by Kerri Consalvo | Nov 10, 2026 | Uncategorized
One of our favorite traditions at The Phoenix School is Bring Your Parent(s) to School Day! It’s a special opportunity for parents, grandparents, aunts, and other family members to step into the classroom, work alongside their children, and experience a little of what makes learning at Phoenix so unique.
This year, our day was filled with creativity, big ideas, problem-solving, and plenty of collaboration!
Learning Together, Making a Difference
For this year’s activities, each student and their family member chose one of five creative challenges. Each activity encouraged students to think beyond the classroom, explore issues they care about, and consider how they can make a positive difference in the world.
The challenges included:
- Superheroes for a Better World: Students designed a new superhero inspired by one of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. They considered what their hero would look like, how they would act, and what special powers they might have to help address a global challenge. Creating stop-motion videos to bring their superheroes to life proved to be one of the most popular activities!
- Stand Up for Something You Care About: Using collage and three-dimensional materials, students created flyers advocating for something important to them. The goal was to inspire others to care about the issue and take action, too.
- Inventing Solutions: Students put on their inventor hats and created three-dimensional prototypes of new inventions designed to solve real-world problems. Their prototypes included moving parts to demonstrate how their ideas might work.
- Stories of Positive Change: Through photographs and words, students created stories highlighting something that has positively changed the world.
- Taking Action in Our Community: Students developed action plans addressing a real-world or local community problem. The goal was to create ideas that the Phoenix community could put into action and continue working on even after Parent Day.
But the creativity didn’t stop with the projects! Once their work was complete, students and their family members presented their projects to the class. It was a wonderful opportunity to practice communication, build confidence, and celebrate everyone’s hard work.
A Phoenix Tradition: Student-Created Lunch!
Another highlight of the day was one of our favorite annual traditions: student-created lunch!
Students broke into teams and designed their own menus for their lunch tables. But the planning was just the beginning. They were responsible for preparing the food, setting their tables, and cleaning up afterward. From choosing what to serve to working together in the kitchen, students took ownership of the entire experience.
The Power of Learning Together
At Phoenix, we believe learning is about more than acquiring knowledge. It’s about asking questions, exploring ideas, working through challenges, sharing our thinking, and discovering ways to contribute to the world around us.
Bring Your Parent(s) to School Day brings all of these things together. It gives families a chance to experience our hands-on, student-centered approach to learning while strengthening the relationships that make our school community so special.
Thank you to all the parents, aunts, and grandparents who joined us this year and helped make the day so memorable. We loved having you in the classroom!
by Kerri Consalvo | Aug 3, 2026 | Uncategorized
Summer is a time for adventure, exploration, and making memories—but it’s also one of the best times for children to discover the joy of reading.
At The Phoenix School, we believe the goal of summer reading isn’t simply to keep students academically busy until September. It’s about helping children develop a lifelong love of books, curiosity, and learning.
Reading Is About More Than Finishing a Book
Many traditional summer reading assignments focus on quizzes, worksheets, or book reports. While these approaches can measure comprehension, they don’t always inspire students to become enthusiastic readers.
We take a different approach.
Our summer reading program encourages students to engage with stories in meaningful, creative ways. Whether they’re making connections to their own experiences, creating artwork inspired by a character, building something from a story, or sharing recommendations with classmates, students are invited to think beyond the pages of the book.
Reading becomes an experience, not just an assignment.
Every Reader Is Different
Just as every learner is unique, every reader is too.
Some children devour novels in a weekend. Others enjoy graphic novels, nonfiction, biographies, or listening to audiobooks. Some love discussing books with friends, while others quietly imagine themselves inside the story.
At Phoenix, we celebrate all of these ways of reading.
Our teachers know that fostering a love of reading begins with honoring students’ interests and giving them opportunities to discover books that truly excite them.
Why Creative Reading Projects Matter
When students have opportunities to respond creatively to what they’ve read, they move beyond memorizing details.
They begin asking questions, making personal connections, analyzing characters’ choices, and imagining new possibilities. These experiences strengthen critical thinking, communication, creativity, and confidence—all skills that extend far beyond language arts.
A child who builds a model of a setting, creates an alternate ending, designs a board game, or writes from a character’s perspective isn’t simply completing a project. They’re interacting with literature in a way that deepens understanding and makes reading memorable.
Creating Lifelong Readers Starts at Home
Families play an important role in nurturing a love of reading during the summer. It doesn’t have to involve long reading sessions or strict schedules.
Some simple ways to encourage reading include:
- Visit your local library and let your child choose books that genuinely interest them.
- Read together, even if your child is an independent reader.
- Listen to audiobooks during road trips or family outings.
- Talk about stories over dinner or while taking a walk.
- Encourage children to read magazines, cookbooks, graphic novels, or nonfiction about topics they love.
The more children see reading as something enjoyable—not just something assigned—the more likely they are to continue reading throughout their lives.
Learning Doesn’t Stop When Summer Begins
One of the things we love most about summer reading is that it reminds students learning can happen anywhere.
A book can spark a science investigation, inspire a piece of artwork, lead to a family discussion, or encourage a child to see the world from someone else’s perspective.
That’s the kind of learning we value at The Phoenix School.
Our hope isn’t simply that students return in the fall having finished a reading list. We hope they return with new ideas, new questions, and a deeper appreciation for the stories that help us better understand ourselves and others.
Because when children discover the joy of reading, they’re not just preparing for the next school year—they’re building a foundation for a lifetime of curiosity and learning.
by Kerri Consalvo | Apr 27, 2026 | Uncategorized
As we wrap up our look back at this incredible experience, we’re grateful for the moments of curiosity, growth, and connection our students experienced:
Mysterious murky bayous beckon to us and we cannot refuse the call. We board our boat at Honey Island Swamp for today’s adventure. Our captain takes us deep into the bayou, past a settlement of houses perched at water’s edge. The river is their highway, and boats are their sole means of transport to work, school, and fun.
Moving on, we begin to spy young alligators sheltering in plants and lily pads near the shore. They know they are food for every other creature in the swamp so are careful about where they hide. Older ‘gators are easier to spot as they laze about. A small water snake resting on a broken limb just above the water slides gracefully away upon our approach. Turtles sun along logs, all in a row until our appearance causes some to slide silently into the water until we pass. A single osprey swoops over us on its way to join its mate on a limb above its massive nest. They watch over a teeming bayou that holds us in its embrace, allowing us to forget civilization for a short time.
Phoenix travelers are lured back to New Orleans to wander among the French Quarter’s streets that they found so fascinating on their first day. Music and aromas of fresh beignets accompany us on our explorations. We find a soulful group of musicians playing jazz on the street, wind through narrow streets of colorful doors and ironwork, ride a streetcar into modern New Orleans and find fresh, sweet beignets that we eat overlooking the mighty Mississippi River before heading back to Bogue Chitto.
by Kerri Consalvo | Apr 23, 2026 | Uncategorized
Our 6–8 students’ learning adventure at the Global Wildlife Center continued to unfold in new and exciting ways. Each day brought new opportunities for discovery, connection, and real-world learning:
This morning at Global, Cali transports us into the world of the long leaf pine savannah, first through a digital presentation in the tree house (our outdoor classroom perched above the pastures), then in the field among the pines. We examine needle bundles, pine cones, and bark to differentiate each species. Cali’s enthusiasm for saving milkweed for monarch butterflies before the pasture gets mown leads us to helping her dig up milkweed for replanting elsewhere. To reach the pasture, we are treated to a private ride through the pastures. With our feeding cups full, we attract crowds of hungry critters, hoping for a mouthful of nutritious treats.
Global’s capybaras have been tugging at our hearts since our first day when we watched them grazing along the pond’s edge and swimming group laps around the water’s edge across from our “tree house” where we meet each day with our naturalists. Mikayla and McKale introduce us to the family, supplying branches of delicious leaves, according to the capybaras, so we can feed the gentle creatures. They love their treat and us petting them and rubbing their bellies. How do we know that? Capybara whistles and grunts tell us “Please don’t stop! We love this!”
After lunch the Center’s two tortoises decide to make an appearance, moving slowly and steadily from their shelter onto the grass. McKale allows us to go into the enclosure to meet the girls, who, thinking we might have tortoise treats, follow us around.
Before dinner, we plunge into the Bogue Chitto River and float, pushed by its current until we cool off and shed the dust of the Global fields and pastures. Splashing and carousing together, both in the river and water park, we end our adventures today wet and joyful.
by Kerri Consalvo | Apr 11, 2025 | Uncategorized
Education doesn’t stop at the classroom door—it expands into the world. Our Travel Study Program is a hallmark of our experience-driven model, offering students unforgettable, immersive learning adventures that blend academic exploration, cultural connection, and personal growth.
From sailing a tall ship to Catalina Island, to navigating local ecosystems or engaging in service projects across the globe, our students take on real-world challenges, build confidence, and return transformed.
🌍 Why Travel Study?
Because children remember what they experience.
Because real learning comes from doing, problem-solving, and seeing through new eyes.
Because the world is our classroom—and every journey holds lessons in science, culture, empathy, and self-discovery.
🧭 On each trip, students…
✔️ Take responsibility as leaders and team members 
✔️ Journal and reflect daily, growing self-awareness
✔️ Engage in hands-on fieldwork tied to science, history, and geography
✔️ Return with a deeper sense of purpose, curiosity, and global citizenship
✈️ Recent destinations include:
At Phoenix, we’re not just teaching students what to learn. We’re showing them how to engage with the world—and who they can become.
🎒 Want to know what’s next on our map?
👉 Schedule a Tour or Contact Us to learn more about how our Travel Study program is changing lives. 
by Kerri Consalvo | Nov 25, 2024 | Uncategorized
Empowering Girls to Lead, Grow, and Thrive
Here we recognize the unique challenges girls face in traditional school environments. Our intentionally small, multi-aged classrooms eliminate the typical pressures of middle school—like navigating boy/girl dynamics—and replace them with opportunities for collaboration, mutual respect, and leadership development.
Here, friendships are built on curiosity and teamwork rather than labels or expectations. Instead of focusing on who’s dating whom, our students focus on solving real-world problems, leading service initiatives, and growing into confident, compassionate leaders who are ready to take on the world.
Girls Who Lead, Together
Our girls don’t compete for attention—they thrive as equals, innovators, and changemakers alongside their peers. Whether it’s working on STEAM projects, leading school committees through our Early Act Club, or exploring the outdoors during multi-day trips, they are encouraged to lead with confidence and courage.
At Phoenix, girls:
- Discover their voice: Through project-based learning and leadership opportunities, girls learn to think critically, speak confidently, and take charge.
- Excel in STEAM: They engage in hands-on science, technology, engineering, arts, and math projects, showing them there are no boundaries to what they can achieve.
- Foster mental wellness: Our whole-child approach prioritizes emotional growth, helping girls navigate adolescence with resilience and a sense of self-worth.
- Collaborate, not compete: The pressures of cliques and labels are replaced with collaboration and shared success in a community where every student matters.
Why It Matters
Girls deserve a space where they can lead without limits, explore without fear, and grow without barriers. At The Phoenix School, we’re redefining education for girls—because we believe every child deserves the chance to thrive, not just survive.
Let’s prepare your daughter for a world that needs her talents, ideas, and leadership.
