Weekly Message from Steve Warner, Head of School (November 12, 2012)

Greetings, GreenMount Community,

            On Thursday evening, we will present our first theme event for the year, We All Come from Somewhere.  The purpose of this theme has been for students to investigate and understand that our country - or any country, for that matter - is made up of people from many different backgrounds.  Consequently, we feel that our students now have a greater appreciation for the valuable role that diversity plays in the success of a country, a state, and even a small organization like The GreenMount School.  We feel that it is important for students to have a global view of the world and to value the contributions of each individual or group.  This is part of who we are as stated in our philosophy: “Students develop academic, behavioral, and personal skills that enable them to thrive in different environments.”   

            At the AIMS conference last week, heads of school listened to Ron Goldblatt, Executive Director, as he presented data that shows the decline in enrollment in independent schools since 2006 (a dilemma that we are not experiencing).  His point was to connect the economic downturn to this change in families choosing an independent school education.  He and his audience discussed ways to create a resurgence of enrollment in spite of the economic woes that will be with us for some time, it seems.

I spoke with him later and offered a different perspective – the GreenMount perspective.  I told him about Grandparents and Special Friends’ Day.  When I meet with the grandparents that morning, I will be focused on the difference between the education they received and that which is needed today.  The teachers those grandparents had probably had some idea of what their future might look like in 15 or even 20 years.  Indeed, when I was in high school, it was common for kids in Baltimore to go to work at Beth Steel right after graduation (or before), and have a good paying job, a pension and a small, paid-for house with a front porch on which we could rock away in retirement.  This is not the case with our kids today.  The fact is, we have no idea what 20, 15, or even five years from now will look like.  Paradigm shifts are occurring so quickly now that to predict the future our kids will face is nearly impossible.  Scary, isn’t it?

So, I told Ron that the draw that independent schools could have is that we allow students the “time and space to learn,” to delve deeply into subjects that increase our understandings.  A school like GreenMount prepares students for that uncertain future by making them independent learners who are creative, confident and capable.  All those projects, experiments, discussions and debates prepare our kids to be able to adapt to any situation.  This has been proven true on many occasions as our students are hailed as leaders and learners by the high schools they attend.  A phrase we have heard many times is, “Oh, you’re from GreenMount?  We love your kids!”

So, let’s celebrate the fact that our students are finding ways to “survive” in this unknown world we face.  They will be the leaders, the inventors, and the solution.

Happy Veterans’ Day             

Cheers, 

Steve

Weekly Message from Steve Warner, Head of School (November 7, 2012)

Greetings, GreenMount Community,

            The election is finally over!  I never thought I would look forward to seeing commercials for free carpeting and deals on cars for which Jack says, “Yes!”.  Well, maybe that’s going too far. 

This has indeed been a season of information, and just maybe some misinformation, through which we all had to sift before ultimately making our decisions at the polls.  My voting experience was punctuated by comments I heard while waiting in line.  I vote at a senior center (appropriately) and the best comment I heard came from one of the residents.  A frail lady shuffling by noted the line and remarked, “This is terrible!” (referring to the long line).  “No, this is wonderful,” said one of her friends. “I haven’t seen this much enthusiasm since I was a younger woman.”  Indeed, the turnout at my polling place was exceptional and in a state where many people feel that the results are a foregone conclusion, I think we should be happy that we had the turnout that we did.  I was also impressed with the enthusiasm of voters.  People were friendly, talking about issues and expressing their points of view.  Now, if only the Congress can get together and follow their constituents’ example!

At today’s Morning Meeting, we discussed the expectation of treating others appropriately as listed under “Civility” as one of our Pillars.  I talked to the students about how all of us sometimes will gossip about someone who is not present because we might feel safe from a confrontation that would otherwise result from talking to the person directly.  I gave the example of how adults will sometimes do things while driving a car that they would not think of doing in person.  For example, adults sometimes cut in front of each other in their cars, but would be less likely to do the same while waiting in a line of people.  The car becomes our cocoon that protects us from the confrontation of person-to-person interactions.  Likewise, Facebook, tweeting and other cyber-communications protect us from that direct confrontation.  We discussed this idea and focused on how treating others appropriately include how we speak of them, even when they are not there.  The best GreenMount citizens do the right thing, even when no one is watching!

Cheers,

Steve

Weekly Message from Steve Warner, Head of School (October 31, 2012)

Greetings, GreenMount Community,

            I’m sure that it did not escape anyone’s notice that it rained a lot over the past few days.  I do hope that you have power and that any damage from this storm has been minimal.  This has been quite an experience and I am sure that you are glad that your children are back in school today (because you don’t want them to miss out on their learning opportunities, of course).

I reported to you in my email yesterday that we had sustained minimal damage here at school.  That held true, I found, until I walked into the office as I was leaving.  Now, you would think that the office, not being near any windows or doors, would be protected from the effects of the storm more than any other spot in the building.  However, water came from somewhere and soaked the carpet, which we are in the process of replacing.  I was able to vacuum up about 5 gallons of water from the carpet so that at least it no longer makes that squishy sound when one walks on it.  Unfortunately, it will have to go.

I will also be working on getting the city to fix the roof, which was the source of most of our water.  I am sure that we are all thankful that we do not live in New York and/or have to travel long distances to get to work.  I can only imagine what others in more devastated areas have to endure.  Nonetheless, we are back up and running and the students seem happy to be back after their mini vacation.  Next week, you will get to enjoy their company for two days again as on Monday we attend the AIMS convention and on Tuesday we are closed for Election Day.  Don’t forget to vote!

A few other reminders:

• Beginning at 3:30 p.m., the Open Door has possession of the gym until 6:15.  Only parents who are picking up students will be admitted through the gym door.

• Parents who are picking up students in the gym between 3:15 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. are asked not to sit on the tables that are set up for Open Door.  They must be sanitized before the program starts and every time someone sits on them, they must be redone.

• The front door will be closed at 3:45 p.m. and no students will be allowed to re-enter without a parent.  Students are reminded to get all their things and use the bathroom before they leave at 3:30 p.m.  Work being done in the office has been interrupted many times by students wanting to get back to retrieve a lunch box or use the bathroom.  Unescorted children have to be monitored by someone in the office, who otherwise needs to complete important work.

• Don’t forget to “fall back” on Sunday.

Finally, please be careful tonight as you go trick-or-treating. Watch out crossing streets while wearing masks, and inspect all of your candy carefully before eating any of it.  Look for torn wrappers.  It’s probably also a good idea to stay away from any other unpackaged items, such as apples.

A grandmother pretends she doesn't know who you are on Halloween. ~ Erma Bombeck

Cheers, Steve

Weekly Message from Steve Warner, Head of School (October 22, 2012)

Greetings, GreenMount Community,

            Recently, a concern from a parent came to my attention regarding homework.  It seems that the student is spending hours completing homework with little time left for anything else.  The fact that a child spends nearly all of his or her free time doing homework is counter-intuitive to the idea that we want all of the students who attend GreenMount to have opportunities outside the classroom for exploring the world on their own terms and following their own interests.

This morning, I spoke to our students at our Monday Morning Meeting about the idea put forth in Malcolm Gladwell’s book, The Outliers, that in order to be truly exceptional in any field, one must devote at least 10,000 hours practicing whatever skills are necessary to become “outstanding.”  Concert violinists, for example, must practice for 10,000 hours, basketball players must practice 10,000 free throws; the Beatles, according to Gladwell, played together for 10,000 hours before coming to the U.S. to change music forever.  Let’s not think about the fact that it is very hard for a heart surgeon to perform 10,000 transplants or an airline pilot to log 10,000 hours of flight time before becoming certified (Southwest requires 2,500 hours).  Most teachers can reach 10,000 hours in nine years.

So, is time spent struggling with homework for hours wasted time?  Should a youngster be using at least as much time following personal interests as they do completing homework?  The answers to these questions are hard to define.  Sometimes, it is good for students to struggle with problems.  We want them to learn to persevere and to work hard.  At the same time, we don’t want to frustrate them and make them hate the idea of independent, out-of-school assignments.  We want our students to have the desire to complete their assignments and to also have the desire to do things in an excellent fashion.  Please consult the homework policy we developed as a staff a couple of years ago.  Also, check the Family Handbook for suggested times allotted for homework.  If students are taking more than the allotted time to complete assignments, let us know.

Finally, let’s consider procrastination.  As a project-oriented school, students receive assignments that are to be completed over a given time period. Unlike us mature grown-ups, they sometimes wait until the last minute to finish their projects.  (Imagine that!)  The consequence often is a long evening without much of anything except a battle to complete the project.

Our teachers (many of whom have logged 10,000 hours) give students timelines for projects and remind them along the way about meeting benchmarks before a project is due.  Please check with your child, consult the homework page on the web site, and talk to teachers about these timelines so that you can help meet deadlines with products that are “excellent.”

The GreenMount School Homework Philosophy

Homework is an important part of every student’s learning process.  It not only supports daily instruction, but teaches responsibility and organizational skills. 

The student’s responsibility is to make every effort to complete homework assignments. 

The parent’s responsibility is to provide the time and adequate space to complete assignments. 

The school’s responsibilities include the following:

• Connect homework to classroom learning and clearly identify the purpose of each assignment
• Provide students with relevant tasks that they can complete without adult help
• Use what we know about learning to design homework appropriate for individual students
• Facilitate two-way communication between teachers and students and teachers and parents
• Provide direct instruction and modeling on homework completion strategies
• Provide non-optional help for students who are struggling
• Eliminate zero policy – all homework gets done. Missing homework is not acceptable and will result in a behavior reflection if it is not completed.
• Grading is based on completion only

Cheers, 

Steve

Weekly Message from Steve Warner, Head of School (October 15, 2012)

Greetings, GreenMount Community,

            This morning, I would like to discuss the idea of behavior reflections.  If you consult your Family Handbook, you will find some information about behavior reflections and our philosophy behind them.  But first, let me travel back in time “a bit” to when I was an elementary school student at P.S. 218, Howard Park Elementary School.

I was a pretty good student and tried hard not to get into trouble.  But I had some friends who did not share my value system and eventually they got me in a passel of trouble (yeah, it was their fault!).  This resulted in having to visit the principal’s office.

Now, you must understand that the principal’s office was located on the third floor, where the ceiling mimicked the roof line.  The trek there involved three flights of wide, creaky wooden steps, and the lighting got darker the farther one ascended.  Finally, at the top and having plenty of time to think about what was going to happen, I arrived in his office.  I recall it was a vast room with a curved dormer window at the back.  The principal’s desk was placed before the dormer and he sat behind it, silhouetted against the light from the window.  He was a large man without a face, only a shadow against that window.  I don’t remember what happened that day other than the picture I still have in my mind of the dark figure whose mere presence inspired me to never have to walk those steps again.

            In later years, as a principal myself, I recall some of my colleagues saying that a child should return from the office trembling with fear, and maybe even crying, thus hedging against further visits and also being a visual example for others.  Those principals must have graduated from the same school of mental anguish as my elementary school principal.  Frankly, I never understood any of that.  Perhaps it was because I knew what it was like to have to make the journey into that dark, foreboding place.  So, with the help of my colleagues here at GreenMount, we created Behavior Reflections.  Yes, the child still has to make the journey to my office.  But there are no creaky stairs or a principal without a face in a dark room.  In the process of my discussions with the students who visit we talk about choices and responsibility.  We discuss the Pillars and how the choices made reflect on the stated expectations under each.  It is my intention that students who leave my office come away learning something about themselves and with strategies to help them from making the same mistake in the future.  They write about their choices and we discuss their responses.  To date, ten students have visited me with behavior reflections.  And while this may seem like a lot for just October 15, they represent the typical mistakes that students make as they get used to the expectations of individual teachers.  Out of the ten who have visited, nearly all have done an excellent job of reflecting and they leave the office on that note. “I made a mistake and I took responsibility for it.  I’m not a bad person, just a normal one.  I will try to make a better choice next time.”

            As part of the educational team for your child, I ask that you take time to talk to your child about taking responsibility for their choices and for accepting the natural consequences of them.  A student who cannot refrain from hitting others in gym class may be excluded from the next one. A student who continually forgets his homework may be asked to use his recess time to complete it.  There are also natural consequences at home as in school, but none have to be implemented with malice or in a threatening way.  The consequences are just – natural.

“Acceptance of what has happened is the first step to overcoming the consequences of any misfortune.” – William James

Cheers,

Steve

Weekly Message from Steve Warner, Head of School (October 8, 2012)

Greetings, GreenMount Community,

            Happy Columbus Day!  I hope that some of you are enjoying a day off and extending your weekend.  You may wonder why we are open for business as usual.  As a rule, most Maryland schools are open on Columbus Day and we have to think carefully about how our holidays are spaced so that we have nice winter and spring holidays.  Besides, Columbus did not discover America, and some history tells us he was not a very nice guy.  He was very tough on First Nations people, causing them great hardship and pain.  But, who knows?  These events happened long enough ago that information about that time may be very skewed.  Anyway, we are happily in school today, celebrating GreenMount Day, as we do every day.

            This morning was the first of our Monday coffee-and-donut get-togethers to benefit the 8^th grade trip to Costa Rica.  It was fun to see the students enthusiastically displaying their salesmanship and interacting with parents who stopped in to enjoy a little break before going to work or back home to watch TV specials about Columbus.  This activity reminded me once again of the great community we have here at GreenMount and parents who are constantly modeling the sense of community that is very unique at our school.  Thanks to parents Reid Blank and Sue McClure who worked with Ms. Tonette to get this idea off the ground.

            The coffee was welcomed this morning as we experienced some of our first chilly air.  Soon, we will be shivering under what is projected to be a very cold winter.  Keep in mind what I explained about closings in last week’s bulletin.  For now, however, we will try to survive the change of the season by remembering a few details.  First, there are going to be days when it is cool in the building.  This is because we have to do our annual balancing act of deciding when to switch from air conditioning to heat.  One would think that today is the perfect time.  But history tells us that we will have some warm days (even hot) yet.  Because our building has no windows that open, we are at the mercy of our HVAC system.  We are also at the mercy of the city from whom we rent our building.  They actually have a date on which all city buildings are switched over from one system to the other.  And we cannot simply adjust our thermostat like at home.  There is a complicated process of diverting water from the condensers on the roof to the boiler in the mechanical room.

Is this narrative exciting yet?  The bottom line is that until we can see a steady need for heat we are going to endure some cool school conditions.  Please send sweaters and sweatshirts with your child each morning throughout the fall and winter months so that they can adjust to cooler or warmer conditions.  If you don’t have a sweatshirt or sweater, just go to the lost-and-found table in the gated area.  There are plenty there!

Cheers,

Steve

Weekly Message from Steve Warner, Head of School (October 1, 2012)

Greetings, GreenMount Community,

            Happy October! Fall is upon us, and with the crisp air has come an increase in sweatshirts and jackets at the morning gathering in the gated area along with a decrease in the elevation of the sun above the homes on Miles Avenue.  These days are something of a problem.  While the weather is delightful, the incidence of discarded outerwear around the building has increased.  Who looks for the sweatshirt that was needed in the morning when the temperature is 75 degrees in the afternoon?  So please be sure to check the lost and found - now located on the picnic bench in the gated area - every day.

            Speaking of weather changes, it won’t be long until we must think about snow and possible school closings.  On those days when we close school because of the weather, I will be up early monitoring the conditions via TV reports and decisions made by the city schools.  Because the city has many more resources to determine if school should be closed, I generally rely on their decisions.  However, there may be a time when the city schools are closed for planned study day or something of that nature when the snow comes.  This is why you must check WBAL-TV for the GreenMount School closing or delay notification.  You can also set up your smartphone to receive information about GreenMount directly from WBAL.  Please check the Family Handbook for details.

            On Thursday, we held our annual Back to School Night, and I want to thank those of you who were able to attend.  I know how difficult it can be, especially for parents of younger children, to get out at night, and I understand that some of you were unable to commit to this meeting.  However, for those of you who were there, the feedback you gave me was very positive.  The parents I talked with were pleased with the presentations they heard and share our excitement for a very productive school year.  Our next round of parent/teacher conferences will take place this month, October 24, 25, 26.  Prior to that, our teachers will have had our first Student Support Meeting on October 12, at which we, as a staff, discuss every student.  These meetings are important as, along with the parent conferences, they help us keep a close watch on every student’s progress and needs.

            This month is Free Fall Baltimore month and opportunities abound for families to enjoy museums and other Baltimore attractions for FREE!  Visit http://freefallbaltimore.com/ to discover the opportunities available to your family..

In the meantime, here are a couple of quotes about museums by one of my favorite intellectuals, Steven Wright:

I went to a museum where they had all the heads and arms from the statues that are in all the other museums.

One time I went to a museum where all the work in the museum had been done by children.  They had all the paintings displayed on refrigerators.

           

Cheers,

Steve