Every week, on Friday mornings at Summers-Knoll school, we have a whole school assembly affectionately referred to as Dragon Time. As such, Friday mornings are always abuzz with the energy of children, faculty, staff, and parents, and it’s a celebratory way to end the week.
The purpose of Dragon Time is for teachers and classes to share what they’ve been working on. Sometimes students use Dragon Time as an opportunity to engage their peers and parents in what they’re in the midst of learning. At other times, classes are at the end of a project, and Dragon Time gives students an opportunity to share their final products with the broader school community.
But you might be wondering: Why is it called Dragon Time?
Karen Bayoneto, SK’s Director of Operations, has been at SK since 2006. And when I asked her about the history of the Dragon mascot, she shared the story of how it came to be:
“In the fall of 2012, Summers-Knoll moved into its new home on Platt Road. There was a lot of excitement about the school being in a beautiful new building and conversations spread throughout the halls about SK needing a mascot. The idea caught on with the kids and so the Head of School at the time, Joanna Hastings, took suggestions from the students and then put it to a vote. Dragons won and so the SK Dragons were born.
Soon after, one of our parents, Paula Novelli who was the mother of Pearl Lee, an SK student, went to Joanna and said she’d met an English artist, Martin Cheek, who did mosaic art. Paula offered to commission Martin Cheek to do a Dragon Mosaic for SK.
It started with the students drawing what they thought the Dragon should look like. These renderings were mailed to Martin in England with a note from Joanna that the Dragon should not be too scary and not cartoonish. Martin created the design of the Dragon you see now on the atrium wall from those students’ pictures. He cut and fired each piece in England, and when he was done, he brought them to Ann Arbor, to SK, to install. He spent about a week at SK doing the Dragon installation, and when he was done, he worked with the students in the Art room teaching them how to do mosaic art. The students all made a dragon egg with Martin, which he placed around the building in all sorts of hiding places. We did not put the student’s names on them, on purpose, as they had to find their egg once they went up on the walls.
This is how the dragon mascot idea was brought to life, and ever since then we have been known as the SK Dragons.”