The sun rises just as the first drips of water come out of the automatic sprinklers, so that the sun beams and a shower of water arches over the Garden of Ideas at the same time. Not long after, a crew of about 6 people tromp over the grounds, deciding what task to take care of each day on the farm. This crew is the summer farm interns led by Farmer Kati. All of these interns are either current or previous Compass students who have attended Compass through many different times, but all marvel at the progress The Compass School has accomplished in just the past few years.

Each intern came for a different reason, from a those just needing a summer job to others who are interested in more specific things that Compass has to offer, but all of them have agreed that they have walked away with so many new skills, just from the 8 weeks of the internship. Here is a community list of some examples we created.

Another huge success that I would love to touch on is the first ever Farm Camp. For those of you who don’t know, farm camp was two separate weeks of camp for kids currently at Compass. Every day, we would have some sort of fun activity along with guests.

These guests ranged from Ms. Monique who taught about soil to a local family who brought in their ducks for the day. The day would also be filled with water games, harvesting food to bring home to families and some sort of work to help the farm grow. This could be something like transplanting strawberries or weeding tomatoes.

All the campers thrived from working and playing outside during the hours of camp from 8am-noon. The interns all rotated in and out, helping as needed and teaching the campers some things about their own interests. A successful first year has us excited for more campers and camp weeks next year!

We have accomplished so much during our short time here at the Farm, and still have much more to do to complete our vision of Compass. We were so successful on the farm that we were able to harvest around 100 lbs of fresh produce in addition to 65 bunches of greens and 10 bags of herbs (harvest log from June 26th-August 11th).  There’s so much more still coming in!  

Having Farmer Kati and her interns at the farm this summer was vital to this success. This blog will continue on to show the development of the Compass School Farm!

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Welcome House of South County | Home

Established in 1989, Welcome House of South County (WHSC) is a leading provider of support services for those who are homeless or at risk of homelessness in southern RI. It consists of an emergency shelter, community housing and support services as well as a meal-site serving lunch to the local community.

Compass School Helps expand Welcome House Garden

Friday, July 7, despite a torrential down-pour, four students, led by Kati Maginel, Farm Coordinator with the Compass School, a Charter School in Kingston, along with Welcome House staff and guests helped to expand the Welcome House gardens which provide fresh produce for the community kitchen during the summer months. Planting the herbs, lettuces, squash, beans, and greens were ZuZu Crane, Narragansett HS, Rose Bell, URI, Miranda Forman, East Bay Met School, Jesse Fitzelle-Jones, the Compass School, and Veronica Sweet and Joe Dziobek from Welcome House. The Compass School mission is towards environmental sustainability and social justice — the farmers look forward to continuing to partner with Welcome house to support the kitchen and local foods community. We thank everyone for their contribution in helping Welcome House become more naturally self-sufficient.

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Social responsibility is a cornerstone of our charter, so it’s no surprise that Compass School kids are agents of social change by age 9. Beginning in the Explorer step (K-1st grade,) the youngest Compass students are given the opportunity to do good work by picking apples for the food pantry and learn to raise and donate money to help homeless animals. Having a project-based curriculum means that the fistfuls of change earned at home doing chores are eagerly sorted, counted and graphed into charts during math class while accounts of these good works are written in journals and told around the rug at circle time. By taking the time to teach the why and the how and letting the students examine problems and develop meaningful solutions, we are producing critical thinkers who are equipped to REALLY change the world. (Can you even imagine what interesting adults they will be some day?)

By the time our budding activists reach the Discoverer level (3rd-4th grade,) they are ripe with enthusiasm and ready to take on the Citizens Create Change project. After choosing a social problem of their own interest, each student independently researches, identifies ways to help, executes and finally creates a project representation which is revealed to the class and our community at a project share. During this time, creating change is reinforced at school as the students work collectively to raise money and awareness about hunger in our community. This is one of our school’s finest hours and a powerful turning point that lays the foundation for independent work in the middle school years.

In 2016, our Discoverers were the grateful recipients of a Rhode Island Foundation Spark Grant to support the work on their Citizens Create Change social responsibility project. These flexible grants are awarded to third grade classroom teachers with innovative ideas to “spark” a love of learning in their students. In this case, the money was used to support the Hunger Bowl, an event that raised money for the RI Community Food Bank and the Johnnycake Center.

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With funding from the Rhode Island Foundation, The Citizens Create Change Project at The Compass School teaches the students the principles underlying government and our civil rights and responsibilities. Through an interdisciplinary curriculum of social studies, math, ELA, art and music, children learn social issues, problem solving, lobbying and activism–and how as members of an interconnected world, the choices we make impact others.

The project included generating awareness of the hunger issue in our state; a fundraiser to support the Rhode Island Community Food Bank and the Jonnycake Center of Westerly with individual students’ persuasive letters to elected officials; and use of art and music as an advocacy tool.
Project presentations were shared and celebrated on Friday, February 12, 2016 at The Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd at 383 Old North Road, Kingston from 1:00-3:00 p.m.

Many thanks to 3rd/4th grade teachers, Ms. Heidi Vazquez and Mr. Drew Virbila.  Their commitment to the social responsibility mission of our school shone through in this incredible project. 

Since 2002, The Compass School in Kingston, RI has been a standout K-8 learning community rooted in social responsibility, environmental stewardship and a strong commitment to excellence.  The group of parents who founded Compass wished to create a school where students would be challenged, where their individual needs would be integrated into a supportive learning community and where they would develop the critical thinking and problem solving skills that will sustain their academic and social development as they progress through school. For more info, visit: www.compassschool.org.

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Social responsibility is an important cornerstone of the Compass environment, and last weekend’s Chalk It Up event was a wonderful opportunity to introduce our young citizens to activism in action. In celebration of National Bullying Prevention Month and in partnership with the Washington County Coalition for Children, three Rhode Island towns invited children to come and decorate their streets with chalk. This 3rd annual community arts event was organized in order to help raise awareness of the need for bullying prevention in schools, neighborhoods and communities.

Several Compass families met Ms. Brandee and Mr. Mark to “take a stand,” tagging the Wickford Village sidewalks with thought-provoking anti-bullying messages of love, peace, acceptance and kindness. It was an incredible blend of artistic collaboration and camaraderie peppered by an underlying educational experience. As the students worked on their masterpiece, they were inquisitive about the meaning of the images taking shape around us. Coloring in the bubble letters that spelled out ‘Be an Upstander, Not a Bystander,’ they launched into a conversation about what it meant to be an upstander and why being a bystander was wrong.

Compass is a place where students are taught to be independent thinkers as well as thoughtful and considerate peers. It is incredibly rewarding to see the fruits of this work in action and to have the opportunity to partner with like-minded groups in our community.   Many thanks to all who were able to represent our school at one of the three ‘Chalk it Up’ events, and for all who make Compass a place where nothing is more cool than being an upstander.

-Submitted by: Colleen Russell (Compass Parent of an Explorer, Discoverer, and Investigator)

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