Letter from the MC Principal
Hello MC families,
Black History Month began this week. Each February we take the opportunity to accentuate the work that we ordinarily do of teaching from multiple perspectives by highlighting influential Black figures from the past and present.
This year is the 100th year of the Black History Month celebration. Black History Month began as Negro History Week, which was started by Carter G. Woodson in February 1926. Carter G. Woodson, one of the founders of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, was an educator and historian. Woodson was the son of enslaved parents and he had to delay the start of his secondary education to work in the coal mines of West Virginia. He later graduated from Berea College before becoming a teacher and a school administrator. Next he pursued graduate studies at the University of Chicago, before becoming the second African American to obtain a Ph.D. from Harvard University, after W.E.B. DuBois. February was selected as the timing for Negro History Week because the birthdays of Frederick Douglass (February 14th) and Abraham Lincoln (February 12th), two individuals who have made major impacts on Black Americans, are in February. The observance became Black History Month in 1976 as officially recognized by President Gerald Ford. We will be celebrating Black History Month in various ways in February, and we will wrap up the celebration with our Black History Month Celebration and Teach-in on Tuesday, March 3rd.
In my last Courier letter I wrote about the MLK Day of Service. Service is a core component of the work that we do as ANCS and as an IB school. During Advisory each month students have time dedicated to service. In Advisory 6th and 7th graders are learning the research, planning, and communication skills that they will need to work on their Community Project in 8th grade. Community Project is an 8th grade service learning opportunity in which students find a community that they want to work in, research the needs of that community related to a topic of the student’s interest, and then work towards performing a service action in that community. We support this work during Advisory, but 8th grade students are primarily responsible for doing this work outside of school. Many students come into their 8th grade year wanting to make sandwiches for the unhoused or clean up trash in Grant Park for their Community Project; and while those are positive activities, part of the intent of Community Project is for students to learn how to research the needs of a community and go beyond their assumptions or anecdotal evidence regarding what they think a community needs. Learning how to work WITH a community, and not to simply impose your thoughts onto a community is some of the most important learning that comes from Community Project.
The culmination of the 6th and 7th graders’ work will be them working with a local organization to do service learning on our Service as Action Day. In the past Advisory groups have sorted books for Books for Africa, cleaned up Brownwood Park, and have done projects at Tapestry Greenspace, among other things. This year our Service as Action Day will be on Friday, March 6th. Advisories (6th and 7th grade) are in the early stages of their planning, but as we get closer to the date Advisors will be reaching out to parents with details. One thing that we often need is parent drivers, so for those looking for volunteer/engagement opportunities the Service as Action Extended Advisory Day is definitely one of those opportunities.
My next Courier letter will be published after Mid Winter Break. School will be closed from Monday, February 16th to Friday, February 20th, and students will return to school on Monday, February 23rd. I hope that everyone has a happy, restful, and rejuvenating break.
As always if you have any questions feel free to reach out.
Kind regards,
Mark
Mark Sanders
Mark Sanders began teaching at ANCS in 2011. Before coming to the school, Mr. Sanders worked in New York City. He spent three years teaching 7th and 8th grade mathematics at Middle School 50 in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and two years at Harlem Village Academies teaching Geometry and Algebra 2/Trigonometry. He taught 8th grade Math/Science/Technology at ANCS for five years.
