• Surrounded by great mentors of great passion and faith, how will they learn how to think critically, communicate effectively, act ethically, think creatively, innovate purposefully and collaborate willingly?
• How will they be prepared to engage the world with confidence, compassion, and avid curiosity?
• How do you assess student learning?
• How do you inspire, sharpen, and equip teachers?
• How are you innovating and leading in the local and national discussion concerning education?
• What are the 21st century skills infused into the daily life of school?
• How do you design and demonstrate 21st century learning?
• What is the predominant method of instruction?
• How are you preparing and positioning students for the global marketplace?
• Should we expect more than just college prep?
• To what extent are students engaged citizen leaders both locally and globally?

This is not an exhaustive list.  Let me hear from you.

In addition, through my personal learning network, Twitter, a number of quotes and articles have captured the spirit of this message.  Here a few…

RT @afmc4: @jbrettjacobsen via @cybraryman1 FAIL = First Attempt In Learning! My Learning from Mistakes page: http://tinyurl.com/4qke9y2“

RT @GreatestQuotes: “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” – Winston Churchill

RT @30SecMBA: There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, learning from failure.~ Colin Powell

RT @fastcompany: RT @30SecMBA: “If you don’t like change, you’re going to like irrelevance even less.”—General Eric. Shinseki

RT @scottbelsky: “The biggest thing the US has going for it is its culture of failure” – @perrycheng, @telmexhub

@cliffordshelley discussing the 3 Rs Respect Responsible Resilient with LS students

RT “Everything changes when you change.” – Jim Rohn.

These are some articles that were emailed me to me around the concept of failure:

Why Success Always Starts with Failure

What if the Secret to Success is Failure

Do You Have What It Takes to be an Entrepreneur?

Papercuts

Fostering an environment for students to “fail up” is critically immportant.

How do we do this so that they are college ready, globally competitive, and engaged citizen leaders? 

After all, they are only 15 for a moment.  This is your moment to prepare and position them for the future.

Add your own thought, quote, link to article regarding “fail up.”

During the summer, I overheard one of my daughters tell her sister if she ever lost her bunny that mommy and daddy had a replacement bunny to give her.  In the midst of hearing this, I was reading The Parents We Mean to Be.  Well, as you can imagine, this situation made me reflect on my parenting, but it made me think about society at-large.  In order to protect or insolate my child from feeling (insert your word), was I contributing to a “replacement bunny” epidemic?  While our intentions seem to be ok, did we fall into the “happiness trap” or “rescuing” as Richard Weissbourd discusses in his book?  Losing her favorite bunny (while not traumatic compared to children in poverty, abuse, neglect, etc) can be an “engine” to learning how to cope and overcome a set back even at a very young age. 

Weissbourd’s book had a tremendous impact on me as a parent and educator.  The following are some impactful quotes:

• Our children’s moral qualities were also shaped day to day by what we registered, or failed to acknowledge, in the world around us, and what we asked them to register — whether we let them treat a store clerk as invisible, or commented when a child in a playground had been treated unfairly, or pointed out to them a neighbor’s good deed.
• But making happiness so central can damage children’s moral development in many ways.  We don’t have to choose between morality and happiness.
• Self becomes stronger and more mature less by being praised than by being known.
• For children to separate in healthy ways, then parents, need to separate as well.
• William Faulkner thought we as a species need to prevail: “a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance.”  Too many of us are too aggressive about promoting our children’s achievements and too passive about their moral lives. 
• But there is no magic wand.  We will have to ask more from our children, we will have to ask more from each other, and we will have to ask more from ourselves.

As a starting point and a catalyst to learn from each other, Mount Vernon launched Parent Unversity this week dialoguing about The Parents We Mean to Be.  On September 26 at 8:15 a.m. on the Founders Campus, we will Skype with Professor Weissbourd.

By the way, as you can tell from the picture, the “original” bunny is still around and the replacement one now lives in the basement.

#MVWins and #MVPSchool

Be sure to view the photos from this event.

We are a school of inquiry, innovation, and impact.  Grounded in Christian values, we prepare all students to be college ready, globally competitve, and engaged citizen leaders. 

This statement adds value to our school, is more intentional, tells a story, and gets me up in the morning to rededicate myself to MVPS students.  I am extremely proud of our new mission statement as we seek to be the best at developing and delivering a 21st century learning experience.  I look forward to defining and demonstrating “a 21st century education” (i.Plan17) at the annual Head of School Address on August 30 at 6:00 p.m.

• Parents We Mean to Be
• On Purpose
• Chasing Cool
• Communicating and Connecting with Social Media
• The Human Side of School Change

As seen on edu180atlbeta…

Listening by Design

In the business section of the Sunday New York Times, each week an executive is interviewed and expresses a significant leadership lesson that he/she has learned over time.  It never fails that approximately 90% of the time the leader reveals that listening is one of the most critical ingredients to great leadership.

So, I thought I would give listening a try today.  I did and this is what I learned from students, teachers, parents and administrators in my Mount Vernon community where I reside.

Listening to…

Claire, she taught me to be in the moment and enjoy.

Stephen, he reminded me to always assume the best.

Cate, she taught me to lead with your heart more than your head.

Allison, she taught me to see the angles.

Lauren, she modeled discernment.

Andy, he taught me that small deposits have a cumulative effect.

Eric, he taught to be a calming force.

Marsha, she pointed me in the right direction.

Paula, she ignited my creative juices.

Miles, he reminded me to take risks.

Robert, he reinvigorated my passion.

Mary, she embodied growth mindset.

Jovahn, he reminded me that nice guys do finish first.

Adrienne, she modeled serving others.

Bruce, he taught me the pursuit of precision.

Morgan, she exemplified the mindset to never, never give up.

Heather, she encouraged me to consider another point of view.

Braden, he reminded me that a sense of humor is necessary to team building.

What an incredible day of listening and learning! I need to do more of it.  I am privileged to be surrounded by great mentors.  However, as someone said recently, “Application makes all the difference.”  Now, it is time to make innovative ideas happen.

Preparing for the 2011-2012 school year, in August Mount Vernon will launch a new Middle School model including grades 5-8. Since my arrival in June 2009, I have had the opportunity to survey the landscape and take a full assessment of our programs, structure of each division, and use of facility space. In addition, dialoguing with parents, students, and teachers during the last two years as well as receiving feedback through the strategic planning process has highlighted a strong need to transition to a model intensely focused on the unique academic, developmental, social, physical, and spiritual needs of young adolescents.    Researching best practice throughout the country and having prior experience implementing this type of model for grades 5-8, I want to address some compelling components of focus to the program.

Through the objectives of the strategic plan to blend the richness of traditional education with the innovation of 21st century learning, the School, during the next five years, will utilize academic principles established by David Perkins at Harvard’s School of Education – 1) generative knowledge where schools must examine what disciplinary and interdisciplinary content will most benefit students; 2) learnable intelligence where the integration of teaching higher order thinking into subject matter instruction can have significant effects on students; 3) focus on understanding where student work demonstrates deep understanding in contrast to narrowly defined outcomes; 4) teaching for mastery and transfer; 5) learning- centered assessment where at its best functions as reflective and evaluative tool for learning; 6) embracing complexity where deep understanding requires students to deal with and even thrive on complex situations; and 7) the school as a learning organization where the pursuit of intellectual interests and professional collaborations are supported and encouraged.

As a result, meeting the 21st century academic needs of this age group of students will require the appropriate configuration of faculty, administrators, and academic resource specialists to fulfill our commitment to the “whole child.” This model encompassing grades 5-8 will build a stronger bridge from early childhood to adolescence and facilitate a smoother transition from the Middle School to the rigorous MVPS Upper School program.    Increased attention on vertical collaboration on curriculum, ERB standardized testing, technology, 21st century skills, and innovation will raise the standard, strengthen our academic program, and provide a greater identity to the Middle School at Mount Vernon.

Developmentally, this age group of students is experiencing rapid changes physically, emotionally, and psychologically. As an expert of early adolescence aptly articulated, “It is very difficult for some youngsters to be caught in the no-man’s land between their chronological age and their physical age, trying to keep their social age, their academic age, and their personality age in conformity with their chronological age.” Contributing to this, images on television, the Internet, and print media continue to advance children into adulthood faster and faster than they should. Being cognizant of natural developmental changes and the impact of societal changes, the Middle School model will not attempt to advance our students socially. Therefore, promoting a healthy development of young adolescents requires the School, partnering with you, to provide the best possible support system intensely focused on these formative years.

Most importantly, the spiritual growth of students is a high priority for the School. Currently, students in grades 5-6 attend chapel with K-4 students. While they are great role models for younger students, it is challenging to build programs and appropriate themes/messages to cover such a widespread of grades. In addition to chapel, the Christian education program will remain committed to providing an environment where students are encouraged to develop their own personal faith and spirituality, to respect the unique value of each member of the school community, and to live their lives with wisdom and moral integrity. By combining our energies, ideas and resources, we are creating a partnership of excellence – an excellence born of the understanding that knowledge alone cannot sufficiently prepare students for the challenges of the 21st century. Instead, we must offer them wisdom that only comes from God. As Christ did, may our students increase in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man (Luke 2:52).