Day in the Life of a Student at a Learning Differences Boarding School
When families make the decision to send their child to a boarding school that focuses on their learning difference one of the top things we hear is “what is their day going to be like?”. It is an adjustment for everyone in the family, so we wanted to give you a glimpse into what a day in the life looks like. Follow Caroline B. ‘24 around what an average day on campus looks like:
Hi! I am eleven years old and live in Portland, OR with my mom and brother (who also goes to Gow!). When my mom told me I would be going to Gow like James, I was nervous. But now after a few months of being here, I am totally used to it. Come follow me on a typical day.
7:30 – My alarm goes off for the day. My roommate Jordyn and I get up and start getting ready for school.
7:45 – Our R.A. Yani and Mrs. Fisher, our dorm parent, start coming around to make sure we are all up and ready to go to breakfast.
7:50 – My friends and I start walking over to breakfast and talk about what we did on Spring Break. My friend Charlotte went home to San Francisco, and I went on a beach vacation with my mom and brother.
8:00 – Made it to breakfast just in time; I head over to my breakfast table with Mr. Rogers. We get our morning announcements from Student Council President Jude O. and head off to house jobs.
8:20 – House jobs are Gow’s version of chores. Each student is given a different chore to help keep the school clean, like vacuuming, taking out trash, or cleaning off the desks in study hall. My job is to wipe down all the desks in Main Building
8:45 – 11:55 –Classes here are 45 minutes long and rotate every day. Today I had Science, History, English and Reconstructive Language.
12:00 - Assembly with Mr. Rogers. Assembly is Mr. Rogers time to teach. We cover important life lessons like the importance of money, self-advocacy and more. Sometimes Mr. Rogers even brings his dog to assembly.
12:20 – Lunch! It’s Taco Day, my favorite!
1:20 – 2:55 – Two more classes to end off the day including a day time study hall. I can get some help on homework from Mr. Rausch. Even though he isn’t my science teacher, he was still able to help me with my homework. This is the first school I have gone to that I feel every teacher gets me.
3:00 – Time for tutorial. Tutorial is 30 minutes built into our schedule at the end of every day. All teachers are available to so if we had a question from class, if we are missing an assignment, or we are trying to keep our binders organized we can go see them. If we don’t have any questions for a teacher, we can go up to study hall and get our work done there.
4:00 – Time for athletics. This year I have done crew and skiing, now I am on J.V. Tennis.
6:15 – Time for dinner
7:15 – Off to study hall. When a new student starts at Gow, study hall is supervised, and you are in an academic building. Once the semester is over, your teachers, coaches, and dorm parents all vote on if you can get dorm study. We need to make sure we are doing our best in classes, showing up on time to athletics, and following dorm rules. Honor scroll is a big responsibility, and can be hard to get, sometimes it takes students a little bit of time to get honor scroll, but once they have it they try their best to keep it.
9:00 – Little Seniors is closed tonight so Mrs. Fisher, my dorm parent, and Yani, my RA put together a cookie decorating night for all of us to hangout after two weeks off.
10:00 – I pick up my room from the day and head to bed, getting ready to do it all again tomorrow.
To learn more about Life at Gow please visit https://www.gow.org/about/life-at-gow