End of Year 8!
My favorite part of every school year is being able to celebrate all of the accomplishments of our students at the end of the year. It is such an exciting time to reflect on the growth of our kids, both academically and personally, and make fun memories before being apart during the summer. When I planned to write this blog post before COVID, I assumed I would write about the exciting end of year field studies and rights of passage that I always look forward to, but we know that the end of this school year was different than any we have ever experienced before.
This year we had to use curiosity and creativity (one of our habits of character) to come up with ways to still celebrate and honor the work that our kids have put in during this school year. One of my favorite ways we celebrated were the ceremonies we had for our kindergarteners completing their first year of school and our fifth graders completing elementary school and being promoted to middle school. With the help of technology we were able to have staff, students, families, and community partners join zoom calls to recognize all of the hard work that our kids have put forth since September.
I was lucky enough to join the fifth grade promotion zoom meeting where we acknowledged their accomplishments from this year and previous years at DAA. There were crew awards, a slideshow game with young pictures of our crew members, and so many wonderful appreciations. While I wish we could have been in person, I was so pleased with how many extended family members were able to join because it was virtual, as well as coaches that some of our fifth graders have at Racquet Up. Our kids felt so happy to see so many faces on the call to cheer them on and congratulate them on being our newest DAA middle schoolers!
Our kindergarteners also had many of our students and families join to celebrate our new first graders on completing their very first year of school. These kids managed to adjust to school life while we were still safely at school and then continue learning even once we switched to distance learning for the safety of our school community.
Congratulations to all of our DAA students for completing a school year with adjustments that no one has ever had to manage before. Your DAA adult crew cannot wait to be able to safely teach you in person again. We miss you!