Fall Newsletter 2020
Our Mission: Friends School of Portland challenges and empowers students to develop their intellectual,
physical, emotional, creative and spiritual potential. We honor our students’ natural gifts as they
learn to enter the world with confidence, competence, joy and a sense of purpose.
We are guided by the Quaker values of simplicity, peace, integrity, community, equality, stewardship, and truth.
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Dear Friends,
I wanted to share my big news with you: I have let the board of directors and faculty and staff know that this will be my last year as Head of School of Friends School of Portland.
After 9 wonderful years (I am already counting this year among them), I will be ready to join my husband on our little farm in New Hampshire for more than a weekend at a time beginning next July.
I love this community and the joys and responsibilities that come with leading it. Working at FSP has been a dream come true, and I'll spend a lot of this year expressing to you why that is. But for now, please know I am really in the mode of the moment--making sure we are reopening wisely for our students and teachers.
The board will soon be mounting a search process, and you'll hear more from them about what that will look like. I am quite excited to think of the kind of candidates who would be attracted to this place; FSP will be ready for new energy and vision.
In the meantime I am devotedly yours.
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Pictured above: Each class chose one of the SPICES that they wanted to share with the entire school community and created a colorful display. |
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Hello, friends,
The Search Committee for a new Head of School has been created.
The committee includes faculty, board members and parents:
- Nell Sears, Director of Studies
- Dareth Law, faculty member
- Jeff Peterson, parent/board member
- James Grumbach, grandparent/board member
- Kirk Read, board member
- Selina Rossiter, parent, and
- myself, as Clerk of the Board of Directors
We will meet for the first time next week. We look forward to keeping you posted!
Lise Wagner
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Late Summer Light, Nell Sears, Director of Studies |
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Pictured above: 3rd and 4th grade students participating in a gallery walk. Students wrote down what they noticed, shared thoughts and their questions. Students made connections between symbols of peace and protest. |
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The School Year Begins, in the Words of the Students |
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Pictured above: Students at recess swinging with a view of the new middle school wing. |
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I like nap time outside. - Preschool Student
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I like everything mostly about school. The climbing tree definitely.- Preschool student
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I really love getting to see all my friends, and seeing my mom at school this year is something I love. - 3rd grade student
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There's so much space here. I like having more space and making friends. I just started here and I have more friends than I have had before. - 3rd grade student
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I really like getting to be with people. It might sound strange, but I think it motivates me to do my school work when I get to be with people. - 3rd grade student
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I missed my friends because I only had my 4-year-old brother to play with. But now I get to be with my friends outside and get Minecraft tips. I missed that! - 4th grade student
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Knowing that it is safe to be here. I was worried at first. But I'm not now, even if we do need to be back at home. I'm okay with that. - 5th grade student
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We just started getting into history lessons again, which I really love. We are talking about the presidency and SCOTUS. My mom says I know a lot more since school started about what is going on than I did in the spring. - 7th grade student
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Creating New Traditions in Kindergarten |
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Pictured above: Kindergarten students making a "birthday cake" for a classmate. |
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Other years, Kindergarteners have looked forward to sharing a special snack brought from home on their birthday. This year, to recognize birthdays students are celebrating with a birthday walk for the birthday child.
During a birthday walk a candle is lit to represent the sun and the birthday child walks around it one time for each year old they are. Families send in a picture for each of the years their child has been alive with captions like "when Orley was two she learned lots of new words, and mixed a lot of them up, like when she called earrings 'hear-rings.'"
New ways to value each individual in our community holds us tighter together.
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Connecting Peace to Our Own Actions in the 1-2 Classes |
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Pictured above: 1st grade student with her peace bird. |
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As a school community, we recognized International Day of Peace by creating pinwheels, a tradition at FSP since our inception. The 1-2 class discussed how special days of celebration are reminders of what we need to focus on every day. Students set goals of how they could be more peaceful at home and at school. Sally Caruso, 1-2 teacher, shares that she is often struck by students' incredible insight into the areas of the heart.
1-2 students ventured out on a silent walk for Meeting for Worship to look at and reflect on the beautiful display of pinwheels. They looked long and slowly at the symbols and words people chose. The meeting ended with students offering one another a sign of peace. Sitting in silence is challenging; it requires practice.
Our students continue to amaze us as they come to know themselves and their challenges through this weekly practice.
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Sharing Gratitude for New Wing |
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Pictured above: A short video compiled to thank each donor who made our new wing possible! |
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We did it! Two and a half years ago, friends, we undertook the process of preparing to design and raise money for a middle school wing. A month ago, after a nearly 6-month absence, we re-opened Friends School of Portland and opened the doors to the new classroom wing. It was a thrilling moment to see the middle schoolers and their teachers, Aliza, Allie, and Pete, take in the space and light and simple beauty of the glass connector, hallway with clerestory, and four classrooms.
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5-6 Classes with Aliza and Allie |
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Pictured above: 5-6 teacher Aliza and students collecting information on red maple trees. They've added it to Nature's Notebook and will begin discussing how scientists might use the data collected.
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Pictured above: collaboration on a writing project |
Pictured above and below: creative ways to present data |
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How do 10- and 11-year-olds move from holding a conviction to being able to articulate the reasoning for why they hold it? How do 5th and 6th graders find the evidence they need to support a basic scientific claim?
The dynamic teaching team of Allie Miller and Aliza Gordon is helping our 28 fifth and sixth graders use this approach to become well-informed critical thinkers. Making a claim, gathering the evidence, and then using that evidence to support that claim is “an act of resistance in itself,” says Allie. “It connects to the Quaker SPICES of integrity and equality,” adds Aliza, as finding and sharing truth can be an equalizer.
Take the claim “Woodpeckers prefer pine trees to maple trees.” Students must develop an understanding of what is acceptable evidence to make this statement. The class has already begun learning about different ways scientific data can be represented (see photo).
In literature class, students are developing statements about the way a character is functioning and supporting those with textual evidence. In social studies, students who already possess “an awesome sense of justice,” according to Allie, are reading the Bill of Rights and amendments to the Constitution to evaluate political candidates and decisions being made.
Complementing this approach are this year’s essential questions in the 5-6 classroom: How do living things thrive in community? and What does it mean to be an American? Aliza and her students will focus on how disturbances, great and small, affect a forest community. A partnership with the Gulf of Maine Research Institute will allow FSP students to contribute to the study of an invasive fungus in our area. In Allie’s humanities classes, students will study whose voices are heard in America, whose voices are not, and what protections are in place. When they finish their dystopian novel study, they’ll be creating a bill of rights for their fictional society.
The two classrooms and their teachers are not just bound through their commitment to the process of supporting claims with evidence and sound reasoning; Allie and Aliza are equally enthusiastic about using responsive practices to create a classroom culture. During the first 6 weeks of school, for example, they are working hard to foster student connection and interdependence, supporting their kids during morning meeting time to listen and respond to one another. Both agree that coming together for group games is a fun and active way to practice communication and collaboration.
Learning to disagree respectfully, to evaluate ideas with evidence, and to listen deeply to one another are habits that prepare students for engaging not only in their academic work, but also in the work of learning about themselves and their world. The same skills that allow students to investigate woodpeckers and literary characters also help them to dig into big questions like “Who am I?", “Who are we as a community?”, “What is my responsibility for my community and my world?”, “How do we know what’s true?”, “How can we understand injustice in our society and in our communities?”, and “What will we do about it?”
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A Note from Pete Nowak, 7-8 Teacher |
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Pictured above: 7th and 8th grade students working with teacher Pete Nowak on creative ways estimate distance. |
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The 7/8 class is off to a fine start, and, after three weeks, we're beginning to get into our curriculum in earnest.
While community building and safety measures remain at the forefront of our minds, we've also found an escape from some of the stress of the world in the form of great writing -- stories of childhood by Edward P. Jones and Isaac Babel have been fodder for good conversation and, hopefully, inspiration as kids work to craft their own writing.
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Friends School Annual Auction Rescheduled for Now! |
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Pictured above: Preschool students play with a natural tic tac toe set. You should see the tree blocks our preschool and 7-8 class buddies created for the auction! |
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Our Annual Auction opens Monday, Oct. 5. Our community has put together many thoughtful and creative items. You can bid online by following the link below. Bid early, bid often! The auction supports our generous tuition aid program, accessed by 1/3 of FSP families. |
On Friday evening, October 9, join the entire FSP community for a simple evening program of music, cooking and sharing.
6:00: Special guest and former music teacher, Hans Barklis, will be playing tunes. You can be cooking in your kitchen, utilizing your secret ingredients for the Iron Chef Cook Off, or you might be ready to eat dinner while you listen.
6:30: Share a few dishes, virtually.
6:40: Watch a short video of the beginning of the school year.
6:45: Jenny shares a few thoughts about school this year.
7pm: We say goodbye.
10pm: Online Auction bidding closes.
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Reimagining the Fall Open House with New Director of Admissions, Anna Child |
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As a parent of a Kindergarten and preschooler at Friends School of Portland, I know and love the nature-based early childhood classrooms well, but it is with great pleasure that I now get to learn more deeply about the first through eighth grade experience as the new Interim Director of Admissions.
Of course admissions will look different at FSP this year, but what a perfect time to showcase the outdoor learning that the school has been focused on since opening its doors on Mackworth Island in 2006. Likewise, our newly expanded Passive House building will allow us to showcase the beautiful middle school wing, top of the line air transfer system, and our goal of reaching net zero.
We will be holding an Admissions Open House on Saturday, October 24th from 9am-noon. There will be three possible scenarios, depending on Cumberland County’s color designation by DHHS and Maine CDC: all in-person, some in-person, and all virtual. The first two will require small tour groups of adults only (masked and socially distanced) moving through the buildings and/or the outside learning spaces; the third will feature a video tour and some live chats.
We will also be holding informational sessions online with prospective families this fall.
I look forward to the year ahead and would love to hear from you. Please feel free to contact me at annac@friendsschoolportland.org with any questions, input, or just to introduce yourself. It is an honor to be part of FSP’s extraordinary community of students and staff.
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Traditions Take New Shapes |
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Since our first year on Mackworth Island in 2006, we have created pinwheels as part of an art installation on the International Day of Peace. This year was no different! We were not able to gather physically as usual, but we strung together a display of over 100 pinwheels in this short video. |
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