​
We are a community of joyful learners committed to growing into our best selves through authentic experiences.
Academics » Whole-School Crew
Whole-School Crew
A Venue for Students’ Passion Projects
Students are encouraged to develop and share their interests by facilitating a whole-school crew meeting. They build leadership and communication skills by opting to create presentations on topics of their choice. When a student feels passionately about a topic, they work with the instructional coach to build their presentation. Sometimes these presentations are purely informational, sharing something about their cultural background or information about a hero like Martin Luther King, Jr. Other times, students work to organize a project to make the world a better place, raising money for animal foundations through Pennies for Pandas and Change for Cheetahs, or inviting their peers to gather during lunchtime to fold origami butterflies with positive messages for patients at St. Jude’s. Closer to home, they have collected donations for our local animal shelter, Charlie’s Place, and they have helped organize luncheons with the local senior center. This is one of many ways that we use crew to help us build community.
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
Educating & Serving Our School
​
Students lead projects designed to make our school a better place by teaching each other about important topics and performing acts of service as part of our school-wide crew meetings. Examples include, Kindergarten teaching us about the power of “yet,” second grade sharing the importance of filling other people’s buckets with kindness, and student council sponsoring a kindness chain challenge to encourage random acts of kindness. Sometimes the focus is more closely related to academics, like when fifth grade performed a cheer they designed to remember the elements of high-quality work. Another example comes from fourth grade students, who manage the schools’ recycling through a weekly act of service; they led each class through a sorting activity designed to teach us which items can be recycled. The daily structure of crew meetings helps us to nurture our community and foster a culture of teamwork.
