Issue link: https://trevordayschool.uberflip.com/i/915972
What Brought You Here? Admissions season started recently. Since I am a new figure at Trevor, the question I get asked most from visiting parents is "What brought you here?" It's a great question. Families want to know what it was that I saw in the halls and in the children and in Trevor's teachers. What was it that I felt that led me to shift my working life here? As we all know, selecting a school is a huge decision for parents. It's said that you can't choose your family, but—given the significant portion of life you spend in school—in this case, you can. Families want to know if the reasons that spoke to me will also speak to them. ey want to decide if Trevor could be their new chosen family for the next 13, 14, or even 15 years. In this context, "What brought you here?" is an important question that informs one of the biggest decisions a family will make. And since this question is posed so often, I thought it might be useful to share my thoughts. Much of my choice has to do with balance. I've worked at many schools during my 20-something years in education. Some of these schools have functioned beautifully; others have, for one reason or another, missed the mark. I believe the primary reason for the latter has to do with not achieving balance. When a school achieves balance across multiple areas, it is able to serve the greatest range of children and meet the needs of the most families, even as it retains its unique vision and mission. Trevor has that balance. From the moment I walked in the door, I felt and saw a purposeful, blended program that creates a "sweet spot." As I spent weeks, and then months here, I saw the many elements that go into accomplishing that balance. First and foremost, Trevor's academic program is incredible. It's an extremely thoughtful program based on high expectations, but does not sacrifice the joy of learning. I was impressed not only by the breadth and depth of the content being taught, but also by the habits teachers were instilling into their students. By habits, I mean they were seeking to nurture certain types of learners through every lesson. Asking questions, taking risks, sharing ideas, really listening, collaborating. All of these habits serve our students from lower, to middle, to upper school, and beyond—into college and, eventually, the workplace. is balance of strong academics, a nurturing environment, and habit-driven pedagogy came through in every classroom visit and every teacher discussion, and it was clearly serving the students well. I found this balance achieved again between Trevor's academics and its methods of instruction. I've heard it summarized along a well-known continuum that Trevor has a traditional curriculum, taught in progressive ways, and the focusing lens of this approach is inquiry-based learning (IBL). As a pedagogical approach, IBL seeks to put our students' innate sense of curiosity at the center of their learning. Acting as expert facilitators, the Trevor faculty moves children through deep, contextually based problems and situations that further their understanding, tap into their interests and strengths, encourage collaboration, and highlight the process of work— rather than just the product—so that children grow into risk takers and flexible problem solvers. In terms of what this actually looks like in practice, this might be 4th graders seeking out the techniques that make for a really persuasive essay, and then using them to convince me to approve double recess, or to convince their parents to get a dog. It could be 1st graders exploring how a bird makes a nest that stays intact, or what other types of homes a bird might construct. It might be our 2nd graders gathering all the different ways to make the long /a/ sound and trying to figure out which patterns usually work with which words. Or 5th graders discussing aspects of social justice through their civil rights curriculum and trying to determine how point of view informs the historical documents they're reading. Or, as I Andy Wilson n Director of Lower School 2 0 T R E V O R D AY S C H O O L n FA L L 2 0 1 7 – 2 0 1 8 Passing the Torch at the Lower School