Thursday was our Feed Your Brain Outside the Classroom Conference on campus. Students will participate in a series of workshops (check out the list here!) This day allowed Middle School teachers to prepare for conferences while students had enriching learning experiences led by BVR administrators and staff. Each grade attended one required wellness workshop: 6th grade, 7th grade, 8th grade.

Students recapped last Thursday’s Feed Your Brain Outside the Classroom Conference, sharing what they learned and their favorite part of their session.

• Reid Bugbee ’28 spoke about the Bag Design Workshop. She had fun designing her own bag and collection of bags (and found out that designing a bag is harder than you think!)
• Brittany Franklin ’28 talked about basket making. She learned how to make a basket by weaving a metal rope.
• Aubrey Emmons ’27 spoke about the 7th-grade Wellness class led by Will Slotnick. Mr. Will Slotnick talked about the dangers of drug and alcohol abuse using his own story as an example. Aubrey said it was powerful to hear it from someone who experienced it first hand.
• Liv Podgurski ’26 talked about the chapstick-making activity. She said her favorite part was designing the label because they could make the labels the way they wanted, creating their own brand.
• Zuzu Wyett ’28 and Kylee Marcus ’28 spoke about Large Collaborative Design. They said it was fun to not have a specific thing to draw but just be able to do freestyle.
• El Strom ’27 spoke about Board Games and Games. El played Blackjack and learned to ration her chips so she didn’t lose her “money” all at once.
• Ameen Faris ’27 and Harrison Mrazek ’28 talked about RISE with Ms. Graham. They made slime, practiced meditation, and enjoyed eating chocolate.
• Mabel Forkner ’27 did the Escape Room. Her favorite part was looking around the classroom for different clues and trying to put things in order to unlock locks (and winning!).
• Kellan Glass ’28 spoke about the Social Media & the Brainworkshop led by Ms. Flannery and Ms. Latour. They talked about ways to keep your mind off social media and how to stay off it. For example, changing your home screen so it’s only daily apps and not social media.
• Henry Diver ’26 assisted the cooking class. He said, “Our presenter was Ken Oringer, a James Beard award-winning chef and a restaurateur here in Boston. We made gnocchi. My favorite part was helping people make it and eating some at the end.”
• Misti Birnbaum ’28 and Aubrey Harper ’28 did the resin jewelry class. They learned the step-by-step process of how to make resin jewelry and we learned some tips in the process. Their favorite part was adding all the cool decorations, like gold leaf paper, beads, and food coloring.
• Miles Wheatland ’26 and Leo Wheatland ’26 took the CREATEworkshop. They used the laser cutter—designing in Adobe Workshop first—to make their projects.
• Gigi Peselman ’26 spoke about Dr. Jill Walsh’s social media workshop. She said, “I learned not all forms of social media are bad. My favorite part was being able to communicate with my group and share our ideas.”
• Margo Kuznetsova ’27 spoke about the Zine-making activity. She said she learned that information can be spread in different ways. Margo made an Elton John zine.