Each Year Starts with Community
Each year, Brightworks students spend the first 3 weeks of their year on the topic of community. This is the time that we create agreements about how we will be in community with one another, work in collaboration and honor the unique journey we’ve each travelled to arrive here today.
Ultimately, this time allows Brightworks students build empathetic relationships with others, including peers and adults. This is crucial as it underlies the ability to collaborate, empathize and take ownership of our actions and our space.
With this foundation, students are more equipped to:
engage in effective communication and conflict resolution. Students learn to navigate conflict using restorative justice.
understanding their place in the world and broader community.
look at the world with a lense of inclusivity and recognize structures of power and white supremacy.
act as positive role models. Students are encouraged to be positive role models and take ownership of the school space.
engage in self-advocacy. Students learn to respectfully represent themselves and their ideas.
Community Arc
Living our value of community. As this portion of the year gets underway, we wanted to share out the intention behind this initial portion of each year and what it looks like in each program throughout the school.
Generally speaking, the beauty of any Arc lies in its ability to unite the entire school in exploring a shared theme. Yet, what makes it truly remarkable is the vast range of student-driven engagement, which differs significantly from kindergarten to high school.
As each band dives into the first mini-arc of Community and creates an related project, their unique contributions become threads that intertwined, weaving a captivating tapestry of ideas, explorations, and diverse perspectives.
At the elementary school level, students are exploring their names, learning how to identify and regulate emotions and what it means to be in community with one another.
In middle school, students considering big questions: Who Am I? How do I connect? And, what will I contribute?
And at the high school level, students are critically exploring their values, practicing using their voices to create community agreements, and continuing to build their understanding of conflict and reparation. This crucial work is the foundation for emerging as thoughtful and collaborative citizens of the world.
Peek into art with the Sapphire band (4th-6th grade). Students are mixing colors to match their skin tones using their own choice of colors for their pallets. They were asked to make lighter and darker versions of their skin tones as well, in order to match the different tones of color on their arms and hands.
Community for Parents, too!
Wednesday Family Coffees are back in full swing. It was wonderful to see so many parents there, catching up, connecting and welcoming new folks into the community! Join us Wednesdays 9-9:45 if you can.