2022

List of 6 news stories.

• 

  Josh Cobb, Head of School

  This school year is a significant for you and for me. It is your graduation year, celebrating for some of you more than ten years at the school. It is my Master Teacher year, celebrating my twentieth year at the school. With milestones, come many opportunities to reflect, and one way I have reflected is to look at the bookshelves in my office and acknowledge the books that have been with me for those twenty years. One such book is Theater Games for Rehearsals by Viola Spolin, a resource I used often as a teacher here and for the six years before I came to Graland.

  
  

  Why did this book strike me now before your graduation? First, the author turned twelve at the beginning of the Spanish Flu in 1918, just as many of you turned twelve around the beginning of the latest pandemic. Second, she was an educator who dedicated herself to children, and these past two years have shown the importance of educators more than ever before. Finally, Viola Spolin is credited with originating improvisational theater, whose tenets are incredibly instructive.
  Full Story
• 

  Marti Champion, Head of Middle School

  At some point in 2020, I discovered the show Ted Lasso. Ted Lasso, for whom the show is named, is a small-time American football coach who accepts a job coaching the AFC Richmond football team in the UK. Without going too far into the premise of the show, Ted Lasso knows very little about the game of soccer, but his folksy, optimistic outlook on life is one that is inspiring. Like all shows with an underdog, each episode is sprinkled with life lessons - some of which I’ve chosen to share with you today. As you sit here anxiously awaiting your diplomas, I hope for two things: that at least one of the lessons I share resonates with you and that you carry another lesson with you to high school. Ready?

  
  

  Lesson number one: “Taking on a challenge is a lot like riding a horse…  If you’re comfortable while you’re doing it, you’re probably doing it wrong.”
  Full Story
• 

  Annie Lassiter, Math Teacher and Student Nominated Speaker

  I am honored to be standing here before the Graland class of 2022! Looking at your graduation date, 6-8-2022, I can’t help but think, “Oh no, that’s too many even digits.” Naturally, I have to break them down to 6-8=20-22. As a math teacher, I can tell you that numbers don’t lie; there will be a lot of even graduations in your future, which equals an even road that lies ahead of you. As young people, you might, however, be envisioning a more exciting path ahead of you, filled with improper fractions, negative numbers, and obtuse triangles. Your parents, on the other hand, will take solace in a more “even” seamless road ahead of you awash in quotients, supplementary angles, and parallelograms. Regardless of what path you take, you will have the courage, the conviction, and quite frankly, the charisma to prevail in whatever endeavor you choose.
  Full Story
• 

  Sam Cheroutes, Co-Student Body President

  Most of you already know me, but my name is Sam Cheroutes. I am here to talk about my Graland experience. Throughout everyone's Graland years, we have all become more mature, and have created a greater bond with each other. Graland and its people have been in my heart since the first day I came here.
  
  

   When I came to Graland, I immediately felt welcome and started to realize this is where I belonged. The Graland community is able to do that to any new student, and help them find their place. The Kindergarten Rodeo was a great opportunity to introduce yourself and make new friends.
  Full Story
• 

  Caroline Corry, Co-President Student Council

  Congrats to the graduating class of 2022! 

  As a class, we have been through a lot: masks and COVID, the school dances, trying to keep up with THE “Big Dog” Ben Simmons. 
  
  

  But then there have been some more personal challenges, like Green slips. I won’t name any names here. . . but if you don’t know what a green slip is, we should probably keep it that way. 
  
  

  It is exciting to be moving on, but if I could give one wish to the lower grades, it would be to never take for granted the time you have and people here, because it will be over before you know it.
  Full Story
• 

  Willa Cohen, Graduation Dinner Student Speaker

  Good evening Graland students and families. Happy almost graduation day. We are all about to move on from the Graland chapter of our lives onto something different. For that reason, I think today should be about celebrating my peers.
  
  

   My classmates have shaped the person that I am today. We have Graland to thank for imploring us to explore and learn not just from the classroom, but from each other.  I love my class, and although sometimes my fondness falters, it always holds out in the end. Many of us have been together for nine years now, and in that time we’ve gotten to create almost a decade of memories. Whether we were selling each other drinks at the snack store in Ameritowne, Educating each other about a different person at the biography tea, or having advisory lunch together on a cool spring day in 7th grade, we have learned from each other every day. 
  Full Story