This year’s Grade 9 class went on a meaningful journey in their seven-week Non-Fiction block. Instructor Heather Lomason chose two very different texts for the students this year. One, Black Elk Speaks by John G Neihardt, (published in 1932) has been in the curriculum for several years. The second, My Beloved World by Sonia Sotomayor (published in 2013) is a new addition.

Social and emotional skills are vital for a child’s future, and in young children those skills are undergoing great expansion. The child lives in the present moment and in a world of wonder which can make social and behavioral obstacles challenging.

Handwork is a valuable complement to academics. It gives students a well-deserved sense of accomplishment and provides a valuable balance to the educational framework.

What happens when your world is reduced to Zoom rectangles?  For senior Ruby Bernard, it inspired an opportunity to create a legacy!

Our mixed-age classes allow children to have an opportunity to develop empathy, mature at their own pace, and be challenged throughout the years in our program. 

Our children experience spaces and programs from a woman they’ve never met. She is gone now, yet she lives on in the students who benefit from her legacy and in the hearts and minds of those who nurture that legacy.

As I write this first blog post I am reflecting on everything that has happened in the past year — both at RSSAA and for all of us in our personal lives.  March 13, 2020 was the last day of in-person school in the State of Michigan in the 2019-20 school year, and we are not yet back to our regular modes of instruction.