I love the start of school because it overflows with possibility. Yes, getting ready for the start of school is not as much fun. There are binders to purchase, pens and pencils to organize, books to buy, and schedules to rearrange.

 

Still, in a very real way, the start of school gives every child the opportunity to recreate himself as a person and student. Whatever happened last year is old news, and the next nine months stretch out before us as a blank canvas upon which each child can paint her masterpiece.

 

One of our areas of focus over the past few years has been on intentionality and mindfulness. Rather than letting the business of life overwhelm our priorities, we are teaching students to be more intentional – to try to take time to reflect and refocus on those things that are most important to us – our goals, priorities, and values.

 

In its simplest form, practicing mindfulness is trying to help one another bring our best selves to each moment of our day. Sounds simple, but it is not easy to do. Life intervenes.

 

For our students, it means helping them practice on a daily basis being courageous, kind, inclusive, responsible, gritty and grateful. Practice, as we all know, is the name of the learning game. Study after study indicates that hard work (repeated practice over time) trumps ability. This is because of how our brain physiology works.

 

Whatever we do alters our brain, because it encourages synapse growth, the mechanism by which our brains make or cement neural pathways. If we are taking an ethical short cut or playing video games, our brain is cementing connections to make us better at these skills. Alternatively, when we are working hard to be kind, gritty or grateful, the same process is at work. This means that over time, we can become more consistent and skilled in those areas that we are intentionally practicing, whether it is courage or quadratic equations.

 

My hope for each child this year is that she has the chance to explore who she wants to become. This means that I hope each child will find in our program moments of challenge as well as moments of success. I hope each will try something new and discover an unexpected area of passion. I hope that each will make new friends, but also find in old friends something new. I believe that we get out of relationships and life in equal measure to what we put in. If we are “all in” and truly giving our best effort daily, we learn more, grow more, and feel more than if we timidly dip a toe. In this sense, I hope that each of our students learns how to invest fully in his or her academic, athletic, artistic, and social efforts, for it is this commitment that will make all the difference.

 

Programmatically, we are excited to share with you some of the changes we have been working on over the summer. Great schools do not rest on their laurels; instead, they continue to pilot, refine, update and make choices about how to most wisely use our time with students. Per usual, teachers have used the summer to do professional development and tweak curriculum so that our focus is ever tighter on developing students’ ability to think critically, solve problems, be creative and collaborate together. Notable changes this year include a STEM-focused 8th grade science program, a new heritage-speaker Spanish curriculum, a revised 8th grade civics program, a ThinkingLab break-out space for collaborative work, and the addition of a fifth Language Arts section to 7th and 8th grades. All the pieces are in place to make this a terrific year – caring and experienced teachers, bright, inquisitive students, and supportive parents. To make it happen, it will take daily effort and commitment on everyone’s part.

 

Our goal is to create the kind of supportive learning environment that is most likely to encourage growth in our students. It will also demand a willingness to work together closely to solve problems when we hit a “bump” in the road. And there will be bumps. There will also be many, many moments of incremental triumph: The composition that is just a little bit more persuasive than the last, the “aha” moment in math class when it all becomes clear, the goal scored and instrumental piece mastered are all moments to recognize, as they collectively signal progress toward greater maturity. Put simply, I am hoping that every child finds the right combination of challenge and support to spread his wings, try new things, and become the kind of person and learner each hopes to become.