Every winter, RCDS lower school students lace up their skates and take to the School's ice rink during Physical Education classes. Students love ice skating, of course, and learning to skate also presents a wonderful opportunity for students to practice RCDS SKILLS.
"A growth mindset is critical to skating," says Eliza McLaren, RCDS's Director of the Institute for Innovative Teaching and Learning. "Students quickly discover that effective and persistent effort leads to improvement. And, skating can be really frustrating - students fall a lot at first, but as the kindergartners will tell you, 'when you fall, just pick yourself up and try again!' Low-stakes opportunities to adapt to challenge, to incorporate feedback, and to build resilience are so important so that, when the stakes are higher, students have a toolbox of learning skills at their disposal."