Every late September to early October, all BMS grades take a field trip lead by Mountain Workshop, an organization that promotes quality relationships, collaboration, problem solving techniques and respect for individual differences and values.

The field trips’ purpose is to get kids to interact and problem solve with each other.
There is one Mountain Workshop trip per year for each grade. Sixth grade goes to the fields outside the gym, seventh grade goes to Compo Beach and eighth grade goes to North Salem, N.Y. to do a ropes course.

Each year the teams are shuffled so everyone gets to know each individual and make new friends. The trips also get the teachers involved in the activities. This happens so the kids and teachers form a good relationship.

Mountain Workshop is working on helping the kids make new friends. “’It’s important for us that the students across an entire grade level get to know each other,’” said Dr. Rosen. Mountain Workshop tries to help us become friends with new people by bringing out the best in them. They want kids to say “Whoa, I didn’t know he could do that!” They want to bring people together to make lasting friendships by showing him or her the awesome things that other kids could achieve.

Dr. Rosen says that when he attended the eighth grade trip last year, he did all of the ropes courses and made new friends with students. Rosen also said based on his opinion, “‘Students have positive and meaningful relationships with the adults in the building, and kids see teachers as approachable.’”