Shrews and Confidence

The Taming of the Shrew

One of the hallmarks of an Emerald education is the development of confidence. There are so many reasons that this is important, ranging from self-advocacy in the near future of high school to the more distant future of success in the workplace. At Emerald, students become confident as they learn to talk honestly with their teachers and parents about their work, as they learn a stringed instrument and stand (or sit) tall as they perform, as they present speeches, and as they perform in plays at all grade levels. The culminating dramatic performance opportunity comes in Middle School, as Emerald’s students perform a Shakespeare play every year. This year, on April 6, our students will perform The Taming of the Shrew at 2:00 and 6:00 p.m. at the Chief Theater. We hope to see you there. Admission is free, yet another way that Emerald’s students give back to the community.

Middle School Mentorship Day

Middle School Mentorship Day

This month, Middle School students had defining experiences at local businesses and working with professionals in many different fields. For a day, students stepped out of the classroom and into the workplace. Whether it was shelving books at the bookstore, helping animals at the vet, working at the gas station, or helping other professionals throughout town, students learned what Steamboat businesses are all about. Real life lessons abounded, sometimes sad, but as Shea Pepin says, “Even though some animals were in pain, like the dog that got porcupined, seeing the other animals made me happy.” Not only is Mentorship Day a wonderful opportunity for Emerald students to learn about commerce and other professions, but it is also a way for the students to give back to the community. Emerald’s Middle Schoolers represent the school well, lending a helping hand to their mentors. As Will Scheer pointed out, “It’s interesting to see the business from the other side of the counter.”

The learning doesn’t happen only during the day of Mentorship Day, though. Prior to the actual event, students set up their own placements, reaching out to the mentors and organizing the arrangements. When they return, the students write about their experiences, building their writing skills. And they practice writing business letters (and editing) as they write thank you notes to their mentors. Relationships built during Mentorship Day sometimes find students taking on part-time jobs when they get to high school, all based on their hard work with their mentors when they were at Emerald.

Middle School Move to Emerald

Middle School Move

Kendall Yeager was nine when she faced the prospect of becoming a sixth grader. She had nearly finished the fifth grade curriculum during her fourth grade year at Soda Creek Elementary School. She felt isolated from her classmates and bored. “It got to the point where I wasn’t interested in the work because I didn’t feel challenged,” she said.

The school wanted her to skip a grade. While this may have solved the academic problem, she would have been two years younger than her peers (she had started kindergarten early). Her parents looked at other options and settled on Emerald Mountain School (then Lowell Whitman Primary School), where Kendall enrolled in fifth grade.

The smaller classes and individual attention suited Kendall’s learning style. She was engaged in the work and challenged, particularly in Strings and Spanish. She’d only had a little classroom Spanish and had never played an instrument, but the flexible yet focused environment helped Kendall learn at her own pace. She enjoyed the work, especially in Spanish. “The teachers do a really good job teaching at the level where you are at - not pushing you or holding you back.”

While the academics challenged Kendall, the outdoor education pushed her completely out of her comfort zone. “It’s not super common for a 10-year-old to go camping in Moab without her parents,” she said. Kendall gained new skills and learned the importance of personal responsibility during the trips. The sense of accomplishment she gained was invaluable to her overall experience at the school, which fostered her independence and confidence as an adult.

She graduated from the middle school in 2007 and attended Steamboat Springs High School. Not long after receiving her diploma, she got a job working full time as an executive assistant at the Northwest Colorado Visiting Nurse Association while also pursuing a degree in business administration at Colorado Mountain College. She received her Bachelor of Science degree last year and has been promoted to Development Coordinator at the VNA, handling donor relations and communications, grants management and grant writing.

She’s not sure she would have had the drive to accomplish this — she is now 22 — without the skills she developed at LWPS/Emerald. “It definitely shaped my life and the direction that I’ve gone.”