Conclave and a Visitor!

Above is a photo from our hike at Mt Rainier on 9/26. We hiked around Reflection Lake and then around Narada Falls.

Conclave is our time to check in with each other about how things are going in our lives and in school. It's a confidential time, so I will just sum up by saying that some of the freshmen are having some major frustrations at home and one is struggling to adjust to his new school schedule and catch up with his classes. We also discussed how to deal with a messy locker partner.

I gave them a couple of nuggets of wisdom: 1. You are not responsible for other people's happiness. 2. Friends should not be toxic to you. They should be there for you in good times and bad. Friendship is give and take. So if you have a "friend" who is toxic and always taking and never giving, you should let them go!

The freshmen had a visitor: Dr. John Woodward, Dean of the Education Department at the University of Puget Sound. He was one of my professors when I got my Masters in Teaching degree there in 1993-94. He is interested in the work we are doing here at Peace and asked the students to talk about an assignment they did well on and why they thought they did well on it and then an assignment they didn't do well on and why they thought they had failed at it. For the most part, the students said they did well because they had been well-taught and understood the material, or they felt connected to the assignment and had a strong opinion and much to say. They failed because they didn't like the teacher or didn't feel good in the class atmosphere, or didn't understand the assignment and needed some re-teaching. It was fascinating to listen to this conversation.

The sophs are particularly frustrated with their Honors World Cultures class. They are having great difficulty understanding the lectures. All five of them who are in this class are struggling. There was some success on a recent Chemistry safety test. Yay! The hike to Mt. Rainier was a huge high point for our students who participated.