From Wednesday to Friday I attended, along with three other Westminster folks, the AASA Leadership Symposium in Boston, led by Alan November, and since we finished, I have been thinking about the cosmetic changes schools traditionally undertake versus the possibility of what November called process change. The conversation we had overlays my ongoing reflection on […]
Ross All Over the Map – blog
Finding the Right School Words for Everyone
“Words, Words, Words.” – Hamlet What language will best communicate to a school’s various constituents? What is the Venn Diagram between the appropriately nuanced language of educators and the language equipped to speak compellingly to a smart, discerning and demanding larger community? How do we use language to bring these two […]
“How would it be if we lived in that castle?”: A Five Year Old Films and Narrates
This growing up happens fast, no doubt. Three summers ago my wife, daughter and I spent a month in Italy, mostly in a small Piedmont town called Vogogna, which backs up into the northern side of the Ossola Valley not too far from Domodossola. Just this evening I found a video my daughter took one […]
Good Conversation and Chick-fil-A: Class of 2012 Lunches with the Principal
Besides simply a desire to get know Westminster’s Class of 2012 better, I want our seniors to help us see the way forward in our school. Good conversation and Chick-fil-A seem like the way to go! Next week I will host eight to ten seniors in my office for the first of a series of […]
“Aligning Schedule with Mission”: The Chance to do a Presentation on the Hawken Schedule
Excited enough that I am writing with my elbows pinched to my sides and my laptop angled awkwardly and wedged on my knees, I am flying back to Atlanta from Chicago where I had a great experience this morning speaking at the MSBP Heads Meeting about the Hawken Upper School Schedule—its genesis and its initial […]
School Transformation: Becoming a Progress Culture
When we talk about creating a transformative moment in a school, the goal is to move the curriculum and the culture to a new place. What is misleading about this kind of talk is that it sounds as if the place where the school lands will represent a new stationary normal. But in fact the goal is to transform the school into a progress-culture, in which normal will include the ongoing ability to reflect on and respond to a changing world.