In Cherokee Creek’s Medicine Wheel philosophy, the “Quarter of the Visionary” has begun and the “I am” statements of creativity, authenticity, truthfulness and insight are at the forefront of our thoughts.

If I were a creative person, and I think I am, I would invent the RESET button for life. If I said the wrong thing to a coworker and hurt their feelings? PUSH, and get an instant Do-Over. When my newly licensed child wrecks her car not once, but TWICE in a month? PUSH… never happened. But alas, in a Real and True World, there is no reset button to make things all better.

I have often wondered if the availability of a reset button is one of the reasons middle school boys enjoy video games so much. Society pretty much expects boys, during this time of their still-developing prefrontal cortex, to mess up. The PFC is that part of the brain that develops quicker in girls than in boys which governs executive function. “EF” relates to anything having to do with “future consequences of current activities, working toward a defined goal, prediction of outcomes, expectation based on actions, and social ‘control’”. Having a reset button and more “lives” in a virtual world gives middle school boys the opportunity to do over what may not come easily to them. That would be a very handy thing to have in the real world, at times.

I think teachers often choose the profession of teaching because it comes with a quasi-reset button every fall. There is a new class to greet. There are new minds to engage. There are new relationships to build. There are ALWAYS new programs coming down from somewhere out there. And there is the opportunity each and every year to improve upon the year prior.

It is that time of year again to hit the reset button at CCBS. Despite the fact that classes went all summer, there has to be a moment when someone declares that the school year has begun anew. On August 18^th, most of the boys ascended to the next grade and many were placed in a new class group. They get a “mini do-over” within the “overall do-over” of past choices that comes with enrolling here. It is their time to highlight their creativity, authenticity, truthfulness, and insight. And we wish them all the best in the 2014-2015 school year!

Denise Savidge, Academic Dean, Cherokee Creek Boys Boarding School

It was with skepticism that I first brought the idea of miniature gardening to the boys at Cherokee Creek Boys School. Everywhere you look on Pinterest and Facebook, gardening in miniature is referred to as “Fairy Gardens” or “Gnome Gardens” featuring whimsical creatures with wings. How would this go over with middle school boys for a summer project?

Nonetheless, I made a few treks to the local gardening store in search of pots, soil, stones, succulents, and other supplies that I thought would aid in creating cool, boy-centric gardens. Meanwhile, to build interest, I began work on an old terrarium that had been in my classroom for a while containing a stump and one straggly plant. For three years I had been waiting for an inspiring thought on what to do with it.

I started without comment by planting a few clippings from a succulent as well as a rooted Schefflera plant I had found as a broken and forgotten branch on the front porch. Just getting the latter to root was a huge success for me, the “Queen of Black Thumb Gardening”!

Using a plastic spoon to dig little holes and trenches, I just started adding things: a little moss I found in my yard, a few mushrooms and a tiny little bridge I found on a fairy gardening website, a miniature birdbath with a frog in it, some stones. One by one, the boys asked me what I was doing. My answer to them was, “I don’t know. I’m just making it up as I go along.” However, they were intrigued. They wanted an old aquarium to do something with, too. Ah ha!

The next day in class, I pulled up a Pinterest page with lots of pictures of miniature gardens. “This is where I got the idea. Call it whatever you want boys, but who’s game for trying this?” I asked. Despite the preponderance of fairies, they quickly started researching ideas for their own little landscapes. Once planned, they worked for days, side-by-side digging, harvesting moss and ferns, placing rocks, building miniature bridges and houses, and fashioning little ornamentations with modeling clay and popsicle sticks. Some preferred containers and the search was on for broken pots and whatnot that would serve the purpose. Most wanted to beautify the campus on a larger scale and found nooks and niches to begin construction. The results are amazingly creative and downright cute!

One must look carefully when coming on campus to find the tiny little villages springing out of roots and under tree limbs, but they’re there. It goes to show that it’s never a given what might pique the interest of a middle school boy. However, odds are good that if it involves dirt, he will probably dig right in!