Testimonial

We had a lot of hesitations when transferring our daughter to Tessellations for 8th grade last fall. We’re very glad that we did – she enjoys her experience at Tessie and her younger brother is looking forward to joining this fall.

There are so many reasons to love this school. The top ones on the long list include:

* It’s a very close knit community: students (and their families) bond through Tessie gatherings every friday, student camping/backpacking trips, family camping trips, halloween parade, holiday party, community service day, school sponsored get-togethers outside the school, and many other activities. There are a lot of cross grade interactions. My daughter has friends from kindergarteners to 8th graders.
* Small class size with highly qualified teaching staff. All of the teachers are very supportive and engaging. There are many interesting projects throughout the year. Quoting my daughter: “one of my favorite projects that we’ve done in 8th grade was our human impact project. For this project each person in our class chose something that humans are doing that has a negative impact on the environment. Some examples are overpopulation, noise pollution, and deforestation. The first part of the project was creating an infographic with data and models to explain our human impacts. After that we got to create our own companies to combat whatever human impact we chose. For this part of the project we came up with advertisements, logos, and advertising videos that explained what our companies do and how they fight the negative human impacts. I loved bringing design and fun into my project as well as learning from my peers through their videos and infographics.” After the first semester, we received a 14-page narrative report card with a lot of details on her strengths and growth areas in each subject, much more informative than the standard grades.
* The administration team is very supportive and quick to respond to any feedback or request for help. As a new family, we’ve received help from so many people. Every interaction has been positive. Most recently I inquired about transferring my daughter’s website that was created on the school google account to a personal account. I was pleasantly surprised to receive responses from Grace (the head of the school) and Michael (the IT director) right away. Same as how I feel, my daughter told me that “there’s always someone in the school that you can go to if you have a problem.” Another example of the strong support from the school is that Grace writes recommendation letters and calls high school admission offices to advocate for each student.
* Anne (our founding visionary) is THE expert on gifted education. She did evaluations for our kids. Both of them really enjoyed their conversation with Anne and we have learned a lot from talking to her. Soon after my daughter joined Tessie, she needed a recommendation letter for a program with a very short turnaround time. Anne did not hesitate to help even though she was on sick leave. Under Anne’s and Grace’s leadership, the school really emphasizes social emotional learning and the culture is very supportive and nurturing for creative minds.
* There are a lot of afterschool choices (LARP, D&D, debate, yoga etc.) and art electives (fiber art, maker’s space, urban sketching, digital art…). Julie, the director for afterschool programs, and her staff are amazing. They do their best to find interesting programs to bring to school and are very supportive in accommodating students’ schedules.

The list can go on and on. I strongly recommend Tessellations if you’re looking for a top notch project-based experiential education experience for your child.