My Dear Middle School Students...

 

Dear Middle School Students,

As the 2020-2021 school year begins, I want to welcome all middle school students back to school. As we know now from our experiences with both on campus learning and online learning, school is the time and place in which students and teachers meet to join in the educational process. Whether you as middle school students are on campus or online, you are RFS middle school students and that is special. 

The RFS middle school faculty have worked over the summer to be ready for either online or on campus learning. It is your responsibility as RFS middle school students to be ready for either online or on campus learning. As you know the physical classroom and the virtual classroom are different, but they require from the teacher the same preparedness, creativity and expertise in teaching and from you, the students, the same focus, preparation, willingness to contribute and seriousness about learning. They are both classrooms. They are both learning environments. And they are both places where the rewards of learning are passed on from teachers to students.

Now, a special welcome to the sixth graders arriving this year to learning experiences in the middle school. Each year, the faculty and I are thrilled to have the opportunity to introduce our new sixth grade students to life in the middle school. Whether we are on campus or online, we will extend the same care and effort to making you welcome, comfortable and knowledgeable about being a sixth grader. The sixth grade team of teachers are experts at accomplishing just that for you.

With a new school year come many new opportunities whether you are new to middle school, new to grade 7 or new to grade 8.  My hope is that all of you will take advantage of all the new opportunities that being an RFS middle school student provides you. Let’s make the 2020-2021 school year the best possible learning experience whether we are on campus, online or on a blended schedule. I look forward to sharing this learning experience with you.

 

Sincerely,

Ms. Huda Shamieh Faramand

Middle School Deputy Principal

 

 

Ending an Unusual School Year...

Dear Friends,

I am honored to be asked to write a letter addressing the RFS community. This is my second year at RFS and there have been by far many, many more high points than low points. Normally, in a letter reflecting on a school year I would write about the high points and successes of the students and faculty because both of these groups deserve all the recognition that they can receive. But this is a year when the global community interjected itself profoundly into the RFS community and to not end the year with an awareness of this is to not recognize its import to the community and the community’s response.

The school year began as it has for 150 years with all the hope of educating classes of bright and thoughtful Palestinian students. The school year also began as it has for the last 71 years with Palestine under occupation, and RFS facing once again challenges in so many areas which annually are amazingly overcome resulting in another year of education for the students. But the 2019-2020 year--the end of a decade and the start of another decade--also began with the no longer just gradually growing awareness that human behavior was changing the earth and with apocalyptic signs that no longer could be ignored. Throughout the year, students and faculty engaged in many conversations stating their concerns and anxieties about how their world was changing and how their lives would not be the same as their parents and ancestors. 

However, perseverance and resilience drove the students and faculty throughout the year. The concerns and anxieties seemingly were translated into the teaching and learning that RFS is so respected for in the larger community. In the minds and in the words of the students there was always hope that in ways not yet known, that some of them would have a contribution to saving life on earth and reversing many of the global climate trends. Others spoke of tooling themselves to become leaders who would also work to reverse these trends establishing a new world order. 

However, creeping up on the RFS community was the corona-virus outbreak and its growing impact on the global well being and economy. Finally, Covid-19 struck and the RFS community was confronted with a new challenge resulting in the closing of the campuses and the temporary cessation of teaching and learning. The community's perseverance and resilience once again prevailed and the faculty and students created virtual learning places for the management of the distance learning process. 

The viral threat will subside, the school year will end, the class of 2020 will graduate and all of the grades will rise to the next level to start a new school year which will be the 2020-2021 school year. No doubt the commitment of the students to reverse some of the global trends either through leadership or scholarship will also come to bear on the world community. Perseverance and resilience in the RFS coterie add up to hope in my mind. But as my students will tell you, my pedagogical practice follows the Socratic method of raising questions to stimulate critical thinking, so I will leave you with a question: What do you think makes RFS so dynamic and resilient?

Sincerely,

Robert Mark Bauman, Ph.D.