Growing Young Hearts and Minds: My First Decade

A visitor asked me the other day how long I’d been at Woodland. Ten years, I told her, and then I thought, “really? Ten years?” When I came to Woodland in the fall of 2001, there was an entirely different cast of characters in the school office, and it took a long time for me to not feel like the new girl. I was blessed to be taught and supported in the traditions of Woodland by co-workers who were generous, engaged, and absolutely crazy about Woodland Presbyterian School.

So, ten years of Welcome Back Family Cookouts, of Grandparents’ Days, First Grade Thanksgiving Feasts and Science Fairs, adorable kiddos in their Christmas programs and “Santa is the Man” performed by 5^th and 6^th graders in shades, Favorite Guy Breakfasts, and Homecoming with its transformation of 8^th grade girls in braces into beautiful young ladies in heels, towering over their escorts who haven’t yet gotten their height. There are great new traditions that have come along too—the Golf Tournament and Family Science Night, the incredible Middle School Arts Showcase, and so many more. I can honestly say that it never gets old—I think I get as excited about seeing your second-grader in his school play as you do. And I always cry, no matter what they are singing.

It is hard to explain the sweet—sometimes bittersweet—comfort of watching your children start out with their loveys and blankeys, progress to tooth necklaces from the nurse’s office (there was NO nurse’s office, or nurse! for the first several years I was here), go on to being too-cool-for-school middle-schoolers, and then tearfully say goodbye to Woodland for the kind of scary and big world of high school. The amazing thing is that these kids get it—they may not show it, but they know they have been loved and known and appreciated for who they are at Woodland, and leaving the nest is not easy. The good news is: they are ready, whether they know it or not.

It seems clichéd to say they feel like mine, or anyway like ours, and to worry a little as we send them on their way. Like parenting, we know we did lots of things well while they were at Woodland, and maybe a couple of things not as well as we’d like, so we pray for strength and mercy and grace for them and for kind and understanding and patient teachers to come alongside them as they leave us. As we begin this new season of growth and exciting improvements to our campus, I look forward to the new traditions we’ll establish, but after ten years at Woodland, I know with all my heart that our essence will always be intact. Woodland Presbyterian School is, as our motto says, “growing young hearts and minds.” What a privilege it is to be a part of that vision.

Nancy VanCleve

Administrative Assistant

Fear of Failure

Failure is often seen as a bad word by our students. Although failure is usually not a pleasant experience, it does present an opportunity to learn and grow. In a recent chapel service, I told the story of Thomas Edison’s journey to invent the light bulb. After thousands and thousands of failed attempts to create the first light bulb, Edison finally succeeded. All of us have our own stories of overcoming failure and eventually finding success. Still, it is a natural human tendency to avoid the possibility of failure by running from projects or tasks that challenge us.

This is a daily challenge for teachers and parents alike, to support our students by allowing them to experience struggles and difficulties and yes, sometimes even failure. Those times of difficulty are where real learning and growth takes place. I know from personal experience that I have grown the most when times were the toughest.

All too often we teach children to avoid failure at all cost instead of allowing them to experience failure while providing them the tools to grow from it. We worry about the impact of failure on our children’s self-concept, and while it is important to nurture and develop this in the child, it is much more important to support our children by giving them the resources and skills to handle the trials, disappointments, and difficulties that life will bring. There is no better time for helping students deal with disappointment in a constructive way than the years they spend at Woodland in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade. This is the training ground for high school and eventually adulthood, and with the support of our teachers and parents we will help raise a generation of students that can view the trials and disappointments of life as opportunities for growth. Adopting this growth mindset mentality in ourselves and fostering it in our students will prepare them for the social, academic, and life challenges that we all must face.

Adam Moore, Head of School

Guest or Host?

Part of our 7^th and 8^th grade curriculum involves a once a week leadership discussion centered around a chapter from the book Habitudes, Images That Form Leadership Habits and Attitudes. This week’s 8^th grade lesson helped students see that “leaders take the initiative in relationships.”  The lesson challenged our 8^th graders to not be a “guest” in life but to take initiative and be the “host” in the many relationships that they have. At the end of the discussion, each eighth grader was asked to journal one way they could be a host and not a guest in life. I always look forward to leading this discussion and enjoy hearing from Woodland’s “senior class.”

Adam Moore, Head of School

Traditional and Technological, Room for Both

In the recent edition of Education Update, the official newsletter of ASCD (Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development), the case was made to increase the amount of on-line and virtual learning for students. There is no doubt that the virtual world is changing how we teach and how students learn. The traditional and stereotypical picture of a teacher standing in front of the classroom talking for extended periods of time has long been replaced with a teacher as a facilitator, coach, guide, and technology guru.

While there is definitely an important place for teaching and learning using technology, we should never underestimate the importance of a teacher interacting and teaching on an hour to hour basis. Woodland has long valued the importance of the teacher to student relationship but has also looked for new and creative ways to incorporate technology into the teaching and learning process. Two examples of how technology has changed teaching and learning for Woodland students are the incorporation of Mathletics as a summer math review and the addition of Children’s Progress, an on-line formative assessment tool for our Senior Kindergarten through second grade students. At Woodland we seek to balance the traditional with the innovative. We believe that there is a place for both in successful twenty-first century schools.   

Adam Moore, Head of School

What We are Doing for Our Summer Vacation

After a recent trip to the Agricenter Farmers Market for peaches, my daughter Molly told me that she was going to make a ring out of a peach pit.  Apparently, with a little patience and perseverance, you can rub a peach pit against cement or asphalt and eventually it hollows out into a ring.  This got me to thinking of all of the simple and free (or almost free) activities that I used to do as a kid.  Unfortunately, in all of the years I have spent scheduling camps, activities, and trips, I don’t think I have given my children enough time to enjoy many of the simple summertime joys that fill my childhood memories.  I have resolved to give them the opportunities to experience some of these pleasures, so here is part of our summer to-do list:  

·         To listen to locusts sing in the evening

·         To play flash-light tag in the dark

·         To eat ice cream sundaes for dinner one night

·         To pick berries at a berry farm

·         To snap green beans until our thumbs ache

·         To make homemade peach ice cream

·         To look at the night sky and find as many constellations and planets as we can

·         To skip rocks across a pond

·         To eat sliced home-grown tomatoes, fresh corn, and homemade fried okra as often as we can

I hope that our list has given you inspiration to come up with your own ideas.   My children may roll their eyes when I tell them about our list, and they may not have the most exciting “What Did You Do Over Summer Vacation” essays when they return to school, but I hope that one day they will look back and appreciate our time together.  I know I will.

Cathy Aslin, 

School Nurse

Two has nothing on three!

Oh, my! I had heard about the terrible 3’s but didn’t think it could be THAT BAD. I stand corrected. My son, Jay, turned 3 in early March. Within three days (I’m noticing the pattern of 3. Hmmm…) my sweet, laid back, easy to discipline son disappeared and in walked his replacement. And let me tell you…there have been moments when my husband and I have not liked his replacement. Our new Jay has challenged us in many ways with his meltdowns,  NO’s, whining, and blatant defiance. I’ll even humbly confess that he actually stomped on my foot after it was clear that he was not going to get what he wanted. At the end of his first week of being 3 I felt a little confused and traumatized; things had been going so well before his third birthday. All I could think to myself was, “Is he going to be like this FOREVER?”  I’m a good eight weeks into this new phase now and feeling more confident. I’ve gotten over my shock (and horror), and have pulled myself together. This is what I can tell you from my experience so far:  I try not to take Jay’s outbursts personally because they’re not personal. He’s trying to exert a little independence and express how he feels. I also expect some of his outbursts; it just goes with the territory of being 3. However, and here’s the most important part, even though I expect the meltdowns and defiance I clearly communicate to him that they are not acceptable behaviors in our family and that disrespect to his daddy and me are TOTALLY unacceptable. I think he’s starting to get over himself and I can tell things are beginning to calm down. Once or twice a day now my husband and I even catch a glimpse of the old Jay who used to live with us. I shared my experience with a dear friend of mine who has a six year old son. She asked me, “But have you heard of the frightful     4’s?”  YIKES!  

Amy Barker, Guidance Counselor

Congratulations, Class of 2011

It happens every year.  I turn around and that snaggle-toothed second grader has morphed into an eighth grader looking down at me as he is about to graduate from Woodland and head out into the land of high school and beyond.  As I prepare transcripts for our graduating class, it is pure joy to look at the photos on their original applications—so many of them started out at Woodland in Pre-K or Junior K—and as I look at the Class of 2011, I can see traces of those baby faces even now.  It’s good to feel a part of their journey, and, like when my own children set out on their own, I feel sadness but also a great sense of excitement for them.  I know you parents feel like you blinked and your kids were grown! But let me encourage you:  every part of your child’s growing up is filled with blessing and wonder.  Enjoy every minute.   

Congratulations to the Class of 2011!

Nancy VanCleve, Administrative Assistant