Our natural world is awakening around us, albeit slowly. Over the weekend, temperatures crept into the 70s for the first time in nearly seven months. Blossoms in the apple orchard have begun to flower, the grass is greening, dandelions abound, and yes the black flies have emerged as spring flood waters slowly recede back into the banks of the Blackwater River. As we watch the seasons change, we are reminded organizations like Proctor are living organisms as well.
Each spring, Proctor’s Allan S. Bursaw Chapter of the National Honor Society inducts a group of juniors, joining a cohort of graduating seniors as academic leaders in the community. Selected by a committee of faculty, members of the National Honor Society have demonstrated excellence in the organization’s four pillars of character, scholarship, leadership, and service.
This past weekend would have been Proctor's Spring Family Weekend. Teachers and advisors would have gathered with parents to discuss student growth. We would have played games Friday evening and Saturday afternoon, seen a sneak peak at the Spring Musical during assembly, and Head of School Mike Henriques would have shared his annual "State of Proctor" conversation with families.
Like all classes this spring, Peter Southworth’s Journalism students have shifted their approach to publishing their school newspaper, The Hornet’s Nest. The virtual interviews, polls, and storytelling required of this project paralleled the in person process honed by the class during the first two trimesters, however, the compilation of this digital version as an entirely remote team required a significant evolution of those skills. Check out the full edition at the link below, and read on to explore two feature stories.
Today marks the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. Conceived in the midst of social, political, and racial upheaval of 1970 when 22 million Americans took to the street to voice their concern about the way our species was treating the natural world, this celebration continues to recenter us each year on our connection with our living earth.
Proctor’s hands-on, face-to-face centric educational model has created unique challenges for teachers as they shift their programs to an online format. How, for example, do you turn a metal engineering class into a distance learning program? Studio art? Woodworking? Ceramics? Theater? Proctor’s Arts Department has stepped up to the challenge of transforming their typically hands-on, in-person focused courses into powerful remote learning experiences. Enjoy the following windows into our arts classes, featured student work, and reflections from our art faculty on how they are thinking outside the box this spring!
Journalism students share perspectives from life on quarantine and the often unexpected lessons they are learning as they encounter new challenges (and opportunities) in a forced slower pace of life.
