whether it will continue to be the same in the new year.

Morning meeting in a fourth-grade classroom

Building and maintaining a community that helps our children focus on excited engagement rather than fears and doubts takes effort on all of our parts. Creating a classroom and school environment that is warm, caring and secure is essential in making students feel comfortable enough to take the risk so necessary for real learning.

The Responsive Classroom approach, to which our Lower School has subscribed for many years, encourages teachers to use a full six weeks at the beginning of the school year to do just that by:

• building classroom community
• with students, creating the rules of the classroom
• teaching routines
• introducing the curriculum in an engaging way
• fostering student autonomy
• establishing that social and academic learning are integrated
• establishing high expectations for learning and behavior

Kindergarten friends, old and new!

This allows students to move ahead with confidence in both the academic and the social/emotional areas of their development. Much of the necessary discussion happens in “morning meeting” format, when students are taught how to greet one another, listen to one another, share their ideas, discuss their opinions, define group goals, reach consensus and resolve conflicts and differences. Not only does this help them to build their own positive classroom community, but it develops the skills for academic experiences that value differing points of view, discussion, collaboration, reflection and presentation.

Second-graders enjoy recess together
on the first day back.

During this important six week period, teachers intentionally do a great deal of modeling of what desired personal and academic behaviors and outcomes look and sound like. There is plenty of time to remind about and practice appropriate actions when they have not been remembered.

As students play a role in developing the class rules, they become invested in the smooth running of their classroom as well as the larger Lower School community. As they internalize the expectations and the routines, there is less and less time spent testing boundaries, and the result is that students feel more secure as they develop their own sense of autonomy.

Many classes end the day or the week with a closing meeting that allows students to learn to reflect on what they individually and collectively have and have not been able to accomplish and to plan for success in the future.
During this six week period, most teachers ask students to think about and to articulate their own hopes, dreams and goals for the school year. At several points during the year, students are asked to review their goals and reflect on whether they are making progress toward accomplishing them. This personal goal-setting for their own school experiences and practicing reflective habits of mind sets the stage for students taking ownership for their growth and their education.

Does this mean that this is all that is accomplished during the first six weeks? Not at all. But the emphasis on starting well, means that the rest of the year will be smoother, especially when the inevitable challenges, distractions, frustrations and conflicts arise.


The good news that after the first two days, the excited engagement seemed to far out-weigh any visible doubts, even for most of the students entirely new to the school. I think we are all off to a great start!

Please welcome Maryann Aaron! 

Maryann is our new third through fifth-grade learning specialist. Maryann has a doctorate from Fordham University in Language, literacy and learning and a Masters of Science in Special Education from Hunter College. She has taught teachers at both the graduate and undergraduate level. Most recently she worked since 1992 as Learning Consultant in the South Orangetown Central School district. She is also the proud mother of two Dwight-Englewood students.

New Round Tables for the Cafeteria

Second-graders trying out our new round tables 
in the cafeteria.

We have traded in the long, bench-style tables for round
tables that seat eight. Round tables have proven to promote a more socially inclusive environment, that feels more relaxed and reduces the need to shout to friends eight seats down the line. So far they they seem to be living up to their promise!

Remembering the Importance of Child Development

Click here to read a wonderful article from the August 23rd New York Times Style section entitled, It’s Not a ‘Problem.’ It’s Called Being a Child, by Lisa Damour, a psychologist in private practice in Shaker Heights, Ohio, a clinical instructor at Case Western Reserve University, and the director of the Center for Research on Girls at  the Laurel School.

Click here to download.

Download order form.

Some students flip over coming back to school!