Raindrops and Rain Puddles

There's a good reason why rain jackets and rain boots are required items on Mrs. Kaman's student supply list!  Yesterday's rain made venturing outdoors a little wet, but certainly not dangerous, so out they went!

The students enjoyed the time to discover the wonder of raindrops and rain puddles.  The one rule (before jumping into a puddle) is to announce loudly to your classmates, "Watch out.  Here comes a big one!"

Teacher-Leader, and child-at-heart, that she is, Mrs. Kaman led the way with a demonstration of proper puddle jumping.

Building a 9th Grade Team

     One core belief of Woods is that students are in a better position to learn when they are closely connected to their teachers and peers.  Deeper connections, deeper community yield deeper learning.  It's (almost) that simple!
     Since we bump our class sizes in high school (9th grade generally has 46 students; 8th grade has 40), we always have a wonderful influx of new students joining Woods in 9th grade.  It's a particular challenge, then, to make sure that these new students are quickly integrated with the old (keeping in mind that some of those "old" students have been together for many, many years).  Each year we partner with Triangle Training where we spend a day with their superb facilitators engaging in experiential education at its best!

Stand and Deliver

     One important skill that professors and employers often claim that high school graduates lack is the ability to stand on one's feet and speak articulately about one's beliefs.  At Woods we spend a lot of time asking students to assert themselves in writing, and we teach them to back up their assertions with reasoned arguments and evidence.  It's my hope that we also ask students to do this same thinking aloud and on their feet.

     Last week, many of our high schoolers were speaking aloud and on their feet in The Great Room as part of the process of running for a position on the Student Council.  They were making their case for . . .
     1) why Woods is important,
     2) what makes Woods unique, and
     3) how they think they can best serve the school.

Sept. 18th update: And this week, the middle school candidates followed suit:

Tech Parents and Screen Time

I enjoyed Nick Bilton's article in last week's New York Times and always appreciate any insight into the proper role of technology in growing healthy kids.  The simple distinction (made by Ali Partovi in the article) between time spent consuming with tech versus time spent creating is a simple metric . . . and, for me, a helpful one.

Communicating in 2014

Within the past 24 hours, with my colleague Mr. Etherington, I have engaged in the following forms of communication:
1)  we've texted,
2)  we've spoken by telephone,
3)  we've emailed,
4)  we've instant messaged,
5)  we've met face to face for meetings.
(Note:  with the exception of one text in which he asked me if I wanted a sandwich from Harris Teeter, all of these communications were school related!  Also note: we didn't even use Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, etc.)

These opening weeks of school involve a lot of coordinating and communicating among colleagues, but the past 24 hours has really not been that extraordinary.  I share this not with the presumption that anyone cares about the intricacies of my communication habits with Mr. Etherington.  Rather, we as a school (within our admin team, with the PTSA and School Board) are having lively conversations about how best to communicate with our parents, students, and alums -- and I think the record of my past 24 hours of communicating with just one colleague reflects much of the difficulties and complexities of communicating in 2014.  We have so many ways to communicate that choosing the correct form is often its own challenge.

The school is investigating many new tools for use in communicating with the various stakeholder of Woods.  I don't know exactly what new technologies we'll leverage in our new communication plan/strategy.  I do know that we'll need a lot of help in devising our strategy (so know that the admin team, the PTSA, and the Board would all appreciate your thoughts and insight).  And I do know that we're better off as a community if we're smart, deliberate, and frequent with our communication.

So, if you have ideas on how to improve communication within the school, please email or call or text or Snapchat or tweet or instant message or Facebook message or Instagram or . . .

We always want to hear from you, no matter what form it takes.