You don’t get that kind of interaction in the “corporate world”! By Russell Rabinowitz, Director of Finance and Operations

Spreadsheets, fire ants, broken thermostats, clogged toilets, jammed printers---these can easily become the life of a Director of Finance and Operations. Most of my days are spent analyzing numbers, working with the facilities staff, and making sure the school has all the appropriate resources it needs to deliver a high quality program. In the face of these daily challenges it is easy to lose sight of why we are at Duke School. Consumed by the details of the day-to-day operations and the running of a “business”, we forget that just up the hill is a group of young people who are learning and experiencing details in their own lives for the first time.

The week before spring break I attended the first grade health fair. At the first station, I was asked to complete a health assessment. One of the questions was “Do you get at least seven hours of sleep a night?” Of course, I answered “No.” The two students evaluating my answers on the form told me I need to get more sleep.

I then asked them what time they went to bed at night and both of them said, “Eight o’clock.” I told them I usually get home at seven (I live in Raleigh) and it would be difficult for me to eat dinner and do the other “chores” I need to do and still get to bed by eight o’clock. I suggested they come to my house and help me with my chores so I could go to bed earlier. They didn’t like that idea.

I asked them if they thought it would be a good idea if I left work earlier so I could go to bed earlier. They both agreed that was a good idea. I asked them if they would be willing to ask my boss if I could leave work earlier. They both said, “Yes.” I then asked them if they knew who my boss was. They did not.

I told them my boss is “Dave” and then asked them if they knew Dave. One of them said, “Yes, he’s the principal.”

Two days later at a staff meeting, Dave announced, “Russell needs more sleep.”

You don’t get that kind of interaction in the “corporate world”!

Reading and Writing Workshop by Kathy Bartelmay Curriculum Director

Shortly before winter break, teachers Amy Lau, Jeff Burch, and I flew to Chicago to present at the National Council of Teachers of English Annual Convention.  It was a special year at NCTE.  It was the organization’s 100th anniversary, and we were celebrating in the city where John Dewey founded the University of Chicago Lab School to test his new theories of progressive education.

What does progressive reading and writing instruction look like today?  NCTE has identified the following skills as critical to 21st century literacy:

• Develop proficiency with the tools of technology and synthesize multiple streams of information
• Build relationships with others to pose and solve problems collaboratively and cross-culturally 
 
• Create, critique, analyze, and compare texts and multimedia  

But knowing what to teach is only the first step. How schools teach is equally important. Amy, Jeff and I did our presentation on ways inquiry-based reading and writing workshops work hand-in-hand with project work to actively engage students and provide them with the skills they will need in college and beyond. To show you how this instruction differs from the way traditional schools teach reading and writing, I’ll compare the fairy and folk tale unit our second grade does to the way this genre is taught in traditional schools.

Active Inquiry Classroom

Traditional Classroom

Whole Class Instruction The teacher reads a story aloud and models the active thinking good readers do.  For example, as she reads The Paper Bag Princess, she pauses after several pages. “Whoa, this is really different than the fairy tales I’m used to.  The prince got kidnapped and the princess is off to the rescue.” After finishing the story, she writes on a chart:   Good readers … • make connections (comparing The Paper Bag Princess to traditional fairy tales) Before releasing the students to read, the teacher reminds them, “Remember when you read today, good readers are always pausing and thinking about how the story connects to other experiences they’ve had.” Independent Work Students return to tables, which contain baskets filled with fairy tales from many cultures and on a variety of reading levels. Students choose one, read independently, and record open-ended responses in reading journals. Example of a 2nd grader response in Paige & Andrea’s room: Dear Cinder Edna (main character),     I think you made the right choice thinking that Prince Randolph was boring. Cinderella certainly had a boring life after she got married!  I liked that you didn’t get married and kept a positive additude (sic) all the time. Small Group Work The teacher connects their new story to the read-alouds they have read together.  Students look at the cover, title, and pictures and make personal connections. (e.g., “This reminds me of the Cinderella DVD I saw at my grandma’s.”) Before students read silently, the teacher reminds them to mark any connections they make with post-its so they will be prepared for a discussion. Students also know to mark favorite parts or anything they don’t understand.  When finished, the teacher asks for a volunteer to start the conversation.  One student says that the character of Manyara in the story (Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters) reminds her of Cinderella’s wicked stepsister. The teacher asks her to elaborate and the child reads aloud a part she has marked with a post-it, which illustrates how mean the character is. The conversation continues.

Whole Class Instruction The teacher tells students they will begin a unit on fairy tales. She introduces the new vocabulary they will encounter in their story by writing words on a board and asking volunteers for the meaning.  Independent Work Students return to desks to do seat work or read a library book while waiting for their reading group to meet. Small Group Work After students read an assigned fairy tale from their reading book, the teacher poses questions. (“Who is the story about? What was the problem in the story?”) Students write or give oral answers and the teacher corrects.

When you walk into a Duke School reading workshop, the class is buzzing with conversation.  Students are choosing texts, reading voraciously, sharing ideas, and posing their own questions.

Our middle school social studies and language arts study group meet with me each month to investigate ways to ensure our content area reading and writing are aligned with best practices. We’re currently reading, Comprehension and Collaboration, by Stephanie Harvey and Harvey Daniels. Last Thursday we met to discuss the chapter on comprehension strategies and I think every one of us highlighted a quotation that represented our philosophy at Duke School. “Comprehension is not about answering those literal questions at the end of a story, chapter or textbook section. Comprehension is not about spitting out facts and filling in blanks. Comprehension is about understanding. And reading is not merely about word calling.  Reading is about thinking.”

And that’s what you’ll see in a Duke School reading and writing workshop, whether it is second grade or middle school-conversation, collaboration and deep thinking.

Last year Lower School Spanish teacher Carla Horta was awarded the John Watson Moore grant. Please read about her Camino de Santiago pilgrimage below and view the attached movie.

The Camino de Santiago is an old pilgrimage route to the city of Santiago de Compostela in northwestern Spain, the supposed burial place of the apostle St. James. The bit of the pilgrimage that I did is perhaps part of the most traditional stretch which is known as the camino francés. My journey started in Astorga, located at a distance of around 258 km (160 miles) east of Santiago de Compostela.

Through the camino, I met many people; among them were children who happened to be natives of Spain. I had the opportunity to talk and interview some of the children who were doing the camino with their family as part of  their summer experience. 

The majority of the camino was very challenging due to the inclines of the hills and condition of the dirt roads.  It sure felt great to have finally arrived, but in the end, the journey and the people I met were the reward.  And thanks to Duke School and the John Watson Moore grant I was able to experience an unforgettable journey. 

Our Changing Online Lives by David O'Connell

Each year, we get several questions from parents regarding their children’s internet use. Many parents, if not most, find themselves a bit overwhelmed by the pace of new technology, especially when they see their children so technologically adept. Most questions fall into two general categories: 

1. How can I understand the latest technology my child is using?
2. How can I best help my child navigate the online world?

In 2010, the Kaiser Family Foundation published its latest results of a ten-year longitudinal study (Generation M2) on the media consumption habits of kids aged 8-18. Kaisers’ definition of media ranges from TV, music, computers, to magazines and books.  When the study was initially done in 1999 there were no iPods, iPads or iPhones (and Apple stock averaged around the $50 mark). A majority of teens’ media exposure came mainly from a television, often situated in a family space. Today, while TV content is still king, teens’ viewing habits have changed.  Adolescents are more likely to receive TV or other types of media on a personal device, often with no one monitoring or helping them interpret the content.

The study concluded that those between the ages of 8 and 18 spent 7.5 hours per day with electronic devices, not including the time spent texting or talking on a cell phone.  On average, because teens often use more than one device at a time, they consume over 10 hours of content in that 7.5 hours. The study also linked low academic achievement with heavy electronic device use.  What was not clear is whether the use of the devices causes the problems, or those with difficulties turn to the devices.

While I understand that the typical Duke School student may not fold neatly into the Kaiser survey, (many DS parents find books under their child’s pillow, not media devices) the report should at least lead us to raise an eyebrow. While I doubt most DS students are consuming 10 hours of electronic media content a day, I do not doubt that our rate of increase parallels the outside world.

Lastly the study emphasized the importance of parents creating guidelines for their sons’ and daughters’ use of devices such as iPods, smart phones and laptops. It is difficult to create effective rules without understanding the technology.  With that in mind, I invite parents to come work with us for an evening in February (date and details to follow) to learn about the technology your son or daughter uses and discuss recommendations for creating effective guidelines.

The complete Kaiser study is available at http://www.kff.org/entmedia/8010.cfm

DS Teachers are Life-Long Learners

Community begins with a shared vision.  At Duke School our faculty members belong to a professional learning community; together they share the vision of always becoming better at their practice.  Our highly skilled teachers work daily in a supportive and collaborative manner to deepen their understanding of curriculum, to implement new teaching practices, to learn better ways to enhance their students’ growth, and to develop a professional community where teachers learn from other teachers.  

Our teachers engage in reflective practice through divisional, team and individual goal setting, study groups, committee work, ongoing team planning, peer coaching, and mentoring. The teachers actively seek out opportunities for professional growth through weekly time set aside for sharing ideas about fine-tuning their current practice and setting goals to implement new instructional methods for their students. Through this time of working together, our teachers think systematically about their practice and learn from each other.  Our math, literacy, and project committee work allows teachers from each grade level to set curriculum goals for improvement. In addition, our curriculum committees set growth goals each year that we develop, implement, and evaluate at the end of each school year.

Our teachers are life-long learners.  They inspire in their students the virtues of a learning community: curiosity, honesty, fairness, respect, the ability to reason and consider multiple perspectives, creativity and risk-taking, and the ability to be a problem solver.  They engage in life-long learning and they recognize their obligation to work together on school wide staff development goals. When you ask teachers what they love about working at Duke School, they will state, “I love the opportunities to learn and grow with my colleagues, and the variety of staff development opportunities provided by the school.”  Our teachers’ willingness to work in continuous collaboration to develop their practice and seek solutions together is a major factor in the success of our learning community and our shared vision.  

-Sandy Gillespie

Lower School Director

October 6 Riff: Validation

From October 2—October 4, the accreditation team came, they saw and they were conquered.  Within 72 hours they interviewed groups of teachers, students, parents, board members, administrators, visited classes, and reviewed our finances. They trekked around the campus numerous times and were glad they brought comfortable shoes.  At the end, they made recommendations—we need to hire more diverse faculty members, we need to do a better job with marketing and we should think about changing our signs.  Then they started their commendations:

·      They commended the faculty for their outstanding constructivist teaching,

·      They commended the strong overall academic program,

·      They commended our project based curriculum and urged we keep it,

·      They commended the strength of the communication between school and parents,

·      They commended the school’s strong sense of community, and

·      They commended the skill and dedication of the administrative staff. 

I literally chocked up hearing Marcia Spiller, our accreditation chair (and Chair of the National Association of Independent Schools board) sharing the team’s accolades at a school-wide faculty meeting.  The team concluded that Duke School is excellent at doing the most important thing--preparing our children for their future.  One team member said he so enjoyed visiting our classrooms that the three days felt like a vacation.   It is great to have an outside group validate your program; it is even better to know our children are getting the best education has to offer.  

We gather to volunteer

As I sat in the circle at the year-end Parent Service Organization (PSO), I looked around the room at some new and some very familiar faces. This was my first PSO meeting and after seeing Jenny Wainwright in action this year, I wanted to go to her meeting. I heard about all of their accomplishments from teacher lunch breaks to the Fall Festival from the Auction to pizza delivery. I watched as they sat there quietly pleased with what they have done so far. I also watched the excitement they had for next year.

As a person with no children and having never been part of a PSO or PTA, it became very clear, very quickly that this is one of the most important aspects of a school. Who would be in charge of New Parent Night? Who would get pizza to the students on Wednesday? Who would be responsible for teacher appreciation week? Who would be in charge of community service? This is a group that at times flies under the radar but is still so vital to the community.

I left the meeting feeling compelled to help more; I left the meeting feeling that my charge was to communicate to people how important this group is as well as how rewarded they feel by what they do. At Duke School, we are a community. I think that people who come here cannot only see it but can feel it. The PSO is a great way to show your support to the school and to the countless parents that have spent years being the key volunteers.

My hope for Duke School in the coming years is to have every person in our community participate with the PSO in any way they can. Not only is the PSO a great way to help the community but also the events are great way to meet other parents. 

Let's get the volunteering started!