STUDENTS’ REFLECTIONS OF SELF
Seven years ago, the Hopkinton Public Schools made a commitment to ensuring an inclusive, welcoming, and affirming environment where every member of our school community is able to be their full selves and feel valued for who they are.
Among other things, that commitment included a new position focused on equity and access for all; cultural proficiency work with the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE); new instructional materials; a curricular audit; and the implementation of a tool called the CRIOP, which stands for Culturally Responsive Instruction Observation Protocol and which, in part, assesses whether classrooms reflect students’ identities. Essentially, the question is, do students see themselves in the learning environment?
I’m proud to answer that question with a “yes.”
GRADE 2
At the Elmwood School, students in Mrs. Mortarelli’s and Mrs. Marzilli’s classrooms recently assembled “culture quilts.” Beautifully drawn, vibrant in color, these quilts reflect the students’ unique identities, heritages, interests, and more. Students shared with one another the traditions and customs from their family’s countries, and classes discussed what those cultures have contributed to U.S. society; examples included traditional foods, customs, games, and music of the places they, their families, or their ancestors came from.
Take a look at the product of this exercise in expression of selfhood, designed by our seven- and eight-year-olds.
GRADE 12
At the other end of the spectrum, our graduating seniors in the Class of 2025 have been working with Tim O’Brien’s text In the Lake of the Woods, and they designed their own “evidence chapters.”
In English Teacher Ms. Ellam’s classroom, the students had to create an evidence chapter about themselves, while imitating how O'Brien did the same. Although the project was closely tied to the text, the instruction focused on composing and compiling small pieces that helped students to define the many facets of themselves; they were encouraged to use varied media and, of course, footnotes that lent context or additional meaning to their evidence--just like O’Brien did. Students spent time artistically assembling parts of their identities. They were advised that “the narrative of ‘you’ can be messy or complex or fragmented.”
Some of the “messiness,” the “fragmenting” appears below. The excerpts come from many different students’ work, so you won’t see a total picture of a single student; you will, however, see little pieces of our students’ collective experiences. These particular excerpts from their work focus largely on their HPS experiences, although so many aspects of their selfhood were reflected in their final projects.
I hope you enjoy them as well as I did.
Jake Garron chucked up the shot from half court, off the backboard and in. Winning the last regular season freshman basketball game, me and Matt Foti rushed the court to celebrate. Tears rushed down from Matt’s eyes as he hugged Jake. Little did I know I was witnessing the best moment of Jake’s life.
- Hopkinton High School Athletic Center
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On the second day of school in 7th grade, I forgot to rip out my math homework from our school textbook. I was worried I would make a bad impression by solely writing the answers on a blank sheet of paper, utilizing the online copy. Yes, I could use a printer, but guess whose printer broke the same day? Me. I decided to write every single word problem down with its corresponding answer (my hand was writing in fear of falling off). At least I got a 5/5 on that homework assignment!
Parent Teacher Meeting: “ *Introduction to the class” There was a student of mine recently who hand wrote the entire assignment down since she forgot. It was the craziest thing I’ve ever seen.”
“That was my daughter (whispering tone).”
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Neha is a light in a lot of ppls lives. She may be short in stature, but has like the biggest heart ever and makes everyone around her feel good. She is awesome to be around and the definition of “the right company to be around”. I know her future def shines brighter than a lot of stars in the sky.
- Anand (Cousin #8)
List:
Queen Victoria (4'11"): Ruled the British Empire for 63 years, during which time the empire expanded and experienced significant industrial, cultural, and political progress.
Mother Teresa (4'11"): Founded the Missionaries of Charity, which provided care for the poor, sick, orphaned, and dying around the world.
Helen Keller (5'3"): Overcame being deaf and blind to become an influential author, activist, and lecturer advocating for people with disabilities.
Simone de Beauvoir (5'3"): French philosopher and feminist, her work, especially "The Second Sex," laid the groundwork for contemporary feminist theory
Neha is loud, demanding, and indecisive.
- Sanjay (brother)
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This was the winter play in my junior year, and I played Snow White. Game of Tiaras made a lot of jokes around the concept of Snow White and her being traditionally white, and it was ironic because I am not white. Also, I am one of the only POC students who does theatre at the high school so it was pretty ironic that I got the role of Snow White. When they introduced my character at the beginning of the play, the narrators said “The fairest of the fair…” and someone in the audience remarked that I’m obviously not white. I honestly found it kind of funny, but whenever I tell people this story they seem to get more offended than I was about it.
“In the play last year, I was fortunate enough to play Snow White in The Game of Tiaras, and it has been my favorite role to date. It was also Valerie’s and our costume director, Mrs. Kirshy’s last show. At the end of every show, we have a closing circle where seniors make speeches and A LOT of people cry. This time, Valerie and Mrs. Kirshy made closing speeches, and during Mrs. Kirshy’s, she talked about how much we had all grown and how she enjoyed watching that process. Then, out of nowhere, she called me out specifically and brought up how I was a shy little girl when I joined theatre, how I had flourished throughout my time in theatre, and how watching that unfold made her so proud of me. I had made bets with my friends that I wouldn’t cry (because I usually don’t in public) and I burst into tears because I was so touched”
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FOOTNOTES:
4. Swimming is so extremely draining, in the most beautiful way. I love it, but it hurts so bad in the inbetween parts, the space that sits in the middle of starting the season and success. Unfortunately, the more it hurts, the better you’ll be in the end. So, I’ve learned to manage the pain, there's the social aspects like my coaches at teammates support, but then there's also the little things, like matching lotion with the girls on my club team (there's only five of us on a twenty-two person team, so we’re extremely close), or wearing bright colored practice suits, and of course some days, it hurts so bad, the only option is to shock my muscles with BioFreeze.
10. My grandmother is one of the most important loves in my life. I credit her with my adoration for reading. And reading is so deeply intertwined with my understanding of my own mind and being, having her to be able to encourage that love of reading, it built so much of how my brain works. With my grandmother, I learned how to speak about the books I love, to form the feelings and thoughts that my books spark into words to share.
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“Katelyn is a conscientious student”
“I encourage Katelyn to participate in class more” 1
1Said every teacher I have ever had. Ever.
Katelyn Lucy: In 2nd grade I would do a “goldfish challenge” where I would bring goldfish crackers into school everyday.2
2 My friend and I started this argument of who liked goldfish more, we started bringing them everyday for snack time to prove ourselves. Every single day for snack: a clear ziplock bag full of goldfish. I probably went through two giant bags of goldfish a week.
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It was a Thursday. After eight exhausting hours of the eleventh grade, I found myself in my usual sitting spot: the creaky, wooden steps of our back deck. At that moment, however, I was feeling anything but usual. As I looked out over the lush greenery of the backyard, I was flooded with innocent memories of my childhood days spent in that very space. I had laughed ridiculous laughter out there: my brother’s terrible swings and misses always had me wheezing. I had also played a ridiculous amount of neighborhood “football”. And to my mother’s dismay, I had given myself ridiculous grass stains. Ones even Tide couldn’t fix. But now, staring into the sea of green that was my past, I felt a ridiculous amount of regret.
At seventeen, it dawned on me that I was no longer the unoccupied nine-year-old wandering around the house. Nor was I the adventurous ten-year-old exploring the forest, or the competitive eleven-year-old playing kickball at recess. I was a big kid now. While a part of me was glad, another part of me wished that I could go back. That I had enjoyed the slow, simple moments. That I had listened to my dad’s unspoken words. That I had taken those crumpled-up balls of paper for what they were. For what I now understood them to be.
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I’ve always feared my graduation, but now I’m three months away, and man…I can’t wait to go. I’m ready. All ‘my seniors’ said they were ready and I was too blinded by the sadness of their absence to even realize the importance of being ready to let go. But I get it now. I’m ready.
-- Maeve Reilly
While you only see the work of a few teachers and their students in this blog entry, I hope you have every confidence that work such as this--tied to Massachusetts learning standards--is happening throughout the district. Thank you to these teachers and the countless other educators who have supported children at every level. Our graduating seniors--this year and every year--reflect the culmination of 13 years of academic, cultural, social, emotional, and behavioral learning.
Tim O’Brien tells us, “the thing about remembering is that you don’t forget. You take your material where you find it, which is in your life, at the intersection of past and present. And sometimes the remembering will lead to a story, which makes it forever.”
I hope members of the Class of 2025 (and the Class of 2035) carry their stories, their expressions of selfhood into bright futures.
