thomas

The greenhouse is coming along in spite of the delay in getting our building permit.  It was approved last Wednesday, but hasn't come to us yet.  We have dug the foundation ditches with pick ax due to hitting hardpan.  This will make us the strongest people in the whole school.  Muscle men and women!  C.N. Brown has donated all the crushed stone for the foundation and floor.  Deering Lumber donated all the pressure treated beams and gave us a big discount on lumber, so with this community generosity we are financially sailing.  The weather is, of course, our biggest worry [...]

On a cool autumn morning, a bus full of K-8 School Around Us students and their three teachers arrived at The New School ready to work together on collaborative science explorations.   Evan Dewdney was already stoking the fire in our brick oven, generously built for the school as a senior project a few years back.  The goal of the day was to foster connection between the sister schools and create nurturing peer mentorships. Each TNS student was paired with an SAU student based on interests and ages.  After an initial meeting to talk about the day, each pair rushed [...]

In order to function effectively in a democratic organization with shared leadership, responsibilities and honoring all voices, the teachers at The New School recognize how integral it is to have good communication skills.  This week, as the students worked on their annual community agreements for the school, they are also learned how to better work within and as a group.  Lauren Tenney is an experienced facilitator, coach, and trainer working specifically with groups to improve function and communication.  Lauren provided an array of exercises to prepare students to actively participate in their own governance. Two days this week, the students [...]