Eighth Grade Moves Up

The Class of 2021 has finished its middle school years and is getting ready for high school. On June 12, we celebrated this rite of passage at our Middle School Moving Up event. Here are my opening remarks, sending them…

Farewell to Seniors 2017

Our last All School Activity for this year carried on the tradition of bidding farewell to the seniors. The task for groups was to make a magic wand and write a special spell. One of the favorite “Caffeinator” to make…

Eventful MS Weekend

The final performance of “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown” took place on Friday evening in the James Earl Jones Theater. Students ran the entire show– not only acting, but also as set designers, sound and lighting technicians, and costume…

The Food Truck Emerges

Sixth graders completed their structure of a food truck, built of Goya cans, at the Poughkeepsie Galleria mall! The truck is striking for several reasons: it has a lighted sign, reading How CAN I help you? It has brightly lit…

How CAN We Help You?

The sixth grade is in the final two days before the big Food Bowl build on Friday evening (March 3) at the Poughkeepsie Galleria! Behind the scenes, the students have to practice. What looks like simple stacking has to carefully…

Reading to Build a Bridge

This month I’ve invited parents of grade 5 students to visit with me, tour the Holford Learning Commons and hear about the middle school program. Of special interest are parts of the program that work to build a bridge between…

Are We Running Out of Juice?

Early in the faculty meetings planning for this year, Jake Lahey, our 7-8 history teacher, wondered if we might create an interdisciplinary study that asked students to consider the history and processes that humans use to get energy from the…

True Service Learning Couples Awareness and Agency

by lgraceffa A student walked into my office today, with great excitement. She and her mom had taken time after school to deliver a play kitchen to the downtown Poughkeepsie daycare where some of our students volunteered during this year’s…

Before the Colonists

  One of the key concepts for seventh grade history is to help students realize that the Americas were full of people before the colonists arrived. My own image from childhood– a handful of Native Americans eating dinner with pilgrims–…

Bumps in the road by Ben Chant

We don’t like to see our children in pain or frustrated. We want them to be happy, and as much as we know a life without frustration is impossible, and not even a good thing, we still try to smooth…