TMS teachers started off the school year with a High Camp retreat. In addition to the usual camaraderie of games, meals, and hikes, the staff did a deep dive with student counselor, Claire Eastham, on the summer reading, Marc Brackett’s Permission to Feel, a resource TMS plans to use to guide students and staff to recognize and label emotions as a part of our social emotional learning program. With Upper School director, Emily Durkin, teachers practiced using some of Educational Learning techniques, which are a part of the school’s larger commitment to implementing MBE in the classroom (Mind, Brain, Education). Finally, with our Upper English teacher, Emily Shoff, the staff got the chance to write, learning a few strategies they can use with students out in the field as well as getting a chance to tap into their own words.
Pasted below are a few of the things staff had to say…
“The old cabin creaks as footsteps cross the floor, a reminder of everyone that has come before. The peaks hold the cabin safe in their center, peaceful and calm in the wildness that surrounds us. The pike plays telephone while birds gossip in the trees. The air is fresh and cool but smells of breakfast, sweet and warm. The low ceiling of clouds cloak the high peaks, playing peek-a-boo with the jagged rocks. Squirrels argue loudly as the sun peeks through, illuminating the greens of the meadow but fall teases brown on the leaves.” ~Angela
“In the wild,
Everyone can participate
The artist visualizes
The scientist examines
A writer scribes a poem
Or a mathematician counts and contrasts
A geologist tries to identify a rock
While the painter envisions its possibilities
The outdoors are inclusive
Nature is all encompassing
And the teachers see the lessons
While the learners ask the questions
& the continual ponderance
Of the vastness
Of this world
Inspires
Much more
Then a classroom ever would.”
~Jacqui
"I feel tired. Usually I’m eager to get outside but this morning I can’t peel myself off of this cozy couch. It’s wet outside and the thought of sitting on a dewy log makes my body tense up. I hear ground squirrels taunting those who choose to go outside--those ground squirrels that I formerly called chipmunks but was quickly corrected by someone far more knowledgeable. Pens scribble across the page, the shuffle of down jackets creating friction as the pen scurries: the sound of teachers probably writing much more profound and insightful reflections than mine. I taste the lingering cinnamon, sugar, and butter from the homemade cinnamon rolls Andy made this morning. I smell, well, not much as I breathe in the cool air from the window open to my right, a smell I imagine to be fresh. Fresh mountain air that leaves me wanting to breathe in deeper, to fill my lungs with this moment. This moment of quiet, peaceful, calm between the storm of what awaits when we return to the highway and drive towards Telluride. I see mountains. Mountains standing so tall and strong blocking my view of what is on the other side: work, school, family, responsibility. I will come back to this moment throughout the year, thankful for the chance to step away from it all. I needed this getaway as much as I resisted it. This moment tucked away on the other side of the mountains."~ Brittany
"I opened the door and it hit me: “sugar and butter.” The cabin had transformed into a bakery of cinnamon and nutmeg. The smell eclipsed anything else in the room. Like sirens calling Odysseus. Then I saw them: big fluffy balls of moist plump dough. I wiped the sleep from my eyes, preparing to enter once again into the never-ending battle sounding in my head: to eat or not to eat. Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to eat or not to. I turned towards the lovely fruit salad instead and served myself a bowl." ~Emily D.