Hello Greene Towne Community,

This is Ms. Allison (they/she) resident DEIB (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging) and Recess Coordinator here at GTMS!  I am so excited to be entering my 10th year at Greene Towne and my 15th year working in education in and around the Philadelphia area. We have kicked off the start of the 2024-25 school year with a heavy emphasis on mindfulness and community. For the first two weeks of Cohort Recess we started off with what we refer to as “Community Meetings.” We sit and gather together going over each other’s names, teachers and students alike, to help everyone get to know each other, encourage the skill of introducing one’s self, and how to respectfully ask for and honor someone else’s name. This is also a means to help the children get comfortable and build a better sense of confidence and community in joining cohort recess where they are possibly meeting new (to them) students and teachers for the first time. Our goal is to help foster a sense of security, respect, and belonging during the all important socialization that occurs during this play time. 

In other DEIB happenings around the school, Lower Elementary students celebrated the Mid Autumn Festival by making mooncakes for each classroom in the school. Students who were familiar with the food were very eager to share their experiences with their classmates. One student happily told everyone how they made mooncakes themselves over the weekend, another was very excited to translate the Japanese on the box of the rice flour we used for the mooncake dough to their classmates, and another made note of how the texture reminded them of the congee Chef Kim serves for lunch. These projects, especially when it pertains to food, allow the students an opportunity to share with each other in this way, to show pride in their heritage and culture, to make space for learning and tasting new things, to ask questions, and to build a sense of appreciation and curiosity about things new to them instead of caution and confusion.

We also discussed how it’s perfectly fine to not like the taste of a given dish but how to go about that in a way that is respectful and doesn’t hurt another person’s feelings. As food can be heavily tied to our sense of community and culture, we endeavor to help grow global citizens who can navigate the world with grace and empathy. Instead of saying “Ew!” or “I don’t want to eat that” we encourage the use of “I don’t prefer that” or “No thank you.” After the mooncakes were completed, the Lower El students helped deliver them to the other classrooms so they could taste them as well. Many of the children were especially excited to visit their former Primary and Toddler classrooms to gift this special treat to them. Part of the beauty of a Montessori environment is the strong sense of community that is built around a mixed aged classroom. With our Lower Elementary program growing here at GTMS that sentiment is stronger than ever, with the children having powerful bonds that carry across multiple classrooms and throughout the whole building. Meanwhile children in the Montessori and Me classroom enjoyed creating some Mid Autumn moon themed artwork and classrooms were offered lantern projects and ddakji to work on as well.

Mid Autumn happenings and info here in Philadelphia:  https://www.aaunited.org/maf

Selected reading from this month’s highlights collection shelf of the Helena A. Grady Diversity Library: 

The Best Kind of Mooncake by Pearl AuYeung, Mindy Kim and the Mid-Autumn Festival by Lyla Lee, A. Year Full of Celebrations and Festivals by Christopher Corr and Claire Grace