The Island School’s Spring 2010 band, under the pseudonym The Project IS, played a 40 minute set for Deep Creek’s Homecoming celebration this past Saturday night.  Despite only an hour and a half of practice time, the crew managed to put together a performance that got the local crowd talking.  According to one resident, her daughter heard about the “band from America” all the way over in Nassau that same night!  But don’t take my word for it; check out these videos of the action.

This was definitely a first in IS history; hopefully it won’t be the last either.  Enjoy!

8. Why do you believe it’s important to expose high school students to this type of scientific research?

Oh boy, this is a big question that I will try to answer succinctly.

High school is a really interesting time in an American student’s life.  In a strictly biological sense, they are fully developed adults.  They are physically capable of creating life and their brains have essentially developed to its potential.  But emotionally and intellectually, our society demands much more than they are typically ready to handle.  So they are not social adults, nor do they possess the requisite technical skills and body of knowledge to enter the workforce.  In most high school settings, however, there is very little attention paid to nurturing these skills that will be directly applicable to the lives they are preparing for.  Instead, the focus of most high school programs centers on the acquisition of knowledge—content—with a marked absence of opportunities to learn the skills—critical thinking, judgment, communication, and creativity—they will need to apply that knowledge in real-world contexts.

So exposing students to authentic research endeavors, replete with the difficulties of making decisions that will yield unknown consequences, the challenges of group collaboration, and the dissonance created by unexpected results, is one way of creating opportunities for students to learn these skills through first-hand experience.  A suitable parallel is an apprenticeship.  The ultimate goal is not to produce the next generation of research scientists, but to equip young adults with an array of skills that will serve them well regardless of the direction their lifecourses take.

So I just wanted to share with you a little tidbit that I shared with the students the other day at dinner circle.  It starts with what should be a simple question:

Who can tell me why we call spring, “spring”?  Anyone?

I certainly didn’t know the answer until I looked it up.  Apparently it is short for two heirloom expressions: “Spring of the Leaf” and “Spring of the Year.”  The first is fairly obvious in that spring is the time of year when the leaves “spring” forth from deciduous trees.

The second is a little more subtle.  The “Spring of the Year” refers to the new year.  In fact, as little as 260 years ago–when Ben Franklin and George Washington were the age your sons and daughters are now–the new year was celebrated just after the March equinox.

So on that note, I’d like to wish everyone out there a HAPPY NEW YEAR!

To me, last night’s ceremony was an important ritual at a critical point in the semester–the students have just spent the past two weeks getting to know this place and each other.  They kayaked in the breathtaking aquamarine of Rock Sound, descended into the otherworld of the sea, ventured into the local community for a softball game, and generally acquainted themselves to the realities of living on a remote peninsula on a remote island.  So to have an official ceremony marking the end of their orientation to this place and the beginning of their full citizenship in the school community delivered a message that was both clear and necessary.

Similar rituals pervade our semester.  For example, the simple, daily act of circling up at the crack of dawn to sing the Bahamian national anthem sends a powerful reminder of the values upon which our school is built.  Most importantly, rituals like this create the spirit of community that drives our members to push their limits and expand their horizons.  They generate a sense of purpose and reinforce the belief that anything is possible if we work together.

Tonight I introduced to students an overview of the final presentations they will deliver at the end of the semester.  We call it a “Demonstration of Learning.”  Essentially, we ask the students to summarize the most powerful learnings they have realized over their 14 weeks at The Island School.  In gathering my thoughts regarding what these presentations have signified for past students,  two thoughts kept bubbling up to consciousness.

First, the DoLs, as we refer to them,  represent the culmination of the students’ semester, a celebration of all they have achieved both individually and as a community.  They provide students with a final ritual that marks the completion of one incredible adventure and the beginning of another.  However, they also represent a culmination of The Island School’s 11 years of educating young souls.  After 5 years of working here, I am starting to understand what that is.

What makes our program transformative for so many of our students is not what we teach, nor how we teach it.  Our semester journey is a rite of passage for students.  It clearly delineates the end of adolescence and their initiation into global citizenship.  And by providing this experience for our students, I believe we are truly instilling in them our vision: Leadership effecting change.  I hope you will also find this to be true by semester’s end.

Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel.   Socrates

I awoke this morning to a howling wind and thought to myself “uh-oh”.  But by the time we gave K1 and K2 kayak trips a big group hug around the flagpole, the wind had already begun to settle

and the sun was rising strong across Rock Sound.  As Chris Maxey led a SCUBA psycho morning exercise, the kayakers experimented with different ways to pack their dry bags and boats with as much stuff as possible.  After breakfast, the kayakers were starting to head out on their 3-day trips, while the fledgling SCUBA divers leapt from the dock for their first underwater skills sessions.  So I grabbed my camera and ran to the docks to take a few pictures.  Enjoy!

Wow!  What a wonderful way for the students to spend their first night off.  Last night we traveled to Rock Sound to watch a local slow-pitch softball game.  The league leaders, the Rock Sound Defenders, lost an exciting bout against the third place Rock Sound Stallions.  (The Deep Creek Conch Stoppers, whom I and other IS faculty play for, are currently in second place ;-))  There were plenty locals in attendance despite the relatively freezing (mid-60′s) weather, several lead changes, and four home runs!  Needless to say, the energy was electric–amplified by the DJ’s booming all the current reggae hits between batters.  In terms of an introductory cultural immersion experience, I could not have been more excited for the students.  And I can’t wait to carry 48 riotous fans to the Stoppers next game!