Hola Familias!
Anti-racism is not an angry or virulent concept. Anti-racism is about truth and love. Recognizing our own individual and unique privilege, accepting it and forging friendships with those who have had an entirely different lived experience. Relationships. This is how we change the world.
In history, we've begun to shift the conversation to the black experience by studying media, art, music and literature which celebrates black beauty, culture and history. While it is important to acknowledge and remember the pieces of blackness which center trauma, it should not always be where we focus our gaze. For the next two weeks in Social Studies, we will take a critical look at two songs/videos in Tank and the Bangas new album. "Red Balloon"
The song for the Activists will be "Black Folk" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLvSs-KHYus
This song has many historic implications. Some which we will unpack. It also shared imagery which brings positive and comforting associations to kids of color and will help erode stereotypical depictions of black folk. Kids will use this song to create their own lyrical poem after the two weeks.
The song for the Allies will be: "Stolen Fruit" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SJfQnRHB0A
This song focuses on black beauty, hope, positivity and imagery for our allies. It mentions "stolen fruit", while the take away is rebirth and unlimited potential. We will create our own expressive dance to this song next week.
Announcements:
We're looking into partnering with a local urban farm as we prepare for our spring planting and permaculture program. Stay tuned for more!
Sanidia will be stepping back into the classroom to help with reading and teaching more in the afternoons. We're going to be exploring chemistry with the activists and the periodic table, while exploring different states of matter for our Allies after closing out our sound unit.
Mr. B will be our Teacher in Residence for spoken word every Friday afternoon for the Activists and the Allies. Mr. B is a poet and spoken word performer and in his interview lesson a couple of weeks ago, he was incredibly engaged and dynamic with students. The students will be working on improvisation, lyrical rhyming, finding voice, delivery and collaboration. The kids are thrilled to have him back and we are lucky to have him this trimester.
Melissa Wilborn who is a nationally recognized swimming instructor has offered to coach an interested group of MOS students for group swim sessions/practice at Agnes Scott College. Find out more about Melissa HERE. We are hoping to get a MOS swim team together. We may start after school swim classes for the remainder of this school year. We may also offer swim clinics during the summer. Regardless, swimming will be integrated into our PE program next year so that kids who are interested in the sport are able to train to be competitive and all MOS kids get the opportunity to participate in this powerful sport.
We are so happy to welcome Camille and Shaunti to our growing Early Care program. Shaunti is new to Early Care but is excited to learn from our veteran teachers. Camille comes to us from Sudbery School of Atlanta and is looking forward to working with younger children. Laura from Oakhurst Baptist Church has let us know that we can anticipate moving our early care program in May. How exciting! We will be leasing 4 classrooms for now and look forward to a new home for our smallest members.
We are pleased to partner with Nishant Mehta, Founder and President of Mehta Cognition, a national consulting firm which specializes in supporting independent schools through transitions, Head of School national searches, organizational management and strategic planning, leadership development and training, amongst other things. Nishant has over 20 years of experience in the independent school sector and has held various positions in the classroom, in leadership, and on boards in independent schools. Nishant also currently serves as Managing Director at Storbeck Search, and was most recently Head of The Children's School for 7 years before opening his own Consulting firm during the pandemic. Nishant spearheaded significant growth and increased TCS's diversity significantly during his time there. We are fortunate to have Nishant's expertise as the leadership team works to create structures, systems and leadership teams reflective of best practices and to sustain the school in a meaningful and intentional way as a nonprofit, startup business and as a space which is transformational for students and families.Nishant will also be mentoring me, and helping develop and guide me in my professional development as Head of School and Founder.
Summer Camps are up! Check them out at www.morganoliverschool.org/summer-camps.
And please consider sleepaway Camp in NC this summer. It was an AMAZING experience last year and we're looking forward to doing it again. Activities will include ziplining, horseback riding, hiking, white water rafting, and lake time. We'll also learn survival skills and team building. Kids 7 and up are welcome.
Updated After School Programming:
Monday: Gaming Club with Sanidia. kids ages 7 and up
Tuesday: Arts and Crafts with Heather in Aftercare Wednesday: Newspaper Club with Justin and David Thursday: Dance class with LaMia Friday: Arts and Crafts with Heather in Aftercare
MOS has been looking for space to grow for a long time. Sitting just across the street from Entrenchment Creek where the Muscogee once walked the lands, we now have three beautiful acres of green space with mature live oaks and green meadows that will let sunlight into our classrooms all day long, invite children to run and play along its trails, and offer an expanse for us to intentionally grow in a measured and purposeful way. This is a truly exciting step for the future of MOS – for our vision, for our mission, and for the community we will be building on this land.
Lastly, we're planning a Capital Campaign event to kick off our efforts to raise funds to go towards continuing "Building Morgan at Bouldercrest". If anyone would like to offer their event planning and/or fundraising skills to help with this, please reach out to Sanidia or Laura.