Back to School Note from Principal Sarah Fiarman

A Note from Principal Fiarman                                                       September, 2009




Dear Graham and Parks Families,

My favorite part of these first few days of school has been visiting classrooms to meet students. 
I continue to be impressed by the warm greetings I receive from students -- respectful listening, deliberate eye contact, thoughtful questions and sharing.  In each classroom, grades 1-8, I ask students the same three questions I asked teachers, staff, and families last spring:

1) What is working well at this school?

2) What could be improved? 

3) What else is important that I should know about?  Younger students share their responses orally; grades 5-8 write their responses individually.  When I finish visiting classrooms, I’ll compile what I’ve learned from these conversations and individual letters along with the feedback from families and teachers, and share insights with the larger community at one of the upcoming morning coffee gatherings in October.  I hope you’ll come.

There is one piece of feedback that stands out already.  When students respond to the question about what is working well, one answer comes up consistently in class after class:  TEACHERS.  From classroom to classroom, students declare that teachers are a strength of this school.  Teachers, students say, help them learn.  Teachers show them how to figure things out and ask them questions that make them think hard.  And over and over again, students say that teachers make school fun.  While the response doesn’t come from every student (some say they like the atmosphere at school, others mention that peers help them learn a lot in class), it does resound from many.  It speaks simply and directly to the influence and importance of our teachers.      

I begin my work at this school with great admiration for the faculty’s work.  They strive to know children, to reveal what’s complex about the world rather than yield to the tendency to oversimplify, and they work to make learning joyful and meaningful.  For the students, the importance of teachers and staff is obvious.  I won’t take it for granted.  I look forward to many good years ahead learning and growing with my new colleagues, our students, and families. 

Warmly,



Sarah Fiarman
Principal
Graham & Parks Alternative Public School