We Are Crew!

What an exciting school to be part of! When I began employment here at DAA, all I kept hearing was the term “Crew”. In order to fit in, I needed to find out what “Crew” actually meant. I found it has a couple different meanings. It refers to individual students, as in ”Talk to your crew partner”. It means each grade or class, as in ”We’d like each crew to participate in our reading and poetry month”. It is also used to refer not only students, but to staff (our adult crew!) as well.

I had never heard any school refer to their students or staff as CREW. It’s a very cool and upcoming term that brings family-like meaning to the common classroom/school building. Not only is it a reference label, but on a personal level, it’s a form of building relationships with each other during morning gatherings, and working together as a team…students and staff alike.

Each morning meeting begins with a calm welcoming to each other or crew partner, then moves into a conversation and listening building skill, and ends with a positive engaging physical activity that awakens the endorphins to help prepare the crew to transition into their morning routine of academic lessons.

After several months now of working with the students and staff, I am able to naturally use the term “Crew”, and feel like part of the educational family.