Park Hill Neighborhood Is the Key to the Odyssey School’s “Rite of Passage”
By Marcia Fulton, Executive Director, The Odyssey School
As another school year draws to a close, students at The Odyssey School are busy preparing for one of the most important rites of passage they will experience at our school.
Each May, our third, fifth and eighth grade students participate in Passages, a presentation of a portfolio of work to a panel of parents, teachers and community members. The students demonstrate how they have put Odyssey’s “Habits of a Learner” into action over the last year. The six Habits are: Revision, Inquiry, Perspective Taking, Responsibility, Collaboration/Leadership and Stewardship/Service. Passages reflects each student’s growth toward becoming a citizen scholar and marks the transition of students into a new part of Odyssey or into high school.
For Passages to be a meaningful challenge and accomplishment, it requires a significant investment from students and a public experience with the community. While our panels include Odyssey parents and teachers, it is community members as panelists that make the experience so unique. An objective and authentic audience of neighbors gives students a chance to prepare and share their work while reflecting on their progress in a formal venue; it is an experience they will never forget.
As Odyssey eighth grader Lexi Killinger said, “Academics and the Habits go hand-in-hand in being a citizen scholar. Passages requires each student to prove how what we learn helps us understand the real world and our effect on it now and in the future.”
Our Passages panels review each student’s portfolio, providing feedback, asking questions during the presentation and ultimately making a recommendation to Odyssey staff about the student’s readiness for passage.
As a DPS K-8 Charter School that calls Park Hill home (we are located in the Philips building at Montview and Monaco), The Odyssey School counts many Park Hill families as members of our school community, but we are also proud to work closely with Park Hill neighbors who donate their time and energy to support this important rite of passage for our students.
The Odyssey School is looking for panelists for this year’s Passages, taking place on Friday, May 25th and Friday, June 1st from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. (a two-day commitment is required). If you are interested, please contact Elki Neiberger, Odyssey’s Director of Enrollment and Communications, at elki@odysseydenver.org or 303-316-3944. You can also visit our website at www.odysseydenver.org.