Malcolm Gauld
As a new school year gets underway, this post is especially intended for teachers and administrators at schools offering various elements of the Discovery Process to their students.
The essence of the Discovery Process is the Discovery Group. (And don’t just take my word for it. In fact, we paid a high-priced educational market research firm to take a deep dive into our operations and then tell us, among other things, the identity of our single most distinctive competency. Their answer: The Discovery Group.) It’s the embodiment of kids looking out for the best in each other with a mixture of challenging and supporting engagement shared among students and teachers.
So, I thought you might be interested in the following letter from a Discovery Process teacher to the parents of her students. (The names have been changed.) Feel free to make like all great teachers and steal the idea for your own communications with your parents! Without further ado…
Dear Parents,
My name is Marilyn Davis and I am your child’s Discovery Group leader. This is my seventh year teaching at Maplewood HS. I am also a graduate of the school, so I know your students are in great hands! In addition to my role as a Discovery Group leader, I also teach history and will coach field hockey this fall.
Jamal Franklin will also be working with our group. (Each Discovery Group at MHS includes at least two faculty members and/or administrators.) A second-year teacher, Jamal teaches algebra and calculus and helps direct our school’s drama productions.
The Discovery Group is like our family within the larger MHS community. There are 12 students in our group right now, and we will meet twice weekly to explore our character curriculum. We do weekly intramural athletics as a group, sit together for lunch on Thursdays, and have been known to celebrate birthdays and hang out socially together after school and on vacations.
We got to know each other better this week through some ice-breaker activities on Tuesday and during our traditional Field Day yesterday. Attached are a few photos to give you an idea of what we did. Our group won some of the challenges but did not take home the trophy this time around. Your students were present, engaged, and had a lot of fun cheering each other on. We have a great group, representing all ages and neighborhoods of our extended Maplewood community!
Jamal and I would like to know the best way to contact you this year. Email, WhatsApp, phone calls, etc. We are your first point of contact if you have any questions or concerns about the activities of your children or would like a quick progress report on how they’re doing. Welcome to Maplewood and the David/Franklin Discovery Group!!
Here’s to a great school year for students, teachers, and parents!
Onward, Malcolm Gauld
