Bright and early on the morning of March 3, a group of fourteen sixth, seventh, and eighth graders boarded a bus along with Emily Daniels (Junior High faculty), Sidney McGinnis (director of student support) and Jessica White Winger (assistant head of school). They left the GMS parking lot right around 7 a.m. and headed to Charlotte, N.C. for a day of learning and connecting with educators and peers from independent schools across the state. Their destination was the North Carolina Association for Independent Schools’ (NCAIS) Words Matter Conference, held annually and intended to bring together middle and high school students and their educators to learn about and reflect on complex and nuanced topics impacting our students and schools. As this was our School’s first time participating in the conference, we were excited to attend and unsure about what to expect. When we arrived back to campus, we unanimously agreed that it was a day well spent, and a conference we would like to continue attending in the future.
The theme of this year's conference was "Joy and Courage through Community Storytelling" and its stated intention was to provide, “an engaging, interactive conference designed for faculty, staff, and middle and high school students to explore how language influences relationships, classroom dynamics, and society. This conference aim(ed) to support NCAIS schools as they work to be courageous and unified, and to consider the impact of words and stories in their communities.” This lines up beautifully with our work in our own School community to build resilient, inclusive, receptive, intentional communities across classrooms and divisions.
The conference afforded space for some of our eldest students to spend a day reflecting on their role in that work and the opportunities they have to take ownership of their responsibility and influence in our School. It was also an opportunity for students to exercise some autonomy, as there were different “tracks” for conference sessions throughout the day for middle school students, high school students, and educators, and our students navigated together from one session to the next with confidence and care.
A couple weeks after attending the conference, the group who attended had lunch together to complete a feedback survey for NCAIS, share what was impactful for them, and share the most important ideas, strategies, and tools they brought back to GMS. The group especially appreciated a session on bullying by Peaceful Schools NC, where they discussed the differences between teasing, joking, and bullying, and that “middle school is a great time to develop the skill of being bold in the face of injustice,” even when "injustice in a friend group or within a class or school can be one of the most challenging places to step into bold action.” Our students found the presenters for this session engaging and intriguing, and appreciated learning how they can have a positive role in the system of bullying.
At the end of our day together in Charlotte, the conference organizers shared a video of students speaking throughout the day about what they were learning and why it felt important. We were excited to see our group featured at the start of the video, and our own Lucy (sixth grader) speaking toward the end of the video.
The NCAIS Words Matter conference provided a special opportunity for our students and educators to discuss and learn about important issues with peers from across the state. Our group came away with new ideas and fresh perspectives on important issues facing our community. Current sixth graders had the opportunity to spend time with some of their future classmates and a teacher in Junior High, and our group had the singular opportunity to learn in community with peers from schools across the state of North Carolina. Emily, Sidney, and Jessica reflected our pride to our students for how they showed up ready to thoughtfully and bravely engage with unfamiliar adults and peers and how they represented our School so well. As we walked out of the conference center together, the NCAIS conference organizers made a point to share how impressed they were with our group, which was a wonderful way to end our day together.
