Month: January 2012

Categories
Learning and Leading

Going For Goals

By Patti Brooks
Lower School Coordinator, Lakehill Preparatory School
I love setting  resolutions every New Year!  I’d rather call them goals, though. Goals are something we all set whether it be at work, at home with our families, or for our personal health.
As a former second grade teacher, my class and I would always discuss resolutions and goal setting during the first week back from our holiday. Seven year olds know the meaning of goals better than resolutions.  They understand that a goal can be a score in soccer, a spelling test grade, or making their bed each day.
I loved seeing that thoughtful look on their faces when I asked everyone, “What is your goal for the new year coming up?”  Sometimes hands flew up quickly, but certainly not from everyone!  Setting a goal is hard!   It means you have to be able to look at yourself and see areas in your life where you need to improve. It means putting your feelings and thoughts  into words!
I read recently how important it is to teach children a “goal setting routine”. It trains them for life to get in a habit of looking at their situation at home, school, in sports, etc. and being able to decide how they want to improve.  Then the next big step is writing down the goals and posting the paper where it can be seen daily (as a friendly reminder). It is hard to stick to a plan of improvement, as we all know.
Hopefully, the resolutions/goals we all set for 2012 will be realistic, attainable, and accomplished!

 

Categories
Technology

The Evolution of Dinosaurs

By Kaye Hauschild
Middle School Coordinator, Lakehill Preparatory School

Among the wealth of things I have not yet discussed in this blog, there is a category entitled “nicknames.” It is a common experience of middle school that continues on throughout our lives.  Just like everyone else, I have a pile of them, from the sweet (sunshine) to the inexplicable (Jethro Bodine).

One of my favorite current nicknames is dinosaur.  I can imagine that you might initially consider that a negative connotation, but I am proud to have earned the appellation.

First of all, the name reflects the many years that I have been a proud member of the Lakehill faculty.  It is a lot!  It also speaks to the fact that my life experiences include rotary phones and the typewriter.  But most importantly, this name is a challenge (from those with life experiences beginning with mobile phones) to grow and change or else become a museum exhibit.

So, wearing my retro No Fear T-shirt, I have accepted the challenge!  In the course of this school year alone, I have learned how to use QR codes instead of traditional papers as a way to present research. I am able use on-line sites to share my work with my colleagues so that we can co-author and edit. I have become more adept at recognizing and responding to the misuse of technology.  I have been tutored in the appropriate classroom use of podcasts, pencasts, Kinect chat, and RPGs.   I have also discovered that I am at least as smart as my phone.

So now, if there is a museum exhibit in my future, it most likely will be a virtual tour that we can do from our classroom!

Categories
Family and Community

A Crazy Quilt

By Lara Gajkowski
Assistant Headmaster, Lakehill Preparatory School 

Recently, my mom and I pieced a baby quilt for my newest grandbaby – this time a girl! My sister-in law, who is a fabulous quilter, picked out the fabric and even cut out the pieces for my mother. We are making a “Crazy Quilt” so the pieces are of various shapes and colors. My mother and I are experienced at piecing quilts but selecting colors is not always our forte.  So we thought, “great, a master quilter is picking out the fabric for us, this should be a cinch”.

Well, we started piecing the quilt and we thought, “This is awful. The color combination is disastrous, the pieces are too small, the pieces are too big, we need more variety, we need less variety, perhaps we need a different variety”.  We just could not see the beauty in the individual pieces or the individual squares. Yet, we persevered. Little Laurel was going to have this quilt with all our perceived short comings.

Through the days, our pieces turned into squares and our squares turned into blocks. Before long our blocks became rows and soon the quilt top was completed. What a transformation! Once our eyes accepted the quilt in its entirety, pieces that by themselves were viewed as eyesores became highlights, squares that were considered too small became interesting landmarks, and the colors melded together to a rich mass of blended shades and hues. What we thought was unappealing package turned out to be a rich, warm, stimulating, protective covering for our little girl. It’s beautiful. We should have trusted the experts.

Our school is like a “Crazy Quilt”. If we nit-pick the individual pieces to death we can always find fault or short comings. We can always think we need more variety or we need bigger or better.  However, when we look at our school in its totality one can easily be amazed with the richness of color, the variety of shapes and sizes, and the richness of the fabric of our school. Together, all the pieces, all the opportunities, all the protective coverings make us a rich, stimulating school.

Sometimes things are best seen in their totality.

Categories
Alumni

Success Stories

By Roger L. Perry
Headmaster, Lakehill Preparatory School 

I truly enjoyed the many holiday programs at the end of December, as the children’s performances were outstanding. The holidays were terrific with plenty of family time, relaxation, and the time to take on the list of home projects that had grown over the course of the year. It is a pleasure to say that my original list is clear and it can start rebuilding now that we are starting the New Year.

Well, 2012 is here! It has a nice ring to it, 2012. I have a feeling this is going to be an exceptional year in so many ways. As is tradition, many of our graduates, who are currently on the remainder of their college breaks, stop in to see us and give us updates on their experiences.

Edina Suss, a recent grad of Vassar, is leaving for a six-month language immersion program in Mexico, prior to beginning Medical School at U.T. Southwestern this fall. Carrie Patterson, who graduates from TCU this spring, has already landed her job with a major investment banking firm. Chris Good is playing Division I baseball at the University of New Mexico. My youngest son, Chase, just got a promotion at Fidelity Investments. It is always good to have your children gainfully employed. Kaitlin Janning is graduating from Furman this spring and has several Medical School acceptances to choose from for the fall. On the drive in to school yesterday, I heard a commercial for a new hospital in Sunnyvale and the speaker was a vascular surgeon named Rizwan Bukhari. Rizwan was one of the best second basemen to ever play for me at Lakehill. And just today, I received a copy of Flames of Faith, the ninth book published by John Cunyus, PhD.

These stories and hundreds of others like them continue to provide confirmation that we are providing the world with quality young people, who are going to make a positive impact on the world.

I look forward to seeing many more of our alumni next weekend at the first annual Alumni Weekend. On Friday, we will host an Alumni-Senior Breakfast at the Environmental Science Center. At this event, we will honor alumnus Brad Bartholow with our first Distinguished Alumni Award and welcome the seniors that will make up the next alumni class. On Saturday night, we will gather at Times Ten Cellars for an All-Class Reunion. I look forward to hearing many more wonderful stories about the successes of Lakehill’s alumni.