The Symonds School Quest Team

The Symonds School Quest team is a collaborative group of teachers who work to create cross curricular experiences within the school community. Beth Corwin (PE), John Bass (Art), Peter Siegel (Music), and Brenda Haenchen (Media), and Richard Cate (Principal) meet weekly to discuss the implementation of programming that fosters and shapes our school culture. Community, Kindness, Knowledge, and Effort are the "Four Pillars" of Symonds school. With a strong social curricular foundation, Symonds uses the arts, wellness, and weekly gathering as tools to teach and uphold these "Pillars".

Whole school and grade level Quest experiences have included:

- A bookmaking residency in which every student crafted a book and grade levels filled the books with relevant artistic and academic content. This culminated in a community "book night" in which families toured classrooms with the books on display

- An all school CD project entitled "Peace Place" in which the students performed and professionally recorded social curricular and "sense of place" themed songs. This was distributed to every student and sold publicly. http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/petersiegelwiththekidsof

- Developing annual all school programs on civil rights and the Underground Railroad.

- Utilizing classroom geology curriculum, 2nd graders participated in a "rock swap" activity to practice social skills, using appropriate language to trade rocks in a large group.

Quest team activities are made possible by money budgeted by the district and our principal, as well as sources from fund raising and the PTA.

Visit the authors' individual profiles:

Beth Corwin: https://www.edutopia.org/users/beth-ann-corwin

John Bass: https://www.edutopia.org/users/john-bass

Peter Siegel: https://www.edutopia.org/users/peter-siegel

Brenda Haenchen: https://www.edutopia.org/users/brenda-haenchen