The 2007 Annual NAIS Conference

Richard Stark, St. Stephens Episcopal School

Attending the 2007 NAIS Conference was inspirational, overwhelming and exciting. I came away with a bagful of energy and ideas and this report is my attempt to begin to translate the experience into some meaningful format. Conferences like this one are an important break from the myopic and charge us with a new spirit of what independent schools can be. My only regret was that the experience was not shared with more of the St. Stephen’s community…my first recommendation is to save Feb 27 to March 1, 2008 for the next NAIS gathering in New York. This report is organized around notes from various workshops that I attended followed up by recommendations for St. Stephens Episcopal School. That said, it is my firm belief that our educational practice at SSES should become formalized and contextualized around an affiliation with the NAIS and other educational networks such as the IBO, NAEYC, and perhaps the ISAS.

1) IBO Workshop: Can International Baccalaureate Programs Promote Global and Programmatic Sustainability?

The IBO is a global non-profit based in Switzerland that serves almost 2000 schools in 128 countries. It provides a powerful philosophy and network of educators, students, and communities throughout the world. At the heart of the IBO philosophy is the the notion of global sustainability through the inquiry-based method, interdisciplinary studies, and global awareness. The Primary Years Program is for students ages 3-12. It further focuses on the values of international-mindedness and teaches students to be tolerant critical thinkers and resolvers of conflict.  It is a well-rounded, holistic, liberal arts education developing thoughtful and rigorous intellectuals. Teacher training is required, thorough and ongoing.  Further, IBO has excellent brand recognition and consistently increases school enrollments, making schools more sustainable. www.ibo.org

**I recommend that St. Stephen’s immediately explore, via an ad hoc task force, introducing the IBO Primary Years Program over the next several years and become an affiliated member by 2010 as a part of the joint   (re-) accreditation process with the SAES, NAIS, NAEYC, and perhaps the ISAS. Coincidently, Lisl will soon travel to Geneva, Switzerland on personal business and while she is there she will visit the IBO headquarters.

2) Becoming a Green School Workshop: Seven Steps to a Healthy and Sustainable School

The focus of this workshop was to develop a long-term vision for environmental health and ecologically sustainability at schools by establishing an effective process which engages the entire school community in a green effort.

Can you imagine a green school? Posing this question to students allows us to recognize that they can and that the greening process can be a powerful interdisciplinary framework for curriculum. Green Schools are: toxic free, incorporate energy and food into their green program, and promote environmental education within the school and to the local community. **I recommend that SSES begin this spring to take the steps to becoming a Green School and ask for volunteers from the faculty, students, parents, and parish to form the Green Team that will take us through the seven step process.

The Seven-Step process to becoming a Green School:

1)      Start a Green School Committee called the “Green Team” with membership from faculty, students, and parents.

2)      The Green Team writes a “School Environmental Vision Statement” which becomes ratified by the school board.

3)      The Green Team does an Environmental Assessment of the School Practices, quantifying the school’s ecological footprint with data from waste, energy consumption, and nutrition.

4)      The Green Team creates an Action Plan that includes student/curricular analysis of data and specific recommendations. A good resource is Eco-Schools International. Recommendations can include to become certified as a Green Business, with obvious local PR benefits.

5)      The Green Team monitors how green practices are being integrated into the curriculum. Example: How could the Science Fair have a Green theme?

6)      Students monitor and collect data ongoing to reflect changes in the school’s ecological footprint and then shares this report with the community. Again, a great opportunity for interdisciplinary studies and further, for local partnerships.

7)      The Green Team celebrates becoming green with local presentations to families and teacher training.

Topics to consider when becoming a Green School are waste, energy, pollution, habitat, and gardens. Earth Day can become a central kick-off and Green Team celebration day. Good resources are: www.greenschools.net, deborah@greenschools.net, 510-525-1026, and the NAIS week long teacher training “Sustainability Institute.”

3) Keynote Speaker: Azar Nafisi, activist and author of the bestselling Reading Lolita in Tehran, a portrait of the Islamic revolution in Iran and its impact on this university professor and her students. In 1981 she was expelled from the University of Teharan for refusing to wear the mandatory Islamic veil. Nafisi conducts workshops focusing on the relationships between culture and human rights and has written and lectured extensively on the political implications of literature and culture as well as on the human rights of Iranian women and the important role they play in the process of change for pluralism and an open society.

My notes are paraphrased, personalized and of course incomplete… “…we live in a pop-culture world that has become so political and polarized…a world reduced to the unfortunate stereotypes of People magazine and E entertainment news. These things have their place, but if we rely on them solely for our information and knowledge, then with these polarized stereotypes where everything has become leveled, then where does it leave the rest of us? What happens when thought and imagination becomes secondary? Where is the context necessary for understanding created? …in schools, in literature, in art, in music...  What happens when we don’t see thought and imagination as a body of knowledge? …at the heart of knowledge is curiosity It may be found in the precision of the poets and the passion of the scientists, not the other way around…the urge to know, to seek the unknown in ourselves.  What happens when wonder is reduced? …as educators and learners and writers and artists we need to be willing to take the risk that Alice took to chase the white rabbit down the hole, not knowing what you are jumping into. And when we do, we can see the beautiful and unpredictable work of curiosity and imagination. The power of doing this is known by the politicians, as their first attacks go to the fiction writers…Nabakov and Tolstoy. The politicians encourage us to be smug in our perceived knowledge. However, insubordination is at the heart of life…curiosity is insubordination in its purest form. Insubordination should be a matter of daily life. We are not politicians, so we are allowed to wonder about the truth of others….questioning and re-questioning to re-create a future…imagining the other, until we can reach genuine empathy. Human rights are about the curiosity to understand others …not in the sense of a cult of difference, but in an understanding the shock of recognition in the other…that we all bleed when pricked. Both Shakespeare and Mozart recognized that the love of life is communal. True diversity comes through the understanding of imagination, and even the villain gets to speak…democratic imagination tolerates this. How can 2 opposing cultures react and interact? Reductionism is not tolerance. …If you don’t like to listen to the politicians then read the mystics, who say that at the center of everything is a shared glass of wine. This communion is not solely American or Western, nor is the love for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness... Every culture has something to be ashamed of and every culture needs to be changed…Cultures necessarily have deep backgrounds and yet the politicians and the people who take power for themselves use history and religion to maintain and manipulate control…The issue of the Islamic veil isn’t whether it is bad or good, right or wrong. The issue is choice. Everyone should have the right to choose their God and understand God with their own curiosity…Does the cross mean anything if everyone is forced to wear it? This issue is choice. Saul Bellow said, “…everything that has been imagined at least once can happen at least once.” To fail with honor is best…Huck Finn, sitting one evening was told that if he helped Jim he would go to hell…and then he imagined Jim and this reminded him of Jim’s humanity, and he said, All right, I’ll go to hell…Not being politicians, we must tell the truth. If you want democracy you must be different from your oppressors. You may be different by being curious and imaginative and therefore insubordinate to the totalitariates. In a totalitarian state your individuality is attacked and the victims become the criminals…This is an existential fight…that is why totalitarian states always attack the poets and the fiction writers…They are dangerous because they recognize that the best weapon is to become more of yourself and to read and write and listen to music and in this way to keep your human dignity…I write again to re-join the community of mankind…we have become so numbed so as to become atrophied to what is really being felt by them…the other We should now begin to think about a revolution that goes to our thought and imagination and we should, like Huck, be willing to go to hell for it.

4) Workshop: The Darrow and Teton Science Schools: How to Teach Sustainability Across the Curriculum

At the Teton Science Schools teachers connect people to nature through education. At the Darrow School teachers incorporate sustainability into all aspects of curriculum. This workshop allowed me to envision a model of education that would work for St. Stephens and further, one that will lead the way to a sustainable future.

The key is to understand the sustainability within a local context. Within this context of place we need to teach students an ecological approach to knowledge that hinges upon the perspectives of Natural History and Social History. We should also treat science as a verb…that is, students should be taught how to do active research. Research can become the critical education tool. Local social complexities are important because they help us to understand various Land Ethics…that is, within the same local place, the ethics of ranchers and conservationists should be balanced with a good research design. Further, how is identity, both social and individual related to this locale? Ask yourself, what do you believe, and how does this relate to your land ethic, to your local ecology? We should integrate sustainable practice, land ethics, and environmental consciousness into our school mission and use “place” in all courses as a way to explore sustainability and identity in curriculum.

**I recommend that local and global sustainability and identity as related to place becomes a regular and reoccurring interdisciplinary themes at SSES.

5) Keynote Speaker: Erik Weihenmayer: Author of the bestselling book, Touch the Top of the World and documentary film, Farther then the Eye Can See. Despite losing his vision at age 13, Erik Weihenmayer has become one of the most celebrated and accomplished athletes in the world. At age 17 he was the first blind person to trek the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. In 2001 he became the first climber to summit Mt. Everest and a year later he became one of 100 mountaineers to climb all Seven Summits. Last year he led six blind Tibetan teenagers to 21,000 feet on the north face of Everest…

“….There is a fine line between adventure and nightmare. Humor can carry you through some of it, like positive pessimisms like, it sure is cold out here, but at least its windy or I sure am slow, but at least I’m blind…I love summits because they are goals and they are reachable. Visions are deeper than goals. Visions are more important and they are where goals spring from.  Sometimes we get lost in our goals, but we must constantly live within the framework of our vision…it begins with an empty feeling in your gut, that says, I don’t know how I’ll go on…these fears can spiral around us and they can paralyze us, but pioneers understand that life is about constantly reaching out into the darkness…pushing through a mountain of uncertainty and fear. In order to achieve greatness you have to square up to failures that are inevitable…being full of exhaustion and exhilaration creates a light that become a fuel…not avoiding adversity, but using its energy. Adversity is our greatest ally. Alchemists take the lead of life and make it gold…the alchemy needs adversity.  Try something new and bold and fail, and then through failure rise up…when we face our challenges we are on the brink of a summit…a brink of what can transform us…Teams are necessarily great friends, inextricably linked…roped up. In a world riddled by pitfalls, linking up is the only way…linked by one vision.  There will always be people who don’t believe in your vision and there will always be people who do. Get rid of them… The trick is to surround yourself with a team of believers and systems that get you through the uncertainty…the nature of the mind is like water, if you do not disturb it will become clear…fear and doubt cloud our minds, and the system that can save our is to focus on the moment…that’s when you suck it up! When you set your team up right leadership springs from unexpected places and as a group you believe yourself forward moment by moment, every step of the way…Helen Keller said, “the greatest things in the world cannot be seen or touched; they are felt by the heart.”  There are challenges and summits everywhere and when we realize that they can transform our lives rather than paralyze us…and when we join our hands with others we can do better than that, we can transform the entire earth…”

6) Workshop: Web development Project

Ask yourself, what are your schools strengths?

What do you like about the current website?

Add a “Bulletin” to the homepage for time sensitive info, and when this disappears it is replaced with the mission statement.

There is a trade-off between a website that is clean and clutter free and one that is useful…

Use FLASh to incorporate video and audio downloads

Add a search link to the homepage

Calendars: Use iCal so that parents can populate their own digital calendars

Use Push Pages for newsletters & blogs as no password are needed…the move is to be able to use portable devices like cell phones to get germane content.

Before you launch a new site send out launch announcements with tips

On the homepage: a dynamic between inward and outward facing content…enrollment/admissions, member families, fundraising, alumni, employment, student activities, curriculum…

Log-ins w/passwords work for teachers, students, and parents…not alumni, and can arrange information with single user profiles: assignments, grades, report-cards, transcripts, teacher comments, schedules, attendance…

Encourage people to bookmark portal pages on favorites

In re-design, things are getting wider and resolution better (1000 pixels)…people don’t want page after page of text

People expect to view video and audio…podcasts, call these “netcasts” so as to not be sued by apple.

The real potential for explosion is at the teacher and student content level.

**I recommend that SSES completely revamp its website in 08/09. During 07/08 an ad hoc web design task force should be formed to research this change and recommend a vendor.

7) Keynote speaker: Paul Rusesabagina: Lessons of Hope for a work in Need….

Twelve years ago Rwanda descended into madness as 1 million people were killed in 100 days…during this time Rusesabagina made a promise to protect his family. This promise ended up allowing him to find the courage to save more that 1200 people by using the weapon of words…words of hope, peace, and common dignity….words are what make us human and they are the best tool that we have to create positive change in the world. This is why nothing is more important that teaching children how to use words…

8) Branding and Effective School Web Content:

What is the first image that comes to mind when you think of SSES?...this gets us away from the blahh blahh. Imagine a 10 year old reading the webpage and a 30 year old mother, and a teacher…

Great communication is built upon an understanding of self:

What are you most passionate about?

What are you best at?...these become the essence of the brand: an expression of who we are and who we are becoming.

Branding begins with focus group: to find out who we are and how we are perceived:

This groups asks: What are we most passionate about, what are we known for, what do we have the potential to become the best in the world at?

A great brand helps a school understand itself, helps a school focus its message fro clarity and impact, can change attitudes, and tells a story

Give the website the student voice…with video

Make a clean homepage, with sub-homepages for teams/divisions and blahblah content

People read the web running…10 to 20 seconds before they click

So, limit the noise: What are the three things that are most important per page…eliminate every other option

People do not read the web left to right…they scan and skim a short chunks and pick the 1^st choice that satisfies what they want.

Use trigger words in tabs

Read 10 other websites & create a spreadsheet from tabs and keywords, then use this spreadsheet to survey constituents re what they fell is important content on the SSES site.

**I recommend that SSES goes through a thorough BRANDING process as the webpage transformation happens. That is, in 07/08 a marketing focus group should begin asking the questions articulated above and research/recommend an appropriate and affordable vendor that will facilitate a new BRAND at the same time that we present the new website in 08/09.

9) Keynote Speaker: Lisa Ling: A Global Perspective. Lisa Ling is a special correspondent for the National Geographic Channel and the Oprah Winfrey Show. She has covered the complex dualisms created by popular Western perceptions and global realities on the ground by examining and reporting the crisis of AIDS orphans in Uganda, isolationism in North Korea, and bride burning in India…In North Korea people know nothing of the outside world and therefore they talk to one another and in the United States we choose not to pay attention…in reality things are not ever what they seem when you get on the ground. Her ultimate message is to pay attention and then once you know about things like bride burning in India, you cannot pretend that you do not know.

10) The Educational Records Bureau (ERB): www.erbtest.org 212.672.9809; This is a publisher of educational achievement tests for independent and suburban public schools. It includes the ERB for standardized measurement 4^th-8^th and the ISEE entrance exam  for 5^th through high school.  I recommend that SSES move to using the ISEE as an exit exam for our 8^th graders and as an entrance exam for 5^th – 8^th grade and the ERB 4^th grade to 8^th grade.

11) Shurley English; www.shurley.com Shurley English is a comprehensive K-8 program that provides a strong grammar and writing foundation. Fun, repetition, and student participation turn students on to grammar and writing with dramatic results. SSES currently uses Shurley and I recommend that we strengthn our commitment and use of this program with  aggressive in-service training for homeroom teachers.

12) Atlas Mapping/ Rubicon, www.rubiconatlas.com Rubivon International, a world