Bristol Central School’s Educator in Residence: Kelsey
Returning to Bristol Consolidated School (BCS) after serving as their Educator in Residence last winter has been one of the opportunities I have been most looking forward to in my second year working at The Leadership School. On my first day back to school this winter I played a competitive game of Bingo with the seventh graders during indoor recess, reconnected with the students I worked with last winter, enjoyed the warm greetings of teachers whose mentorship and support made me so keen to return to this school community, and ended the day with an ice cream party with the team of students who had recently won the school’s latest charity drive. Needless to say, its been a pretty awesome beginning.
Some highlights of the past two and half weeks include…
- Playing is this Seat Taken with Mrs. Cooper’s competitive seventh grade homeroom.
- Teaching the fourth grade class the Lumberjack, Happy Salmon and Top Gun handshakes
- Making paper lanterns, folding origami cranes and writing Haikus during a unit on Japan
- Being asked by teachers to give them new activities about team building for their classroom
In the upcoming weeks, I’m looking forward to bringing new games and activities to the BCS community, as well as getting our seventh and eighth grades excited about their upcoming time at The Leadership School this spring!
Whitefield Elementary School’s Educator in Residence: Nina
So far, my experience at Whitefield School has been warm and welcoming. The school is K-8 and I’ve gotten the privilege to meet most every student at the school, be it at lunch, on the playground, or in the classroom. While at Whitefield, my priority is to work with the 6th grade to prepare them for their trip to The Leadership School in March. I’m grateful to get to work with my particular site mentor, Karen McCormick, who is a pillar at Whitefield. Not only does she teach the 6-8th grade Science and Social Studies curriculum, Karen runs the National Junior Honor Society and helps students and teachers, alike, to work through complex social challenges they may be facing at the school or at home. Working by her side has given me invaluable insight to the gamut of individuals at Whitefield, which has only better equipped me to lend a hand where needed and adjust my TLS curriculum accordingly.
So far, I’ve gotten hands on experience instructing Science, Social Studies, English, and PE lessons and have gotten plenty of time to run my own lessons on leadership development. Next week, I even get to accompany the 6th graders on their field trip to Damariscotta, where they will learn basic cooking skills and healthy food choices. While I may only be the second EIR to serve Whitefield Elementary, I feel a strong connection and commitment to this community and I’m very excited to see how far we can take this EIR position!