Fall/Winter Community News

Lynn Lyons at Concord Academy

Turning the soil in the School garden

Lynn Lyons, LICSW, Presents on Managing Student Anxiety

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2019

NASHOBA BROOKS SCHOOL employees and parents gathered early this fall in Concord Academy’s Performing Arts Center for a powerful and timely presentation on understanding and managing anxiety by author and psychotherapist Lynn Lyons, LICSW: Beyond Calming Down: Shifting the Anxiety Paradigm from Avoidance to Action.

Lyons talked about the spike in anxiety rates, and how unmanaged anxiety has the ability to usurp daily routines, schoolwork, bedtime, and recreation. Lyons pointed out that many “accommodations” that are designed to alleviate immediate symptoms of anxiety, may lead to encouraging worry instead of addressing the skills that lead to the reduction of anxious thoughts.

Lyons walked attendees through tangible strategies for handling uncertainty and encouraged taking an offensive stance against anxiety. Her advice for parents and educators alike is to not remove the worries for children. In fact, “when worry arrives, allow, acknowledge, and pivot.” By changing our relationship with worry from avoidance to action, students build a toolkit to help manage immediate anxiety, uncertainty, and discomfort for longer-term positive outcomes.

Nashoba Brooks School Reduces Environmental Impact through Composting

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2019

UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF science teacher Kelly Western and School Chef Sean-Michael Tantinarawat, Grade 3 students spearheaded an effort this fall to lower the School’s environmental impact: composting at lunch. “Food in landfills creates methane gas, which contributes to global warming,” explained Western, who conducted experiments with students in class, so that they could see decomposition in action. By adding apples, paper, and yogurt containers to soil, Nashoba Brooks students observed the breakdown of various types of waste as temperatures rose. They learned how the waste humans generate impacts climate change.

Since sorting can be confusing, volunteer guides, along with posted signs, help sorters through the process as they learn what can and can not be composted. After the lunch waste is collected, twice per week, the Black Earth Compost company picks it up and turns it into nutrient rich compost for backyard gardens and local farms.

With students leading the way, Nashoba Brooks hopes to extend composting to all School events, and inspire others to reduce waste at home and in the local community as well.

Grade 7 during the Boston scavenger hunt

Think:Kids

Start of Year Trips: Exploring Place Beyond Our Space

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2019

DURING THE START of the School year, students engaged in a number of exciting field trips, giving them experiential learning opportunities to stretch their thinking in ways both broad and deep.

Grade 8 students headed to Chewonki in Wiscasset, Maine, this August to make the great outdoors their home for four days. This partnership with the School has been in place for the past 40 years, fostering team building, bonding, and leadership.

In mid-September, Grade 7 students ventured into Boston for a scavenger hunt, where they navigated their way from Alewife to Copley Square and Harvard Square using the T. It was a beautiful day discovering the sites and history of Boston and Cambridge, including the Boston Women’s Memorial and Harvard Yard. Students learned more about our local history and put their navigation and independent problem-solving skills to work.

Grade 2 students visited Joppa Flats, the bird banding station on Plum Island. Students observed the habitat of birds, learned about their migration cycle, and even learned how to band birds—in connection with their study of birds in science.

In September, Kindergarteners embarked on their first of two scheduled excursions to Wingaerskeek Beach. This field trip is a highlight of their integrated unit, connecting literature, environmental science, art, and more. Students explored tide pools, collected samples, made observations, and captured artistic renderings of the natural environment.

Think:Kids Presents from Conflict to Collaboration: A Parent Framework That Brings Out the Best in You and Your Child

MONDAY, JANUARY 15, 2020

NASHOBA BROOKS SCHOOL HOSTED Dr. Stuart Ablon and Ben Stich from Think:Kids, a program based in the Department of Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), for a professional development session with employees followed by an evening presentation for parents and the broader community.

Participants in both sessions explored the power and potential of the Collaborative Problem Solving (CPS)® model, designed to help address challenging (and common) child and adolescent behaviors in a way that empowers individuals, builds important interpersonal skills, and enhances healthy relationships.

The Collaborative Problem Solving approach focuses on the idea that kids “lack skill, not will.” As a result, attempts to address motivation through traditional external rewards and punishments have limited success because they fail to help children build the essential skills kids need to feel confident and engage constructively. Collaborative Problem Solving is designed to help identify lagging skills— the most common being flexibility/adaptability, frustration tolerance, and problem-solving—and begin to teach them in increments kids can manage. As a result, children build essential, transferable skills that will bolster their ability to solve problems, learn, and engage productively in a variety of settings. To learn more, visit thinkkids.org.