Weekly Message from Steve Warner, Head of School (November 7, 2011)

Greetings GreenMount Community,

            Two weeks ago, I was happy to share with you the fact that our 6^th – 8^th grade students received rave reviews from our guides during our trip to Gettysburg.  And now I can report to you that we have received similar accolades from our guest presenters at our last two Community Day events.  David Wright, of GWWO, Inc./Architects, visited GMS on Friday, October 28, to talk about the American impressionist painter, Thomas Moran, who painted during the time period that included the Civil War.  Thanks to Kirsten and Mark Lapointe, who arranged for our guest, we were treated to an impressive slide show along with signed works of Mr. Moran.

Our students were engaged and excellent listeners during the presentation; afterward,Mr. Wright complimented the students and expressed how impressed he was with their responses and questions.  Mr. Wright did an excellent job of exciting the students about Thomas Moran’s art, but he gave due credit to our students for their attention and obvious curiosity.  Likewise, our guest the following week, Charles Hawley, a Civil War re-enactor, was also very impressed with the knowledge on the subject of even some of our youngest students.  “I have been to many Maryland schools and never had (seen) the knowledge and attention displayed by your students,” stated Mr. Hawley.  “Congratulations on a wonderful job.”  Our visit to the Maryland Historical Society last Wednesday resulted in similar compliments for our students and, of course, our teachers.  It is obvious to all of these folks that our theme studies program, headed by Ms. Laura, Ms. Tanza, Mr. Fletcher and the rest of our staff, is exceptional in scope and supported by an ethic of excellence that is indeed becoming part of how we live and breathe around here.  I couldn’t be more proud of our teachers and our students!

Some announcements:

            Many of you are already aware that Ms. Charita is leaving us after Thursday to have back surgery, and we certainly wish her the best.  We had arranged for a long-term substitute for the rest of the year, but unfortunately, that person called late last week to cancel as she had found a full-time position. I was out of town on Friday and contacted Ms. Elaine, who did an excellent job of immediately posting our opening on the AIMS web site.  This morning, I have been calling each of the 12 candidates that have already applied for this position.  Many of them have impressive resumes, and we have already started interviewing the applicants (three today).  I will select the best candidate by the end of the day on Wednesday, and that person will start on Monday.

            While in Connecticut this weekend, I saw many TV promotions concerning a nation-wide test of the Emergency Broadcast System.  It will commence at 2:00 p.m. on Wednesday and run concurrently across the country.  The reality is that this broadcast may not warn the audience that it is just a test.  So don’t get all War of the Worlds-panicky if the test sounds genuine…

Actually, it will sound genuine.  It’s a genuine test.

Cheers,

Steve

Weekly Message from Steve Warner, Head of School (September 26, 2011)

Each week Head of School, Steve Warner, addresses GreenMount parents in a weekly letter. This is his letter from September 26, 2011.

 

Greetings, GreenMount Community,

            This morning, at our Monday Morning Meeting, I talked to the students about being active listeners and engaged learners, which are numbers 3 and 4, respectively, under our Academic Pillars.  I received some good responses and even though it was Monday morning, they were, in fact, being active listeners.  Some students defined active listening as using your mind to think about what you are hearing.  Another student mentioned that to demonstrate active listening you should be quiet and make eye contact with the speaker.  Still another student pointed out that active listening is also showing respect.  These excellent comments came from students at all levels from kindergarten to middle school.  I was very proud of how they are developing these core learning behaviors.

            When talking about engaged learning, several students gave examples of when they have felt engaged and interested in what they were learning.  Teachers also chimed in with examples of times when they saw children engaged.  It was a very good 10-minute meeting.

            Somewhat apropos of this is an interesting article that a parent sent to me this morning.  It is based on research that was done comparing the achievement of students in a very exclusive private school to that of students from low-income families.  I will need to read this again for more detail, but the result of the research was that, while the “rich kids” did well academically and got into great schools, they often floundered and ended up dropping out, whereas the “poor kids” who got to college had a much better shot at graduating.  Though surprising, it is understandable when you realize that those low-income families really had to work hard and persevere in order to get their children into college in the first place.  The research showed that while the private school kids had a great deal of support, it was that enabling that may have led them to crash the first time they had to survive on their own.  The students from the low-income families knew what it meant to work hard and overcome obstacles so that when they faced them in college, they were able to handle them. According to the researchers, all of this exemplifies the importance of character. Students with strong character will live happier, more productive lives and be able to handle those problems that life throws at us from time to time.

So where does GreenMount fit into this scheme of things?  We are very diverse, with families of many income levels and a school where we value many of the character traits that lead our students to become independent learners.  We focus on many of the character traits mentioned in the article through our Pillars.  It is good to know that in many ways we are teaching our students that to struggle and fail occasionally (and what to do next) is going to help them as they become more and more independent people.  It will also be a good idea for us to keep the idea of character education, as we have and to perhaps use some of the ideas from the article to enrich our efforts.

            My thanks to parents who share their ideas and research as we continue to find ways to make our program at GMS better each day.

“If you have integrity, nothing else matters. If you don't have integrity, nothing else matters.” - Alan Simpson

Cheers,

Steve