Building a strong “sense of place” is one of nine school-wide outcomes at New Roots Charter School. It’s also the name of our fall intensive program, designed to orient students to our school culture and important landmarks in our community. Getting our students rooted not just to their school building, but to downtown Ithaca as a whole, makes sense for both philosophical and practical...
Posts from School
Jhakeem Haltom September 18, 2017
In the Summer of 2015 New Roots' founder and Principal, Tina Nilsen-Hodges, sent our lead science instructor, David Streib, and myself as the Dean of Student Life to a science teachers’ conference hosted by the SUNY College of Envirionmental Science and Forestry and developed by the Haudenosaunee Environmental Task Force. The conference was focused on ways of incorporating a local...
Joel Tolman February 9, 2017
What happens when students sit at the center of conversations about improving their schools? Last Friday at Connecticut River Academy in Hartford, we found out. Twenty students from five urban public high schools sat down for a conversation about their schools. Two dozen teachers and school leaders perched and stood around the circle, leaning in to hear. Kerry Lord -- a Teaching Our Cities...