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.
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.
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.
We talk often about the culture of lifelong learning that exists at Proctor; faculty designing new courses based on their passions, engaging in professional development workshops and graduate courses to further explore their disciplines. This growth mindset permeates the student culture as students witness adults take the same academic risks and willingly embrace vulnerability necessary to deep learning. Our rapid shift to remote learning this spring has amplified our collective need to embrace an openness to failure and willingness to iterate.
Life is unpredictable. If you told us that this spring we would not be in France teaching but instead writing this blog from our unheated shop, turned into quarantine home in western Washington State, it would be hard to believe. Our son and his wife live in the house and Jen and I are quarantining. We all have social distancing stories to share I'm sure - here's ours.
A version of this letter from Proctor's Director of College Counseling, E. Michael Koenig, was shared with parents and students of the Class of 2020 earlier in March. As the global situation related to COVID-19 continues to evolve and Proctor has made the decision to assess through Pass/Fail grades during the spring trimester, we share this message to the broader community in hopes it sparks a valuable conversation schools must be having related to how we assess, equity of assessment, and our priority needing to remain on the connection to and wellness of our students.
Two summers ago, my family had the opportunity to take advantage of Proctor’s Summer Enrichment Program (mini-sabbatical of sorts). We spent sixteen days driving over 5,000 miles around the American west in a campervan. I mapped the route meticulously months in advance.
