Due to cohorting, there was a greater need for recess and lunch supervision and more employees from the staff side, including me, had to step up for duties. I was assigned to the sixth grade, the Siskind/O’Neill and Masters/Cohen cohorts, and spent at least two lunches a week with them.

My duties were sometimes spent inside playing trivia on Kahoot!, and I quickly learned that my knowledge of Disney movies was limited compared to these experts. Aside from numerous screenings of Frozen, we watched another animated movie Soul, a poignant tale about being in an in-between state. That year in many ways felt like a limbo between what was, prepandemic and what was to be, postpandemic. Finally, I remember the chaotic preparation for candy sales just outside of Ms. Siskind’s classroom, all for another fundraiser for Team Give A Smile, a student-run charity group trying to do their part to end hunger.

As much as I enjoyed celebrating Kahoot! winners, watching animation, and seeing the commitment to service, my favorite times with the sixth grade were when we were all outside, eating under the trees in Cramner. Seeing kids simply being kids, playing outside energized me during an exhausting year defined by one difficult decision after another. 

My year with these students culminated with chaperoning the trip to Mesa Verde, another profound experience during which I remember arriving to students molding clay in a barn and leaving after a night of staring up at a brilliant star-filled sky.

As I reflect on that year, I so appreciate what these graduates did for me. They were constant reminders of why we had to do all we could to keep these students in school. I felt so grateful for my time with them that year, as it truly helped me maintain my own joy and purpose and taught me four important lessons.

First, sustain in-person, human connection. What I loved about being with those cohorts was I had so many connections to that group of sixth graders–one had the same first name as me, one was a neighbor, four were children of my colleagues at Graland, seven had siblings who went to Graland with my children, and a few were from families who I had known since my first years as Head of Middle School, well over a decade ago. Due to this history, I always had a conversation starter, and I often shared stories about my children and they gave me updates on their siblings and parents, and through these quick interactions, while the larger world seemed to be unraveling, we tightened the fabric of our bond by closing the degree of separation between us, lunch after lunch, story after story. 

 

Another lesson, get outside. I loved those lunches in Cramner, and I loved the Southwest Trip when we spent so much time in nature. On one of our hikes up to the Ancestral Puebloan sites above the campground, we all scanned the earth hoping to find a pottery shard or an arrowhead. This pursuit inspired all of us to look at life more closely, a blooming cactus or a design in the cryptobiotic soil.  Nature can do that. It can slow us down and help us see how wondrous this life truly is. 

Next, stay adventurous. Maybe not as adventurous as Jordan’s last dunk attempt of the basketball season, which still gives me chills remembering, but still adventurous. I now see that entire sixth grade year from the in-person opening to the decision to go on the Southwest trip as a risk, a calculated and intentional risk worth taking. It is an important reminder about how certain times demand courage. High school is not a pandemic but it will also require you to confront your anxiety, a very normal anxiety that everyone is feeling, when you head to the first day of preseason sports, or go to classes for the first time or when you join extracurriculars, speech and debate, Model UN, robotics, and many others. Embrace that spirit of adventure like all of you did on your school trips, from your collective favorite, DC, to the choice trips like Tides and France. Remember how much you loved these experiences, experiences that wouldn’t have happened if you didn’t take a chance.

It is ironic that the service team that sixth grade year was named Team Give A Smile when we rarely saw each others’ faces. But I started to understand that a smile is more than what we see on a face when both Raea and Clarke introduced me at Grandparents and Special Friends’ Day by recounting their observations of my smile over time and specifically with this class that sixth grade year. Clarke wrote, “Mr. Cobb’s smile wasn’t something you saw, it was something you felt.” That year I felt your smiles every day I was with you whether supervising cohorts, substituting for a teacher who had to Zoom in, or chaperoning the Southwest Trip. In a year when I needed it most, you gave me your smiles much more often than I gave you mine. As you move on to high school, maintain your Graland connections and make new ones, get outside as often as possible, stay adventurous, and keep giving smiles to others. Thank you.