Tag: best practices

Categories
Learning and Leading

Seeing Again with a New Purpose

By Julie Riggs
Lakehill Preparatory School, English Department Chair, K-7

I had so become discouraged with our tiny apartment that my husband agreed to visit some other rentals in the area. They were lovely and spacious, but moving would mean less privacy, higher rent and other expenses, and the enormous disruption of packing and unpacking.  Back at home, taking a newly appreciative look around, we discovered that rearranging a few pieces of furniture and tidying up clutter made our little home feel almost as spacious and charming as the others we had seen.

That’s a tangible example of revision, a skill I try to teach in English classes. To “see again” with a new purpose, to rearrange and tidy up cluttered writing, makes dysfunctional communication work. Even so, students are often reluctant to revise because writers are not only emotionally attached to our first drafts, we can become terribly stuck, believing we have no options.  But we do— all we have to do is take another look.

Categories
Building Relationships

The Courage to Learn

By Victoria John
Lakehill Preparatory School, Middle School Mathematics and Latin

Several years ago, I joined colleagues at a weekend educational retreat, hosted by the Fetzer Institute in Kalamazoo, Michigan. It was most exciting for me, as our facilitator, Parker Palmer, noted educator and author of several books, including his seminal work, The Courage to Teach, was someone I had respected for years. He is one of those rare individuals, who instantly puts individuals at ease, while empowering them to trust their intuition. Parker Palmer gave voice to my own intuition with his words, “If students get to know each other as people first, it is easier to share ideas.”

As a child entering school in the 1950s, I was always uncomfortable, afraid of sharing ideas, in a classroom setting. During my undergraduate work at Indiana University, I was drawn to John Holt’s groundbreaking book, How Children Fail. Its premise was that fear in the classroom is the biggest deterrent to learning. Inspired by his thinking, I wrote a paper suggesting a model for reducing fear in the classroom. Children would get to know each other by meeting in small groups and sharing stories about themselves. They would gradually rotate groups until students felt safer with one another in the classroom setting. My professor encouraged me to use this model when I started teaching. I successfully launched this project at Indiana University Middle School, and observed happily that my students gradually became more confident to participate in class discussions without fear of ridicule or judgment.

The original model has morphed into telling my own childhood stories related to learning, followed by my students sharing their experiences. Despite the difference in our ages, at times we all feel uncomfortable about our ability to learn. We spend more time comparing ourselves to others than focusing on our own growth. We realize how we are alike, and in the process of that acceptance, learn to respect differences. Through annual student-written feedback, I discover that students feel at ease in my classroom. This comfort level translates into a sense of community, builds teamwork and results in mutual respect that contributes to learning without fear.

My most memorable story reveals that I failed the seventh grade math final exam. I was shocked and ashamed to see a huge red “F” marked at the top of my paper. I felt terrified, not because of what my parents would say, but because of my own doubt in my ability to think. How could I, an “A” math student, fail a math test? My parents trusted me to handle the situation. I made an appointment with the teacher to discuss my performance and requested extra summer math assignments to ensure I understood the material.

I value that experience and the resulting empowerment I felt from focusing on the solution and not the problem. That choice gave me the ability not only to acknowledge my students’ disappointments, but also to guide them through the process of understanding why it happened and taking steps to move forward. They learn that resilience builds courage.

I love teaching middle school and believe in empowering students. I encourage them to trust their intuition and live within their own integrity. I believe in the inherent good in each and am inspired to guide them through the middle school experience. Through stories, my students embody the value of what Parker Palmer noted as “getting to know each other as people first.” They share amazing, humorous, and valuable stories that have a profound effect on their peers, as well as on me. In the process, they are able to focus on learning the subject matter in Latin or math, rather than hiding silently behind a wall of fear. It is a gift to have taught at Lakehill Preparatory School for 19 years. I dedicate this blog to my current eighth grade students who have influenced my life through their willingness to grow by choosing the path of courage.

 

Categories
STEM

Rover Ruckus: Lakehill Students Prepare for Lift-off in Robotics

By Jennifer Herta, Robotics Teacher/Computer Science Chair
Lakehill Preparatory School

It is now almost cliche to say “computers are everywhere.” But what might not be as readily noticed are the numerous computer-connected devices that can be set to complete tasks  autonomously. Internet-connected lights, locks, and air conditioning can run routines that you prescribe. Once only dreamed of in The Jetsons, an iteration of Rosie the Robot Maid exists in the form of robot vacuum cleaners. Autonomous cars are being tested on our roads. Recently, engineers at Google created an AI that could beat the top Go players in the world–a feat thought impossible a few years ago (check out the documentary AlphaGo, it’s a treat!). In the film Jurassic Park, the raptors’ ability to open doors is shown as a leap of intelligence. Boston Dynamics recently achieved this seemingly simple but quite difficult feat by creating a robot that can open doors. Artificial intelligence is a field with much buzz surrounding it.

 

In a world where the existence of robots and AI will continue to become routine, the students of Lakehill can benefit from the exploration of these fields by incorporating robotics into their studies. For this reason, we have started our inaugural year of Lakehill Robotics by competing in FIRST Robotics First Tech Challenge. I chose FIRST because it is an organization that not only fosters students’ appreciation and abilities in STEAM fields, but also fosters a sense of ethical responsibility–which is quite important when determining the trajectory of future AI and robotics technologies. FIRST subscribes to two trademark philosophies. The first is Gracious Professionalism®, which entails the idea that “fierce competition and mutual gain are not separate notions.” Second is Coopertition®, which is a portmanteau of cooperation and competition. Yes, we will compete fiercely, but we will help each learn and grow along the way.

 

We recently attended our first kick-off event for FTC Robotics. The event revealed the details of this year’s theme: Rover Ruckus. Each year’s theme has some real-world correlation. This year, our intrepid explorers will be tasked with creating a Mars rover that will launch from the lander and collect samples of gold and silver unobtanium. At the event, the students were a bit intimidated by the fervor of their competitors–but I am certain with a few “wins” overcoming the obstacles of creating our robot, they too will have that same level of excitement. In addition to the STEAM concepts the students will learn, the most important lessons will involve teamwork, problem solving, and grit. It is imperative for our students to learn how to experiment, fail, and persevere. I look forward to learning these important lessons with my students this year in FTC Robotics.

Categories
Retirement

A Fond Farewell

By Kaye Hauschild
Lakehill Preparatory School
Head of Middle School

For a whole lot of years, I have been privileged to work with our Assistant Headmaster, Lara Gajkowski. She is retiring at the end of this month.  

Here are a few of my favorite things about Lara:

  1. She is a true educator, ready to support forward thinking in all disciplines.
  2. She is a problem solver who uses her creativity to address a challenge, whether it is creating a workable schedule or finding staffing for an event.
  3. She is dedicated to working however long it takes to get things right.
  4. She has the ability to envision positive change and then make it into reality.
  5. She opens up her home to all of our middle schoolers so they can experience a day in the country with their friends and teachers.
  6. She is willing to have the difficult conversations when necessary and model and support others as they face difficult conversations of their own.
  7. She listens to opinions that are different than our norm and is amenable to change when it is right and good.
  8. She is a family person at heart, bringing us our tribes and our Grandparents Day celebration.
  9. She cares deeply for the well being of our students, families, teachers and staff.
  10. She loves our school as much as I do.
  11. She is my mentor, cheerleader, and friend, and I will miss her.

Categories
Teaching

Imperfection

By Tamra Badgett
French Teacher, Lakehill Preparatory School

Nelson Mandela said, “If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his own language, that goes to his heart.”

Each year, I like to tell my beginner French students a story, one whose message applies specifically to them and one that proves true Mandela’s wise words. Let me share it with you.

While living in Toulouse, France, I had an experience that transformed my perspective on language learning. One day, I stood in the plaza gazing across at a bank of brick buildings. My GPS had falsely said that the electric company, which I desperately needed, should be exactly where my eyes now found nothing but apartments and store fronts. Helpless, I glanced around at the confident citizens of the town, intimidated at the idea of having to converse with one of them to solve my dilemma.

Although I spoke French, according to my bachelor’s degree, I didn’t. My type A personality had convinced me that I had no business speaking the language if I couldn’t do so with near perfection, so I listened, I read, I wrote, and I avoided speaking whenever possible.

Nearby in the plaza, an older gentlemen stood seemingly waiting for someone to join him. Of all the individuals hurrying this way and that, he looked the most friendly. Tap, tap. “Monsieur, je suis désolée mais pouvez-vous me donner de l’information?” The man looked at me kindly but motioned to his ear and shook his head. I began to repeat myself, more loudly this time. The gentleman stayed my gesturing hands with his own, smiled almost wistfully, and again shook his head. With hesitancy, I bent the fingers of my right hand into the word, “Aidez?” The gentleman’s countenance brightened and his eyes grew round. I had spoken in his own language–not French, but sign language. With my extremely basic ASL, I asked the man if he knew directions to the electric company. To match my basic finger spelling, he answered in simple terms and phrases.

What I learned that day, and the message I share with my beginner French students, is that “the basics” of a language are all that are needed to form a connection and to show compassion and respect for someone. I met the gentlemen in the plaza where he needed with my ASL and he met me where I needed with simple, slow French.

It is my belief that I don’t teach French at Lakehill just so my students can add another skill to their college resumes. No, I teach French so they are equipped with the means to live out our Lakehill mission which states that our students serve with compassion. Armed with just the basics, they can, in fact, form connections and help others in our ever more globalized and diverse society. Visit my beginner French class and you will surely overhear incorrectly conjugated verbs, franglais, anglicismes, and bizarre circumlocation. You will hear the students learning to connect with others, and I think that is a beautiful sound indeed.

Categories
Student Perspectives

Student Perspectives on Lakehill’s New Space

The following are thoughts on Lakehill’s newly enhanced campus, written by students in Mark Guerra’s Middle School Creative Writing class.

“I walked on the steps of the new Lakehill stairs and looked forward. The doors to the new school greeted me like an old friend. I opened the doors and saw the new, glistening white hallways and the sparkling, new front desk. I walked down the hallway and up the stairs. Everything was old but also new. I noticed the new and old kids and gave a friendly greeting while walking by. I was so happy and joyous to see the new school I had gone to for the past years. Walking up to my locker gave me a sense of excitement and I was ready to start my new school year.”

By Zak Goldstein, Class of 2022

 

“When I came to school on Friday for Orientation, I was amazed how everything was different and modern. Even though I saw the architect plans and construction during the school year, I still didn’t expect it to look like it does. Even when I was looking around on Friday, I missed the new addition to the Lower School area!  I also find it interesting how they incorporated the old school into the new one. For example, they left some of the old walls and brick in some places, reminding me where the old school ends and where the new one begins.”

Laurel Way, Class of 2022

Categories
Environmental Education

Eco-Friendly Fun: Lakehill Students Educate Others at Earth Day Texas

The 2017 Earth Day Texas was the planet’s largest Earth Day Expo ever. The 130,000 visitors who attended the event, held April 21-23 at Fair Park, were treated to more than 250 speakers and 700 interactive exhibits showcasing leaders in the corporate, academic, and non-profit worlds, including a booth featuring Lakehill Preparatory School.

Earth Day Texas strives to increase environmental awareness through education. Thousands of educators and students from more than 100 schools attended the three-day event.

Students in Jeremy Holman’s AP Environmental Science class showcased a variety of environmentally friendly projects. Their exhibits included art works made from paper waste, an experiment on how plants help reduce soil erosion, and an activity to learn what types of materials can and cannot be recycled.

Lakehill’s Director of Environmental Education, Daniel Bracken, helped visitors paint silicone fish and leaves that they rolled paint onto and used to create colorful prints. “Many visitors were also interested in the types of classes that are held at the ESC,” Bracken said. “I showed off the student created herbarium and insect collections that were created by second and third grade students.”

Bryna Thomson’s Middle School student volunteers in fifth and eighth grade showed visitors the ESC’s worm compost bin and taught them about the benefits of worm composting. They also engaged visitors in a fun matching game to teach about the amount of time it takes different materials to break down in a landfill.

“Visitors especially appreciated the worm farm,” said Head of Lower School John Trout. “The courageous held the wriggling creatures in their hands as they learned why farmers love to have worms in their gardens while the timid cringed from afar.”

Earth Day Texas is an annual festival seeking to elevate environmental awareness and change the way North Texans think, live, and work. This is the sixth year that Lakehill has been featured.

Categories
Environmental Education

Update from Lakehill’s Environmental Science Center

By Daniel Bracken
Lakehill Preparatory School, Director of Environmental Education

This term, kindergarten students learned about animal movement. They played a game where they acted out and guessed the different types of animal movements. They studied feathers, animal tracks, snake skins, and silicone fish to investigate the different ways that animals move. They also handled red wiggler worms from the ESC worm farms to feel how the worms are able to slide through soil.

First grade learned about different bird habitats. They observed nests from the ESC collection, and learned about some of the largest, oldest, heaviest, and most intricate nests that birds can make. the classes used cardboard drink containers to create bird houses to take home.

Second grade studied how the form of insects’ legs affects their movement. They observed insect specimens which had jumping, swimming, running, and killing legs. They also made pitfall traps in the forest at the ESC. The students will check their traps on their next visit and add any insects that are collected to the ESC insect collection.

Third grade observed the results from their plant maze experiments. They saw how plants can wind their way around the walls of a maze to reach light. They also learned about the chloroplasts in the aquatic plants from the ESC aquarium. They were able to see that the green pigment of plants comes from these little green blobs. They also helped to replant the garden with brussels sprouts and kohlrabi.

Fourth grade investigated tree seeds and cones as a method of identifying different types of trees. They identified the type of seeds that beans, dates, peas, junipers, red buds, and avocados have. After determining what type of seed each plant had, they had to conclude how that seed could be dispersed. The fourth graders also observed how much their avocado seedlings had grown.

Fifth grade learned about regular composting and vermicomposting (worm composting), using their knowledge about soil nutrients from their previous visit to evaluate the value of the earth worm castings from the ESC worm farm. They observed how nutrient rich the soil from the worm farms is and helped to harvest the castings, building a new home for the red wigglers. The worm castings were also used in the Little Sprouts Garden before the third grade completed their spring planting.
Sixth grade brought tap water from their homes and tested its water quality for pH, iron, copper, hardness, and chlorine. They also learned about the potential risks of having acidic, basic, or hard water, or having high levels of metals.

Seventh grade created QR codes for the trees which they had identified on a previous visit. The QR codes will have information such as tree species and GPS coordinates that will be hung on the trees. The codes can be scanned to reveal the information to other students and visitors. The students also conducted an experiment on variegated plants that revealed that not only do the white parts of plants not have chloroplasts, but they are also unable to produce and store sugar as starch in those areas of the leaf. They removed the green color from variegated plants using alcohol and used iodine to stain starches. They observed how stained starch replicated the original pattern of the variegated leaf.

Eighth grade tested the efficiency of their solar houses. They used the results of the experiment to determine how to better build a solar house that would keep the house cooler in the summer, warmer in the winter, and provide solar power throughout the year. They also observed how solar energy can be used to create movement by investigating radiometers and solar balloons.

See more pictures from the ESC.

For more information about Lakehill Preparatory School, visit lakehillprep.org.

Categories
Student Perspectives

The Right Balance

By Salma El-Feky, ’17
Marking Intern, Lakehill Preparatory School

Going into my senior year, I wanted to do everything I could possibly do and be involved in every activity. I wanted to make every minute of my senior year count.

Throughout the school year, my parents and I would sit down to discuss my schedule and what was going on that week. We also spent a lot of time talking about my future plans.

During those discussions, my parents gave me some good advice: “Be honest with yourself and find a balance between school, friends, and family.” This advice helped me change the way I approached my school work and my extracurricular activities. I realized that I can’t do every single thing, every single time. I prioritized my responsibilities and focused on those that were the most important. With my new focus, I could make a schedule and stick to it. I learned how to better manage my time. In the past, it was hard for me to admit when I needed help. By communicating more with my teachers, I gained confidence and certainty in completing my assignments. Most importantly, I feel better prepared for the future and for the college experience that is just ahead.

High school is definitely a challenge and can be overwhelming – if you let it be. While I wish I could go back and share this advice with the freshman version of myself, I am glad that I received it now and will carry it with me to college.

Enjoy every moment in high school, get involved, and be active–but remember to be honest with yourself and make sure you seek balance in your life. Schedule your school work, but remember to leave enough hours to get a good night’s sleep and enjoy some down time for yourself. This will keep you from becoming stressed and will allow time for you to enjoy the little moments and make memories.

While I was writing this, I received my first college acceptance letter! I am so grateful for my Lakehill experience and the environment that has allowed me to stay positive and focus on my goals. I can’t wait to see what comes next!

Salma El-Feky

Categories
Lower School Traditions

Three Simple Rules

By John Trout
Head of Lower School, Lakehill Preparatory School

How may rules did you have when you were in elementary school? I remember giant lists hanging on my classroom walls when I was growing up, and they all seemed to be telling me what I shouldn’t be doing. Ask any Lakehill Lower School student how many rules they have, and they can tell you. Three. Just three! And, rather than telling students which behaviors are unwanted, our rules remind children how a Lakehill student should behave. Students are expected to Be Safe, to Be Respectful, and to Welcome Others.

Such vague, nebulous rules don’t tell kids very much, and that’s their genius. They require students to think before they act, to imagine the natural consequences of their choices, and to craft a school environment that is warm and friendly. The Safety Rule reminds students to be aware of their surroundings and their bodies. When students push the boundaries, we, as teachers, ask them to tell us what could go wrong, and to decide how to correct the situation. The Respect Rule encourages empathy. Students are asked to imagine how a situation might look from another point of view, and to imagine how they would feel if roles were reversed. The Welcome Rule promotes togetherness. It reminds students to reach out to others to ensure that their peers feel wanted and have a place in the group.
This year, we celebrated the 10th anniversary of a special tradition in Lower School, the annual Triangle Rules Poster Contest. Dozens of Lower School students submitted posters to creatively remind their classmates of our Triangle Rules. The winners and runners up were celebrated at our Triangle Rules Assembly on Monday, October 17. The winning poster, a construction-themed illustration by third grader Madeline Jones, will be reproduced for display in every Lower School classroom and along the hallways as a year-long reminder of who Lakehill students are meant to be.
triangle-rules