A lot of kids (and even adults) have a hard time finding the words to express themselves, so I try to find a way to connect with them so they feel more calm and comfortable. I make a lot of picture visuals that I use with students to give them other ways to describe how they feel.  It also helps to have fidgets, stuffed animals, and calming items that students like to help them feel comfortable.

Wines Elementary kindergarteners had an amazing time at Domino’s Farms Petting Farm as they launched into their new Arts & Letters unit about farm life. The students got to meet friendly animals up close and learn firsthand about what happens on a farm. Their teachers said this hands-on experience was the perfect way to spark curiosity and excitement for Module 2.

The Skyline Learning Center is a student-led, peer tutoring center that has become a vital resource across the school, serving students at every level. Last year, the center expanded its tutoring subjects to include math alongside all other subjects, and the results have been impressive. This school year alone, over 500 students have walked into the center, tutors work with their peers in 18 different classes each week, and nearly 50 submissions have come through the online writing lab.

The AAPS Capital Program celebrated a milestone on Tuesday as the highest beam was placed on the under-construction Mitchell Elementary. This time-honored Topping Out Ceremony celebrates the work of our construction team, marks significant progress, and is believed to bring good luck to Mitchell Elementary and all its future students and staff.

History is a practice in empathy. We try to place ourselves in the shoes of people from the past in order to better understand our shared human experience in the present. In my IB SL History class, we recreate pieces of the training that nonviolent Civil Rights student activists went through in order to explore tactics for resisting bigotry and oppression. In Humanities, we recreate an Enlightenment-era coffee house (we call it “Descarte’s Drip”) in order to immerse ourselves in a real-world “Internet in the Age of Reason.”