September on Martha’s Vineyard is my favorite month. Warmer water, thinning crowds after a bustling summer, and a new school year. What could be better than September?
Students, new and returning, with fresh haircuts, backpacks brimming with school supplies, carefully chosen back-to-school outfits — all eager for the joy that learning brings — arrive at the West Tisbury School Thursday. We’re ready for them.
They will find both familiar and new faces just as eager to greet them and begin a promising year of learning together. New members of the teaching staff include Kevin Casey, AnneMarie Ralph, Emily Roberts, and Peter Forrester. Joel Weintraub, a West Tisbury School veteran, has taken a break from retirement and returned to us. Bryna Cronin, Kim Patterson, Meghan Smith, Margo Meyer, Lori Maribito, and Max Bengtsson have joined our educational support staff. And happily, we welcome a new head custodian, Rick Travers, whose brightening impact on the school campus is unmistakable.
There are many new initiatives, but I’ll only describe a few highlights. We have a new program in our elementary grades that incorporates what’s known as the Singapore approach to math. Devoted faculty members took part in professional development training this summer in preparation for implementing it. We will also launch a full Algebra I course in the eighth grade and math enrichment instruction throughout the school.
We have begun planning and design for a new playground that will extend the classroom outdoors and create a play space that emphasizes natural elements rather than commercial big toy structures.
The staff and students will learn a new approach to social and emotional learning, called RULER, which develops students’ emotional literacy skills and improves learning, decision making, creativity, relationships, and overall social health. This new approach dovetails with the Responsive Classroom approach we use now. I studied this innovative approach firsthand this summer at Yale University with guidance counselor Molly Cabral, and we are excited to pilot this innovative, clever, and promising program with our staff, students, and families. We will also refine our pilot implementation of yoga and partner with The Yard to implement a new program, called Making It, into the curriculum.
And, that’s just a taste of the bright new adventures students will explore this year at the West Tisbury School.
We have a great educational year ahead, and I am as eager as all of you are for this gift, one of many, that September brings.
Donna Lowell-Bettencourt was appointed West Tisbury School’s principal in June 2013, after serving as the interim director of Student Support Services since August 2012. She also formerly served as West Tisbury School’s interim assistant principal and interim principal.