CSD: Power of We at School

Welcome to CSD: Power of We, our new CSD Admin blog! Here, each month, you’ll find reflections from Joy, Leslie, Marianne, Connie, and Juli about school life, school culture, and school community. Our collective aim is to offer you a glimpse of the magic that we are privileged to see every day as we travel our halls and classrooms. We hope that our posts pose questions for you to consider. But we also hope that you will come to know us as a team–our expectations, our aspirations, and our commitment to our students, teachers, and parents!

Elementary School

Middle School

High School

A winning strategy

Over the past school year, we five started to notice a curious thing. High school students bestowed by fiat the title of “Principal” on their Spanish teacher. They routinely referred to two teachers in particular as “admin” and started going to the two of them for issues about which they might previously have reached out to Connie or Joy. Staff and parents alike began noting and commenting upon the presence or absence of one or the other of us five on each of the two campuses. It all had a little bit the feel of a horserace. We get it. It’s human nature to want to know what’s up. Is someone’s star rising? Is another person’s star falling? In the absence of clarity we perhaps should have been quicker to provide, we suppose it shouldn’t be surprising that the reductive place all the speculation seemed to be headed was to laying odds. Is Joy leaving? What about the other four of us? Are we getting ready for some big reveal that recasts who’s in charge at either or both schools? Are there “promotions” in the works?

At the risk of getting far too expansive, we believe the point is in the very nature of education itself. As educators we are committed to pursuing continuous improvement in our school’s structure, instruction, and curriculum. We see ourselves as the keepers of CSD’s mission to provide an optimal learning environment that reflects the tenets of the Basic School. But we also see ourselves as stewards who must always be looking 20 years down the road and building the school’s long-term viability.

Year in and year out we measure our progress toward those ideals, asking ourselves always how can we be better? We collect and analyze data about our student’s performance and growth. We read the literature and compare its findings to our observations in the classroom. We gather insights from our teachers. And we listen to our students and their parents, comparing their perspectives to our intended outcomes. Together all of it fuels our plans for school improvement and protecting the school’s future.

Getting in Trouble.

We’ll be honest. Every year, we hit that place where it’s rough-going as leaders. We’re at it, so this break comes at exactly the right time to help us re-center. We, like our students, need time to recharge and get ready for the sprint to the end of our school year so that we can end at our best!

We work every day to ensure that CSD is a safe place. Despite all that we do, we know we are not immune to the troubles and challenges of the world all around us. Our kids have good, true souls, and yet we stumble over the implied racism of casual language and popular culture. Their characters are sound, but we nonetheless confront age-old issues like underage drinking, academic dishonesty, and bullying. And while technology brings so many wonderful opportunities to our lives and our education, it also brings new challenges for us as educators and parents and certainly new opportunities for giant mistakes for our children. Affluence and abundance surround us but nothing insulates our students from struggles with emotional well-being.

Some thoughts

Reflections on Gratitude in the Midst of Fear

As we read the newspapers and watch the news, we’re often asked to stare down events
so tragic that they can paralyze us with fear. I find myself searching for meaning and even looking for someone to blame for the dearth of good answers to the challenges we see all around us. I don’t know about you, but the emotional roller coaster wears me down. I find myself stumbling a bit as I try to ascribe purpose to the events around me.

When I see tragedy, I can’t help but view it through the lens of education.

Finding the Hope in Community

As we head into the Winter Break, we find that we have lots on our minds. All of those many thoughts and concerns begin and end with the children this school community is meant to serve. The world throws an awful lot at them in the relatively short time, they walk it as kids, and the last few months have been no exception. It’s difficult for us as educators and parents not to feel a little battered by the violence and need that seems to crowd in, no matter how hard we work to shelter children from it.

The Art of Backward Design & Raising Adults

Sometimes, it helps to focus on what you’re shooting for.

Perhaps nowhere is that a more apt assertion than when it comes to working with teenagers. The easiest answers are, of course, that we want them to graduate. As our day-to-day work as parents and educators nears its end, it’s fair to say we want some certainty that these kids of ours are going to be okay. We search for signals that we’ve given the burgeoning adults all around us all of the tools they’ll need to be safe, happy, and productive.

CSD: Power of We

A winning strategy

Getting in Trouble.

Some thoughts

Reflections on Gratitude in the Midst of Fear

Finding the Hope in Community

The Art of Backward Design & Raising Adults

What we teach to our kids

The ability to talk to strangers.
The ability to keep house.
The ability to deal with interpersonal challenges.

The ability to navigate an unfamiliar place.
The ability to handle disappointment and burden.
The ability to be themselves

The ability to use and manage a calendar.
The ability to hold a job and manage money.
The ability to take constructive risks.

Visit Us Today!

CSD: Power of We

A winning strategy

Getting in Trouble.

Some thoughts

Reflections on Gratitude in the Midst of Fear

Finding the Hope in Community

The Art of Backward Design & Raising Adults

What we teach to our kids

The ability to talk to strangers.The ability to keep house.The ability to deal with interpersonal challenges.

The ability to navigate an unfamiliar place.The ability to handle disappointment and burden.The ability to be themselves

The ability to use and manage a calendar.The ability to hold a job and manage money.The ability to take constructive risks.

Visit Us Today!

The ability to talk to strangers.
The ability to keep house.
The ability to deal with interpersonal challenges.

The ability to navigate an unfamiliar place.
The ability to handle disappointment and burden.
The ability to be themselves

The ability to use and manage a calendar.
The ability to hold a job and manage money.
The ability to take constructive risks.