S O U N D I N G S F R I E N D S A C A D E M Y

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Any word that is overused tends to lose its meaning over time as it slips into a shorthand that takes away its power and begins a slide toward blandness. At Friends Academy the word “community” resurfaces constantly, but somehow the truth and accuracy of the word remain sharp and telling. In so many ways the word “community” describes who we are and who we want to be. The word is felt more than it is defined, a tribute to its infusion into the multifaceted ethos of this school.

The articles in this edition of Soundings, each distinct and clearly important on their own, connect in ways that speak to how a sense of community brings us together and propels us to an enriched understanding and a genuine support for each other and the world around us.

Read about the vernal pools that get our student scientists in touch with the natural community and the inspiring beauty of our campus. These unique local habitats provide simple yet lasting lessons about the interconnecting threads that influence life on planet earth. Studying vernal pools forces students to consider the uniqueness of place and, at the same time, contemplate broader definitions of community.

An article about our coalition of New Bedford schools and another about FA’s student advocacy group bring to life our participation in communities beyond Tucker Road. Students and faculty experience common bonds with institutions and individuals both local and far-flung, as we combine resources and coalesce around matters ranging from shared professional development opportunities to the right to an education regardless of gender.

Back on campus, our youngest students in the Early Childhood Program take inspiration from the teachings of the Reggio Emilia community, all the while developing sharp analytical powers of their own through keen observation, careful questioning, and sophisticated thinking. What does make the bridge stand up? How much weight can it hold?

Lastly, in a tribute to first grade teacher Nancy Fletcher, who retires this June after more than thirty years at Friends Academy, we learn yet again how remarkable people define our community and inspire us with their example. No one embodies a commitment to teaching and learning better.

This issue of Soundings provides a look into several of the distinct communities that combine to form our larger community, the hallmark of this institution and in many ways our legacy. Though we try not to overuse the word it just keeps coming back! And, yes, the whole is indeed greater than the sum of its parts. Enjoy this special glimpse into Friends Academy.

Sincerely yours,

Stephen K. Barker, Head of School

Dear Friends,spring 2013

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Heart-felt sentiments were expressed during intermission at the Middle School talent show in April, when seventh and eighth grade grade students from the Human Rights Advocacy group (known as Advocacy for short) spoke about what Malala Yousafzai’s story means to each of them.

Malala Yousafzai is the 15-year old Pakistani schoolgirl who was attacked last year for chronicling the plight of students being systematically denied an education by the Taliban in Pakistan. Malala published a blog under an assumed name and her story has sparked a worldwide movement in support of education for girls, and for all young people.

Our advocacy group started small last winter when the Service Learning committee was looking to broaden its opportunities for students. We began as a group for 7th and 8th graders to discuss meaningful global issues. We concluded last year with a campaign to raise awareness of a particular human rights violation; writing letters and signing a petition that was subsequently sent to the Attorney General of Mexico. Students left for the summer with a deeper understanding of

and commitment to our group’s mission: to discuss human rights violations around the world, to promote awareness of those issues in the Friends community, and to inspire action.

Since its inception over a year ago, the Human Rights Advocacy Group has grown significantly and developed a deeper sense of purpose. We began this school year with a dynamic and passionate group of 8th graders and a new co-advisor, Blinn Dorsey, who brought fresh ideas and vigor to the group. Together, over the course of the school year, Blinn and I have encouraged students to examine issues that affect them.

As many students expressed an interest in issues related to education, they learned through research that millions of children around the world are denied access to education. After taking a closer look at the case of Malala Yousafazai, students were struck by the terrible injustice of her attack by the Taliban, but found hope in her miraculous recovery. Reading more about Malala’s activism and bravery, Advocacy members identified the denial of education as a global epidemic and com-mitted themselves to this important issue.

Moving from thought to action, in December, the group presented Malala’s story to the Middle School community and invited students to sign a petition in support of the right to an education for all children around the word. Emboldened by Malala’s unwavering commitment to her own education and that of her peers in Pakistan, Advocacy was eager to do something more. We began to plan our own “Malala Day” encouraging students to wear purple and signs of peace. Additionally, the group initiated a fundraiser with donations being sent to the Malala Fund, an inter-national fund endowed in her honor with the purpose of supporting girls’ education in Pakistan and around the world. We sold purple friendship bracelets with an “M” bead in the center.

It was incredibly powerful to witness our students in Advocacy speak so articulately about why they stand with Malala and her message. And still, in the face of such injustice, the students in Advocacy have held on to what Malala’s story signifies to them most: hope for the education of all children.

by Morgan Lord, Middle School Social Studies Teacher

A D V O C A T I N G F O R E D U C A T I O N , G L O B A L L Y

“I stand with Malala because I believe that education for all is a right not a privilege.”

“I stand with Malala because she raised awareness of an important issue around the world that needed to be addressed.”

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Educators everywhere are working to integrate Science, Technology, Engineer-ing, and Mathematics (S.T.E.M.) into the curriculum, and are even moving from S.T.E.M. to S.T.E.A.M., recogniz-ing the Arts as a critical component.

Here at the Friends Farmhouse, we feel fortunate to have the educators of Reggio Emilia to look to, who have practiced a cross-disciplinary approach using inquiry-based projects and investigations for many years. The approach has given us a deep respect for young children and their ability to interrelate ideas, to problem-solve, and to use information meaningfully in different contexts.

“A child has a hundred languages,” say the educators of Reggio Emilia, meaning that children learn and express themselves in many ways, whether it be through art, music, dance, building, or verbal language. In light of this, children build knowledge and understand the world around them, through discussions, experimentation, observation, and by representing their ideas in a variety of different mediums. Here’s an example of how early childhood students are learning about bridge building.

When we began focusing on bridges—both conceptually and metaphorically —the children wrote, sketched, designed, and built them out of a variety of

it could hold. They ended up with a total of fifty-eight without collapsing it. The pride in the room was palpable. In the following weeks they devised a new game using their bodies to make bridges and using language to invent metaphors about bridges and turning them into a song.

We have observed that children do not naturally separate their learning into rigid categories, but move back and forth between them in a sort of fluid cross- pollination, making connections across disciplines. One of the many things we love about Reggio-inspired teaching is the way it supports children’s innate capacity to achieve deeper, more universal under-standings. As the children follow new paths they predict, observe, sketch and record data, compare, contrast, build and describe, sculpt, and even sing about their ideas—using Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts, and Mathematics —in ways we never would have expected.

B U I L D I N G B R I D G E S A T T H E F A R M H O U S E

materials. They experimented with clay, wood, and paper, realizing that the strength of a bridge must increase with the distance spanned, that shapes such as arches or triangles strengthen their struc-tures, and that beauty is an incredibly powerful element in their design.

They became interested in the diversity of bridge designs and began to make sketches and models ranging from simple beam bridges to elaborate suspension bridges, arch bridges, truss bridges, drawbridges, and aqueducts. They used these sketches as blueprints to construct models, using a variety of materials.

Using all they learned, the class began a collaborative bridge project. Studying a photograph and strategizing together, they built trusses and added crossbeams to assemble the framework, deciding to add additional triangles on top for extra strength. Upon completion, they hung a basket from the center of the bridge, adding rocks to test how much of a load

by Cheryle Walker-Hemingway and Amy Peckham ’86, Early Childhood Education Teachers

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With nets, buckets, magnifying lenses and field journals in hand, each spring sixth grade students can be seen ventur-ing out to an alternative Friends Academy classroom—the 65 acres of woods, fields, rivers, ponds and vernal pools that invite exploration and discovery.

Throughout the year, students utilize the campus to participate in several citizen science projects. Collecting data for Harvard Forest, Cornell University, and Mass Wildlife’s Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program, students are able to contribute to real world scientific studies, tracking trends in wildlife distribution and changes in the timing of natural cycles (phenology), such as the bud bursts and leaf drop.

The wonder and interest that kids bring to these projects inspires scientific inquiry. The goal for the teacher is to

nurture this innate wonder, while giving kids the opportunity and tools to prac-tice careful observation, record keeping, and data analysis. The data that students collect on the Friends Academy campus is combined with data from scores of schools around the country and thousands of individual citizens who contribute to these ongoing studies.

In April, enveloped by the songs of chorusing wood frogs and spring peepers, the science students approach an inconspicuous, water-filled depres-sion between the trees. This “wicked big puddle,” as vernal pools are sometimes called, is an important New England habitat—a habitat that these kids know well.

Because they dry out at various times during the year, these ephemeral water bodies don’t support fish populations,

by Peter Zine,MS Science and Social Studies Teacher

C I T I Z E N S A S S C I E N T I S T S

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thus providing critical egg-laying habitat for many amphibians. The prevalence of vernal pools in this part of the country is why the northeastern United States is home to the largest diversity of sala-mander species anywhere on the planet.

The vernal pool is a portal to an over-looked world of animals. Serving as a nursery for amphibian and invertebrate larvae, they team with young life, invit-ing the careful observer to notice their impressive metamorphoses.

Sixth graders wade into the pool to stir the detritus. They swipe for a sample; put it into their bucket and watch. As the insect larvae and tiny crustaceans swim up from the murky sediment, students observe and record; observe and record. A classmate calls out from across the pool to share an interesting find. Some hurry over to see, others

remain steadfast at their post, observing and recording.

Though some shoes get wet, and the bottoms of pants a little muddy, the enthusiasm is only hampered by a time check—a class period nearing its completion. Students return their samples and the abundant organisms they contain back to the pool, gather their materials and head back up the hill, leaving this other world behind. As the ripples in the pool begin to fade, and the detritus settles, the pool seems still, quiet…until tomorrow.

Just as the spotted salamanders and wood frogs return year after year to this, their natal vernal pool, so too, do Friends Academy sixth graders return each year to observe them.

E X P L O R I N G V E R N A L P O O L S

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On a snowy winter day, Friends Academy’s Band of Friends, the new choral group of third through fifth graders, made their way to the stage at Alma del Mar School, a charter school in New Bedford. FA students were there to share the music they had been learning in their Friday activity period. Led by Putnam Murdock, Jim Bean, and Jackie Maillet, students opened the concert with a rousing rendi-tion of You’ve Got a Friend in Me as the K-3rd grades listened raptly in the audi-ence. Later, the concert concluded with John Lennon’s Imagine sung by everyone as the whole gym rocked with music.

This event, and many other interactions grew out of a new initiative at Friends Academy. In August 2012, we reached out to area charter schools to see how administrators from all schools could work together. The overarching goal of the team, which meets monthly, is to share each school’s resources in order to benefit all the children of the south coast region. In this way, schools are not islands unto themselves, but collaborators in the edu-cation of all children. The rich diversity of our communities and resources are being shared, positive relationships among children are growing, and the conversa-tions between teachers are helping all to develop new perspectives and skills.

Friends Academy, Alma del Mar, Nativity Prep, Our Sisters’ School, and New Bedford Global Learning Charter School have had a highly productive year together. Teachers from all schools shared in each other’s professional development opportunities. For instance, a Sally Borden teacher went to training on Symphony Math at Our Sisters’ School. A teacher from Our Sisters’ School came to Friends Academy to hear Dr. Rosetta Lee talk about identity. In February, all five schools sponsored a School Choice Fair open to the general public. Fifth grade students from Nativity Prep and Our Sisters’ School came to Friends to hear artist and children’s writer, Faith Ringgold speak. Alma del Mar families were invited to go sledding on Friends’ hill, but unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate! Plans are already under-way for future events.

This spring, students from all schools will participate in a joint community service project at a New Bedford park. When award-winning author Natalie Babbitt visits Friends Academy’s fifth grade, other schools’ fifth graders will be invited as well. This summer, Alma del Mar is sending ten students to the Orton-Gillingham intensive reading program and a teacher to the training program. Opportunities to share these rich resources will continue to develop and enhance all schools’ communities.

A C O A L I T I O N O F S C H O O L Sby Katherine Roberts Gaudet, Director of the Sally Borden Program and Melinda Foley-Marsello, Head of Lower School

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be well behaved, attentive, and produc-tive. There was also a very unassuming side to Nancy, never finding the need to outshine her colleagues, though she often did so unintentionally. As far as classroom management is concerned, Nancy has always been the master. Without raising her voice, she made it clear that she was in charge, and that she would not fail in this leadership role.

To appreciate Nancy’s exemplary skill, all one needs to do is listen. Listen to the praise she doles out at the right moment for a faltering child. Listen to the words of encouragement and excitement as she interacts with her students, and listen to those magic moments when she is able to not say anything at all. We all, teachers especially, love to “fix” things. Yet as we give in to this temptation, we deprive our students of the opportunity to learn

by Stephen Mogilnicki ’76, Fourth Grade Teacher

important life lessons. Nancy has the uncanny ability to know when to stand back and watch children make a discovery of their own. In this regard, she is the consummate teacher.

Nancy has always had the gift of perspec-tive. Many of us require a monumental shake up of our daily living—the death of a spouse or close friend, cancer, the loss of a parent or parents—Nancy has always had the perspective to balance the professional with the personal, and she understands the value of both hard work and play.

Cheerleader, athlete, gardener, satirist, and so much more, we thank you Nancy for setting the bar so high, and for enriching our lives. We are all the better for spending the time together.

Thank you, Mrs. Fletcher!I imagine working in close proximity with someone affords you an occasional glimpse of what really makes them tick. My colleague, my friend, my confidant, Nancy Fletcher has been and will always be what I consider a mentor and life coach for all of us who spend our days in a classroom. If, by chance, my words fail me in this brief tribute, I beg a simple request. Cherish the time we have spent together with Nancy, and consider the honor we have enjoyed at Friends Academy for thirty-two years.

Nancy and I first met as second and first grade teachers respectively. Given the close proximity in teaching positions we were frequently attending the same meetings, evening performances, and social events, yes social events. I was both intrigued and intimidated by this master teacher. Nancy’s classes seemed to always

w w w . f r i e n d s a c a d e m y 1 8 1 0 . o r g

S O U N D I N G S F R I E N D S A C A D E M Y1088 tucker road, north dartmouth, ma 02747www.friendsacademy1810.org spring 2013

Every gift to the Annual Fund is an investment

in the exceptional students and teachers who

make Friends Academy the school it is today!

Inquiring minds confident communicators creative problem solvers green thumbs respectful collaborators courageous learners joyful innovators inspiring artists appreciative audiences these are the students and teachers who benefit from your unwavering support.

50/50 match for first-time investors

If you have not yet donated to the Annual Fund, a gift of $50 by June 30 will automatically be doubled this year, thanks to an FA challenge grant. What this means is that a single investor has promised to donate $50 to match every new donation. Imagine the impact of this gift and the difference it can make in your child’s education.

50/50 match for experienced donors

If you have been a past supporter of Friends Academy through Annual Giving and you increase the value of your last gift by $50 or more, an additional $50 will be added to your donation.

Either way, you’ll want to take advantage of this opportunity to increase the impact of your gift. Your support of the Annual Fund helps us plan course-based field trips and outdoor education activities, to purchase new uniforms and equipment for our athletic teams, and to provide tools and supplies for our art, music,

and dramatic arts programs.

REMEMBER! Any donation is appreciated. Make your tax deductible contribution on line by clicking on the green “Donate to Friends” icon at: www.friendsacademy1810.org or call Jodi Pink, Director of Development at 508-999-1356 x1129.

INVEST IN THE GRAY AND BLUE