FCDS Newsletter - Winter 2024

WINTER 2024

@ FCDS UPDATES FROM FORSYTH COUNTRY DAY

A Note From Gardner HEAD OF SCHOOL Dear Furies, Another season at FCDS brings with it another reason for celebration! This winter, we’re enjoying the fruits of this summer’s labor (and our supporters’ generosity) as we celebrate the many ways we use the Niblock Center. We knew we would use it to meet, but it’s also hosted classes, students studying or relaxing, large community meetings, and even Lower School musical rehearsals. Take a peek at the many ways we’re making use of this incredible new space on page 5.

In This Issue: For What’s Ahead: Modern Classrooms A Joyful Noise: Meet Bruce Tippette See how our community is enjoying the Niblock Center

When you think of a classroom, what comes to mind? A teacher at the front and all the students, stationary in their desks, looking up at the “stage”? Not anymore. We’re flipping that idea and reimagining classrooms as part of our strategic plan. Read more about it in For What’s Ahead: Modern Classrooms on page 2.

Finally, did you know that we have an internationally known composer on our staff? This talented musician teaches music to our preschool and lower school students every day, and more than one FCDS family has one of his songs stuck in their heads. Turn to page 4 to meet the incredible Bruce Tippette!

Take care and be well,

Gardner Barrier ’97

Forsyth Country Day School is committed to administering all education and employment activities without discrimination based on one’s race, color, religion, national or ethnic origin, age, ability, gender identity, or sexual orientation.

For What’s Ahead: Modern Classrooms Imagine a modern classroom. Rather than having a “sage on a stage”—where teachers stand at the front of the room and students face them—imagine an adaptable space that allows the teacher’s desk, technology, and all student seating to move in order to adapt to what the class is doing on any given day. Imagine natural light in every room, with adjustable artificial light so that the teacher can change the lighting to fit the task at hand. Imagine a space that allows students to make choices about how they sit and experience the class. Those are just some components FCDS is talking about when we discuss a modern classroom.

Creating modern classrooms at FCDS comes straight out of the strategic plan and its framework, which uses the development of cognitive, emotional, and social skills as a lens through which everything is viewed, said Associate Head of School for Teaching and Learning Dr. Michelle Klosterman. “As we look at the modern classroom, we want to make sure it’s structured in such a way that it attends to those three areas,” she said. “It needs to limit distractions, provide clear visual clues about what type of learning happens in that space, and help students identify and manage their emotions and learning needs.”

If that seems like a tall order for a room full of desks and chairs, know it’s about a lot more than that. “The learning environment is a third teacher,” Dr. Klosterman said. “What you post on the wall, how you use the walls, the color, texture, and design…these all play a role,” she said. “Just like a teacher’s voice can be welcoming, it can also be authoritative, or loud and harsh. Similarly, the room can be cluttered or calming and welcoming. The furniture in the classroom must be moveable and flexible to allow for student choice and voice in where and how they sit, congregate, and learn. This taps into a student’s intrinsic motivation and improves learning.”

“The learning environment is a third teacher,” Dr. Klosterman said. “What you post on the wall, how you use the walls, the color, texture, and design…these all play a role.”

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The good news is that some of these improvements are free or very inexpensive. “A no-cost way of doing this is reducing clutter,” Dr. Klosterman said. “It’s more conducive to learning and the wellbeing of students.” What’s on the walls shouldn’t overwhelm, and it should relate to what is being learned at the time.

The highest cost in updating a classroom is the furniture, and the school’s Modern Classroom Task Force, which consists of teachers from all divisions, recently attended an EDspaces conference in Charlotte that highlighted the most current furniture options and provided education about how classrooms can influence wellbeing.

“Classroom updates aren’t just about the furniture,” said school architect Lauren Frye.

“They will also be about wellness. Each element in our classrooms will be intentionally chosen to support student belonging and wellbeing. These are things that can’t be shown in images, but that are critical to creating classrooms of the future.”

Although some of the needed updates, like reducing clutter, are free, elements like furniture, flooring, and dimmable lighting are not. So far, only four rooms in the Fifth Grade Academy have been updated. FCDS will need to raise the remainder of the money through its ongoing Campaign for Forsyth.

If you’re interested in helping us modernize our classrooms for what’s ahead, please contact Andy Clifton, Director of Philanthropy & Community Engagement, at 336.978.3941 or andyclifton@fcds.org to learn more.

What We Learned at the EDspaces Conference “Modern classrooms positively impact students’ brain development. We want to provide our littlest learners with classrooms that are accessible, but most importantly, ensure that they feel safe and secure in their space. “ - Chelsea Eller, preschool director “We are redesigning spaces while considering their uses and users, and keeping in mind that there is no separation of emotions, thinking, and learning. ” - Jenni Wright, LS teacher “The modern classroom allows teaching to be responsive to the needs and experiences of all students. Flexibility in teaching (and seating) helps instill collaboration, sharing, and confidence in students as they learn and grow together.” - Jen Scott, MS teacher “Because teaching and learning involves movement - teams, partners, discussion circles - classrooms need to be movable! They also need to be welcoming to students - the lights, layout, and organization matter a lot for the atmosphere of learning. Students spend more time in classrooms than many other places, and they should feel excited and happy to be in those spaces.” - Grace Mason, US teacher 3

A Joyful Noise Teacher and Composer Bruce Tippette Brings Joy to FCDS’s Preschool and Lower School Bruce Tippette has written hundreds of pieces of music.

His work has been performed throughout the world by groups ranging from the Winston-Salem Symphony Orchestra to Cirque de Soleil to the U.S. Army Band “Pershing’s Own”. He would argue, however, that his best work is what he does every day as preschool and lower school music teacher at Forsyth Country Day School.

“There is a level of warmth and wonder and imagination that exists in the minds of children that is so innocent,” he said “I feel like my energy so easily matches that energy. I joke that I’m that guy [Steve] from Blue’s Clues. I can be the kind of energetic, silly individual they need an adult to be, but I can also teach them something meaningful to help them succeed in a very positive way.”

Bruce was a child himself when he began composing. “I started making piano ditties when I was about 11,” he said. “I’d been taking piano lessons for about a year at that point. It came so easily to me, and I’d find myself wanting more to play but I didn’t have anything else to work with, so I just started experimenting on my own.”

His teacher taught him basic music notation, and Bruce Tippette’s composing career was begun.

Bruce went on to earn his bachelor’s degree in music education from Appalachian State University and his master’s degree in music composition from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. He taught high school after earning his bachelor’s degree, but his plan to earn his doctorate and teach at the graduate level got shelved for the best of reasons.

“I was in graduate school when my first child was born, and I became a stay-at-home dad,” he said. “I saw every day what it was like to work with small children.” In 2022, he was hired to teach preschool through fourth grade music at FCDS. Bruce’s favorite part of working with preschool and lower school is, quite simply, joy. “I was becoming jaded with the company I was keeping in academia. Why can’t you excel at something and also love it?” he said. “How to combat that? With joy. We’re going to learn to read music, we’re going to learn to play instruments, but there’s joy in it. We’re learning, we’re expanding our minds.”

Bruce writes songs daily, and often specifically for his classes. “Parents will often ask me, ‘What song is that?’

I’ve made it just for them. It’s something that’s connected to a specific class, and to a specific time of your life.”

Sharing his knowledge and his love of music with young children is a great fit for FCDS’s in-house composer.

“These children, when they come in here—especially the little ones—you get all the warm fuzzies. They don’t think about their limits,” he said. “They remind me to be joyful and to relish every little moment.”

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All Furies are Enjoying the Niblock Center On any given day, the Niblock Center is buzzing with activity. Faculty meetings, Parents’ Association meetings, and Wonderful Wednesday events are common, but the area also allows the school to host speakers, provides a place for college counselors to meet with their students, and for students to study, relax, and come together. The flexible space has also made room for receptions and events, story time for little Furies, meeting space for clubs and affinity groups, and even hosted rehearsals for the Lower School Musical, Finding Nemo Kids.

Cultural Cuisine Tasting

College Counseling

Story Time

Parents’ Association Meetings

Wonderful Wednesday

Conversations

Philanthropy Events

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5501 Shallowford Road Lewisville, NC 27023

www.fcds.org

There Are Many Ways to Support FCDS & the Campaign for Forsyth Support what’s meaningful to you: Modern Classrooms & Naming Opportunities Endowed Johnson Academic Center Funds Joe Trotter Engineering Fund Bingham Fund for Professional Development Your support: Changes students' lives for the better Ensures that our students are truly prepared for their world with essential life skills Creates innovative programs, collaborative learning and gathering spaces, and state-of-the-art facilities Sustains our future as we plan for what's ahead.

Make your impact today!