Hello all from California! Our Spring Mountain Classroom group is growing in spirit and unity every day. As we drove from the airport towards our first campsite, called Mission Creek, we overheard our instructors Peter and Lori engaged in a conversation about genetically engineered foods, or GE foods, which immediately set the bar for our expectations of the term.
As a boarding school in rural New Hampshire, we often hear people talk about how we must live in a 'bubble'. While our campus in Andover, New Hampshire is safe, secure, and filled with good people, at Proctor we refuse to live and learn in a bubble.
The period of learning that we are in now, Project Period, affords the opportunity to step (ease?) into the spring term with a singular focus.
Proctor’s faculty had the privilege of working alongside Ruben Puentedura, Ph.D for today’s professional development day. Puentedura’s presentation of his SAMR model of technology integration combined with small group workshops proved incredibly powerful as faculty began to rethink how technology intersects with pedagogy at Proctor.
While we obviously must avoid placing our students in danger, we must allow them to explore their world. We know there is no better way to learn than to live, and there is no better way to build confidence and courage as a learner than to actually be responsible for navigating life. At Proctor, we seek to provide a living education, not an observational one.
As we encourage recently accepted students to attend Proctor’s Revisit Days, we share stories of the wonderful accomplishments of our students. We highlight the amazing academic courses, off-campus programs, and unquestionable sense of community that is Proctor. We focus on the good because it is what attracts students and families to our school. We must not forget, however, to acknowledge the struggles each of us feel at some point during our lives and how Proctor helps each student navigate life as an adolescent.
Students may officially be on spring break, but things are hardly quiet around the Proctor athletic office as ten different teams take part in spring break training opportunities!
Over the past months, Proctor's admissions team has worked hard processing well over 600 applications for the 2015-2016 school year. Last night at midnight, acceptances were emailed to prospective students who we think will enrich Proctor's community. Congratulations to the newly admitted students, we hope each decides to be #proctorbound!
Over the past sixty years, Proctor has evolved tremendously. Our physical plant has grown along with our student body, but our core belief that each student has a unique learning style has remained unchanged since Jerry Lester graduated in 1954. Lester’s journey through his years at Proctor unlocked a passion for learning that would serve him well following his graduation. His story is unique, but represents the best of what Proctor has to offer each of its students.
In the early 1970s, Proctor underwent a transformative period in its history as it launched off-campus programs, became co-educational, and embraced a new era of leadership. Faculty acknowledged attitude and effort played a key role in learning. They saw each student enter the learning process with different skills and varying prior knowledge. To simply assess students on their academic ‘performance’ as defined by a quiz or test score seemed inadequate.
Living with a host family in a foreign city, country, culture, and language is certainly one of the most challenging, and sometimes exhausting, experiences possible for any student. By the end of a term living abroad in Segovia, however, Proctor students almost without exception rank the homestay experience as one of their very favorite aspects of the program. Here students write of their experiences living with Spanish families and reflect on the deep learning that occurs from living life en español.
I am thrilled to be the one that gets to write about our final week on European Art Classroom. As the term comes to a close, there is sadness but also cheerfulness around the house. I think I speak for everyone that we are all excited to be going home, but we are also sad that this great adventure whipped by and has come to an end. Secretly, deep down we know that after a few days of being at home, we will start to miss our second home in Aix.
After a successful winter season, three Proctor athletic teams are headed to the NEPSAC tournament! On Sunday, the boys' hockey, girls' hockey, and girls' basketball teams all received news of their upcoming quarterfinal games and are preparing to make runs at NEPSAC titles!
Henry Vaughan '74 first pulled into Andover, New Hampshire in the fall of 1969 for an interview at Proctor Academy. As a prospective ninth grader, the Beverly, Massachusetts native already had his mind set on going into the forest services or municipal fire fighting. From promotional materials, he knew Proctor offered both forestry classes and had a small, albeit very active, on-campus fire department. As his family drove toward the intersection of Routes 11 and 4 on his way into town, he witnessed Proctor’s fire department in action as they pulled up to a small fire along the side of the road in their antique fire truck. At that moment, Vaughan thought to himself, ‘I think I’ve died and gone to heaven. This place is unbelievable!’
