Leadership Blog

Happy October everyone. I had actually written something else for this week, and then I had a conversation this morning that inspired what follows—a look at the power of our cross-graded partnerships on the morning that they launched for the year. “I need to tell you,” a parent stopped me this morning, “my kids could barely sleep last night.” These students, an eighth grader and a fourth grader, had been “counting down the days all week” for the assignment of cross-graded partners. The eighth grade student was excited to become the elder partner to a pre-ker—so excited, in fact, that he...read more

It is impossible to be everywhere at once. Take it from me. I’ve tried. This sentiment feels particularly acute during Back-to-School Night when parents of multiple children in one division have to divide and conquer, or when a single parent has to divide the night. It’s true, also, for parents with children in both the lower school and middle school divisions who have two events to attend. I’m telling you. It’s impossible to be everywhere at once. So, it wasn’t particularly surprising when a happy middle school parent offhandedly commented on her way out the door last evening, “Tonight was...read more

No time to read the message from the head of school? No worries, because this year, we will be including an audio recording to let you listen instead! Click here to hear the first recording from Blue Handprint Studios (aka, Brendan’s office). Welcome back. Day 3 (today) is just about the time when the structure we have longed for as parents over the second half of August starts to take hold and the impact on students, teachers, and parents alike is one of relative exhaustion. We stare at our computer screen or our steering wheel, and we wonder—sometimes aloud—where did summer go? It’s as...read more

With two weeks remaining in the school year, teachers are planning for summer reading, evaluating how to ensure success for each student as they ‘move up’ from their current grade to the next one, and assessing their curriculum for what worked well, what didn’t, and why. All of our teachers are already planning for next fall. Many of them have lined up phenomenal professional development work at conferences on technology, innovation, diversity, art, and math, along with literacy coursework through Lesley University and much more. In addition to all of that, the second summer of the Innovation...read more