A Joyful Return to Work

January 10, 2025
Classes have resumed at Parker, and our students returned joyful, jubilant, and eager to dive into the hearty winter work ahead. These upcoming winter months are some of the most industrious and productive here at Parker. Routines are well established, our students are comfortable and confident, and the knowledge and skills they’ve acquired over the fall begin to coalesce into substantial project work that keeps our students intellectually stimulated and intrinsically motivated through these cold months as we happily hunker down together.
Anyone who is lucky enough to walk down our lower school hallway and peek into our preschool classrooms knows what a magical experience our youngest students are having. Two and three year olds who started the year reserved, uncertain, and homesick are now brimming with exuberance and camaraderie, working together to build the tallest towers and slay imaginary dragons. Meanwhile, our older PreK 4 students are flexing their early academic muscles in preparation for Kindergarten as they observe and study weather, taking a particular interest in all things snow related. In the weeks ahead, these classes will each evolve their emergent curriculums as teachers manifest their observations on students’ play, language, and interests into project work that brings the children’s collective curiosities to life.
 
Learning in our lower school is humming industriously along with eager, competent students who are motivated by authentic studies that intrinsically allow room for their interests and skill differentiation. Kindergarten students have just begun a study of space, starting with the sun, moon, and planets. Where their learning will take them, however, could be to infinity and beyond;) Both our 1-2 classes are launching a reprise of our wildly popular Parker Post Office! This immersive project incorporates literacy, social studies, and math while also encouraging students to build their executive functioning, critical thinking, problem-solving, and social skills. It’s also a huge boon to our community, connecting faculty and students across grade levels and inviting communications from our wider network, as letters pour in from grandparents and special friends. Stay tuned for details on how you can write to us!

Moving up by grade level, Nari’s 3-4 class is just wrapping up a huge, interdisciplinary study focused on “walking in someone else’s shoes”. Guided by the probing question, “What can we do to help each other?” Nari’s students examined issues of housing and food insecurity, first to understand the issues and then to pursue the actionable question of what can be done? The class studied Chef José Andrés World Central Kitchen as one outstanding example of humanitarian action. Rose’s 3-4s, meanwhile, are concluding a mock legislative session to cap their fall study of government. Each student in her class wrote a bill for an issue or policy that they believe in and presented it on the floor of their classroom “congress”. The bills are now being considered by their classmates, and will ultimately be approved by their newly elected class representatives. Following this study, Rose’s 3-4s will move into a study of mythological creatures. Stay tuned to see what creature each student imagines into being!

Finally, our driven middle schoolers are excelling in a program that cultivates and supports the development of initiative, self-direction, and perseverance. Work on the Parker Press has begun in earnest in our 5th grade class, and we are looking forward to articles about the 1-2 Nutcracker Project, the 3-4 Class Election, and an editorial about whether or not the US should become a cashless society. This week also, our 5th grade writers culminated their unity on identity and poetry by presenting their “Where I’m From” poems to an audience of family, faculty, and peers.
Elsewhere in our middle school, our 6th and 7th grade scientists are concluding their unit on electricity, circuitry, and coding by putting the finishing touches on their handmade robots. These robots were student-built from the ground up using an Arduino nano base, solder, a glue gun, and various found materials. Many of our 8th grade mathematicians are diligently preparing for their Regents exams. Parker 8th graders have the option of “studying up” one grade level and taking their 9th grade math Regents in their home district this spring. Those who pass will start high school one grade level ahead in math. 8th grade social studies, meanwhile, has just concluded a study of Civil War era advancements in industry and technology. They will now move into studying colonization and the American Revolution, a unit that will culminate in their 8th grade trip to Boston, MA – birthplace of the American Revolution.

This is our student life at Parker: industrious, civically directed and connected, and full of passion for learning. Our school is a vibrant space where curiosity, creativity, and collaboration flourish. From our youngest explorers in preschool to our middle schoolers tackling complex projects and preparing for the next steps in their academic journeys, Parker is a place where every student is empowered to grow, question, and thrive.