School with Heart & Vision: A Message from the Head of School

During the very last week of school in December, I got to be interviewed by Ms. Bun and Ms. Reynolds classes about what it means to be a Head of School. The students had lots of questions ranging from how our school started to what took up most of my time in a day to how long I spent in school earning my degrees. One of the things we talked about is that, as Head of School, I spend a lot of time looking ahead and making sure our school is ready for the future. I try to think about what our students need to be ready for their next steps. And, this is the truth: we have A LOT of amazing things happening at Howard. 

 

Our Lower School team is deeply engaged with researchers and scientists from around the country as they explore the best ways to teach and measure language performance in students. In fact, this January we have prominent scientists coming to spend time on campus to further these partnerships. These research collaborations mean our students have access to the most current thinking in LD education, and that our teachers have a job perk not found in most schools as they partner directly with these scientists. Stay tuned for more details on this frontier; The Howard School is trail-blazing and people from across the country are paying attention to what we are doing here. In fact, last Fall several members of our LS team presented at a National Conference in Seattle on their work.

 

Our Middle School teachers continue their deep training and remarkable work with the Valor School. Continuing our legacy of “courageous firsts” as a school, The Howard School is the first LD school in the country to work with Valor in this program. Valor “holistically develops students and builds school communities based on trust and commitment.” This work aligns beautifully with our school values and provides space for middle school students to have structure and support around the complex social dynamics of life in Middle School everywhere! I’ve written about this before, but our work to incorporate Artificial Intelligence into the lives of our students continues. Just before break the 8th grade students piloted a program wherein they got to “talk” to Margaret Mitchell. Check out this video of students as they sat with the program developer, gave feedback, and helped advance the technology to make it the most student friendly it could be.  In January these students will go tour Margaret Mitchell’s home in Midtown. I am confident that this field trip will be more meaningful now that these students actually conversed with Ms. Mitchell! But, what’s most exciting to me is that our students are helping direct this work. 

 

The teachers and leaders in our High School have worked diligently all Fall semester to study our program and curricular set up. They have pushed themselves to ask: “is everything we are doing optimized to be the best possible for our students?” In response to that deep study, the High School is going to pilot a new schedule for next semester. This schedule is informed by neuroscience that notes that longer learning blocks have tremendous benefits. You can see more in Mr. Powell’s letter. Also, as you’ve heard me say for a year now: I wanted to see our high school develop an internship program that is robust and meaningful. This January, our seniors will undertake semester long internships; this replaces the 2 week, end of year experiences that students had previously. This experience is rich with opportunities for our students to gain real-world skills, make professional connections, and explore their interests in depth. By engaging in these internships, our seniors will have the chance to apply their classroom learning in meaningful and practical ways, preparing them for their Next Steps and life beyond Howard. We are so excited to see the impact this will have on their growth and future success.

 

Finally, mark your calendars, because I have more to share on January 16 at the State of the School address. I will share feedback from The Gowan Group, my ongoing vision for our school, and Next Steps in our New Year. I look forward to seeing you all there. 

 

Happy New Year! 

 

Dr. Anna Moore, Head of School