May HEADlines
by Chris Williamson
Head of School
Applewild is a busy place. It's hard to imagine how much happens in a week. Children explore, discover .gif)
and grow; teachers reach out to stretch, guide, challenge and support students; flowering trees blossom; and we have a wonderful Applewild Jubilee weekend. We also had server and other hardware glitches last week that caused us to lose access to our administrative files for a couple of days -- and to be without incoming email for over 24 hours at the end of the week. As a result, our "Friday Envelope (and "E-velope") could not go out on time.
Below is what we were ready to send out Friday, including some exciting news about personnel. Because of the intervening weekend, I have changed the focus of some of my HEADlines from a "preview" of the Applewild Jubilee festivities to a celebration and thank you for the great pleasure that the work of so many brought to our community. Thank you all!
Jamie McKenzie visit
My thanks to Anna Barker and the Parent Association for a delicious meal on Earth Day last Tuesday evening with Dr. Jamie McKenzie. Thanks in large part to a gift from the Jacques family, we were able to bring Jamie to campus to work with our faculty on our information literacy and technology planning and on promoting literacies and on how to encourage effective faculty professional develop-ment and change. He encouraged us to consider using the right tools for each program goal rather than be seduced by the glitz of a particular technology claim, and he emphasized how important it is to be clear with parents about why we are making the choices we make so that you can understand (and withstand!) the same “marketing churn” about “the next big thing” that schools can fall prey to, as well. He encouraged us to emphasize the teaching of “difficult truths” and to avoid the “I’m feeling lucky” (Google search) one truth of the “dotcompost.”
After working with faculty during the day, Jamie enjoyed the delicious dinner and then spoke to parents about what attributes will be important for children in our media intensive 21st Century world. He introduced parents to “Traits of Capability” and noted how important it is for both the school and home to work in partnership on developing these capacities in a world in which much media is designed for manipulation. Therefore, we need to help our children become careful and skeptical receivers of information. Parents can do this by modeling how we investigate options for vacations, considering whom to vote for and wondering about open ended questions such as, what constitutes beauty, trust, courage and considering multiple points of view. We identified traits, such as confidence, persistence, skepticism, discernment, flexibility, curiosity, resourcefulness, ingenuity, and commitment as central to competence; and Jamie encouraged us to work together to assure that our children have optimal opportunities to develop these traits. For a summary of the conversation, or to extend the discussion, go to Jamie’s website questioning.org or the link http://fno.org/parenting/outline.html. There you will find the article Parenting for an Age of Information: Preparing Your Daughter or Son for the Next Century.
Celebrating the Applewild Jubilee!
It was a pleasure to see many of you on campus for Green and White Family Day on Saturday (April 26). The smiling faces, cheers and remarkable hula hoop capabilities were a delight, as was the picnic on the lawn. We have many people to thank for organizing and supporting this family activity. I particularly want to express my appreciation to Judy Carr for her leadership. Thanks also to Kelly Jennison for organizing the Applewild Today! Alumni activities and our tribute to Founders Award recipient Ron Ansin during the day Friday – and the birthday celebration for Clarence Rabideau, who presented Ron with a certificate of appreciation from the faculty and staff. It was an honor to present Ron Ansin with the Founders Award as part of our alumni day and to hear from his Applewild grandchildren about his role in their lives and from David Stone about Ron’s many contributions to the school during his 30-year service on the Board of Trustees and more recently his role as an Honorary Trustee. As grandsons Kurt and Nick explained to us, that means that Ron has spent well over 4,000 hours in a volunteer capacity at Applewild! We were thanking Ron, yet in his remarks he thanked us.
The weekend culminated with the Fiftieth Gala at Wachusett Mountain Saturday evening. Thanks on behalf of all of us to Tia Lotuff and her committee, ably supported by Kelly, for the months of planning to create such a celebration: Karson Aubuchon, Lisa Bakstran, Beth Lindstrom, Debbie MacDonald, and Carolyn Stimpson, ably supported by Anne Davenport and Sean Morrow. John Stimpson’s Applewild Fiftieth video is a very moving tribute to the core values and the people who have made Applewild such a special place for fifty years. We had close to 300 visitors to campus for the weekend, including alumni from as far away as Seattle, San Francisco, New Mexico, Colorado, Montana, and Key West!
Congratulations to Kelly Jennison and our Development Office on a superb weekend, with the help of so many on the faculty and staff, students (including a Student Council panel for our alumni visitors on Friday and Anniversary Ambassador helpers on Saturday) and from our parent body, parents of past students, and alumni. Jeff Palmieri and his staff provided two special meals, and the campus looked spectacular.
My hunch is that our fiftieth activities will find their way into our Grandparent/Special Persons day on May 9. Please also enjoy the Parent Association Book Fair that week. We will conclude our fiftieth celebrations with the unveiling of the Mosaic Tile installation and the performance of Anthem for Applewild at our Upper School Concert on May 15, then complete the year with the packing of our time capsule, made by Fran Feldman (’08) and Erika Garbero (’09) as their wood shop project under Jack Bowen’s tutelage. That will happen at Recognition Day.
Personnel Announcements
Janet Cowan has accepted the position of Algebra and Geometry teacher in our Upper School next year. We came to know Janet this year as she designed and taught an advanced class for one of our fifth grade students. As we considered a number of candidates, we invited Janet to interview for the position and are delighted that she will be joining us full time. Janet, who earned a BA in Economics from Wesleyan in 1984 and an MBA from Babson in 1991, comes to education after a distinguished career in banking and the financial services industry, having risen to Vice President and Team Leader at Fleet National Bank. After sixteen years in that career, Janet began raising her two girls and shifted her focus to education. She has been an instructor at Voyagers Homeschool Cooperative in Acton and at Congregation Shalom for three years and has served on the Board of Directors and Finance Committee of Voyagers, an 80 member organization. As the Director of Strategic Planning, she has also led the organization’s initial planning process. Janet lives with her husband and two daughters in Brookline, New Hampshire.
As we welcome Janet to the school in her new capacity, we will also welcome Elaine Kahan back in a more formal capacity for the coming year. Elaine, whom you will remember was chair of Applewild’s mathematics department and for whom the mathematics prize is named, rejoined us in March. She has been a resource for our mathematics teachers this spring, and I am pleased that she has agreed to share her retirement with us by acting as a mentor for Janet and be available as a sounding board for mathematics teachers K – 9 during the coming year.
Yapha Mason, as I reported to you last week, is an experienced librarian with glowing references who started the K - 6 library at Brentwood School in Los Angeles in 1995. While working as the school’s librarian (and using the same Big6 research model that we use), she also taught fourth and fifth grade technology classes for a couple of years; and she directed the school’s Summer Adventures camp for the past seven years. Prior to Brentwood, she was a cataloger at a school in Houston and at her college in LA. Yapha grew up in Minneapolis, went to Los Angeles for college at University of Judaism, where she earned a BA in English and Literature in 1992, then received her MLS from UCLA in 1994. She is moving east to be closer to her parents who now live in New Bedford. She and her husband Steve have a recently turned five year old daughter named Eve who will be enrolling in our kindergarten in the fall!
With Yapha on board and experienced particularly in K – 6, we focused on finding someone who could assist us both in the Upper School library and in technology. Yapha took part in the interview process, and I am pleased that Sean Padgett will be joining her to help our Upper School faculty and students and strengthen our technology support. Sean is a graduate of Lawrence Academy, Dartmouth College (2000, in Musicology), and Simmons (2004), where he earned his MLS in Metadata and Technology.
Sean worked in the Dartmouth library for five years as Cataloging and Metadata Specialist, then moved to Research Communications Specialist at the Institute for Information Infrastructure Protection at Dartmouth. He has also coached the Dartmouth Integrated Martial Arts Club and is a singer/guitarist. He and his wife Megan look forward to moving to Fitchburg. We continue to interview for a Technology Director/Systems Administrator.
Along with more complete news about our new librarians and our new mathematics hire, I am also pleased to announce that Kyle Gillis will not be leaving us next year. Although the position in Oklahoma for his wife was an intriguing and generous opportunity, the Gillis family has decided on further reflection to stay in New Hampshire. We are delighted that Kyle will be staying as Athletic Director and Upper School English teacher at Applewild.
Spring on Campus
We enjoyed a wonderful week of weather last week, and I want to give special recognition to Tony Stancato and his staff: Paul MacMahan, Charlie Morse, and Jim Palojarvi. They have done a great job of preparing our campus for a whole series of activities this spring in addition to their regular activity. I know you notice how good the grounds look. It is a testament to their commitment to this lovely campus.
Our traditional exciting activities are planned for May; and, of course, we have added some. We will have our version of Earth Day on Saturday, May third in conjunction with one of the Fitchburg Civic Clean-up Saturdays – followed by a pizza picnic at school. Thanks to the Parents Association for supporting this. Younger children should be accompanied by adults; Upper School children can be dropped off and picked up by 12:30 (or parents can stay to help!). The Jazz Band has been invited to play for the opening of the Special Olympics at Fitchburg State on the morning of May first. I look forward to seeing our students connect across the grade levels at Buddy Field Day, to their Grandparents and or Special Persons the next Friday (and to the Parents Association Book Fair), to the Spring Concerts (and the Wiffle Ball tournament for Upper School that Friday afternoon), to Green and White Field Day, and to the Sixth Grade Play. Along with many culminating projects in various classes, that gets us through May and ready to launch into the celebrations of June. Take a moment in the busy Applewild spring to enjoy the campus – and to notice and celebrate all the important growth that happens each week!