Community is our Classroom

Downtown Tacoma is the home of Seabury Middle School. The Lower School for some of our students is their second home. We make getting out into the community part of our weekly life.

Park(ing) Day was a recent experience that promoted the idea of Community. One day a year parking spots in Tacoma get taken over by people and organizations, they turn them into Park(ing) Spots or mini-parks where members of the community are invited to join in play games or stop and hang out. We visited several including the Tacoma Historical Society and Tacoma's first textiles- based maker space. We use this opportunity not only to connect with our beautiful community and its leaders, but also to become better more confident community members ourselves. Students are expected and taught to behave in a way that reflects our school's core values. When we are out and about, students know they are ambassadors for Seabury Middle School. At parking day students showed their self-confidence when asking questions and speaking with community members. Some are working on polite sidewalk behavior.

Each first Friday we visit the Lower School and build that community connection as well or maintain it if we are Seabury "Lifers" This past Friday was in celebration of International Dot Day. Dot Day is a special day to celebrate unique ways of expressing ourselves, based in part on the book by Peter H. Reynolds. Lower School students look up to MS students as role models and as friends. Our class does a great job of building and nurturing this relationship with the younger students.