After a full year of planning preparation, and implementation, the Auction is - almost unbelievably - in our rear view mirror. And what a view it is!
We depend on the Auction as our major fundraising venture, but anyone who's ever attended or contributed to one of its many committees knows that, in reality, it's so much more. In terms of the almost magical way that so many separate components come together to create this one magnificent event, it is, perhaps, the very definition of St. Robert community. Words will never adequately convey my appreciation for the labors of love, creative energy, and hours upon hours of effort that came together to bring it to life.
To Doris Brosnan and Rob Sullivan and Melissa and Jeff Hicks: Thank you for taking the helm and leading this venture from conceptualization to actualization. You made a fairy-tale dream into reality through your gifts of vision, drive, sweat, and time.
To our committee chairs and volunteer teams: Thank you for your laser focus and proud commitment to one component of this big machine. Whether it was item inventory, clean-up, underwriting, or one of the other 17 "parts," your contributions were an essential contribution to making the whole machine accomplish its mission.
To our corporate sponsors, especially Von Briesen and Roper Law, Mosaic Marketing, the Fox Company, and US Bank: Thank you for channeling your community support through our little school and endorsing the work we're doing to prepare a highly competent workforce of the future.
To our underwriters and many, many item donors: Thank you for your generous contributions - often creatively packaged - and your confidence in our mission.
To every guest who attended: Thank you for setting aside time to celebrate St. Robert School; for dressing up and getting a sitter; for breathing life into our party; for making our community stronger.
To guests who entered into spirited bidding and those who went home with winning purchases: Thank your for opening your wallets and your hearts to help us achieve our essential fundraising mission.
Although the final numbers are not in yet, preliminary calculations indicate that the auction netted in the ballpark of $232,000, including a record of $56,453 in donations to "Operation Spectre," our media center renovation proposal. Every year, we build this event, and then hold our breath to see if "they will come." This year, we took an especially big risk in building in an "Ask" that required some understanding of educational pedagogy. We truly held our breath with uncertainty about whether you would embrace the future through this lens of changing needs. Although I've finally exhaled, your response has left me breathless!
I extend my humble gratitude to the Home and School Association and Athletic Association for your respective $10,000 and $4,000 challenge gifts. Your votes of confidence encouraged so many others to follow your generous lead. I also extend my special appreciation to the Webers and IS Corporation for your amazing individual gift of $5,000. Please know that every individual gift built upon this sturdy foundation to get us to goal. Our students (and teachers!) are looking forward with excitement to working with new technologies in our re-envisioned inspirational space.
Now that a successful Auction is in our rear view mirror, we can turn our eyes toward the next school year with confident enthusiasm. Let's watch how generosity turns into dreams materialized.
Friday, March 17, 2017
Thursday, March 9, 2017
Operation Spectre
When I reflect back over the nearly eleven years of my principalship, the accomplishments that stand out as the most gratifying were those that involved envisioning and designing something new, and, ultimately, having a hand in bringing it to life. Whether re-defining our mission and vision, guiding philosophical shifts in school culture, or leading massive change in the instructional paradigm, these experiences all afforded the opportunity for creative expression. I guess that leaving a bit of your own soul in a project is, despite the labor, a deeply satisfying endeavor. And never is that more concretely felt than in a physical project that has a visible "before-and-after."
The Media Resource Center, designed and built in 2009, was the most ambitious such facility renovation of my tenure. After over a year of planning, the transformation was completed in a single summer. Nearly every summer since, I reflect back with my colleague and then-administrative assistant, Karen Raap, on how it was even possible that we completed all that work - and all our regular summer work - in just ten weeks. I think it was the juice of creativity that propelled us.
It was a year later that the Home and School Association funded $110,000 in technology upgrades hat included interactive whiteboards, the hardwired Mac lab in the Media Resource Center, teacher laptops, and most significantly, the robust wireless network that supports our work today. That defining moment began a tidal wave of instructional shifts. In short order, we put mobile technology into the hands of our students and there was no turning back. It didn't take long to realize that if we had known in 2009 where this foray into mobile technology would take us, we would never have installed a hardwired lab.
So here we are, nearly eight years later, still using those hearty desktop Macs that were predicted to last only five years. We have finally reached the sunset of their usefulness, however, as they are no longer capable of accepting updates to the Chrome browser. Chrome is, quite literally, our lifeline to the Google domain that is our contemporary workspace. Our plan for a replacement strategy that would move us to more functional and economical Chromebooks providentially aligned with proposing potential projects for the Auction "Ask." (This is the collaborative effort that has previously funded scholarships and made our new gym floor a reality.)
What began as a functional plan, evolved into a vision of an idealized space to better support the collaborative project work that is the framework of so much of our student learning today. A conceptualization of the redesigned computer lab portion of our Media Center is in your Home Folders today. I think you will recognize that the space was designed to support flexibility, collaborative project work, and creativity.
Much has been written about the importance of flexible-use spaces in educational environments of the future. (See Horizon Report). The transformation of our static computer lab into an inspiring creative learning lab is the next critical step in keeping our school relevant and forward-thinking. It will also send a confident message to prospective families, potentially attracting new students that would be a significant return on investment.
The only way we can manage a transformation of this scale in today's economy, however, is to pool our resources, as we did for the gym project last year. In the spirit of our James Bond Auction theme, this project has been dubbed "Operation Spectre." Thank you for whatever you can contribute to making this reimagined space a reality. If you won't be at the Auction, you can still participate. Simply send a check to the office made out to St. Robert Home and School Association with "Operation Spectre" in the memo line. No gift is too small. It's, rather, many gifts that will enable this project to come to life.
If we accomplish our fundraising mission, we will be able to give our children an inspiring workspace and excellent tools to support their creative endeavors. Can I put this renovation on my summer To-Do list?
The Media Resource Center, designed and built in 2009, was the most ambitious such facility renovation of my tenure. After over a year of planning, the transformation was completed in a single summer. Nearly every summer since, I reflect back with my colleague and then-administrative assistant, Karen Raap, on how it was even possible that we completed all that work - and all our regular summer work - in just ten weeks. I think it was the juice of creativity that propelled us.
It was a year later that the Home and School Association funded $110,000 in technology upgrades hat included interactive whiteboards, the hardwired Mac lab in the Media Resource Center, teacher laptops, and most significantly, the robust wireless network that supports our work today. That defining moment began a tidal wave of instructional shifts. In short order, we put mobile technology into the hands of our students and there was no turning back. It didn't take long to realize that if we had known in 2009 where this foray into mobile technology would take us, we would never have installed a hardwired lab.
So here we are, nearly eight years later, still using those hearty desktop Macs that were predicted to last only five years. We have finally reached the sunset of their usefulness, however, as they are no longer capable of accepting updates to the Chrome browser. Chrome is, quite literally, our lifeline to the Google domain that is our contemporary workspace. Our plan for a replacement strategy that would move us to more functional and economical Chromebooks providentially aligned with proposing potential projects for the Auction "Ask." (This is the collaborative effort that has previously funded scholarships and made our new gym floor a reality.)
What began as a functional plan, evolved into a vision of an idealized space to better support the collaborative project work that is the framework of so much of our student learning today. A conceptualization of the redesigned computer lab portion of our Media Center is in your Home Folders today. I think you will recognize that the space was designed to support flexibility, collaborative project work, and creativity.
Much has been written about the importance of flexible-use spaces in educational environments of the future. (See Horizon Report). The transformation of our static computer lab into an inspiring creative learning lab is the next critical step in keeping our school relevant and forward-thinking. It will also send a confident message to prospective families, potentially attracting new students that would be a significant return on investment.
The only way we can manage a transformation of this scale in today's economy, however, is to pool our resources, as we did for the gym project last year. In the spirit of our James Bond Auction theme, this project has been dubbed "Operation Spectre." Thank you for whatever you can contribute to making this reimagined space a reality. If you won't be at the Auction, you can still participate. Simply send a check to the office made out to St. Robert Home and School Association with "Operation Spectre" in the memo line. No gift is too small. It's, rather, many gifts that will enable this project to come to life.
If we accomplish our fundraising mission, we will be able to give our children an inspiring workspace and excellent tools to support their creative endeavors. Can I put this renovation on my summer To-Do list?
Thursday, March 2, 2017
Prescription for an interior life
Mindfulness is a buzzword in education today. Is is just a "flavor of the day" or something to, well - mind? It's been defined as "paying attention on purpose." Being mindful is to be fully aware of feelings, thoughts, and sensations. It's accomplished by intentionally focusing physical and mental attention on the present moment. Nearly everyone has the capacity to do this, but today's hyper-stimulating, often competing realities very easily drive us to distraction and make this seemingly simple skill increasingly out of reach for many - especially our children, who were born into an always-on world and often experience heavy doses of adult-directed activity.
Children are arriving to school, ironically, more able to read, but less able to self-regulate activity or emotion, to sustain attention to task, to think deeply, to persist through problems. So, though mindfulness training has long been a therapeutic technique, it has worked its way into schools in a big way in recent years to combat these challenges. Teachers are learning mindfulness exercises to do with their classes. Programs are popping up and specialists coming in to work with teachers or deliver instruction directly to students. Mindfulness sessions have even replaced after-school detention in some schools with impressive results. I had the opportunity a few weeks ago to observe a classroom mindfulness lesson taught to our first graders by two of our school parents who are mental health professionals. It has provoked me to think a lot about why our children - all of us, really - need this.
The simple truth is that people who have the skills to be fully present - to a task, to others, to their own thoughts - are more intelligent, less anxious, more content, more productive, more successful. The reality of our daily experiences, however, can create a dependency on stimulation and be a powerful force against inner awareness. As with anything, mindfulness is more readily achievable when we practice. I've come to the conclusion that we should all be practicing a bit more. (There are even apps for this!) And what better time to begin than in this beautiful season of Lent?
Wednesday marked the beginning of the liturgical season that culminates in Jesus' death on the cross. As we journey through this special time, we are invited to to take up the crosses of our human imperfection and follow Jesus ever closer to Eternity. The Church gives us a formula for this 40-day journey that can be likened to spiritual mindfulness: pray, fast, give of self to others. All of these take planning, intentionality, full physical and mental presence.
The ultimate goal of our Lenten practices is, of course, to draw closer to God. We don't need to be intellectual theologians to do this. We accomplish it most profoundly by simply being with him in that quiet inner space that holds his spirit. Words are not always necessary in an intimate relationship, but awareness is, mindfulness is. Make the time to work on an interior life. And teach your children to do the same. The practice of fully attending to what really matters will "seep into the pockets of your heart" and bring a peaceful contentment to every area of your life.
Children are arriving to school, ironically, more able to read, but less able to self-regulate activity or emotion, to sustain attention to task, to think deeply, to persist through problems. So, though mindfulness training has long been a therapeutic technique, it has worked its way into schools in a big way in recent years to combat these challenges. Teachers are learning mindfulness exercises to do with their classes. Programs are popping up and specialists coming in to work with teachers or deliver instruction directly to students. Mindfulness sessions have even replaced after-school detention in some schools with impressive results. I had the opportunity a few weeks ago to observe a classroom mindfulness lesson taught to our first graders by two of our school parents who are mental health professionals. It has provoked me to think a lot about why our children - all of us, really - need this.
Wednesday marked the beginning of the liturgical season that culminates in Jesus' death on the cross. As we journey through this special time, we are invited to to take up the crosses of our human imperfection and follow Jesus ever closer to Eternity. The Church gives us a formula for this 40-day journey that can be likened to spiritual mindfulness: pray, fast, give of self to others. All of these take planning, intentionality, full physical and mental presence.
The ultimate goal of our Lenten practices is, of course, to draw closer to God. We don't need to be intellectual theologians to do this. We accomplish it most profoundly by simply being with him in that quiet inner space that holds his spirit. Words are not always necessary in an intimate relationship, but awareness is, mindfulness is. Make the time to work on an interior life. And teach your children to do the same. The practice of fully attending to what really matters will "seep into the pockets of your heart" and bring a peaceful contentment to every area of your life.
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