Click here to view photos.
Santa Fe Breaks Out

This is the second year that the school community has read a common book for our summer reading. This year, we read All the Light We Cannot See written by the award-winning author Anthony Doerr. All the Light is a New York Times bestseller about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II.

In preparation for the first day of school several of our faculty, Amanda Gaspary, Cari Murphy, and Wendy Lopez, worked over the summer to create an amazing experience based on the book. The goal was to create a memorable way for students to think about the concepts from the book in a fun and nontraditional format.

The first activity was inspired by the popular escape room concept and the Breakout EDU innovative educational game, which strive to teach critical thinking, teamwork, and complex problem solving across the curriculum. To complete this activity, teams had to figure out a series of problems/puzzles to open their lock and complete the “breakout”.

The second activity required the students to work together to complete challenging physical team building activities based on creativity, communication, and problem solving.

During the teacher preservice week, our teachers got to be students for the day. They experienced these activities as the students would so they could help facilitate when the students returned.  They were good sports and, in the end, all the teams were able to “breakout.”

In addition to the activities, the school skyped with Jackie Albin, a Jewish survivor who grew up in France during WWII. The experiences she spoke about gave the students greater insight into the characters in the book.

Overall, it was a successful day. The students got to know each other and make some new friends.  They were challenged and pushed outside of their comfort zones.  Several student groups completed the final “breakout” puzzle, and other groups celebrated their ability to work together in the team building challenges.

 
Glenda Pierce
Assistant Principal of Curriculum