“Now is the time…”

“… for all good teachers to come to the aid of their schools!” (The quote will make sense later.)

What an awesome two days we had at the 1st annual Discovery Process Best Practices Summit on the Hyde campus!

We started with educators from three different types of schools — public, private, and public charter schools — all committed to a common cause of observing, exploring, and sharing ways of improving the cultures in our schools.

Day #1 was basically Hyde School Live!… Or… A group of students and faculty demonstrating and/or role-playing a menu of signature practices that included: a Concern Meeting…

… Teacher Evaluations…

… Public Speaking…

… “Stars of the Week” (read on for an explanation) … and Journaling.

And all that was before lunch. The afternoon session featured a Biggest Job workshop facilitated by Hyde president Laura Gauld.

Given that the Hyde Summer Session was also experiencing its own Day #1, we wrapped up our day by viewing Hyde’s time-honored “Introductions” tradition where new students introduce themselves to the whole school on the first night of school. The kids, all of whom were experiencing their first 24 hours at Hyde School — did a great job! Great vibe in The Mansion!

Day #2 turned the tables over to the Summit attendees. Each school took turns presenting ideas, practices, and traditions that have proven to be especially effective in fostering inspiring cultures within their respective schools.

There was some great stuff presented covering a range of topics including: data collection and assessment… parental engagement… ways to foster togetherness during the school day… identification of specific school culture norms and ways to impact them… various approaches to student discipline… “digital citizenship” (i.e., fostering responsible on-line behavior and relationships)… “restorative circles”… and faculty development and enrichment.

It wasn’t all serious. There were many light moments thoughout the two days!

And, in addtion to the aforementioned set of journaling workbooks, participants left with published materials for future access.

But, getting back to the “Now is the Time” quote… If you’ve spent any time at Hyde School in recent years, you know that we do public speaking every Saturday morning. One of the high points of the year is the sesssion when we break off into Discovery Groups to practice delivering a single sentence borrowed (with slight editing) from Thomas Paine (1737-1809): “Now is the time for all good people to come to the aid of our country.” The idea is to really ham it up and to bellow the delivery with what we call “your playground voice.” Some years we actually do it as a competition with each Discovery Group selecting its best orator and then each one delivers the line in front of the whole school which then determines the ultimate champion by a make-shift “applause-o-meter.” (Last year’s winner — a 9th grader from Boston — was so spectacular that we had him reprise his role for all our parents at Fall Family Weekend.)

Anyway… with Laura Gauld facilitating, each particpant at the Summit took a shot at it. The hands down winner — and by all rights, our own Discovery Process Summit Best Practices Star of the Week! — was Hebron Academy athletic director Rob Morris. Normally, it’s not a good thing when someone, make that anyone, from Hebron (one of Hyde’s time-honored athletic rivals) comes on our campus and wins something, but we’ll make an exception in this case! The guy definitely earned it!

It was an inspiring two days. I’m already looking forward to next year. If you work with kids and/or families and you place culture at the top of your priority list, please join us.

Onward, Malcolm Gauld