Educating modern learners

Friday, February 14, 2020
 

Sustainability in action

Thursday, February 13, 2020

Teaching, learning, and practicing the habits of environmental stewardship are essential parts of Gordon’s history, and key ingredients in Gordon's effort to stimulate in students a drive for positive societal impact. Gordon does this work through classroom instruction and a hands-on approach to learning, but also through schoolwide efforts like energy-efficient facilities upgrades and the thoughtful maintenance of its ponds, gardens, and fields.


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Supporting athletics

Wednesday, February 12, 2020

Gordon’s competitive athletics program promotes good sportsmanship, school pride and healthy competition while extending the school's mission to the playing field.

As with everything else at Gordon, there's an emphasis on helping everyone contribute to the best of their abilities, while challenging each student to develop new skills and passions.

A mission-driven program
Gordon's athletics program is intentionally structured to encourage participation from throughout the Middle School.

Competition begins in fifth grade, and teams are open to all.

Everyone who signs up makes the team, and every student who attends practice and tries their best will get playing time in every game.

The result is a program that draws in all students; 85% of Middle School students proudly represent Gordon while competing on twenty teams in seven sports.

Healthy competition
Gordon's student athletes are encouraged to take risks, to internalize the value of fair play, and to approach both victory and defeat with empathy and integrity.

Along the way, they get to compete against talented middle schoolers from day schools throughout Southeastern New England.

For many, Gordon athletics is a four-year journey, producing graduates who go on to be major contributors to high school and college teams.

Room for everyone
This healthy, inclusive experience takes place in the context of an athletics program staffed by professionals in first-rate facilities.

Indoor competition centers around the Nelson Field House, a climate-controlled regulation-size basketball court with a climbing wall, and soccer, lacrosse and field hockey games are held on Engle Field.

Outdoor sports use a variety of fields on Gordon's twelve-acre campus, and track practice is held on the hills that surround the school.

The Gordon Fund supports the student growth that happens every day, in the tournaments and after practice. Your gift fuels the magic that happens as Gordon students learn to make their own, unique contribution to every team they join.

Make your gift today online or pledge today and fulfill your commitment by June 30th. You can also drop off your gift at school, mail it to 45 Maxfield Avenue, East Providence, RI 02914; or call us at 401-434-3833 to pledge your support.

Thank you in advance for your consideration and support! 

Supporting library and literacy

Tuesday, February 11, 2020

Gordon takes pride in the fact that every reader can see themselves reflected in the collection offered in the Joukowsky Family Library, and every writer is challenged to discover their own voice while exploring its diverse resources.

The heart of Gordon School

The Joukowsky Family Library is the heart of Gordon School. 

The two-story facility includes thousands of choices for beginning readers and a second floor designed exclusively for Middle School students with one of the finest, most extensive collections of books for young adult readers in the area. 

The library offers a comprehensive and diverse collection of age-appropriate literature and resources to assist students with their natural curiosity, their quest for interesting reading, and their academic endeavors. 

 

A love of the written word

Gordon students are immersed in the written word starting in Nursery, and they quickly discover the joy of reading and writing, as a class and independently. 

Classroom teachers partner with the librarian and the fulltime literacy specialist to ensure that every child can retain that joy even as they acquire increasingly advanced skills. 

Along the way, students learn how great books can serve as either mirrors, which reveal truths about a child's own world, or windows through which they can study new worlds.

Authors of their own stories

As students become critical readers, and discover favorite authors, they discover that they, too, have stories of their own to share. 

Becoming an author is a rite of passage at Gordon. 

What begins as first grade family stories, bound and illustrated and shared at an author's breakfast, becomes research papers, poetry collections and brief memoirs later in Lower School. 

This work culminates in seventh and eighth grade, as they perform original poems, publish novels, conduct original research and give data-driven presentations at the end of their service learning projects.

Throughout this journey, working alongside visiting authors and their classmates, they find their own voices and discover how their own words can make an impact on the world.


Moments in library and literacy in recent months, from Gordon's blog:

February 2020
Sixth grade journalists publish a newspaper

January 2020
Newbery, Caldecott Medals for recent Gordon guests

December 2019
Book Fair brings a crew of visiting authors

October 2019
Preschool discovers the library

 

Support this work

The Gordon Fund supports this student experience and the beloved community of readers, authors, and learners. Your gift fuels the powerful storytelling that happens as Gordon students find their voices.  

Make your gift today online or pledge today and fulfill your commitment by June 30th. You can also drop off your gift at school, mail it to 45 Maxfield Avenue, East Providence, RI 02914; or call us at 401-434-3833 to pledge your support.

Thank you in advance for your consideration and support!  

 

Supporting visual and performing arts

Monday, February 10, 2020
Music, dance, theater and visual arts spark curiosity, creativity and self-expression on a daily basis at Gordon. The impact of arts education is visible in student work, but also in students' increased confidence in and out of the classroom.

On and off the stage
Every student in third through eighth grade is invited to participate in Gordon's after school theater program, and most of them do, either backstage or in the spotlight. In three annual productions, after school theater draws the best out of every student. For some students, one turn on the stage is enough. For others, it's the first in a lifetime of performances. But for all of them, their time on the Gordon stage is an experience they'll never forget. 

Artistic expression
All students in Nursery through eighth grade work in Gordon's spacious, light-filled visual art studios. There, students experiment with a range of media, skills, techniques and concepts in visual arts that is expanded and refined as they grow up at Gordon. Annually, their work is displayed in the art show in January, a week-long showcase of proud artistic achievements for Gordon students. Visitors to this year's art show got to take a piece home with them; the seventh and eighth grade art elective made one-of-a-kind Gator pins for attendees to keep.

The sound of music
Over the life of a Gordon student, Kindergartners will learn to sing "Hello" and "Greeting" songs from around the world, third graders will master a scale on the soprano recorder, fifth and sixth grade students perform in a percussion ensemble for all-school assemblies, and Middle Schoolers will audition for a coveted spot on the a cappella group The G-Notes. Along the way, they'll have the support and guidance of expert instructors who help them understand the cultural and historic contexts for the music they learn.


Some recent moments in Gordon's performing and visual arts program, from Gordon's blog:

January 2020
The 2020 art show

December 2019
Gordon musicians in the spotlight

November 2019 
a preview of the Middle School plays

November 2019
Parents, students, alumni and faculty in the arts, on campus and beyond

Support this work
Gifts of all sizes support the rich visual and performing arts program at Gordon. Your gift funds the licensing of a play that 85% of third and fourth grade students help stage; it funds paints and brushes that Kindergartners use to transform blank canvases into self-portraits; and it funds the seventh and eighth graders as they rearrange Abba's Dancing Queen for chimes and handbells.

Make your gift today online or pledge today and fulfill your commitment by June 30th. You can also drop off your gift at school, mail it to 45 Maxfield Avenue, East Providence, RI 02914; or call us at 401-434-3833 to pledge your support.

Giving week kicks off

Sunday, February 9, 2020
Gordon giving week kicks off today! Every day this week, we will highlight areas that are impacted by gifts to the Gordon Fund. Today we turn the spotlight on Gordon's family-centered community.

A community for families
Gordon is not just a school; it’s a community for families. This school carefully cultivates a suite of opportunities for parents and caregivers to learn alongside their children and build relationships with one another. This happens at large events like WaterFire and parent education nights, but also through daily connections at grade potlucks, Ages and Stages conversations, and informal moments in the Commons and on the playground.

A daily presence
Parents lend their expertise and talents in integral ways that support the school's mission and push the work forward. Gordon invites parents to join strategic board committees that focus on the careful planning of Gordon's future in addition to opportunities to engage in the daily life of school. Whether parents helped design Gordon's new strategic vision, or helped photo day run smoothly, their daily presence is important to our school.

Big picture and close-up
Big picture: the Gordon Fund supports this year's annual budget and allows our school to bridge the difference between tuition revenue and the cost of educating 335 students every day.
 
Close-up: the Gordon Fund supports the everyday moments that families experience as they engage with faculty, staff, and one another while their children attend Gordon. It funds the coffee they have while talking with fellow parents in the Commons. It funds the workshop about mental health that brings us together as we bond over the issues we share in parenting children in today's world. It funds the grounds crew that maintains the campus and playgrounds where parents build lifelong friendships while pushing their children on swings or watching athletics competitions.

Some recent moments in family-centered community, from Gordon's blog:

February 2020
Family Dance Day returns

November 2019
A parent dialogue on race in the classroom

October 2019
Photo Day, fueled by volunteers

September 2019
Gordon gathers at WaterFire

September 2019
Gordon's families, in all shapes and sizes

Support this work
As members of the Gordon community, your philanthropic support of the Gordon Fund is a vital marker of our collective expression of affirmation for the school.  

Make your gift today online or pledge today and fulfill your commitment by June 30th. You can also drop off your gift at school on your next visit this week or send it through the mail.