Wed, September 23rd 2009
Yesterday I went to the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce’s annual Economic Forecast Luncheon. Subtitled “Do you wonder what the future holds for the New Hampshire economy?”, the event promised a cross-section of academics, researchers and business people that sounded intriguing.
After some friendly introductions at my table, I noticed that 7 of the 9 people I was sitting with were using their Blackberries during the program. By comparison, our highly connected students are slackers. No wonder we struggle with kids texting during class and the like if the adults are also figuring out the etiquette.
The opening thought of the gathering was “If you are here today complaining about your ability to balance your budget, the challenging economic atmosphere, or that you are working harder with less people – congratulations.” This was a sobering reminder that many businesses (and, I would add, several schools) did not make it through 2009.
I did a pretty good job of scratching notes out on a napkin, the highlights of which are transcribed below –
• During the last 18 months the New Hampshire economy has lost jobs at about half the rate of the US economy, and Manchester in particular has lost jobs at half the rate of New Hampshire –a pretty good record for our local area.
• New Hampshire grows because families move here from elsewhere. Thus, the area has felt the “locked-in” effect of falling home values elsewhere that dampen the ability and/or the desire of people to move.
• The New England economy is proving to be remarkably resilient, and New Hampshire has managed to prosper, relatively speaking, in a declining region.
• New Hampshire will continue to be the strongest economy in New England, outperforming the nation as whole. This prediction is based on the expected continued strength in the health care, education and technology sectors – in that order.
• As opposed to a “V” shaped (hard down, quick up) recovery or an “L” shaped (plunge, with extended dragging along the bottom), the panel was predicting a “U” shaped recovery where we would bounce along the bottom for most of 2010 before beginning to add jobs and growth thereafter.
Just that so much of the talk was about a recovery was affirming – regardless of the letter you choose, most seem to think that some amount of light is ahead.
CNS
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Professional Development Day
Friday, September 18th 2009
Our tradition of having a professional development day after Back-to-School night makes sense for many reasons, and one of the best is simply a matter of fatigue – switching gears from summer to school time always takes more energy and focus than it would seem. So by the time our students, parents and faculty get to the morning after a late Thursday night, everyone looks forward to the day – students for what seems like a gift day off, parents because they too have been struggling with the change, and faculty because the opportunity for a different pace after several weeks of start-up comes at a fine time.
Mary Carter, our Dean of Faculty and Academic Programs, designs the day with consultation from colleagues. While we have spent the entire day on one theme in the past, we tend to balance group or department time with the need for individuals to simply connect with one another as needed. For example, the first part of the day we worked in small groups on how we can use technology for distance learning – whether because we have to (if swine flu forces us to close for a few weeks, for instance) or simply because we want to keep improving how we leverage the internet. Later on in the day we provided time for departments to catch-up, for smaller gatherings, or simply to catch our breath.
Our tradition of having a professional development day after Back-to-School night makes sense for many reasons, and one of the best is simply a matter of fatigue – switching gears from summer to school time always takes more energy and focus than it would seem. So by the time our students, parents and faculty get to the morning after a late Thursday night, everyone looks forward to the day – students for what seems like a gift day off, parents because they too have been struggling with the change, and faculty because the opportunity for a different pace after several weeks of start-up comes at a fine time.
Mary Carter, our Dean of Faculty and Academic Programs, designs the day with consultation from colleagues. While we have spent the entire day on one theme in the past, we tend to balance group or department time with the need for individuals to simply connect with one another as needed. For example, the first part of the day we worked in small groups on how we can use technology for distance learning – whether because we have to (if swine flu forces us to close for a few weeks, for instance) or simply because we want to keep improving how we leverage the internet. Later on in the day we provided time for departments to catch-up, for smaller gatherings, or simply to catch our breath.
Primary Election
September 15th 2009
We hosted about 2,000 voters from Manchester’s Ward One today. I arrived at school 5:30 a.m. and several DS employees were already hard at work helping sign holders, setting up the parking lot and generally serving everyone involved. As the sun started to come up, the voting began and the four people stationed in the parking lot had to keep an eagle eye out in every direction until the voting ended at 7 p.m.
The event takes about 60 man-hours for Derryfield to staff it appropriately. Our facility allows us to serve dozens of disabled people who would otherwise not make it to the polls, and along the way Derryfield gets a bit less mysterious to neighbors who have perhaps heard of our school, but certainly have never been on campus. We have two policemen to help with the traffic – one stationed at the bottom of Bicentennial, and the other at the top of the upper school entrance. Many middle school students and parents reported to me that they either did not know or had forgotten that we had voting on the other side of the campus. At the end of the day, the policeman who had been stationed at the top of the upper school entrance came to my office to tell me a story. He said “I just wanted you to know that in my twelve years on the police force, I have never been spoken to with such kindness by students . . . and adults weren’t even around when they were being nice!”
What more can you ask as a Head of School? This officer sought me out because it really mattered to him that I knew the extent to which our students are unusual. And, in his own way, he affirmed one of the reasons to host voting at our school – Derryfield is a gem too hidden, and when people get to know our students, our teachers and our community, they often feel the need to tell others about us. In this small way, we can keep the cycle of service, community presence, and goodwill growing.
We hosted about 2,000 voters from Manchester’s Ward One today. I arrived at school 5:30 a.m. and several DS employees were already hard at work helping sign holders, setting up the parking lot and generally serving everyone involved. As the sun started to come up, the voting began and the four people stationed in the parking lot had to keep an eagle eye out in every direction until the voting ended at 7 p.m.
The event takes about 60 man-hours for Derryfield to staff it appropriately. Our facility allows us to serve dozens of disabled people who would otherwise not make it to the polls, and along the way Derryfield gets a bit less mysterious to neighbors who have perhaps heard of our school, but certainly have never been on campus. We have two policemen to help with the traffic – one stationed at the bottom of Bicentennial, and the other at the top of the upper school entrance. Many middle school students and parents reported to me that they either did not know or had forgotten that we had voting on the other side of the campus. At the end of the day, the policeman who had been stationed at the top of the upper school entrance came to my office to tell me a story. He said “I just wanted you to know that in my twelve years on the police force, I have never been spoken to with such kindness by students . . . and adults weren’t even around when they were being nice!”
What more can you ask as a Head of School? This officer sought me out because it really mattered to him that I knew the extent to which our students are unusual. And, in his own way, he affirmed one of the reasons to host voting at our school – Derryfield is a gem too hidden, and when people get to know our students, our teachers and our community, they often feel the need to tell others about us. In this small way, we can keep the cycle of service, community presence, and goodwill growing.
Monday, September 14, 2009
Late Night Civics Lesson
September 11th 2009
I never made it to a New England Town Hall discussion on health care reform, but may have found the next best thing last night by attending a five-hour Manchester Zoning Board discussion on Wal-Mart’s plan to build a super-store in the city. I was there to help present Derryfield’s proposal to light our Turf Field, which took about 30 minutes, except that we were in the queue after Wal-Mart - which took about four hours. Which, in some ways, worked to our advantage.
One of Mr. Zeller’s opening questions to his middle school students this year was “what is civics?” The answer played out last night in a New Hampshire brew of community theater and old school, Norman Rockwell-esque participatory democracy. After a ponderous, detailed, and ultimately confusing, 90+ minute opening statement by Wal-Mart’s attorney, land planner and traffic engineer, the chair of the Board invited anyone in the room who wanted to speak on behalf of the project to approach the microphone. About five people spoke, with the lead-off person being a former Wal-Mart employee who could not have been more chipper. Then the Chair asked anyone in the room who wanted to speak against the proposal to approach the microphone and the entire room seemed to rise up and move, prompting the chair to impose a three minute time limit on each speaker. A quick count showed we had more than two hours of concerns ahead.
After everyone in attendance spoke, the Board decided to continue this conversation at the October meeting and the entire event made the headlines in the Union Leader this morning. The room emptied out but for a few people when the Wal-Mart matter stopped and Derryfield got to present our lighting proposal to a supportive Board. No “abutters” (that is, people with contiguous property) spoke either for or against the proposal, which was affirming to my sense of our school as a good neighbor .
We continue to make progress in planning for this important enhancement to our Turf Field and I look forward to the day our students can finish their games in the chilly fall evenings “under the lights.”
I never made it to a New England Town Hall discussion on health care reform, but may have found the next best thing last night by attending a five-hour Manchester Zoning Board discussion on Wal-Mart’s plan to build a super-store in the city. I was there to help present Derryfield’s proposal to light our Turf Field, which took about 30 minutes, except that we were in the queue after Wal-Mart - which took about four hours. Which, in some ways, worked to our advantage.
One of Mr. Zeller’s opening questions to his middle school students this year was “what is civics?” The answer played out last night in a New Hampshire brew of community theater and old school, Norman Rockwell-esque participatory democracy. After a ponderous, detailed, and ultimately confusing, 90+ minute opening statement by Wal-Mart’s attorney, land planner and traffic engineer, the chair of the Board invited anyone in the room who wanted to speak on behalf of the project to approach the microphone. About five people spoke, with the lead-off person being a former Wal-Mart employee who could not have been more chipper. Then the Chair asked anyone in the room who wanted to speak against the proposal to approach the microphone and the entire room seemed to rise up and move, prompting the chair to impose a three minute time limit on each speaker. A quick count showed we had more than two hours of concerns ahead.
After everyone in attendance spoke, the Board decided to continue this conversation at the October meeting and the entire event made the headlines in the Union Leader this morning. The room emptied out but for a few people when the Wal-Mart matter stopped and Derryfield got to present our lighting proposal to a supportive Board. No “abutters” (that is, people with contiguous property) spoke either for or against the proposal, which was affirming to my sense of our school as a good neighbor .
We continue to make progress in planning for this important enhancement to our Turf Field and I look forward to the day our students can finish their games in the chilly fall evenings “under the lights.”
Friday, September 11, 2009
Dear Mr. President
September 10th 2009
Dear Mr. President,
I wanted to thank you for taking the time to speak to the young students across America this week. With luck, I will get to thank you in person during the next election, because last election season you asked to play basketball in our gym and while we could not work it out in the moment, I made your people promise you would ask again in 2011.
In addition to thanking you, I wanted to let you know how our school responded to your offer to watch your speech. We announced the opportunity in morning all-school assembly and told our students we would display the speech live at noon in our auditorium for anyone who chose to attend. One of our teachers had read the text of the speech beforehand, endorsed your message, and urged everyone to consider attending.
Over the weekend, some parents had expressed concern that we would require attendance and others expressed concern that we would not allow attendance. I was pleased with our balanced approach, offering the opportunity to those who could watch and urging others to watch at a later time. In this way, we minimized the impact on our classroom time but modeled respect for our public servants.
At noon time, I watched in our auditorium with about ten students and five faculty, and could only imagine the impact your speech might have on the future of our country. Surely many of our students watched your talk later in the day via internet or TV.
Thank you again for your uplifting, responsible, and inspiring message - I look forward to thanking you in person.
CNS
Dear Mr. President,
I wanted to thank you for taking the time to speak to the young students across America this week. With luck, I will get to thank you in person during the next election, because last election season you asked to play basketball in our gym and while we could not work it out in the moment, I made your people promise you would ask again in 2011.
In addition to thanking you, I wanted to let you know how our school responded to your offer to watch your speech. We announced the opportunity in morning all-school assembly and told our students we would display the speech live at noon in our auditorium for anyone who chose to attend. One of our teachers had read the text of the speech beforehand, endorsed your message, and urged everyone to consider attending.
Over the weekend, some parents had expressed concern that we would require attendance and others expressed concern that we would not allow attendance. I was pleased with our balanced approach, offering the opportunity to those who could watch and urging others to watch at a later time. In this way, we minimized the impact on our classroom time but modeled respect for our public servants.
At noon time, I watched in our auditorium with about ten students and five faculty, and could only imagine the impact your speech might have on the future of our country. Surely many of our students watched your talk later in the day via internet or TV.
Thank you again for your uplifting, responsible, and inspiring message - I look forward to thanking you in person.
CNS
Friday, September 4, 2009
Designing Serene Start-Up Days
September 4th 2009
Last winter I convened a small group to discuss ways to make our opening August week of faculty and staff meetings more inspiring and less stressful. While I thought we were doing a fine job in general, I was aware that my tendency is to pack a lot of information into a concentrated period of time, and move the balance more toward efficiency, perhaps at the expense of community-building. Thus the purpose of the group became “Designing Serene Start-Up Days.” Thinking about the last two weeks – the faculty returned the week of August 24th, and the students came this week – I think we got the balance just about perfect. A few examples in particular come to mind:
We had a Student Leadership Summit attended by almost 20 of our high school students where we balanced discussions of theories of leadership with each person creating an action plan for their role (captain of the soccer team, student council president, etc.) that we will check-in on at a winter meeting.
Cary and I hosted a lunch at our house for our five new employees, including their mentors and many of their colleagues, and any other employee who was new to DS in the last few years. The event was small enough to allow attention to and conversation with each new person, but big enough to have a nice party atmosphere.
In response to being over-programmed and not allowing enough time for classroom preparation or individualized problem-solving, we allowed a day in the middle of the week that was an “Admin-free zone” – faculty could use the day any way they wanted, including working from home.
We ended last week with a well-attended and lively gathering at Shortys. You could tell from the attendance and the level of excited chatter that debriefing over nachos and a margarita served a need.
Finally, beginning the week with class retreats, new parent gatherings, and two days of academics eased the transition from long summer days to classroom time. No matter how exciting the teaching, that transition is effortful work for our students, and we are wise to build in the recognition that shifting gears – however welcome – comes with a certain level of energy demand.
No doubt looking at a beautiful three day weekend ahead seems just about the right balance for many of us.
Last winter I convened a small group to discuss ways to make our opening August week of faculty and staff meetings more inspiring and less stressful. While I thought we were doing a fine job in general, I was aware that my tendency is to pack a lot of information into a concentrated period of time, and move the balance more toward efficiency, perhaps at the expense of community-building. Thus the purpose of the group became “Designing Serene Start-Up Days.” Thinking about the last two weeks – the faculty returned the week of August 24th, and the students came this week – I think we got the balance just about perfect. A few examples in particular come to mind:
We had a Student Leadership Summit attended by almost 20 of our high school students where we balanced discussions of theories of leadership with each person creating an action plan for their role (captain of the soccer team, student council president, etc.) that we will check-in on at a winter meeting.
Cary and I hosted a lunch at our house for our five new employees, including their mentors and many of their colleagues, and any other employee who was new to DS in the last few years. The event was small enough to allow attention to and conversation with each new person, but big enough to have a nice party atmosphere.
In response to being over-programmed and not allowing enough time for classroom preparation or individualized problem-solving, we allowed a day in the middle of the week that was an “Admin-free zone” – faculty could use the day any way they wanted, including working from home.
We ended last week with a well-attended and lively gathering at Shortys. You could tell from the attendance and the level of excited chatter that debriefing over nachos and a margarita served a need.
Finally, beginning the week with class retreats, new parent gatherings, and two days of academics eased the transition from long summer days to classroom time. No matter how exciting the teaching, that transition is effortful work for our students, and we are wise to build in the recognition that shifting gears – however welcome – comes with a certain level of energy demand.
No doubt looking at a beautiful three day weekend ahead seems just about the right balance for many of us.
The Minute of Reflection Diner
August 31st 2009
The senior retreat this week had a “Survivor” theme that was complete with tiki lamps, chariot races and tee-shirts. The ingenuity and attention to detail by the adults was exceptional, and the students had a fantastic time. One of the questions for the teams was “If Mr. Sellers had a diner, what would he call it?” The answers made me laugh, but first some background.
During the early 1990s I was part of a magazine called “Roadside” that was devoted to all kinds of roadside Americana, particularly the American diner – which we defined as “a pre-fabricated structure hauled to its site, with counter-service.” The magazine was a hit, particularly in New England, where Yankee Magazine featured us and subscription revenue took off. I never quit my day job, but had fun getting to know the people and the history behind these unique institutions.
First answer – The Segway Diner. A reference to my riding around campus on a Segway that a friend lent to me when I was struggling with my hip last year. It was a lifesaver before surgery when I literally could not get around campus. I still have great fun with it and it helps when I have limited time but want to get around and see different games or be in two places at once. It is, at all times, a great conversation piece.
Next answer – The Minute of Reflection Diner. A reference to a practice I started at all school assembly where our entire school takes time to sit in silence and think – mostly about whatever one wants to think about, but occasionally a speaker will suggest a topic for reflection. My first year it was a bit of a rolling squirm-session, and perhaps more distracting for many of those in attendance than anything else. Last year we started to move into the potential of the reflection time, and I could tell it had taken off when the student speakers started to build it into their talks, looking forward to the community building aspects of it.
Final answer: Big Papi’s Diner. A reference to the striking visual similarity between me and the Dominican-born Red Sox slugger David Americo Ortiz. I must remember to clap my hands together at the start of each day.
The senior retreat this week had a “Survivor” theme that was complete with tiki lamps, chariot races and tee-shirts. The ingenuity and attention to detail by the adults was exceptional, and the students had a fantastic time. One of the questions for the teams was “If Mr. Sellers had a diner, what would he call it?” The answers made me laugh, but first some background.
During the early 1990s I was part of a magazine called “Roadside” that was devoted to all kinds of roadside Americana, particularly the American diner – which we defined as “a pre-fabricated structure hauled to its site, with counter-service.” The magazine was a hit, particularly in New England, where Yankee Magazine featured us and subscription revenue took off. I never quit my day job, but had fun getting to know the people and the history behind these unique institutions.
First answer – The Segway Diner. A reference to my riding around campus on a Segway that a friend lent to me when I was struggling with my hip last year. It was a lifesaver before surgery when I literally could not get around campus. I still have great fun with it and it helps when I have limited time but want to get around and see different games or be in two places at once. It is, at all times, a great conversation piece.
Next answer – The Minute of Reflection Diner. A reference to a practice I started at all school assembly where our entire school takes time to sit in silence and think – mostly about whatever one wants to think about, but occasionally a speaker will suggest a topic for reflection. My first year it was a bit of a rolling squirm-session, and perhaps more distracting for many of those in attendance than anything else. Last year we started to move into the potential of the reflection time, and I could tell it had taken off when the student speakers started to build it into their talks, looking forward to the community building aspects of it.
Final answer: Big Papi’s Diner. A reference to the striking visual similarity between me and the Dominican-born Red Sox slugger David Americo Ortiz. I must remember to clap my hands together at the start of each day.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
