Advisor System

Middle School Advisory

The middle school advisory program focuses on community building and character and leadership development. Each grade meets weekly with its advisors. The advisors pay close attention to each student’s academic, intellectual, social, emotional, and behavioral development, providing structure and support as needed. Through games, activities, discussions, journaling, and other exercises, advisees get to know themselves and their classmates better. Advisory themes are loosely based on themes on Daniel Pink’s A Whole New Mind. Since advisory groups in the middle school are grade level groups, middle school grade level themes are also interwoven with advisory themes.

6th Grade Advisory

Play and Story, Building Community

In sixth grade, advisory groups enjoy stories read aloud followed by discussion. Students write collaborative stories in small groups. They play games geared toward establishing and building a new community each year and participate in community-building activities throughout the year. Students are given the space and encouraged to tell their own stories, and they learn to listen to the stories of their classmates. The year culminates with a three-day campout.

7th Grade Advisory

Empathy & Design, Strengthening Community

Seventh grade advisors have adapted the “Teaching Tolerance” curriculum to focus on the themes of empathy, design, and strengthening community. Students consider the questions: What are communities? How do they form? What makes them healthy and effective? Communication ground rules focus on open-mindedness, respect, and tolerance. Students typically spend a day at Mountain T.O.P., participating in team-building activities and a service project. During the second semester they are engaged in a farming-based, community-building curriculum that connects their Adventure Education farm class with the advisory and grade level themes.

8th Grade Advisory

Symphony & Meaning, Exploring Leadership

Eighth grade advisors begin the year by focusing on how one person’s actions contribute to the success of the whole community and the values by which individuals guide their lives. They also encourage positive leadership by considering these questions: What does is mean to be a leader? What is good leadership? What type of leader do I want to be? Students participate in leadership exploration and goal-setting activities modeled after Tom Hoerr’s Celebrate Leadership: Lessons for Middle School Students. In the second semester, students develop and articulate the most important value by which they guide their lives in a formal This I Believe essay. The essays, prompted by personal memories, stories, events, and places, are delivered in front of the entire Middle School student body, faculty, and parents during the final week of the eighth grade school year.

Upper School Advisory

In Upper School, all students are assigned a faculty advisor. Students sit with their advisor in Chapel and meet with them to discuss class work, schedule changes, or personal problems. The advisor monitors the student's academic and social progress via personal talks, formal meetings, and updates by other teachers. Students can count on their advisor for help in dealing with issues big and small. This faculty member also communicates regularly with parents to provide a vital partnership in student support.

Compass Programming

Accompanying the advisor system, Compass Program aims to address developmental needs through advisory themes, grade-level curriculum, and grade-level programming. The goal of the Grade Level Program is to create class cohesion through the exploration of a year-long theme. Grade Level Program Days in the fall and spring provide opportunities to build, develop, and nurture a sense of community among the students. These events are required parts of the curriculum.

Year-long themes:

• 6th grade - Building Community
• 7th grade - Strengthening Community
• 8th grade - Deepening Relationships and Exploring Leadership
• 9th grade - Who am I?
• 10th grade - Where am I?
• 11th grade - Where am I from?
• 12th grade - Where am I headed?