Month: October 2012

Categories
Family and Community

The Legacy of A Smile

By Victoria John
Latin and Mathematics Teacher, Lakehill Preparatory School

May you see your children’s children growing on your family tree;

Such a crown of life’s true riches they can be…

Life may bring you fame or fortune,

But your greatest legacy is to plant a strong and fruitful family tree.

Life is a rhapsody of loving; both sad and joyful poetry;

But in your symphony of living the most important melody is family.

I love Lakehill’s traditions. For thirteen years I have felt part of this caring family, as I experience annual celebrations. From our opening picnic, Homecoming, and the Halloween Carnival to Trek for Tech, the Holiday Luncheon, Adventure Week and the Skating Party, my favorite is Grandparents Day. Even before I became a grandmother, I enjoyed this gathering.

My favorite part of Grandparents Day is the end, where we sing the words above from “Family Tree,” written for Lakehill by Jack Noble White. Every student from kindergarten through twelfth grade, every teacher, every administrator and every staff member join voices to celebrate the gift of family. It is a moment that fills me with love and pride for my extended family.

We started a new tradition this year with the creation of Tribes, small groups of students who meet monthly to share activities and build a bond as they create new memories. Cat Huitt and I are tribal leaders of thirteen delightful students in grades one, four, seven, and ten. At our first meeting everyone shared a favorite memory. Seventh grade student Shelby Britton touched my heart with her remembrance of her grandmother.

“My grandmother’s formal name was Lola Mosley, but absolutely no one called her that. No one. Friends, family, acquaintances, and random strangers all called her Nana. I don’t really know how that nickname came about, but I do know that I had to ask my mother her real name. No one called her Lola.

She was a very strong-willed person and was not a ‘girly girl’ in the sense that she could be as tough, if not tougher, than all the guys in my family. You could tell her absolutely anything, and she would not think for a second about judging you. She also had really good advice about pretty much anything you could imagine, especially cooking.

Her home was always open. Whenever I would visit her, there was usually someone there with her, drinking coffee or watching the news. I really can’t remember a time when she didn’t have a coffee mug in her hand or a smile on her face.

My favorite memory of her was when she would tell my cousin and me stories about her past when we spent the night. I remember this one story about how she would drag race in the alley behind the neighborhood theater  The main thing that stood out about this story was that her competition was none other than the town’s policeman. ‘Yes, policeman.’ Needless to say, she was very outgoing or almost always doing something for someone else.

Nana treated me like I was one of the adults. She would never call me the usual childish names like ‘baby’ or the name, ‘Booboo,” which I am called by my family. ‘Ugh.’

She made me feel special. She wouldn’t say I was her favorite grandchild or anything like that, but she had her ways of telling me I meant the world to my family. For some reason, she chose to tell me that. I always knew they loved me, but I couldn’t wrap my brain around how much. That’s probably the best thing she ever did for me.

Nana was an amazingly great influence in my life. When I talk about her, all I can do is laugh. I think that is the best legacy a person can leave.”

Thank you, Shelby, for these heartfelt memories of your Nana. Her legacy will continue as you touch others with your gifts.

At Lakehill’s fifteenth annual Grandparent’s Day on Friday, November 16, from 9:30-11:00 a.m., we celebrate family with the legacy of a smile.

Categories
Back-to-School

Who’s That Other Guy?

By Ray Dent
Director of Development and Alumni Relations, Lakehill Preparatory School 

This blog will be posted on my 60th workday at Lakehill Preparatory School. As I approach that milestone in this new and unique environment, I’ll share some reflections.

I have many years of successful experience in Development and Alumni Relations at universities in New Mexico and Texas. Although I have always enjoyed the wonderful college students I’ve had the privilege to know, in only 60 days I learned that Lakehill students are a lot more fun.

The first week of school one of our younger students asked the school secretary just who was the Lakehill principal. She patiently explained that Mr. Perry is our Headmaster. The young man pointed down the hall toward my office and said, “Then, who’s that other guy?”

At school the following week another one of our little guys looked up at me and said, “Are you Mr. Perry’s father?” I introduced myself, shook his hand and explained that Mr. Perry is my boss. He replied, “Oh, I wondered. He looks a lot like you.”

The best part of my workday is standing on the steps of the North entrance welcoming the Lower School students back to Lakehill. As Roger Perry said on the first day I joined him there, “When all those kids say ‘good morning’ and give you a high-five, it’s impossible to have a bad day after that!”

Categories
Learning and Leading

Meaningful Moments

By Katie Becker
Lakehill Preparatory School, Social Studies Chair 

As with most anything in life, in teaching (shockingly) there exist moments of frustration, heartache, and sorrow. However, this is overpowered by the small slices of a teacher’s day that provide pure joy, pride, and – at least for me – a happy tear or two.

I must admit, sometimes my “glass-half-empty” self does surface and I focus on the wrong things. But this week I was thrown back into the positive realm when I was surprised with a handwritten birthday card delivered to the school from a former student. I was floored. As a student at Lakehill, she always made birthday cards for her teachers, but now as a sophomore in college she was taking the time to continue that tradition with me! It was in that moment that I was reminded of the unexpected, rewarding moments of not just teaching, but teaching at Lakehill. When I look, I can find these moments everywhere.

I find a special moment it in the excited questions from my seventh graders about their Tomb Designer’s Challenge–building “Pharaoh Becker” an ancient Egyptian style tomb during our study of ancient civilizations. I see it in the student who brought a relevant newspaper article to class and his recommendation to watch Downton Abbey because he knows I would enjoy it. It’s found in my AP students’ eagerness to indulge my enthusiasm for historical movies when they came with me to see the movie premiere of Spielberg’s Lincoln last week. (I highly recommend it, by the way!) I see it in a senior that self-admittedly struggled to enjoy my history class as an eighth grader as he thrives in AP History this year.

Without a doubt, it is the small, simple moments like these that make it all worthwhile.

Categories
College Readiness

College Connections

By Heather Dondis
Director of College Counseling, Lakehill Preparatory School 

I have just returned from a professional development opportunity that I am fortunate enough to participate in each year as the sole representative of our College Counseling office.  There were about 6000 university admissions and college/guidance counseling professionals in attendance.

As I talked to colleges and heard stories from both sides of the desk, I know that I am very fortunate to be in a school like Lakehill.  Some of my colleagues must support 500+ students, and unfortunately college counseling is not and cannot be one of their priorities.  I talk to others with smaller caseloads and even they don’t know each and every one of their students.

As I began writing letters of recommendation last week, I realized I had trouble starting, not because I didn’t know the students well enough, but because I had too much information and I had to be deliberate in keeping my letter under two pages.  But once I started writing, it became very clear about what I was going to say about each student. I am proud to have the opportunity to advocate for each and every one of our wonderful students as they apply to colleges and universities around the country.

Categories
Environmental Education

Exploring Their Environment

By Jeremy Holman
Science Teacher, Lakehill Preparatory School

The Environmental Science class at Lakehill is learning how to grow a healthy, all-natural garden in their own backyard.  It is not uncommon for students in urban and suburban areas to be unfamiliar and somewhat intimidated with the concept of growing your own food.  I want to show them just how easy it is.

They are learning simple methods to keep unwanted insects, rabbits, birds, and other animals out of their gardens; how to determine what vegetables will grow well in a garden at different times of the year in this region; how to compost scraps, and how to determine soil health and replenish agents that the soil needs to remain productive.  I also want them to gain a sense of pride for building something that is useful in their own homes, and that can have tremendous health, environmental, and economic benefits if enough people get involved.

The AP Environmental Science class visited the McCommas Bluff Landfill that serves the Dallas community.  I think many of them expected to see heaping piles of trash and worried that they would gag from the odor as we approached the gate.  In fact, there was no odor until we drove up to an active cell where trashed was being stuffed into the ground by enormous Earth-moving tractors.

The outlying scenery was littered not with trash, but with lush vegetation highlighted by a wide-open view of the Dallas skyline.  Even the mound of trash was more like an oddly-placed plateau with small roads carved along the perimeter and covered with grass on nearly every slope.  If not for the the pipes and wells poking out of the ground every 30 feet or so (and the dozens of trash-toting trucks) you might easily be convinced that it was a nature preserve.

Speaking of the pipes and wells, we learned that these are for capturing methane (which gets cleaned in an area that looks like a mini-refinery before being sent off to the power grid for production of electricity) and carbon dioxide, and for injecting bacteria-laden juice into the cell of trash to speed up decomposition.

One thing we didn’t see, but were told existed at the bottom of each cell, is a sandwich of clay-plastic liner-clay-plastic liner that prevents any of that “trash juice” from seeping into the ground water.  In fact, there are a series of pumps and pipes that flush the percolated trash juice into a holding tank where it is diluted and pumped into other cells to keep on working.

It is really fascinating to see all of the technology in place at our local landfill, and comforting to know that they have plans to increase its efficiency in the near future.  Aside from the implementation of technology to reduce land-consumption for trash disposal, there are also plans to increase waste diversion from 30% to 70% in the near future.  In other words, about 30% of all trash deposited (by mass) at McCommas is either recycled, mulched, or composted, and there are plans to increase that number to 70%.

Oh, and that methane– enough is captured every year to supply more than 90,000 Dallas homes with clean energy. Overall, it was a eye-opening experience rather than a nose-pinching one!