Formula for success

By Kandice Kimmel, Latin & History, 5th-8th

St. James Day School has always had a  reputation in our community of high academic success. But how? It really is a pretty simple formula. Relationships + learning style + fostering a passion of learning = successful, life long learners! 

Relationships are important between the teacher and each student, and also the parents and the teacher. At SJDS, it is a team effort to meet each child where they are and move them forward. Building trust and relationships with our students and families is an integral part of fostering success and creating lifelong learners. 

‘Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing it is stupid’. -Albert Einstein. Everyone has a learning style that is unique, and at SJDS we value all learning types. Our project-based learning pedagogy emphasizes the concept of learning by doing. Students actively get involved in the learning activity, helping them enhance their skills and thinking capacity. Lessons are taught and projects assigned to engage visual and verbal/linguistic learners, but also spatial, social, logical, and kinesthetic/tactile learners. Two of my own three children are dyslexic, and they were screened at six years of age and have received (the youngest is still currently receiving) a structured, multisensory language therapy focused on phonics, decoding, spelling, and comprehension. The wonderful thing about SJDS is most of these multisensory techniques are already taking place in every classroom! The teachers know their students' learning styles, and teach them in the way they learn best as well as challenging them with new ways of learning.  

One of the things I hear about after our students graduate SJDS and move onto different high schools and colleges is they are lifelong learners. They simply love to learn, and want to keep learning as much as they can about the subjects that interest them. I have first hand experience with this as my oldest children are sophomores in high school right now. I watched them grow and thrive over the past ten years at SJDS, and all the wonderful teachers that poured into them the love for learning each and every year while teaching to their unique learning style. They continue to be excited to learn new things and seek out learning opportunities constantly.