Newsletter for Annual RDS Parent Survey and Some Reflection
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May 23, 2008
In the announcements at the end of today’s Friday Folder you will find a link to our annual Parent Survey. Now in its fifth year, this survey is enormously helpful to us each year: Department Heads and I read every comment and discuss all the questions as a team; we reflect on patterns and themes that emerge; we consider the implications of the survey over the summer; and we plan for improvement in early August when we have our fall retreat. In previous years your feedback has led us to assess our approach to admissions, redo our website, audit our math curriculum and much more.
We pay a great deal of attention to your thoughts and comments. Therefore, please carve out the twenty or thirty minutes it takes to complete the survey and do so with an eye towards what is working well at RDS and where we are in need of growth and improvement. These kinds of observations make RDS a stronger school.
In this same vein of reflection and feedback, at our Wednesday All Faculty/Staff Meeting we spent the entire time discussing the strengths and merits of the twenty or so students that were nominated for the two awards we give out each year: The Will Gold and Judee King Awards (presented every year at the Step-Up Ceremony). At first we all fidgeted at the long list of students that were nominated and that we had to discuss, one by one. But this is RDS, where we take the time to have these conversations in person, in real time. After just a bit of prompting, the energy shifted in the room. Many hands went up as different faculty/staff members had positive examples to add for each nominee. All told it took us just over an hour, and there was no sense of rushing forward as we assessed each nominee in terms of the award criteria and their growth since coming to RDS.
At the end of the meeting one person commented, as many heads nodded in assent, on how much she at first resisted taking this time and that now, at the conclusion, how wonderful she felt—about our students, our families, our faculty and staff, about RDS. Just reflecting on our students, reveling in their successes, laughing at some of the wrong turns in the journey, and sharing some tears at the transformations reaffirmed our collective decisions to become educators—in particular, educators at RDS.
Finally, you are reading the calendar correctly: there are only three weeks left to school. This means you can expect lots of shifts in your children and family over this time as everyone prepares for the transition into summer mode. While all are excited for the change in rhythm, it is still difficult on some level to let go of the school schedule. Expect some inconsistency in your children and yourselves, perhaps even a bit of regression from time to time. Accept it, in fact embrace it as a sign of the summer ahead. And by all means slow down if you can and enjoy these last few weeks of whatever grade your child is in. Now is the time to take some lasting images and make some deep memories.
Enjoy the long weekend; we’ll see everybody back at RDS on Tuesday.
Mike
