Last week’s blog post highlighted the Bold in Vision element of the American School of Brasilia’s (EAB) new mission statement – Learners inspiring learners to be inquisitive in life, principled in character, and bold in vision. As a follow-up to this post, one of our amazing teachers, Caira Franklin, shared the following story about one of her talented students and how her student made a natural connection with the new mission statement.
Caira’s Email to EAB’s Leadership Team:
I have been working with my students on the new EAB Mission Statement since the beginning of the school year. Though I’ve tried my best to explain and have my students connect to each part of the Mission Statement, the most challenging part to make clear is “Bold in Vision.”
I read a blog on this very topic, written by Barry a couple of days ago, that gave me new hope around how to explain this in class again at some point. But today, unexpectedly a 3rd grader made the connection all on her own during reading.
We’ve been working on Realistic Fiction as a genre by analyzing character traits, asking good questions about the books we read, etc. Valentina read a book today and completed her realistic fiction form as seen below. Pay close attention to the section on character:
Yep. That’s right! She said “bold in vision.”
I asked Valentina to take over the class for 10 minutes and read the story to us all. What came out of it? A great discussion about how the character in this book was bold in vision because…
- she paints the sky the colors she sees in her dreams because she didn’t have the color blue in her paint set
- she paints about things she believes in and shares them with the world
- she believes all people are artists
All this is to say, I think I am out of job. She knows the Mission Statement better than me!
Caira Franklin
P.S.- Matt Hajdun, thank you for getting me started on this whole in class empowerment related to the Mission Statement last year in Grade 3!
Thank you to Caira for sharing this story and for her work towards making the new mission statement come alive in her class.
And, thank you to our very talented student, Valentina, for making such a creative and wise connection with the mission statement.
Featured image: cc licensed (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) flickr photo by Peter Durand (Brushes Painting: Batestown City Limits) https://www.flickr.com/photos/alphachimpstudio/5619737553/
I worked with Caira for many years – excellent teacher, and always willing to give back to her resources and her children. Those connections are so important in learning to read and comprehend.
It has also been my great pleasure to work with Caira. She is indeed an excellent teacher and someone who selflessly gives back to her children and our community. Cheryl, thank you for sharing your comment. Barry