A Week To Remember!

The week started for many of us on Sunday morning at the Hampton Inn in Natick while we waited for storm clean-up...

We returned to campus on Sunday afternoon to find damage and beauty...






The ice was beautiful but dangerous...


Many faculty and students were without power or other services for several days and several families are still without. Everybody has been wonderful through this with lots of patience and support for those hit hardest...


On Monday, it was time to get ready for exams, which started Wednesday...

...and then Mother Nature threatened another storm for Friday. The decision was made to move Friday's exams to Thursday night so that the students could leave safely early Friday. First we were treated to a great performance by the a cappela group at dinner on Thursday. Everybody was up early Friday and the buses pulled out before 8:30...



The faculty retreated to work on grades and comments, waiting for the snow, which arrived just as predicted. Of course, one can only work for so long, and by mid-afternoon, a group of the teachers were ready to burn some steam off...









Now it's time for all to relax and reflect in how fortunate we are and what a term that we have had. The campus is still looking a lot like the scene captured by Jacob Park for the school's holiday card.

Marily and I send you our best wishes for a restful and fun holiday and hope that you are as excited for 2009 as we are.

You've been in the hotel too long when...

...when Ms. Bennett and Mr. Kennedy serenade the other 160 of us! I am not one to be critical, but perhaps they should stick with their terrific work as teachers and coaches!

We are in our second night at Winchendon East, comfortable not just in the great service of the Hampton Inn but even more so with the news that we should be able to return to campus tomorrow morning (Sunday). Students and staff should plan to be back on campus for study hall Sunday night, and classes will resume Monday morning.

Perhaps even more exciting, Mr. Kennedy and Ms. Bennett will be able to retire their microphones and return to coaching as the Women's Varsity Hockey Team takes on Andover Sunday afternoon at the Winch rink at 2:00. I hope to see you there.

The Unfortunate but Excellent Snow (Ice) Day...

Snow days are not supposed to happen at boarding school...
Friday morning came very early as many of us were woken up around 2:00 AM by the non-stop popping and cracking of breaking branches and falling trees. Winchendon had been hit hard by the ice storm and plunged into darkness and slippery-ness by the severe ice storm that left over one million people without power. Power lines were down all over and roads were impassible. Just making your way around campus was dangerous as branches and trees came down throughout the day.

Key administrators made their way to the campus at around 4:00 am to coordinate efforts. Very special thanks go out to a number of members of the Building and Grounds and Dining Hall teams who made their way in by foot and otherwise and worked to keep the campus safe. The dining hall crew did an amazing job in providing the whole school a hot meal mid-morning (the meals were hot, the room was cold!).
After speaking with police, fire department and the power company, it became clear that it could be several days before we would get power and heat back or the wires picked up around campus. Concerns were compounded by wind warnings and forecasts of freezing temperatures. It quickly became clear that trying to keep the students on campus was not a good option. A number of us passed around the few cellphones that still had signal and made arrangements to move the student body. Many families were able to come pick up students and friends, but what to do with 160 students, teachers and dogs at a time like this?
Fortunately, there was a Hampton Inn in Natick, MA that still had enough vacancies that we could get everyone into. We packed the vans and were able to secure two other large buses to transport everyone east. By about 4:00 PM we were safely settled at the Hampton Inn, and thoughts turned to food and keeping the troops quiet. A long trivia contest, pizza dinner and visits to the mall rounded out the day and what appears to be a happily quiet night!

Back at campus, a core crew continues to work on the campus and coordinate arrangements that will allow us to return as soon as possible. In the meantime, the best snow day for those of us in Natick continues...

My thanks especially to a faculty and staff who have done a wonderful job during this challenge and also to the students who did miss a day of classes but have been patient and great through missed meals and games, broken schedules and the general disruption of the last 24 + hours.

More to come...

-The big oak was one of the few to survive unscathed!

Varsity Sledding?

The first snow of the year arrived today with perfect timing. There were plenty of reasons to be festive with big wins over the weekend by Men's Basketball over New Hampton and Men's Hockey over Cushing and Millbrook. The hockey team's win over Cushing (2 to 1 after being down 1-0 to start) was especially exciting, and there was a loud group of students and teachers over at Cushing to cheer the team on.

Over weekend, a group of students headed off to Killington for a fun day of skiing with Mr. Duncan while others went on a movie/mall trip. Today, while Christmas came early to campus with the installation of new flat screen TV's in several classrooms and the lighting of a tree in the main lobby, another group was heading off for Thai food!

But for many, the excitement was due to the first (small!) accumulation of snow. There were snowballs thrown and trees being trimmed. And then the first sledders were out. We have lots of varsity sports and a hard working group in Varsity Academics, but now some are talking about Varsity Sledding??!! I can just see it -- "Winchendon sledders chosen to Olympic luge team!" After all, when we do things at Winchendon, we do them very well!

Taking Time To Look Back At Home From Away

I have just returned from spending two days with lots of other boarding school people at The Association of Boarding School (TABS) conference. TABS is the annual confab when boarding school educators and heads from all over the country come together to share ideas and discuss new developments.

While I was initially reluctant to go as I struggled to think about being away from Winchendon during a very busy time, as always it was a very energizing and provocative use of time. I thought that I would share a few observations and interesting ideas that I came away with:

• I attended a number of interesting presentations including a terrific talk by the “Head Learner” (headmaster) David Bouton of the Blue Ridge School in Virginia talking about the design of their program. There are many similarities between Blue Ridge’s and our approach, but he also provided some great ideas to think about and reinforced some things that we have already been contemplating. One of the things that David is very purposeful with his teachers about is the emphasis on the idea that they are students as much as they are learners (hence his title). This is something that I am proud to see with our faculty at Winchendon.

• The concept of boarding school teachers as change agents was discussed in more than one context. We often lose sight of the fact that our role is more often than not life changing for our students, but that it can be easy to lose sight of this in the pace of daily life at our schools.

• There was a great forum for head of schools featuring a panel of former heads including our own former head Bill LaBelle. Bill was being heralded for not just his twenty years leading Winchendon but the fifty years of service at three boarding schools (Trinity Pawling, Wilbraham and Monson and The Winch).

• There was lots of wonderful perspective there including the idea that while many schools have chosen the more political “Head of School” title, those of us in this role must not lose sight of our role as master teacher, master of the house and even our pastoral responsibilities to our community.

• The retiring heads also challenged the rest of us to make sure that we don’t succumb to all of the other pressures from boards, parents, financing, fundraising and others at the cost of the time that we can spend with our two most important responsibilities, our students and the faculty.

• In that same session, long time and retiring head of the Moss Porters School Tracy Burch offered her three “C’s”, the three characteristics of a head that she feels are most important. Her guiding words of “clarity” (in terms of mission and vision), “conviction” and “courage” seem especially appropriate in these times.

Perhaps most interesting was the number of people who wanted to know what was happening at Winchendon and whether we still used the great teaching approach and methodologies that we had in years past. Winchendon has not had much of a presence at events like this in recent years, and some worried that we might had strayed from our core emphasis on skills and study habits. People were pleased to hear that we are true to our commitment to small classes, clear expectations, constant feedback and individualized coaching.

A theme throughout the conference was the need for heads, teachers and schools to have very clear focus, and we benefit from that at Winchendon. There are lots of schools that are wonderful places but have trouble differentiating themselves or articulating their mission or goals concisely. That is not the case here at Winchendon where we will continue to have our commitment to the “Winchendon Way” (individualized support, clear expectations and constant feedback, multi-sensory learning…) guide all that we do. It works for our students and is compelling to others.

It's often hard to find the time to step away, look back and hear from others. But when you are looking back at The Winchendon School, it is a wonderful view!

Winchendon - One World!

On Thursday in morning meeting, I noted after the excitement of a victory that the starting five on the Women’s Varsity Basketball Team was truly reflective of the Winch in that there are three continents (Africa, Asia and North America) represented. It is even more impressive that it is four different countries with just five players.

This evening however, Mr. McDonald noted that the Men’s Varsity B starting five were just as diverse or even more with a Puerto Rican, Lithuanian, African American, Chinese and Taiwanese taking the court to start each game. While this isn’t a competition, I do find that it represents the best of students working with students of all different background, collaborating to win! It’s a great thing.

While on the subject of our global Winchendon, I wanted to congratulate Bianca on her winning submission for WOW – Winchendon –One World. As announced on Tuesday, Bianca won an Apple I-Touch.

There were wonderful submissions for this challenge, and the judges struggled with the decision. I do want to note that Chastity contributed a wonderful statement that really catches the essence of what we are doing:

Winchendon One World

Working together to make the world a better place!

Thanks to all for the wonderful entries and creative thought.