Weekly Message from Steve Warner, Head of School (September 16, 2013)

Greetings, GreenMount Community,

            Have I told all of you how excited I am about this year?  If not, let me proclaim my great enthusiasm for where we are headed as a school and where we have come from in just a few years.

We continue to add amazing students and families and this year is no exception. As the staff gets to know the new students and their families, we find ourselves beaming with the possibilities that they bring.  The students are fitting in very nicely with our “veterans” who have, by the way, been exceptional in their inclusiveness by going out of their way to be welcoming.  Our new parents bring a wealth of unique experiences that we look forward to sharing with other community members and the students.

            As we celebrate our growth over 20 years and the quality of the program we now provide, we must still remember that we are continuing to strive to create a culture of excellence as defined for us four years ago by Ron Berger in his book, An Ethic of Excellence.  After reading the book, the staff has worked to implement many of his ideas, as they seem to fit nicely with our definition of project-based and experiential learning.

The students too have become familiar with what it means to produce excellent work as demonstrated in today’s Monday Morning Meeting.  When asked about some of the vocabulary of excellence, I was genuinely surprised to hear even some of our youngest students talk about risk-taking, peer review, rubrics, drafts, portfolios and even aesthetic eye. For example, we are sure that most of our students understand that in order to produce excellent work, they will have to produce several drafts of their writing or other product they are creating, such as a drawing.

I was equally gratified that two younger students described portfolios perfectly.  Indeed, this will be a focus for us this year, for the portfolio provides a way for students to effectively reflect on their work.  So this year all students will be creating either “Showcase” portfolios or “Growth” portfolios.  In a showcase portfolio, the student adds and subtracts from the portfolio as it becomes the collection of only the student’s best work.  In the growth portfolio, the student collects examples of all his or her work to show growth over a trimester and/or the year.  These portfolios will be managed by the individual students and they will decide the kind they will use, which may change as the year progresses.

Parents can help in many ways.  The best-case scenario would be for you to read Ron Berger’s book to become familiar with his ideas.  You could also go online to see videos of his lectures, which are very informative.  Finally, have conversations with your children about excellence and serve as role models for them discussing the things that you do which you consider excellent.  Talk to them about how many times you have to write that proposal before it meets your standards, or how much you have to plan and rehearse the things that you do at work in order to be excellent.  As parents you have great power to influence your child by serving as a role model for them.  And as you are in the building so often working with students or just helping out, children will notice that.  They see you here and they understand that you value education.  This sends a powerful and long-lasting message to them.

            Finally, let me remind you that tonight is Back-To-School Night for grade K-3.  We hope to see you here at 6:30 p.m. when the program will begin promptly.  It will be an informative evening for all who attend.

Cheers,

Steve

Weekly Message from Steve Warner, Head of School (September 3, 2013)

Greetings GreenMount Community,

            WELCOME BACK!  Finally, our students and their families have returned and once again fill this building with laughter and excitement about another successful GreenMount year.  We had a morning meeting in the gym where the students got to see for the first time some of the improvements that have been made.  We have improved the sound quality greatly with the addition of sound absorption panels and the new lighting makes the gym much more cheery and inviting.  Soon our new stage curtains will be in place and new seating will relieve you from the task of sitting on those old metal folding chairs.  All of these improvements are due to the hard work of Jill Goodman as she raised the money from donors, including many of you, to complete these major improvements. 

During the summer, the gym was a mess with dust flying everywhere and crews working on different projects.  Our own crews were busy, too.  Parents refinished the stage, built the new deck, painted, moved furniture, cleaned, and lent a hand with many of the “odd” jobs that we had for them around here.  I can’t voice enough in praise of all the parents who, this summer, made this day possible.  The intensity and quality of the work were amazing.  Just look at that deck as an illustration of how you all step up to help our school.  Without the cooperation and dedication that you contribute through the co-op program, and just because you want to make sure that all of our children have a safe and attractive place to learn, we would not be enjoying such a happy day and such a bright future.  I am looking forward to being with all of you as we work to make our program even more successful during 2013-2014.

Attached to this newsletter is a page from the Maryland Guide for Visitors that I thought would be helpful to you as you plan for those times when you are not in school and looking for some great family activities.  The page includes happenings from September 6 to September 21, after which I will publish another few weeks’ worth of suggestions.  (I think that if you decided to go to the Berlin Fiddler’s Convention, you might see Ms. Laurie there.)

Many parents and teachers, both new and returning (notice I didn’t say “old”), are very kind in their praise of our school and the approach to learning that we have.  We believe that approach is fashioned to create learners that will be equipped to meet the challenges of a future about which we can only speculate. It is an exciting and yet uncertain future that our children face, and who knows what will face our kindergarteners in 2063 when they are retiring?!

So, we know that we have a great responsibility to create a culture in our school where the “cool” thing to do is to work hard and achieve our very best.  We will continue with our plan for inculcating excellence in our school.  Our professional development plans for the year will extend our research and discussion in creating this culture, and I hope you will join us in using the language that inspires children to take risks, strive for excellence, and unleash their curiosity and innovative spirit.  Each year at GreenMount is better than the previous one and as our staff learns, so do the children.  It will be another banner year for all of us.  Aren’t you excited?

            The same quote as last year and the year before that.  We are still pursuing this goal:

E X C E L L E N C E

“Excellence is the result of caring more than others think is wise; risking more than others think is safe.  Dreaming more than others practical and expecting more than others think is possible.”

Cheers,

Steve

Weekly Message from Steve Warner, Head of School (September 24, 2012)

Greetings, GreenMount Community,

            In case you have been wondering about our Monday Morning meetings (I’m sure you have), they have been going well so far and the students have been great.  At these meetings we discuss the ways we can demonstrate excellence specifically through our Pillars.  The first week, we began with our academic pillar and the idea of students putting forth their personal best.  Last week, we discussed being prepared to learn, and today we talked about what it means to be an active listener.  I have been very pleased with the responses of the students and also happy that the teachers, who are always on hand, often can add significantly to the conversation.

But it is the kids who impress me the most.  Over the years that we have been talking about our Pillars, it has become obvious that they (the Pillars) are becoming a part of our culture. The responses that we receive are insightful and certainly represent the ideas we have been talking about for the last four years.  Even new students appear to have an intuitive sense of what these Pillars mean.  This is especially important because it means that the positive peer influence is working to everyone’s advantage.  We all know that adults can talk until they are blue in the face about values and positive behaviors, but when something like putting forth your personal best becomes cool, it is snatched up by everyone as the right thing to do.  It’s kind of funny how these things work, isn’t it?  I am sure that as parents you have experienced the same thing.  I know I did.  When did it become cool to wear mismatched socks?  Evidently, it did because many of our students do just that.

More importantly, I have noticed that it is cool to READ here at GreenMount.  Every day, as we get ready to enter the building, several students are sitting in the gated area reading.  I have also noticed over the last few years that students who did not appear to be interested in reading can now be seen with their faces in a book.  I even see kids at recess sitting under the playground equipment reading.  Now, you can say that this is extreme and that these individuals should be playing and getting exercise.  This is probably true.  But the point is that reading is becoming more a part of the GMS culture.

As we work with students this year, our goal is to create that culture of excellence, where it is cool to be excellent.  You can help by using the language of excellence that I described in the first newsletter on September 5.  Let’s all work together to make it cool to be excellent.

           

Cheers,

Steve