General

Can You Feel the Buzz?!

Kids are happy and showing up at our doorstep with a record number of smiles on this first day of the 2012-2013 school year.  It’s a pleasure to greet and encourage everyone as they arrive and it was fun to hear about snippets of summer vacations.

We then proceeded to the PTO meeting and greeted faces both new and returning in a packed room.  We shared our vision for the year and discussed how we find “gravity” together and keep our connection to core values while we take the next logical steps in our strategic plan.  At our core, we have some broad goals for students and these are linked to our Outcomes that were established during our strategic planning process just over a year ago.  Here they are for your review:

By 2016 each student…

• Advocates and exhibits a healthy lifestyle and respect for self and others
• Drives his/her own learning and turns it into ACTION, and
• Demonstrates the competencies and attitudes of a 21st Century learner.

We seek to achieve these values with the same vigor and enthusiasm that we apply to our mission statement where we profess love of learning and a commitment to “individual academic and holistic excellence.”

To that end, we encourage your continued partnership.  I suggested the following at the PTO meeting:

You need…

• To be hungry for information and involvement.
• To become a partner with teachers in educating your child.
• To remember the profound impact we have on children every minute of every day.
• To choose your attitude and make every moment count, for your kids and for yourself.

Jamie McKenzie Reflections

Dr. Jamie McKenzie inspired us recently with a short visit and spent time with teachers, parents, and administration.  He reinforced the notion that our hopes and dreams for students are not always about preparing them for a technologically challenging century, but that we must always remind ourselves that the primary goal is nothing less or more than a good life!

With this engagement, Dr. McKenzie reminded us all of the critical balance we seek.  We do not seek to ignore or escape technology, but instead we choose to engage with technology along with other aspects of a holistic approach to teaching and learning.  The two are connected. But, we dare not overly depend on  technology forgetting the thinking and questioning skills necessary to prudent discovery and diligent inquiry.  To have a good life, we would argue that students must be prepared for a bombardment of often devilishly deceitful media.  We dare not create a generation of automatons controlled by search engine narrowing.  Excellence rather than mediocrity!

Jamie helped us to think a bit about our messages – to students, to parents, and to each other.  We’re nervous, but that’s a necessary precursor to prudent decision making.  Thanks, Jamie!

http://vimeo.com/33096283

Dr. Jamie McKenzie, Technology Consultant from AAS Moscow on Vimeo.

Director’s Challenge

You may have seen the notice in the recent Dispatch that I’m launching a new annual tradition that I would like to call“The Director’s Challenge.”

From the Dispatch:

AAS has always been quick to take on community service projects at all levels and divisions in support of good causes or to reach out to groups of people who are struggling in some way. This year, the three divisions have come together on one project, the Prozorovo Tractor Fund, for which we feel we can have a lasting impact on a the lives of villagers in our host country. The village of Prozorova is located northwest of the Golden Ring, approximately 400km north of Moscow and they are desperately in need of a new tractor. This tractor is essential to the lives of the villagers as the local roads are poor with dirt tracks that are often only navigable by tractor. The tractor is used to supply wood and food to the elderly villagers and plough fields and transport crops in the spring and summer.

This is a new tradition to assist our students in their annual fundraising efforts. I am personally donating 15,000 rubles to the Prozorova Tractor Fund. In order to reach the “Director’s Challenge 2011-2012” goal, I encourage 30 individuals or groups in the AAS community to match my donation by also contributing 15,000 rubles each. By participating in this fundraising effort, each donator will recognized by a plaque on the “Director’s Challenge Wall.”

Please note, after 30 donations have been received this year’s challenge is closed.

I’m excited by this opportunity for the adults in this community to join together with our children to help them achieve something bigger than they could do on their own. I hope you will help our students by taking part in the First Annual Director’s Challenge!

The Emotions of Youth

Two events this past week reminded me of the often-raw nature of student expression. Emotions bottled up seemed to often find their way to the surface and spill into the hallways and various events that are part of the AAS smorgasbord.

On Monday last, our IB Drama students took to a small stage to put on 24-hour theater. These original works brought some very difficult language and emotions to a mixed audience. We laughed, we cringed, and we saw some deep wounds exposed for all – a connection to difficult issues in our world. There were poignant message of the horrors of abuse, power, corruption, and related themes. Their hearts and souls were in these short pieces and the underlying theme was obvious with emotions sharp and like daggers thrown in the dark. From the technical standpoint, it was amazing to see what emerges in 24 hours – costuming, lights, staging – everything well done! The Malyy Theater was the perfect venue for this intimate expression of something so personal and intense.

On Friday last, our “Middlers” entered their first evening social at about 5:00 p.m. A large crowd turned out for dancing, games, movies, food, and friendship. As a father, I signed up as chaperone for the night to give me a chance at connecting with my son, his new friends, and everyone else in attendance. It’s always amazing to see the range of this group of kids and reflect on the growth that emerges in these often dynamic and challenging years. Equal to the range of height was the range of emotions on display. The energy on the dance floor in the Malyy was almost overwhelming at times. We had constructed a multi-tiered dance floor and the room was filled throughout the night. The tunes belted out lyrics with intense emotional themes and resonated with the crowd as they mimicked the words while dancing alone, as couples, and in groups. The dynamics were like a complex nuclear reaction where one particle hits another building the energy exponentially to a fevered pitch of movement, color, and sound moving in waves around the room. And then the music slowed, the room emptied a bit, and a brave few remained for a subdued dance at slower pace, some as couples and others comfortably swaying on their own to the flowing cadence. Friendships were made and broken that night. There was both laughter and tears. One past student from AAS even attended the event virtually from South Korea via Skype on a student’s computer.

Tina Quick was here talking to us about the emotions of youth and how vibrant and unpredictable they are. It’s fabulous that we have an environment at AAS where occasional open expression is valued and encouraged. Some might react to a dance or a play as a moment of supervisory weakness. Not us. We see it as an important part of becoming – an important part of childhood.

Tina had some valuable messages for us on emotion and transition. If you missed it, watch below a video reminder of her important lessons. Listen for the themes of how the emotions of youth guide our understanding.

http://vimeo.com/29644833

Parents – Listen to your kids and tune in to their emotions – often raw and unrestricted. They are learning!

Students – Bring your emotions to the surface and learn from them. Be honest with yourself and others. This is the time to learn about what you can teach yourself.

Thoughts?

The Year Begins

It’s 11:00 a.m. and it almost seems too quiet. I can almost feel the learning begin in the classrooms throughout the building. After speaking to PTO about our sense of community, we are all taking a short breath before we gear up for the many activities ahead, starting with our opening this afternoon.

As each new decision looms on the horizon, I’m reminded of a message I gave to staff last week. I showed an image of a rear view mirror and suggested that you regularly need to look back to look forward. Dan Pink, the author of “Drive” recently reinforced this notion as he coined the concept of “regret management.”

Essentially, he suggests that we approach each critical decision using the 90-year old test. If I was 90 and looking back on this decision, what would I have wanted to do in this situation? This is a powerful way of providing objectivity and a distinct perspective on way-points that we often take for granted. What if we miss that important moment with a child reading them a story or telling them about where carrots come from? What if we don’t make it to that important performance or sporting event? What if we fail to notice the sad expression of disappointment because of a fight between friends that happened at school that day? What if we forget to value an answer or reward an attempt?

We’re stringing together complex interactions here on a daily basis. While I may be enjoying a moment of quiet, I can feel the complexity emerging all around like the faint buzz of an high-voltage cable hanging high overhead. It makes your skin tingle with excitement.

Don’t miss the small stuff everyone. Talk with your child tonight and really listen. What happened at school today? Really?! Then what? Don’t miss the moment!

Now Counting the Minutes….

Tomorrow we begin the final moments to the start of school with the New Family Orientation. This week has been inspiring, talking with teachers and preparing rooms and minds for the journey ahead. This video captures just a bit of the process initiated toward alignment and clarity in both our vision and mission. What do you think? Are we on the right track?

http://vimeo.com/27871518

It’s a Powerful Time of Year

Our media department here at AAS captured the moment yesterday when we welcomed new staff the AAS campus for the first time. Mixed into this memory album is pictures of our greetings at the airport and the traditional bread and salt greeting on the front steps of the school. We finished with a dance around the tree and the energy level couldn’t have been more positive.

We’ve got a great new group of teachers joining us this year and many returning staff are now starting to arrive and begin preparing rooms and materials for the imminent arrival of students. It’s an inspiring time of year with new ideas surfacing and tremendous interest in the possibilities before us.

So, let’s begin the dance of celebration, preparing for a new year filled with learning and laughter. Now that we are nourished with bread and salt, and a bit of Russian tea, bring out the instruments and dance with joy in honor of a new beginning!

http://vimeo.com/27539403

Blossoming

Any teacher will tell you that the biggest difficulty they face as educators is helping parents to understand the complex nature of the interactions that take place in a classroom to achieve learning for any individual student. Test scores give us the impression that education is an assembly line of facts being fed into a voraciously hungry machine (and we all know how hungry those teenagers can be at times). In fact, the process of educating includes thousands of nuances that revolve around complex human psychology, emotion, interests, cultural predispositions, and countless other factors.

The following video emerged the other day from a colleague I first met at the Learning 2.0 technology and learning conferences in Shanghai, China. Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach. It is a great way to look at the subtleties of learning. In particular, it hit me that parents might find this helpful in how they work with their kids at home. The steps here are simple:

• Examine
• Expose
• Emotion
• Expect
• Endear

So what do you think, parents? Can we do this at home in equal measure to what we do in schools to encourage learning and, what I would suggest is the final “E” – Empowerment?

Share your thoughts…

Summer and the Brain

As the days of summer dwindle, teachers and administrators are busy reflecting on growing their professional skills. Many are involved in advanced coursework, while others are reading books that are stacked ready for summer consumption.

While reading one piece of online professional literature, I could not help but wonder how summer was going for our students. This except by Judy Willis, MD struck me as pertinent while we all study the latest research in brain development:

During the school years, especially from ages 8-18, the most rapid phase of maturation is taking place in the prefrontal cortex. This is a critical time during which the brain is developing the individual’s executive functions. These include judgment, critical analysis, induction, deduction, delay of immediate gratification for long-term goals, recognition of relationships (symbolism, conceptualization), prioritizing, risk assessment, organization, creative problem solving. There are also emotional aspects to executive function, including the ability to identify one’s emotional state, exert emotional self-control, and reflect about emotional response choices.

The practice of writing can enhance the brain’s intake, processing, retaining, and retrieving of information. Through writing, students can increase their comfort with and success in understanding complex material, unfamiliar concepts, and subject-specific vocabulary. When writing is embedded throughout the curriculum, it promotes the brain’s attentive focus to classwork and homework, boosts long-term memory, illuminates patterns, gives the brain time for reflection, and when well-guided, is a source of conceptual development and stimulus of the brain’s highest cognition.”

It strikes me that this is the primary reason behind our investment in the IB PYP and DP program which are both linked to an integrated inquiry based methodology. We like connected themes and this matches the complex interaction between the functions listed above.

But, it also strikes me that this article in particular highlights the importance of writing as an integrating tool. Writing is a bridging process that links ideas together, but ONLY when the writing is constant, deliberate, and connected to personal interests. This is the simplicity behind the complexity. We know that learning and brain development is complex, but we also know that the simple infusion of regular and frequent writing opportunities is a simple way to encourage and sustain this growth and development.

So, I ask you – What are your kids writing about this summer? It’s not enough to talk about your adventures. Are they blogging? Writing notes and post cards home to family members? Is writing embedded in your home as a common and frequent practice?

As always, I’d be interested in your comments.