Campus is quiet as students have dispersed for break, faculty are busily writing end of term comments and entering final grades, and support staff are catching up on projects around campus during this brief reprieve before the Winter Term begins.
This time of transition between seasons allows us to reflect on the past eleven weeks of the Fall Term, while looking ahead to all that is possible this winter. Today's post features a few photos of campus this morning - quiet, resting, ready. Each captures the balance we seek during school vacations between reflection, rejuvenation, and planning as we press pause on the various projects in our life for a few days.
Fall Term grades and comments will be available on student and parent portals by the end of the day tomorrow (Tuesday). We encourage parents and students to process these comments together over break. As is the goal with periodic official notes throughout the term, the end of term content from teachers seeks to discuss academic behaviors we know correlate to learning: preparation, responsibility, resilience, collaboration, participation, and initiative. Reflecting on the intersection of effort and performance in our lives is not only important, but healthy, as we self-assess and identify opportunities for further growth as learners.
Every teacher understands the art form that is balancing this reflection, rejuvenation, and planning during school vacations. Reflection is critical to our continued growth. Planning for the term ahead holds equal importance as students will return to campus before we know it. But, there will always be a pile of work waiting for us, regardless of how productive we may want to be during these quieter days over break. Sometimes we simply need to stop chasing productivity, and elevate out of the minutiae that dominates our lives during the school year. It is both healthy and restorative to do so, especially when surrounded by those we love.
Our Communications Team is going to follow our own advice and 'sign off' for a few days as well, but not before we say thank you to all of you in the Proctor family for your deep commitment to this remarkable little school in Andover, New Hampshire. Thank you for taking the leap of faith required to let your student sail a schooner for nine weeks or to live with a host family in Segovia for a term or travel Europe in the pursuit of creating and studying art.
Thank you for supporting our faculty and staff, and for consistently challenging us to be the best educators we can be. Thank you for understanding our work with our students is much more of a marathon than it is a sprint. Most importantly, thank you for believing in Proctor's educational model. Happy Thanksgiving from all of us at Proctor!
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