Dear Walden Families,

Last week, we witnessed our sixth-grade Axolotls complete their Walden journey. It was a week of reimagined celebrations, reflections, and of course, goodbyes. The Zoom room was full of love and support, and our students' thoughts and energy will send us into summer. Photos and videos of the week's celebrations can be found in Vidigami and on our social media accounts.

As I shared with the community last Thursday, I believe this time of distance learning has challenged all of us to reflect on what is deep within our Walden community and how we practice this across all constituencies. In mid-March, when we started staying at home, it was never a question whether we could continue to teach reading, writing, math, social studies, or science. It wasn't even a question as to whether students would continue to pursue passions in tinkering, music, art, Spanish, dance, or storytelling. The real problem became, how does Walden continue to support students and families to remain resilient and persevering, forthright, reflective, globally aware, respectful of others, and insightful?

Through curricular projects, Zoom meetings, 1:1s, conferences, countless emails, and even online community-building events, our students and families showed us that these ideas were ever-present in this real-life crisis. Children, as well as adults, realized how profoundly ingrained and meaningful they indeed are. In many instances, our children, through their courage, curiosity, creativity, were teaching us how to utilize them. I have even heard from several Walden parents during this time that despite the circumstances, this experience has allowed them to connect with the school and others in a more meaningful way. I am grateful for the power of community that carried us through this time.

Yearbooks will be mailed home next week. It is essential to look back and see all of the vital work and growth that took place at Walden this year. Thank you, Caroline Crespo, Stacie Chambers, Ben Boquist, and Birthe Landerer for spearheading this effort.

To our Parent Guild Coordinator, Jaime Boust, as well as every other volunteer room parent, committee chair, Board member, and hot lunch or event volunteer, we sincerely appreciate you. We recognize the tremendous amount of time and effort that goes into building and maintaining this community that we all cherish.

We find ourselves now in a challenging moment. With both the pandemic continuing to impact how we lead our daily lives and the ongoing violence against Black people in our country, we are reminded that there are deeply rooted societal inequities that we must collectively confront. Walden's progressive approach to education is critical to teaching our students to be analytical, compassionate, and equitable leaders.

Progress reports will be available to view in The Pond on June 29 at 3:00 pm.

In these first weeks of summer, I wish you plenty of opportunities for playful presence and screen-free adventures.We have purposely programmed a break before the Walden@Home Summer Camp begins for all to unplug and disconnect. We will also be offering parent education opportunities during the summer, and Kelli Dawn will send learning resources; please be on the lookout for communication from us.

We will be spending the next couple of weeks reflecting, planning, and designing the next phase in our teaching and learning journey in the fall. We ask just for a few more minutes of your time filling out another brief planning survey. Your responses will be vital as we build a responsive program over the summer, taking into account the requirements of public health officials as well as the needs of our families. Thank you in advance for your participation, and thank you for your partnership throughout this year. I look forward to keeping in touch over the summer and welcoming you back in the fall.

With care,

Terra

Terra Toscano

Head of School

Walden School

"Be true to your work, your word, your friend." ~Henry David Thoreau

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