Loose Leaf Notes

~ The following photos appeared in The Floyd Press in June, 2010.

Floyd’s Blue Mountain School, the independent school that my sons went to when they were young, had an open house at the end of the school year.   Visitors were invited to tour the buildings and teachers were on hand to answer questions.  Here, BMS board member Ed Gralla (pictured seated) and BMS director Shelly Emmett (wearing a skirt) greeted visiting families.

Upper elementary class students, Madeline Emmett, Maggie Avellar, Kyla Robbins (standing), and Maggie Kovick pose for a photo in the school butterfly garden that they helped to create.

Reading material relevant to the school’s Progressive Contemplative Educational Community model was on hand for visitors to browse through.  Students and teachers helped to design Blue Mountain School T-shirts shown.

Parent and Contemplative Program teacher Sarah McCarthy talks with a prospective BMS parent and her child.

BMS pre-school teacher Amy Myers answers a visitor’s question.

Young students gather around as one sharpens a pencil at a sharpener in the main building’s pre-school room.

Upper class students Maggie Kovick and Maggie Avellar helped with Open House tours.  Both girls have been going to BMS with their parents – music teacher Kari Kovick and upper class teacher Corey Avellar – since they were babies and have been friends that long. Here, in teacher Jamie Reygle’s classroom, they proudly show off their year’s reading list, which included Tom Sawyer, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Just So Stories, A Christmas Carol, Tao te Ching, various biographies and more.

Teacher Jamie Reygle pauses in his classroom while one of his student’s works at the computer.  Reygle noted that some of the projects students tackled this year were Adopt-a-Highway, making a family tree, creating a school newspaper, building a worm farm, and making a Halloween film.  Students did presentations on Virginia presidents, world religions, the solar system, honeybees and more.  Field trips include those to the Green Living Energy Expo, the Eastern Continental Divide, and the Barter Theater. Poetry, debates, science experiments, and visits from knowledgeable members of the community were also part of the curriculum.

Note: For more information about Blue Mountain School and its Contemplative Progressive Educational programs visit their website HERE.