From April 28, 2021: On the fragility of life

 April 28, 2021
On the fragility of life

We’ve spent more than 13 months contemplating our own and our loved ones’ mortality. With 1 of every 560 Americans having died of COVID over the past year, and one of every 10 having contracted the disease, it has been a fearful time. And yet, as life returns to normal, terrible and distressing things continue to happen. Whether through accident or anger, loved ones can quickly find themselves in circumstances beyond their control. So we grieve, with one of our students who lost his mother this past week. And we hug our kids a little bit tighter, and we try to make sense of a sometimes senseless world. A world that doesn’t always provide answers, but can provide a caring community to help console our hearts. As Plato said, “be kind, for everyone is fighting a battle of which you know nothing.” Sometimes that’s all we can do.

Interim Head of School, Dave Mullen

Wye River Currents, April 19, 2021

 April 19th, 2021

It has been a terrific first week of full-on in-person learning this week at Wye River Upper School. While we are sympathetic to those who cannot join us in person, spirits are light as we hear Geneya singing John Lennon in gym, see Andrew pumping iron at The Y, listen to Chris and Alexandra chatter about the osprey nest on Chesterfield Ave., watch Davin and Garrett running along Mill Creek, and hear Adon’s tenor sax as he records in the gym. Athletics and activities are in full swing and we’re getting ready for a hybrid Art and Music Expo.

No, it’s not as terrific as April 2019, but it’s a whole lot better than April 2020. And just wait until April 2022!

Now that anyone who is 16 or older can get vaccinated, we’re seeing many students join the faculty and staff among the “jabbed.” We’ll continue with pool testing, masks, hand washing and sanitizing, and social distancing at least through this school year, and will determine what precautions still need to be in place given guidelines from the state and the CDC when August rolls around. In the meantime, we’re going to enjoy having those students who can be with us in person and keep those who can’t, in the loop. I can’t wait to see things take off next fall, even if from afar!

Interim Head of School, Dave Mullen

Wye River Currents, April 14, 2021

Wye River Currents, April 14, 2021 

Welcome to our inaugural blog, in which your friendly neighborhood Head of School will offer thoughts and reflections on life at Wye River Upper School and other random notions. From now through June, Dave will be writing, and beginning in July you’ll hear from Stephanie on a semi-regular basis.
In some ways we’re asking ourselves to do what we’re asking our students to do, reflect on what’s going on in our lives and our communities in a way that offers insight to (hopefully) others, and to ourselves. Writing is a discipline and a practice, much like playing the guitar, golfing, or meditating. The more we do it the better we’ll get at it, and like those other practices there is no “arrival” point… we can always improve. Indeed, as with many of life’s important endeavors, it’s helpful to treat the journey as the reward.
We call this blog “Currents” because, just as in the real Wye River, at Wye River Upper School there’s a lot happening below the surface that can’t be seen. As teachers, the seeds we plant often don’t bloom until long after students have left us. Yet those seeds are growing, those currents are moving, under the surface, and the effect is profound. It’s helpful for me to remember that we are but one step on their journey of life, an important one, but not the final one.
We may invite other members of the school community to share this blog as time goes on, to celebrate the work our students and teachers are doing. This is a magnificent school, and as we go through another transition in the midst of a pandemic, there is much upon which to reflect.
Constructive feedback is always welcome as we undertake this blogging journey. Kudos are welcome, civil debate is fine, harsh criticism should be sent via private email to the author. We hope you enjoy the journey.

Interim Head of School, Dave Mullen

From Sept. 14, 2020: Happy Labor Day!

 

Happy Labor Day!

September 14, 2020

It is with a great deal of gratitude that we arrive at Labor Day weekend, the unofficial end of summer. Why be grateful that summer is over? Perhaps we can just be grateful that THIS summer is over. 

It's been a summer unlike any other in my 30 years of school leadership. As with most in my profession, these past months have been filled with finding PPEs, cleaning companies, electrostatic sprayers, moving desks, upgrading HVAC systems, researching room air filters, following the Centers for Disease Control and state and local health departments for ever changing guidance, talking with parents who don't want their children coming to school, talking with parents who want their child to come to school every day, upgrading internet infrastructure, interviewing prospective families looking for a better match, planning online and hybrid classes, sorting out transportation... and on and on. 

I'm blessed to be working in a school with a talented and committed group of educators who have stepped in and handled challenges every step of the way. It truly takes a village, even before students arrive, to prepare, and this is a tremendous village. Now that some students have arrived on campus the year begins to feel like what will pass for "normal," and having adolescent energy in the building picks up everyone's spirits, even as we continue to worry about health and social distancing. 

But Labor Day brings the end of planning and anticipation and the beginning of execution and refinement. So take a breath over these three days, enjoy what promises to be a lovely weekend, even if only sitting outside the front door. There's enough to be anxious about come next Tuesday, give yourself a respite over these next few days. Be grateful for nice weather, be grateful for your health, be grateful for a school community that cares, be grateful that we live in an era when distance learning is possible, be grateful for your children (and students, be grateful for your parents). 

I hope that you have a restful weekend.

From Sept. 14, 2020: Generative mindsets

 Generative mindsets

September 14, 2020

I had tears in my eyes last Friday as I sat in on our 21C meetings that Mr. Cowan, Ms. Sophocles, and Mr. Martinez were holding with students. After six months of reacting to covid, and all the attendant planning necessary to get the school year underway, it was moving to see students and teachers being generative and forward looking in their conversations. We’ve had to be far too reactive over these past six months, sadly; it was exciting to see the possibilities of being proactive in the months ahead. Education is, or ought to be, a generative exercise, and young people should be looking forward rather than backward. While our current circumstances have caused us to be looking over our shoulders for the past six months, a new school year, a hybrid schedule, and 21C projects give us encouragement that the future is brighter our past.

From Sept. 1, 2020: Another First Day of School

 

Another First Day of School

 

September 1, 2020

This week marked my 58th first day of school. I have no recollection of my emotions in the fall of 1962, walking into Warrendale Elementary School, nor many of the later first days from first grade through high school. I imagine that some were filled with hopes and expectations, others with nervousness, particularly as hormones rose through adolescence, and I fell in love with various classmates. College was eye-opening in so many ways, but my most visceral memories of college revolve around dropping off my own children, and dealing with that rite of passage as a parent. None moved into their dorm without my tearing up. I recall my own parents bravely holding back tears as I headed to Washington DC to begin my teaching career in the summer of 1979. I wish I'd asked them about those emotions, but perhaps we all need to experience that sense of loss for ourselves.

After college there were 11 years of the first day of teaching, followed by 30 years as a Head of School. There were butterflies in most of those years, sometimes mixed with sadness, and sometimes with joy. This year, strangely, there has been less anxiety, despite working in a new school as an Interim Head, with colleagues, parents, and students I don't know, and a pandemic raging outside our walls. Perhaps it's due to the furious paddling we've been doing since school ended in June, getting ready for all online, or partially online/partially in person, or all in person school. There's nothing like being busy to take your mind off your troubles!

Or perhaps my mindfulness practice is paying off.

Some students returned to the building this week, in small cohorts, while others will be online full-time. They seem happy to be back, many haven't seen each other beyond screens since March. Having some regularity to the day seems to help everyone as we go through setting up Google Meets and fashioning egg-drop challenges and learning new ways of navigating the building to maintain physical distance. The last will likely be the biggest difficulty, as the natural exuberance of adolescence quickly overtakes the caution we need to exercise, so the year looks to include constant reminders to make space. 

It's nice to have teen spirit back inside the walls, as a school devoid of students is far too silent and listless. Remind me that I wrote that last sentence when June rolls around, as I'll no doubt be ready, once again, for a period of silent and listless. For now though, we forge ahead with Algebra and Makerspace and Musical Theater, enjoying the mysterious process of growing up in a strange world that is daily being reborn.

From August 10, 2020: Problems vs. Dilemmas during COVID

Our world is being torn up, much as the yard in our Makerspace, which are related in unhappy ways. We're tearing up and regrading the Makerspace yard so that we can use it for outdoor classrooms, which is a problem solved. We need outdoor classrooms with lots of ventilation, we spend money and work to solve the problem. Or at least that problem. The larger problem is what's causing us to do this, the spread of COVID-19 throughout the state and country, which has not been solved. While many are spending money and working hard to solve this problem, efforts to control the virus have been disjointed and erratic, leaving us not much better off than we were last spring. Thus the dilemma that school leaders find themselves trying to manage, how to meet the needs of students, teachers, families, and our communities. Dilemmas don't have solutions, they must be managed, coped with, wrestled, worked around, lived through. Competing interests, competing goods, valid viewpoints abound. There is no right answer, there are many right answers, there are many wrong answers. We're faced with a 4-D decision making matrix: safety of students, safety of teachers, social emotional health of students, workload of teachers, community spread, cleaning protocols, physical distance in classrooms, wearing masks for hours, good ventilation, air filtration, physical activity, fast internet access, chronic health problems, child care issues, county guidance, state guidance... and the 4th dimension, the 7-day and 14-day rolling averages of cases per 100,000 residents in the community, and the percentage of positive cases in the community.

Problems have solutions, dilemmas must be coped with. There are no "right" answers, just various degrees of responses. Six months into this pandemic so much is uncertain, we need to give each other, and ourselves, a great deal of grace in the months ahead. 

Wrapping things up

 What a year! As I wrap up my year as Interim Head at Wye River Upper School and head into retirement, I've changed the name of the blog where I may (or may not) continue to post. For the next several days I'll re-post some writing done as we rebooted the Wye River blog earlier this spring. My fantastic successor, Stephanie Folarin, will be taking over that blog on July 1, and I look forward to watching from afar.