Your To-do List
Your To-do List
January 22, 2021
As you’ve read from me over the last several weeks, things are on track for us to return to the building in the fashion we announced in early December and have described in detail on the website (see here if you’ve missed it: https://vermontcommons.org/about-us/secondsemester2020-21/). What this means is that–if everything continues to go according to plan–we […]
The Grey, Accomplishment, Transitions.
January 15, 2021
I think we’ve all had enough of the grey. I say that because this week pretty much everyone I’ve run into, spoken with, or heard from is feeling it right now. Feeling the grey. Of course I’m not just talking about Vermont: friends, colleagues, family around the country are feeling it. The pandemic is exhausting […]
What a week!
January 8, 2021
What a week! Its wild ups and downs emerge in these excerpts from messages to students and teachers over the last five days: Monday morning email to the Faculty: “The shaping of lives has been on my mind this break and how necessary it is to honor those experiences and the forces that […]
News and Notes December 12, 2020
January 8, 2021
News & Notes 12:18
Unplugged
December 18, 2020
Late in the first summer after my first year as a head of school, I traveled with my family and my in-laws to a camp remote enough that we had no cell phone reception, no wifi or internet, no cable or antenna television, no radio reception. It was one of those rare spots left these […]
Lots of Looking Ahead: Second Semester Plans and Important Updates on the Outdoor Education Center
December 11, 2020
Thanks to everyone who has participated in the scenario planning and helped us complete the rollout of the plans for the second semester at Vermont Commons. If you haven’t had a chance to hear, see, and review what’s in store (our plan for opening the spigot and thoughtfully easing our way back into the building), please […]
A Break, a Rush, and Then a Longer Break
December 4, 2020
I started noticing the first couple of years in this role how there would be a mad rush from many folks to try to get a ton of things started or on the radar right before vacations began. Maybe this was due to concern that they’d be forgotten over the course of a break (by themselves or […]
Looking Thanksgiving 2020 right in the eyes
November 20, 2020
When I was an undergraduate, a band called Poi Dog Pondering gave a fantastic spring concert. In the middle of it Adam Sultan, one of the guitarists, took over the vocals for a single song, one he had penned himself. I’ve used it around this time in classes for years because of the way Sultan reframes the […]