Weekly Message from Steve Warner, Head of School (April 28, 2014)

Greetings, GreenMount Community,

            Ah, spring - three to four inches of rain coming and temperatures dipping to the 50s.  There must be some botanical/biological reason that spring is taking so long this year.  Perhaps nature is teasing the plants to grow deeper roots and the animals to lose their winter coats more slowly in order to avoid rashes.  Maybe she is mitigating the onslaught of annoying insects.  Of course, I haven’t a clue.  Probably it is just what the meteorologists tell us about the jet stream, and the plants and animals are in as much vernal shock as we are.  I just remember that in Baltimore of past years we went from winter to a few days of spring, right into summer.

Oh, well, there is nothing we can do about it except plan appropriately.   As part of that plan, I am suggesting that tomorrow and Wednesday, the students bring in board games and such for our imminent indoor recesses.  I am sure our students are tired of the activities we have typically used when we have been confined to the building because of the weather.

            During our staff meeting on Friday, teachers reported on professional articles they have read. Once again, the idea of modeling was highlighted as a very important way to get kids to start thinking about what they are reading or how they are solving problems in math or in their research.  This idea cannot be emphasized enough.  As adults, we have many opportunities to model for our children, both in the classroom and at home.

Modeling, however, is not as simple as setting a good example, which is obviously a good thing to do.  In order for modeling to be most effective, we must talk to the children about what is being modeled.  In the classroom, this is manifested in a technique called the think-aloud.  For example, when trying to find the main idea of non-fiction text, a teacher may say something like, “As I look at this text, I notice that some of it is bolded.  This must mean that the author thinks this is important and, therefore, something I should remember.”  Or, when solving an equation in math class, a teacher might think aloud saying, “This one is hard.  I think I am going to have to remember which step comes first and work out from the parentheses, doing those operations first.  I think that I’ll also test my answer for /x/ after I think I have solved for it.”

A parent visiting the aquarium with his or her child might think aloud about his or her observations; “That sea turtle is missing a leg.  I am very curious about what could have happened.  I’m thinking that he may have been wounded by a predator.”  Statements like these can be provocative and spark good conversations.  Along with good questioning techniques, we can actually model the kind of thinking that our students will need to be competent, curious, creative, and contributing as adults.  We can teach their brains how to work well as long as we use ours to model and share our thinking with them.

Cheers,

Steve

Weekly Message from Steve Warner, Head of School (April 22, 2014)

Greetings, GreenMount Community,

                I hope today’s message finds you in good spirits and happy about your spring break.  I understand that for most of you, it wasn’t a break like it was for us and the children, but I hope you had a chance to enjoy part of it with family and friends. Today, at our morning meeting, I asked the students who had traveled the farthest during their spring break and we had sort of a tie with Ireland.  (We couldn’t determine which part of Ireland was farthest, so we didn’t declare a “winner”.)

The students seemed very happy to be reunited with their friends at school and ready to tackle these last 33 days (but who’s counting?).  Speaking of winding down, it is important to note that at GreenMount we traditionally keep up the instructional pace until the last day, with the exception of some housekeeping chores on the very last day.  Please encourage your children to stay focused and I will do the same for the staff.  One of the “traditions” that I have observed over the last 46 years (yipes!) is what I call the “You’re kidding me, only seven weeks left – I can’t possibly get everything done before the year ends” syndrome.  Teachers  race hysterically to give their students every benefit of their instructional wisdom and expertise before the final curtain in June.  While this may cause some anxiety, it is a good indication of the dedication that teachers have - especially ours.

            We welcomed back our eighth graders today from their amazing trip to Costa Rica.  I had a chance to speak to a couple of them and they were full of the experience.  This trip is an important part of the GreenMount experience for many reasons, not the least of which is the opportunity to experience a different culture and feel comfortable with foreign travel.  Let’s face it, the odds are that this generation will be traveling a lot more than any other as the world grows smaller and the American marketplace expands even more.  It’s exciting to think about the experiences that these kids will have.  Our thanks to Ms. Elaine and Mr. Luca for chaperoning and organizing this experience for our students.

 I would like to announce something worth celebrating that few of you know about.  On weekends, a young man named Derrick Brooks uses our gym to train basketball players for competition and college admissions.  Some of his older students have gone on to Division I Schools on basketball scholarships and today I am pleased to say that his second grade students will be traveling to Memphis to compete in the national championship at their level.  I saw these little guys this summer as they worked out and they are amazing future stars.  Derrick provides this program for inner city kids and I can tell you that he makes a difference in their lives.  Our small part is to provide the space he needs to implement the program.

Finally, I would like to share an experience that I had on my break.  On Saturday, April 12, we headed over to the Cherry Blossom Festival in D.C., which was beautiful.  In our travels around the tidal basin, we visited the WWII Memorial, an amazing sight to see. Several WWII veterans were also there in their wheelchairs and with their families.  One veteran posed for pictures, looking very strong and fit.  I asked to shake his hand and was amazed at his grip.  It turns out that he was a B-24 bomber pilot in Europe.  I mentioned that my dad was in the 29^th Division and he said, “Oh man, those guys had it rough.  All we did was drop bombs and then head back to the base for a drink!”  He was a character and, of course, a true hero.  He is 91, and as he said, “I’m close to the end, but still kickin,’,”  I was in awe of this man.  Let’s all try to remember and thank our veterans whenever we get a chance.

Cheers, 

Steve

Weekly Message from Steve Warner, Head of School (April 7, 2014)

Greetings, GreenMount Community,

                I am sure that everyone is aware of the fact that we often describe ourselves as a school that is “experiential”.  We tout this term in virtually every piece of our marketing and we discuss it often during meetings with parents and among ourselves at staff meetings.  Well, just to make sure you know that we walk the walk, here are a few examples of what our middle school students have been “experiencing” very recently:

            Last week, Mr. Fletcher and Ms. Elizabeth took the seventh grade students to Washington, D.C. to participate in a program called the Youth Service Opportunity Program (YSOP).  The students spent two nights sleeping on the floor of a church at night and during the day they were out and about helping the homeless and poor of the District.  The students cooked, served meals, and engaged their “guests” in conversations about their lives and their wishes, hopes, and dreams.  Our students engaged the homeless and the poor in the church center and they also ventured out into the city to meet people “on the street”.  Some of our kids even went to the home of a 93-year-old woman to clean her bathroom and other parts of her house.  I understand that the students were enthralled with this lady’s experiences over her 93 years.  The feedback we got from the YSOP people was that our children are exceptional beyond what they could have imagined.  Our thanks to Mr. Fletcher for his passion about this opportunity and to Ms. Elizabeth, who now has proclaimed that no one else will accompany Fletcher on this trip in the future but her!

            Today, our eighth graders are in a small village in Costa Rica working hard to paint a fence that surrounds the village to protect it from rusting in the wet jungle atmosphere.  They are also getting to know their host families and taking strolls through the rainforest and climbing up to the top of an active volcano.  Ms. Elaine and Mr. Luca are making sure that the students not only provide service to the families that live in this remote village, but that they experience a habitat that is very different from that of good old B’More.

            Also today, sixth and seventh graders went to court.  As a result of a book they had read in language arts, they have been practicing and preparing a case for a mock trial to emulate one that could have taken place in the story.  Ms. Allison arranged with Ann Kehinde, a Baltimore County parent and judge, for her to preside over the mock trial in a real courtroom in Baltimore County.  Another judge who presided over one group commented to me that this must be a pre-law class based on the performance of the students.  She congratulated our students for following procedures and for presenting convincing arguments.  The verdicts in both trials of the main character were the same.  To find out what you think that verdict should be, read Private Peaceful by Michael Morpurgo.

Cheers,

Steve