Community In Practice

From learning how to name emotions and share a table to exploring the people and places that make a community work, students across divisions spent time this week thinking about how we live, learn and grow alongside one another. For our youngest learners, that work took shape through conversation, routines and play; for Middle and Upper School students, it meant developing shared expectations in advisory and coming together at assembly to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month. Beyond the classroom, Coffee with the Counselor and the first Parent Association meeting gave families their own opportunities to connect, exchange perspectives and take an active role in the life of the School.

At this week’s Coffee with the Counselor sessions, members of our 11th- and 12th-grade community joined Middle and Upper School Counselor Erin Salzbrun ’05 for candid conversations about college transitions, independence, healthy relationships, screens, sleep and increasingly full schedules. Along with sharing practical information, Ms. Salzbrun created space for those further along in the journey to offer perspective, ease concerns and help build a support system around the years ahead. Brief recaps will also be shared after each session so those unable to attend can remain part of the conversation.

Antilles’ youngest students were beginning with one of its foundations: recognizing and expressing how they feel. In the Toddler classroom, teacher April Friend’s students explored emotions through color and art, creating pieces that connected different feelings with the colors they believed represented them—red for anger, for example. The activity gave students a creative way to identify emotions and begin finding language for what they experience.

The learning continued outside, where chalk drawings of emoji-style faces became a hopscotch-like game centered on movement and expression. When asked to “show me silly” or identify another feeling, students could move to the corresponding face, stand on it and act it out. Together, the activities made emotions visible and interactive, helping toddlers recognize feelings in themselves and others while learning that every emotion can be named, expressed and understood.

As students begin to understand their own emotions, they also learn how their words and actions affect the people around them. In Kindergarten, that work has been happening around the lunch table, where students eat together in small groups and practice the everyday manners that help make a shared meal enjoyable for everyone.

Teacher Leah Mandichak said students have spent time discussing what good manners look and sound like, then putting those ideas into practice as they sit, talk and eat alongside their classmates. By learning through a familiar daily routine, students begin to see manners as more than a list of rules. They become small but meaningful ways to show respect, consider the needs of others and help everyone at the table feel comfortable and included.

First-grade begins each year with a study of the people, places and roles that help communities work. Students identified buildings important to them and recreated them with LEGO bricks, building a community they could see and shape together. Last year, teachers expanded the unit into a project-based experience, taking students to places such as Yacht Haven Grande to interview the people who work there. Preparing for similar visits, this year’s first graders met with teacher Cailyn Garber's tenth-grade Public Speaking students, who practiced reading books aloud before answering the younger students’ questions. The exchange helped both groups practice communicating while building the first graders’ confidence and interview skills for conversations later this year.

For older students, understanding how a community works also means taking responsibility for the culture they help create. In Middle and Upper School, that work is taking shape through social contracts developed within advisory groups. Students are discussing how they want their communities to feel and function, then turning those ideas into shared expectations. In teacher Alexis Porfilio’s sixth-grade advisory, students said they valued the process because it gave them ownership of what would be included.

Dean of Students Barrington Baron said responses have centered on respect, belonging, safety and care for shared spaces. Middle School advisories will bring their ideas together in a collective draft, while Upper School advisories are completing similar work. Mr. Baron said the goal is not simply to place the finished contracts on a wall, but to use them throughout the year to guide decisions, plan activities and help students put their shared commitments into practice.

That same emphasis on voice and belonging carried into a Friday Middle and Upper School assembly, where students from Antilles’ Spanish classes led a celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month. They explained why the observance runs from Sept. 15 through Oct. 15, explored the many countries and cultures it represents, and reminded classmates that no single food, flag, accent, or story can define the Hispanic experience.

Students in the audience were also invited to share where their families come from and what they value most about their heritage, offering reflections on food, traditions, celebrations and time spent with relatives. The presentation also highlighted Hispanic scientists, activists, artists, athletes, and public figures whose work has shaped their communities and the world. It closed by asking students whose stories inspire them—and reminding them that “the next important story could begin with someone in this room.”