The weather has begun to change from summer to fall, the opening of school ceremony has been held, the gong has been rung 39 times (once for each year since our founding in 1970) and the students have completed their first full week of classes.
It feels good to be back and going about our business after a summer of planning, remodeling, painting and installing new fencing between Lawndale and the south parking lot.
It's going to be an exciting year as we continue to move forward on developing and bringing to life the campus master plan that we created last year. We are also beginning a formal revisioning of our curriculum as we consider what our students will need to know when they graduate.
We are all filled with hope and anticipation of a great year!
Friday, August 29, 2008
Monday, February 18, 2008
Service Learning at GDS
Last week, our school community pulled together and contributed 8,600 pounds of canned goods to Greensboro Urban Ministries. In addition, we secured a $5,000 gift with which to purchase additional food for distribution to those who are in need. This incredible effort was initiated by one student, Antonio Jackson, a junior and regular volunteer at Urban Ministries. WFMY covered the can collection, which was the largest ever donated by a school. Shows what one young man can get going when he puts his mind to it.
On Friday, five of our teachers and administrators headed to Gulfport, Mississippi along with about twenty students to help rebuild houses in a community still recovering from hurricane Katrina. This is the third such trip our community has lead to provide shelter for those still struggling to get by after this devastating storm.
Our Upper School has continued to be regularly involved with our neighboring elementary school, Jesse Wharton. Students go over each day to meet with their lunch buddies and provide tutoring support on Saturday mornings. The US also provided over 110 winter jackets to be distributed to those who need them in the community. US students also participate in raising funds for Operation Smile, Heifer International, and many other worthy causes.
The Middle School operates one of the largest blood drives in the State. They have raised funds this year for Doctors Without Borders and Operation Smile. Eighth graders spend time keeping a portion of our City's roadways cleaned up. They also collected "kindly used" sports items such as footballs and soccer balls and donated them to a sports center in Mexico that serves underpriviliged kids.
Lower School students make palcemats and perform musical numbers for for two senior citizen homes, record books on tape for ESL kids at Jesse Wharton, decorated gift bags for holiday gifts in December and contributed money to the Native American Association.
Our students and our community take a serious interest in others, both near and far. They learn not only why, how and what to give, but also the joy that comes from serving others.
Now, that seems like something worth learning and feeling.
On Friday, five of our teachers and administrators headed to Gulfport, Mississippi along with about twenty students to help rebuild houses in a community still recovering from hurricane Katrina. This is the third such trip our community has lead to provide shelter for those still struggling to get by after this devastating storm.
Our Upper School has continued to be regularly involved with our neighboring elementary school, Jesse Wharton. Students go over each day to meet with their lunch buddies and provide tutoring support on Saturday mornings. The US also provided over 110 winter jackets to be distributed to those who need them in the community. US students also participate in raising funds for Operation Smile, Heifer International, and many other worthy causes.
The Middle School operates one of the largest blood drives in the State. They have raised funds this year for Doctors Without Borders and Operation Smile. Eighth graders spend time keeping a portion of our City's roadways cleaned up. They also collected "kindly used" sports items such as footballs and soccer balls and donated them to a sports center in Mexico that serves underpriviliged kids.
Lower School students make palcemats and perform musical numbers for for two senior citizen homes, record books on tape for ESL kids at Jesse Wharton, decorated gift bags for holiday gifts in December and contributed money to the Native American Association.
Our students and our community take a serious interest in others, both near and far. They learn not only why, how and what to give, but also the joy that comes from serving others.
Now, that seems like something worth learning and feeling.
Monday, January 21, 2008
Marketing GDS
How we represent GDS to our community is important to all of us.
Parents, faculty and alumni received an email last week inviting them to participate in a marketing and web site survey. We want to highlight our strengths and provide an accurate impression of our school.
I spent a morning pouring over our web site. It takes some time. The site is quite extensive, providing everything from athletic schedules, classroom assignments and board meeting summaries to current events on campus. It would be hard to imagine anything about our school not being found on the site. Of course, that's one of our challenges in this age of being able to provide a cornucopia overflow of instant digital information. How can we help both current families and prospective families find the information they seek? And, what words or terminology best convey who we are?
The survey is intended to help us know how to more efficiently and effectively do this.
Your participation will be critical to our success. I hope that you will take the time to respond.
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=dF1KlgCywQcOGa4EmsPThw_3d_3d_
Parents, faculty and alumni received an email last week inviting them to participate in a marketing and web site survey. We want to highlight our strengths and provide an accurate impression of our school.
I spent a morning pouring over our web site. It takes some time. The site is quite extensive, providing everything from athletic schedules, classroom assignments and board meeting summaries to current events on campus. It would be hard to imagine anything about our school not being found on the site. Of course, that's one of our challenges in this age of being able to provide a cornucopia overflow of instant digital information. How can we help both current families and prospective families find the information they seek? And, what words or terminology best convey who we are?
The survey is intended to help us know how to more efficiently and effectively do this.
Your participation will be critical to our success. I hope that you will take the time to respond.
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=dF1KlgCywQcOGa4EmsPThw_3d_3d_
Sunday, November 11, 2007
More than a Musical
This week's sumptuous Upper School musical production, The King and I, tells the story of Anna, a young woman from Wales who becomes the school teacher for the children of the King Monkut of Siam in the early 1860's.
The story is based on the autobiographical writings of Anna Leonowens, and there is some question as to its accuracy. But, whether Anna's experience is accurate or not, the story of colonial rule and the assimilation that it expected is well documented. Britain, through its military and economic power, brought many countries into its domain, and it expected the "savages" it ruled to conform to British law and culture once they became a part of the British "community."
As the play we watched this week unfolds, we find the King struggling to conform to the expectations of the dominate culture, while also trying to honor and promote the culture of his own people. Throughout the show his beliefs are regularly challenged by Anna, and the friendship between her and the King teeters on collapse in every scene. In the end, the King dies, unable to reconcile British ways of thinking with his own; the struggle is too much for him.
Each year, we offer enrollment to new students and their families at GDS. It would be good for all of us to take some time to reflect on how we would like to welcome them into our community. Do we expect them to give up their own cultures and heritage to conform to ours, or do we welcome them with the expectation that their rich histories will make a contribution to our community and will help us all to better understand one another? Do we believe that understanding and welcoming others will help to make us and our community a better place?
In the end, the British lost Siam because they believed that there was only one right way to do things and that its culture had little value. Let's not make the same mistake at GDS. Let's reach out with questioning minds and engage with all who seem a bit different than the mainstream and look for those things that will enrich our culture and broaden our understanding and compassion of ourselves and all who live in this world.
(More pics at http://gdsking.blogspot.com/)
The story is based on the autobiographical writings of Anna Leonowens, and there is some question as to its accuracy. But, whether Anna's experience is accurate or not, the story of colonial rule and the assimilation that it expected is well documented. Britain, through its military and economic power, brought many countries into its domain, and it expected the "savages" it ruled to conform to British law and culture once they became a part of the British "community."
As the play we watched this week unfolds, we find the King struggling to conform to the expectations of the dominate culture, while also trying to honor and promote the culture of his own people. Throughout the show his beliefs are regularly challenged by Anna, and the friendship between her and the King teeters on collapse in every scene. In the end, the King dies, unable to reconcile British ways of thinking with his own; the struggle is too much for him.
Each year, we offer enrollment to new students and their families at GDS. It would be good for all of us to take some time to reflect on how we would like to welcome them into our community. Do we expect them to give up their own cultures and heritage to conform to ours, or do we welcome them with the expectation that their rich histories will make a contribution to our community and will help us all to better understand one another? Do we believe that understanding and welcoming others will help to make us and our community a better place?
In the end, the British lost Siam because they believed that there was only one right way to do things and that its culture had little value. Let's not make the same mistake at GDS. Let's reach out with questioning minds and engage with all who seem a bit different than the mainstream and look for those things that will enrich our culture and broaden our understanding and compassion of ourselves and all who live in this world.
(More pics at http://gdsking.blogspot.com/)
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
In Praise of Students
Throughout my career, I have been interested in the effects of praise on student learning. Recently, an article in Educational Leadership caught my eye.
Carol S. Dweck, a professor of psychology at Stanford and the author of a new book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, writes that not all praise provides the same results. Some praise gives students self-defeating behaviors while other types of praise motivates students to learn.
It turns out that many students have come to believe that they have a fixed amount of intelligence and become preoccupied with how smart they are, avoiding tasks that might show that they are not so smart. They reject opportunities to learn new things because they might make mistakes. And, when they do make mistakes, they try to hide them. In general, they are not motivated to learn and don't try to learn because it would show that they are not so smart. They don't handle set backs well.
Other young people believe that effort and education will increase their intellectual ability and that intelligence is not a fixed trait. These students take on challenges and stick to them. When they make a mistake they correct it. For them, effort is a positive thing. In the face of failure, they improve their efforts and try to learn new strategies.
Recent research indicates that intelligence is not fixed, and basic aspects of intelligence can be enhanced through effort and learning.
Dweck and her colleagues found that students who were positively reinforced for their intelligence were less likely to choose challenging tasks and opportunities to learn. They also found that students who were praised for their effort wanted harder tasks and more chances to learn. They discovered that children who were praised for trying and who were told that the brain is capable of gaining in intelligence took more responsibility for their learning and engaged in school, learning for their own benefit.
If we want our children to be not only successful learners, but believe they can improve in school, it sounds like praising them for their efforts and not just their intelligence will help them to be more successful.
Carol S. Dweck, a professor of psychology at Stanford and the author of a new book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, writes that not all praise provides the same results. Some praise gives students self-defeating behaviors while other types of praise motivates students to learn.
It turns out that many students have come to believe that they have a fixed amount of intelligence and become preoccupied with how smart they are, avoiding tasks that might show that they are not so smart. They reject opportunities to learn new things because they might make mistakes. And, when they do make mistakes, they try to hide them. In general, they are not motivated to learn and don't try to learn because it would show that they are not so smart. They don't handle set backs well.
Other young people believe that effort and education will increase their intellectual ability and that intelligence is not a fixed trait. These students take on challenges and stick to them. When they make a mistake they correct it. For them, effort is a positive thing. In the face of failure, they improve their efforts and try to learn new strategies.
Recent research indicates that intelligence is not fixed, and basic aspects of intelligence can be enhanced through effort and learning.
Dweck and her colleagues found that students who were positively reinforced for their intelligence were less likely to choose challenging tasks and opportunities to learn. They also found that students who were praised for their effort wanted harder tasks and more chances to learn. They discovered that children who were praised for trying and who were told that the brain is capable of gaining in intelligence took more responsibility for their learning and engaged in school, learning for their own benefit.
If we want our children to be not only successful learners, but believe they can improve in school, it sounds like praising them for their efforts and not just their intelligence will help them to be more successful.
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
A Morning in the Lower School
One of my favorite things to do is start my day by welcoming students at the Lower School entrance and then visiting all the classrooms.
I always begin my tour at the kindergarten and work my way up to the fifth grade. In a very short time I can not only interact with most all of the students and see what their working on, but I am also reminded of the developmental stages that they grow through.
The kindergartners interact with one another by playing together, drawing and building. They learn the days of the week, months of the year and sounds that the alphabet letters make when put in different combinations. They count, sort, and learn how to measure.
Soon, they grow to be first and second graders who can determine punctuation marks, begin reading fluently, work independently and write short stories. Math consists of adding and subracting, grouping and making up problems.
In the third grade they transform from learning to read, to reading to learn. Their writing gets longer and they take a greater interest in things outside their own lives. Math becomes more challenging as they are introduced to story problems, graphs and equations.
By fourth and fifth grade, they are giving oral book reports, learning to provide helpful critiques to others, writing coherent and entertaining poems and narratives, learning the parts of plants, and scientific concepts such as how photosynthesis works. Math has moved on to complex algorithms and more complex story problems.
In a very short amount of time I get to see six years of developmental and educational growth. It's really quite amazing, and it reminds me that children do move beyond the early challenges of schooling and become delightful, knowledgeable students.
Then comes middle school...
I always begin my tour at the kindergarten and work my way up to the fifth grade. In a very short time I can not only interact with most all of the students and see what their working on, but I am also reminded of the developmental stages that they grow through.
The kindergartners interact with one another by playing together, drawing and building. They learn the days of the week, months of the year and sounds that the alphabet letters make when put in different combinations. They count, sort, and learn how to measure.
Soon, they grow to be first and second graders who can determine punctuation marks, begin reading fluently, work independently and write short stories. Math consists of adding and subracting, grouping and making up problems.
In the third grade they transform from learning to read, to reading to learn. Their writing gets longer and they take a greater interest in things outside their own lives. Math becomes more challenging as they are introduced to story problems, graphs and equations.
By fourth and fifth grade, they are giving oral book reports, learning to provide helpful critiques to others, writing coherent and entertaining poems and narratives, learning the parts of plants, and scientific concepts such as how photosynthesis works. Math has moved on to complex algorithms and more complex story problems.
In a very short amount of time I get to see six years of developmental and educational growth. It's really quite amazing, and it reminds me that children do move beyond the early challenges of schooling and become delightful, knowledgeable students.
Then comes middle school...
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Staying Informed
For those of you who want to stay informed about current events at GDS, our web site offers almost daily updates on everything ranging from interesting visitors on campus, sports highlights and student achievements to classroom activities and field trip photos.
Going more deeply into the site offers individual web pages for most every grade level, homework assignments and a myriad of calendars. It also offers this blog and news from the Board of Trustees.
We are currently in the planning stages of redesigning our web page for a rollout next summer. Let us know by emailing Stacy Calfo, our Director of Communication, of any ideas you have to improve this important link between the school and you.
Going more deeply into the site offers individual web pages for most every grade level, homework assignments and a myriad of calendars. It also offers this blog and news from the Board of Trustees.
We are currently in the planning stages of redesigning our web page for a rollout next summer. Let us know by emailing Stacy Calfo, our Director of Communication, of any ideas you have to improve this important link between the school and you.
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