The Weekly Bulldog
August 22, 2019
From Tim: Creating an environment in which children want to learn
Welcome to our year at school and our first edition of the 2019-20 Weekly Bulldog! After a busy summer session and weeks of campus preparations, we’re thrilled to have students back in our classrooms. Thank you for your assistance in all that you do, from online forms to class setups, to help get our year smoothly underway.
Along with the joyfulness of students on the first day of school, I’m energized by the passion and enthusiasm of our teachers ready to engage once again in the lives of our children and families. I marvel at what our teachers do, in and out of the classroom, to support our kids. By choice, teachers make a fundamental commitment to make a lasting and positive impact on the lives of children, and Stanley teachers are uncommon in the depth of their dedication.
The role of “teacher” continues to be transformed, or at least it should be. Teachers were once seen as the ones with all the knowledge who were tasked with transferring some of that knowledge to students. Of course, whatever body of knowledge teachers once had is dramatically obsolete – any information imaginable, and plenty that’s not, is readily available and accessible. We don’t need teachers to provide factual content, even to help students find it.
What we do need teachers to do is show why information matters and help students realize the power of information in their grasps. What might they want to do with it? Build a persuasive argument? Solve a problem? Gain an insight into how something works?
Teachers help children understand what kind of information matters. Some of it matters for its own sake and is needed for participation in society – like why our government is structured the way it is, or how everything in an ecosystem is interdependent. Other information matters because it means something to a teacher – and they convey that interest – or it resonates somehow with the curiosity of a young mind. Either way, teachers first demonstrate that knowing all you can about something is worthwhile – whether that something is politics, literature, planetary science or the Broncos.
Teachers also help children with things that they otherwise may avoid, and they do it by creating an environment in which children want to learn, not because they’re coerced. Writing a coherent, compelling essay is hard work. It takes lots of practice, and to learn to write well takes a patient teacher who can reveal the magic of expressing oneself through written language. It certainly doesn’t come by completing worksheets on sentence construction.
Mostly, it seems to me that teachers like the ones we have at Stanley teach children to care. They don’t tell students what to care about, but they model that caring about something is important. It’s a critical step in the process of learning what interests you, what you want to know more about, what’s worth spending time and energy on. Ultimately, that capacity to care gives life meaning.
It’s a great privilege to work every day alongside teachers who live our mission, “to engage, challenge and inspire children to reach their potential and develop their own voices…” We look forward to a tremendous year ahead with your children and you.
All the best,
Top Five Things
1. Morning people - we got 'em
2. Go with our flow
The Stanley BPS campus is long on teaching and learning spaces and economical with parking and carpool-lane areas. Please follow the four DOs of drop-off/pick-up: 1) Drive slowly, 2) avoid cell-phone usage, 3) go one-way with arrows, and 4) stop car-stop engine.
3. We [heart] our volunteers
4. attendance@stanleybps.org
5. Overwhelmed?
Upcoming Events
August 23
Parent Association Volunteer Fair
August 28
Middle School camping trips begin
September 2
September 3
After-school enrichments begin
September 5
Middle School Back-to-school Night (6pm)
Stanley British Primary School
Email: admin@stanleybps.org
Website: www.stanleybps.org
Location: 350 Quebec St., Denver
Phone: (303) 360-0803
Facebook: facebook.com/stanley.british/
Twitter: @stanleybps