Proctor’s long-winter weekend, or Bonus Weekend, has arrived. It marks the midway point between Winter Break and Spring Break, and provides a much needed respite for all in the community. While we’ve enjoyed one of the nicest weeks of January weather any of us can remember, the winter remains a long, exhausting term. Despite these challenges, our goal is to embrace all the Winter Term has to offer, rather than feel like we are just ‘getting through it’.  In order to ensure this mindset lasts, we need occasional encouragement.

You would think that two weeks of being constantly together as a group would get old. Yet as we wander the streets of Aix looking for our own, special café to call our home-away-from-home, or painting amongst a vineyard, the mountains that decorate the horizon, I notice that as each day passes, each and every one of us grows happier and happier. We truly are in a paradise; every new day I spend here, Aix comes to feel more and more like home.

It’s not easy standing up in front of your classmates in an American Literature class to deliver a speech, but when you are chosen by your peers to speak in front of the whole community and be judged on your performance? That’s a whole different matter. That takes courage to push through as legs shake and stomachs lurch. I could have no more delivered a speech like the Hays than run a four-minute mile when I was sophomore.

Flying over the South of France only 9 days ago was the first glimpse I got of the mountains and the surrounding water of the Mediterranean Sea. Was I really here? When I was offered the spot on this wonderful program only a little over a month ago I had many things running through my mind. Excitement. Disbelief. Fear. Could I make this possible? Could I go?  

Each program at Proctor exists for a reason. Our unique academic model did not develop by chance, but rather through the vision and commitment of those who came before us at this small boarding school in central New Hampshire. In its infancy, Proctor’s Learning Skills program became one of the first formal academic support program for dyslexic students in the country. Over the past seventy years, Learning Skills has developed into an integrated academic support program unlike any other.

Professional development is one of the most important things we do as educators. Whether it is a attending a conference, taking courses, or sharing reflections on a recent book we've recently read, we must consistently take time to think intentionally about our craft. This process affirms what we are doing, while at the same time challenges us to grow. Today was a professional development day for faculty at Proctor, and we had an opportunity to do just that: affirm and then grow. 

As current students scurry to complete off-campus program applications for 2016-2017 Ocean Classroom, Mountain Classroom, European Art Classroom, Proctor en Segovia, and Proctor in Costa Rica, we hear what Proctor en Segovia's Ryan Graumann and Mikaela Buldoc, and European Art Classroom's David and Jennifer Fleming believe are the top five benefits to studying off-campus or abroad while in high school! 

Last year, we published a blog post You Are What You Assess. As students enjoy a week of vacation following exams, we revisit the message in that post with a look at last week’s final assessments.