Welcome to December! School has been in session for approximately 13 weeks, and as one teacher wisely put it, “We’re out of the honeymoon phase. I know my students now—they’ve shown me how they learn best.” Translation? The comfy slippers of routine are on, but we’re still lacing up our running shoes for growth and experimentation.

Speaking of experimentation, a podcast I listened to recently got me thinking about life’s twists and turns. The episode, fittingly titled “Approaches to Life: Should You Follow a Plan, Make a Hard Pivot, or Improvise as You Go?” featured three perspectives:

• Improvisation: One speaker, a musician, raved about ditching plans entirely, claiming improvisation sparks creativity and excitement.
• Hard pivots: The kind you make when the unexpected smacks you in the face.
• Following a plan: The structured roadmaps we cling to for comfort (and hopefully, success).

Welcome to October! September was a time for building community, reconnecting with familiar faces, and getting acquainted with new ones while settling into our routines, expectations, and rhythms.  In my last note, I  shared with you how we developed Community Agreements during our opening staff meetings. These agreements were designed to foster transparency and create a shared understanding of how we can build relationships and more effectively work together. The staff enthusiastically suggested inviting the entire community to join this practice. Over the coming weeks, I will write more about how we are living these agreements and ways we work together to support each other in adhering to them. For those interested, the framed Community Agreements can be found in the vestibule to the right as you enter the school.

If you want quick access to the Fayerweather calendar on your phone, you can sync the FSS calendar to your personal calendar! Follow this quick tutorial to get updated access to the FSS calendar, and make your life that much easier.

When I made the decision to bring the Unit Play to Festival, these were the goals I had in mind:

• Expose students to new plays and different styles of theater
• Focus on student-led work
• Experience performing on a real stage and in a real theater space
• Universal participation in the technical success of the show
• Meet new friends with other theater loving kids
• Opportunity to represent the Fayerweather community to a broader audience

Without a doubt, these goals were achieved by the end of our process.

I have to admit that for me, beginnings and endings can feel challenging and at the same time thrilling. When my daughter was in elementary school, I remember being hyper aware of the cadence of the school year, with September representing the time for hope of all that she would learn and May marking the countdown to the end of the school year. May is the time I would begin to reflect on the past year and feel appreciation for all the ups, downs, and bumps in the road. After all, this is the journey of all school years–ups, downs, and bumps.

Congrats to the dedicated students of this year's FSS basketball season! We had a great year of skill-building, teamwork, hard work, and competitive games. The season started at the end of November and ran through February break. We played schools such as JCDS, CFS, Carroll School, Belmont Day, etc. The girls' team is well-positioned for a bright future, with numerous players poised for continued improvement in the coming years.While the boys' team was in a rebuilding year, they now have a strong group of players ready to lead them to success in the upcoming years. We recently honored our only 8th graders, Jaylin and William!

Prior to February Break, the PreK class embarked on our third annual tree tapping project at Fresh Pond Reservation! We roamed beyond Black’s Nook and over to the “big pond” to a cluster of maple trees. We met with Ranger Tim, who told us about the distinctions among living, dead, and non-living things and demonstrated the process of how trees transport sugar and water internally. We inserted taps into two maple trees and attached buckets under to catch the sap as it began to flow. We have continued to visit our maples several times a week to thank the trees for the sap they give us and to bring the new collection back to school.