The Kindergarten class at Nashoba Brooks School celebrated their 100^th day of school on Wednesday, February 16^th.  The students celebrated the big day with many fun, interdisciplinary activities such as weighing a 100 items, going on a 100 step adventure, completing a 100 chart puzzle, and designing a 100 centipede shoes art project.

When you ask a seventh grader how they’d like to spend their Saturday, most would probably say “sleep in” or “hang out with friends”.  But our students had a different idea.  Twenty-two seventh grade girls from Nashoba Brooks School chose to spend their snowy Saturday doing something meaningful.  They volunteered for Heading Home, an organization whose mission is to end homelessness in Greater Boston, moving a twenty-one-year-old college student and her two-year-old daughter out of a shelter and into their first apartment.

The event was well orchestrated, with the students preparing well ahead of time.  First, they solicited donated items for the home, and raised money to buy the rest – everything from beds to toothbrushes.   On the move day, the girls toted everything they had collected into the eighth floor Somerville apartment including lamps, pillows, sheets, toys, books, kitchen supplies, artwork, furniture, towels, and all of the things that make a house an inviting home.  After moving in all of the essentials, the students went to work on transforming the apartment into a warm, well equipped home.  They built a desk, put together a green retreat bedroom for mom, a princess room with toys and books for the daughter, a cozy living room, and set up an entire kitchen.  In addition, they stocked the pantries with supplies, the closets with clothes, and the refrigerator with food.  Everyone in the class pitched in with the students doing the lion share of the work.  The students felt grateful that through their hard work they were able to make a difference and help a good cause.

The school’s partnership with Heading Home, Inc. started through an alumnus, Wendy Jacobs, who is the organization’s Chief Development Officer.  The organization fits perfectly with the school’s commitment to service learning and mission to educate children for a life of continuous learning, accomplishment, and leadership in a diverse and changing world.  As part of the strong academic program, Nashoba Brooks School empowers students to be responsible citizens through service learning initiatives.  All members of the Nashoba Brooks community, from preschoolers to eighth graders, are involved in meaningful service activities.  The goal of the school is to channel students’ interests and talents while opening their eyes to new ideas, diverse experiences, and global awareness.  Not only do students develop skills that will serve them throughout life, they build lasting relationships and develop a better understanding of problems and how to solve them.

Provided by Sue Wurster, Humanities Teacher and Founding Chair of the Massachusetts Middle School Forensic League

Nashoba Brooks School is a member of  the Massachusetts Middle School Forensic League, consisting of seventeen public, private, and parochial schools from all over eastern Massachusetts.  In addition, Nashoba Brooks has at least one visit each year from schools located in Brooklyn and the Bronx.

Nashoba has been an integral part of the development of this league, and the team–while smaller than most–has always fared quite well.  This year is no exception.  Eighth grade team captains Elizabeth Andre and Claire Banse serve as able student leaders and role models as excellent competitors.  This year, both have won awards for their performances at each contest they have entered.  On Sunday, Elizabeth placed 4rd in Declamation, and Claire placed 5th in Play Reading.  In addition, seventh grade Jesse Ryan has been elected to serve as a captain as well.  It is our practice to elect one captain in seventh grade who is then joined by an eighth grade co-captain elected the next year.  Jesse represents the team on the league’s student leadership council and is, at the moment, leading the group in a “Multiple Reading” presentation of a one-act play by Steven Gregg called This is a Test.  She, too, is a highly successful competitor who has won awards at each contest she has entered.

This year, the league has instituted a “single flight” style contest as well as our traditional “double flighted” ventures.  In these shorter tournaments, students may enter only one event (as opposed to two at our longer contests).  All three of these new contests, this year, are being held at Nashoba.  Our second one, held on Sunday, was a very spirited and successful one.  Not only did Claire and Elizabeth win awards, but so did sixth graders Zoe Kane, Maggie Cheever and Lucia Stein.  Zoe and Maggie, whose earlier wins this year require them to move beyond the “Novice” category, both received Honorable Mention ribbons in the challenging varsity category of Prose Reading.  Lucia will now join them in the varsity category after her 4th place showing in the novice event!

Provided by Coach Polly Vanasse

Nashoba Brooks School is enjoying a terrific season of squash.  Led by a group of 13 eighth grade veterans, the team has come together and is working hard in practice on both fitness and skills.  Caroline Conway has consistently excelled this season at #1, beating all but one #1 player in great matches.  Caroline is ranked 40^th nationally in her age group (13’s).  Captains Margaret Davey (Groton) and Vivian Foley (Concord) have proved to be solid competitors, pulling out two close matches with their clutch play in late games.  Overall, Nashoba Books has lost once to Dana Hall and beaten them a second time in a match so close that games, not matches, were used to decide the result.  The Fessenden victory was similarly close.  The team lost to Meadowbrook’s strong group; it was Caroline Conway’s only defeat of the season. The team won decisively against the older but less experienced teams from Middlesex and Groton.  They dominated the girls of the Nobles Middle School Team and won against Milton Academy.  With three more weeks in the season, the team looks to improve their individual skills thanks to the coaching of pro Ali Roche, who took over for Paul Ansdell in February.  Right now their record stands at 7-2. The twenty players of this year’s Nashoba Brooks Squash Team hope to complete the most winning season in the team’s thirteen-year history.

Tessa                 

Sarah

Grace

]]> http://www.nashobabrooks.org/2011/12/14/thisibelieve/feed/ 0 http://www.nashobabrooks.org/2011/12/12/like-us-on-facebook/ http://www.nashobabrooks.org/2011/12/12/like-us-on-facebook/#comments Mon, 12 Dec 2011 13:50:08 +0000 nashoba http://inside.nashobabrooks.org/site/?p=4182 Stay connected with what is happening at Nashoba Brooks School and with our alums by checking out the latest news and photos posted regularly on our Facebook page.  Join the conversation today!

facebook.com/NashobaBrooksSchool

Spread the Word
Like your experience at Nashoba Brooks?  Share it with your friends by writing a recommendation on Facebook.  You will find this feature in the right-hand column on our Facebook page.  Also, let us know when you “like” our posts and “share” them!

While Lia can acknowledge that she is outnumbered in the male-dominated financial world, she is certain that the confidence she developed at an early age is the reason for her success in such an environment.  At Nashoba Brooks, Lia recalls that small class sizes allowed her to freely express herself and speak out in an articulate and confident way.  The all-girls environment in Grades 4 through 8 allowed her to mature quickly as a student and as a free thinker.  There were no hesitations to raise a hand during class to participate in discussion.  She is, therefore, much less inclined to worry about speaking up and participating in meeting with her group at Deutsche Bank, and larger team meetings.  With the appropriate research, and the ability to express herself clearly, participation is not intimidating.

Over Thanksgiving Break, Lia was digging through some old papers from Nashoba Brooks and came across her Final Portfolio.  This is a project assigned to 7^th grade students by Sue Wurster.  Lia recalled that, at that time in her life, this project felt like a monumental task.  “Everything is relative,” Lia explained, “but what was monumental in Grade 7 might be a breeze for a recent college graduate.”  What was so significant to Lia as she remembered her Final Portfolio was that: “At that point in my life, this task was a serious challenge.  Facing the challenge head on and approaching work with confidence was something I faced throughout my entire educational career at Nashoba Brooks, St. Marks and at Georgetown.”  Those challenges don’t end when college does, and re-discovering the Final Portfolio was a great reminder to approach every task with confidence, which Lia certainly does.

Here is a description of Patrick’s work:

The GOD’S CHILD Project (GCP) is a educational development organization dedicated to breaking the chains of poverty through education and formation. Since its founding in 1991 by Patrick Atkinson, it has grown to more than twelve distinct programs in 5 different countries. Today, the GCP cares for and educates 5,000 orphaned, abandoned, and poverty-stricken boys and girls in addition to providing health and community-based services for 8,700 widowed, abandoned, and single mothers and their dependents in Guatemala, El Salvador, Malawi, and India.

GCP is dedicated to sustainable and permanent changes. Through clinics, schools, social work, micro-finance, homeless shelters, drug rehabilitation, and human trafficking advocacy, The GCP is able to get to the underlying causes of poverty instead of merely treating the symptoms. Children who were once homeless and abandoned are now professional adults with families of their own because of the chance that GCP gave them.

Dear Member of the Nashoba Brooks Community,

It gives us great pleasure to announce that Danielle Boyd Heard has accepted the invitation of the Board of Trustees to become the next Head of Nashoba Brooks School, effective July 1, 2012. Ms. Heard was the unanimous recommendation of the Search Committee and was again unanimously approved by the full Board.

The appointment of Danielle Heard is the exciting culmination of an intensive nationwide search to find a successor to E. Kay Cowan who announced her intention to retire at the end of the 2011-12 school year following a 20 year tenure of extraordinary leadership.

Ms. Heard is currently the Assistant Head of Nashoba Brooks. In her three years here she has demonstrated outstanding intellect and passion for education while guiding professional development, overseeing academic programs and curriculum development and developing strategic initiatives for outreach and diversity. Her integrity, openness and consensus building style have earned the respect and trust of faculty, students and parents. Her ability to balance tradition and innovation at every level, her limitless energy, bright sense of humor and her unfailing moral compass will ensure that Nashoba Brooks continues to deliver the very best possible education, inspiring every student toward a life of continuous and joyous learning. Ms. Heard understands and, more importantly, she embodies the School’s mission and values.

Ms. Heard is an exceptional leader who brings a unique combination of depth and breadth in teaching and administrative experience. Her teaching experience includes The Emma Willard School, Dana Hall School and Willow Hill School. At these schools she taught subjects including social studies, literature, African studies, Western civilization and economics, and she also developed a strong and vibrant community service program. Before coming to Nashoba Brooks, she spent 12 years at the Steppingstone Foundation where she rose from the Director of the Scholar’s Program (managing recruitment, admissions, curriculum and instruction) to being the Executive Vice President of Programs and Operations. As the Steppingstone Foundation grew to serve 800 students in three cities, Ms. Heard helped lead its expansion with effective constituent and donor relations, brand development, strategic planning and evaluation.

After growing up in Concord, MA and graduating from Concord-Carlisle High School, Ms. Heard attended Williams College where she graduated with a B.A. in American Studies. She holds a M.Ed. from Harvard’s Graduate School of Education, was a Klingenstein Institute Fellow at Columbia University Teachers College, and most recently completed the Program for Leadership Development at Harvard Business School. Ms. Heard and her husband, Andre, live in Milton, MA where Andre is the Associate Dean of Students at Milton Academy. They have two daughters, ages five and seven.

Working with talented consultants from Carney, Sandoe & Associates, who solicited over 100 applications for the position, the eight-member Search Committee interviewed candidates with a wide range of backgrounds, educational philosophies and experiences.  Four strong finalists emerged from this process and spent several days at Nashoba Brooks meeting with members of our community.  The feedback provided by parents, faculty, staff and students was invaluable to the Search Committee’s work and we would like to thank everyone who participated in this thoughtful and demanding process.

Throughout these past months, the search process has enabled us to explore more deeply the true character of our school and to learn much more about what Nashoba Brooks provides to the children who attend.  We have reflected many times on how strong our school is, what a wonderful community we enjoy, and how remarkable the education is that we offer.  With these pieces in place the school’s potential is nothing short of stunning.  We know the rest of the Board joins us in feeling privileged to be taking this next step with Danielle Heard at the helm as we continue to propel the school forward toward its exciting future.

With best wishes,