Core Values

Core Values

St. Mary's International School is focusing on developing core values with students and with the school this year.  It is easy to identify the terms and to talk about what they mean but it is much more difficult to teach them to our students and to create a culture where these values are practiced, modeled and expected.  Watch the following video link:  http://insidedateline.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/04/11/11146342-my-kid-would-never-do-that-cheating?lite  Would your kid ever cheat?  Have you had this discussion recently with him about why this is important to talk about and to expect?

I am also a reader/believer of Nel Nodding's work who is a professor of Educational Philosophy at Stanford.  She believes that entire schools should be organized around the themes of caring and that these skills are fundamentally important for raising competent children and decent human beings.  You might want to check out her work at:  http://www.infed.org/thinkers/noddings.htm and consider the significance of her work as we work toward developing responsible, respectful, responsive and ethical students for global responsibility.

Never, as a global community, has the need to focus on collective common core values been greater.  These topics are not just a nice accessory to a quality education but they are fundamentally important to our collective futures.  We have enormous challenges facing our world in the coming years and it is fundamentally important that we are educating our boys for the future that awaits them.  "Shift Happens" and this shift is only going to accelerate in the future.  Will our boys be prepared for these challenges?

Shift Happens

"Building a Culture of Achievement"

     Building a culture of high achievement at the St. Mary's Middle School is like building a team that strives for excellence.  The high achievement of each member of the team should be measured in terms of whether they have individually contributed to the goal of the team based on their role and on their strengths.  Success should not be measured on winning or on losing but rather on whether individuals and whether the team as a whole have maximized their potential.  This is what we all have control over and whether or not the other team has more talent, more resources, and more luck is something we can't and shouldn't worry about.

     Consequently, I am not one who believes that the quality of the St. Mary's Middle School should be measured in terms of test scores, grades, percentage of English language learners, or other factors over which we have little control.  We need to examine whether each individual student is maximizing their potential and whether the school is challenging each of these students at the level and with what they are interested in as students.  I would like to find more ways to figure out how we add value to each kid's life and to look at indicators of success that go beyond the quantitative measures we try to hang on to as "the truth."

     Like building a team, it is easy to deal with the highly talented and motivated students who get the glory with high grades and high test scores.  However, I believe it is the excellent coach and the excellent teacher who can make the last guy on the bench feel as much a  valued member of the team as the leading scorer and to instill a passion for the game that goes beyond individual glory.  It is my belief that the strength of any culture is not defined by how we deal with the top 10% of it but rather how we deal with the most vulnerable within the culture.  If we can figure out how to deal with this group within our school the strength of the school will be clear.

     As I listen to Virginia Rojas, one of my essential question regarding EAL or about Gifted and Talented Student or about resource students or about any students in between is whether good teaching is good teaching for all students?  Isn't differentiation, cooperative learning, authentic assessments, building on strengths, understanding your theoretical basis for learning, interdisciplinary teaching or all of the rest doesn't cross artificial categories of student learning?  Doesn't it all come down to highly motivated and skilled teachers who are passionately interested in doing what is right for each student?  All the rest are details from my view of the world.
     And.......Together Everyone Achieves More (along the way.)

John Wooden on Success

From a Terrific Start to a Great Year

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                 It is a delight to be the new middle school principal at St. Mary’s International School.  It has been a terrific beginning of the school year but it is my hope and my intent to make sure that this will be a great year where your son will flourish in the classroom and with the many extracurricular programs offered at the school.  As a teacher, counselor, administrator and college professor for the past 35 years, it is my intent to make this year the best one of all for me and also to make it a great, not just good, year for your son.

                  So how do I intend to help make it a great year for all of us but especially for our students?  First, it’s the people and not the programs that are most important for moving from a “terrific start” to a “great year.”  St. Mary’s Middle School is fortunate to have many excellent teachers who are also willing to work together to get better and to work toward understanding and embracing the many challenges of a rapidly changing world.  Any program is only as good as the teacher in front of the classroom and that teacher’s desire to meet the needs of each individual student.  I am committed to supporting and challenging all of our teachers so that we all move together toward a great year.

                  Secondly, parental support and involvement with their son’s lives and interest in the learning that is going on at school is incredibly important as we move together toward a great year.  Focusing on the learning that is going on, not necessarily on their grades, is incredibly important for helping your son have a great year.  Good parent support is about listening carefully to your son, about asking good questions regarding life and learning at school, about getting to know their friends and their families, and about developing a passion for learning in your own lives.  Developing a habit of talking with and listening to your son on a daily basis, ideally at the dinner table each evening, will help all of us move together toward a great year.

                  Finally, moving from a “terrific start” to a “great year” is about developing a culture and community based on respect, on responsibility, on healthy relationships, and on developing an attitude of responsiveness to specific needs of individuals.   St. Mary’s International School has developed a core set of values (compassion, honesty, respect, fairness, responsibility) that will guide the work we do as a school community this year.  It is my hope that you will embrace these values within your families, too, as we move together toward a great year.

                  “Together Along the Way”, the overall theme at St. Mary’s for the year, suggests that we need to work together as we move toward a great year for all of us.  This will require frequent and open communication based on a shared sense of values.  Thank-you for your warm welcome to the St. Mary’s International School Community and you can be sure that I am committed to serving you and your sons to the best of my abilities.  Please be in touch as the need arises or as you find evidence that you would like to share that we are all on target for a great year.