theyQuest; Girls, Courage, Strength and Creativity in Cambridge, MA, and Paris, France

By Martha Griswold

The beginning of the year has been a bit overwhelming when it comes to ideas about which to write, because, frankly, there are too many topics from which to choose. New school years always bring, well, newness. New students, students who return and who seem older and changed, new faculty members who jump right in…and this year in particular, we returned to a newly-renovated and 21st century-looking and feeling library which sees more use than ever, and to the news that we would spend part of this year searching for for a new head of school for the 2014-2015 school year. And we all have iPads, there is a very tall totem created by students in the middle of the Well, and when I run at night, I see garden beds which are helping a student conduct research on intentional vermiculture. I am rooting for those worms.

So, it had been tough to choose which of these to focus on — until recently.

A couple of years ago, a committee began formulating our iQuest program, an experiential learning adventure for which students and faculty make grant proposals based on internal motivation and a question to which they just have to find the answer. Last year, we saw the first generation of projects which ranged from community gardening, to a pilgrimage to Spain, make-up through chemistry, a study of architecture through Frank Lloyd Wright, and the study of veterinary dermatology, all projects culminating in a presentation of some sort for the school community. All fine, all impressive, and all reflecting the individuals who had created them.

In the first half of the semester, I have been blown away by two iQuest presentations that have left me speechless and believing all the more in the power of young women when left to their creativity, imagination, curiosity, and courage.

On September 26, Mary-Michael Robertson presented her 40-minute video on the research she had done on the physicist Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, interviewing the current head of the Harvard University Physics Department, a man who believes that Payne-Gaposchkin, the first head of the Harvard Physics Department, never received the recognition she deserved for her discoveries (Yup, she figured out that the sun is made of hydrogen, among other things.). Learning of Payne-Gaposchkin’s travails, Mary-Michael interviewed Chatham Hall alums who had gone into science-based fields. Never one to let a question or idea lie idle, Mary-Michael also interviewed several Harvard grad students who were pursued advanced degrees in science. The contrasts were striking, as was Mary-Michael’s comfort with all of these older (than she) scientists. They took her questions seriously and it was clear that Mary-Michael took all of their words to heart. Mary-Michael, as is the case with many other students, always impresses me with her steadfastness and determination to get at the crux of an issue and to probe until she has the answers not that she wants, but that she needs. Mary-Michael’s faculty sponsor was physics teacher Molly Thomas, whose enthusiasm for projects and activities that help girls who wish to pursue a career in science is equal to Mary-Michael’s desire to be a scientist (Molly, who recently earned her Masters in Physics Education, is currently pursuing STEM certification through a program with the On-Line School for Girls.). I think that when Mary-Michael’s video ended, those in “Dutch” knew that they had seen a fine film which conveyed important thoughts on what it means to be a female in what continues to be a male-dominated field — but also which underscored Mary-Michael’s curiosity (and the extent to which she would go to get answers) and courage. Find the link to the iQuest page and Mary-Michael’s video at
http://chathamhall.org/travel/iquest-opportunities.

The second iQuest presentation that took my breath away centered on a project designed by juniors Claire Gardner and Sofia Rose, with sponsorship by dance instructor Brittany Jackson. If I say that the
focus of the projectit — or them — justice. The girls, dancers in the CH program, wanted to experience ballet in Paris (so took lessons at the American Ballet Company), but also wanted to experiment with improvisation in different locations – creating site-specific movement and choreography for a variety of venues throughout Paris and its suburbs. Now, I do have an emotional tie to France, having studied and worked there for two years, one of those years in Paris, that that made witnessing the video they made of their dancing in Paris, more enjoyable and bittersweet for me, but that anyone who loves a convergence of creativity, beautiful music, dance, and, let’s face it, one of the choicest backdrops available, would be quite taken by this video — if the standing ovation was any indication.

But what struck me most (and this is pretty major because the convergence of the above-mentioned qualities has impressed me greatly), were the courage and composure that these two students and teacher manifested throughout the course of their trip to Paris. It took a lot of courage to take that first step an the Champs de Mars, asking two young musicians if they would play while Sofia and Claire created a dance against the canvas of the Eiffel Tower. Throughout the video, the three dancers captured the spirit of Paris, demonstrated a comfort in achieving their goal, and could not have improvised better dances for their selected sites. The joy that jumped (grand jetéd?) off of the screen and took over “Dutch” also received applause from passers-by in Paris (and the occasional “Pelouse interdite” police warnings — the French take good care of their grass! And as Sofia said, “So we waited for them to leave and jumped back onto the grass.”) The choice of well-researched music added to the ambiance and fun. Claire and Sofia’s video*, a work of art in and of itself, can be accessed from the iQuest page of the Chatham Hall Web site:
http://chathamhall.org/travel/iquest-opportunities.

Two very different iQuest projects in a short period of time — and each conveying the backbone, determination, desire to get at the root of a question about which these young women are passionate, and their own sorts of joy. These are girls who took risks, moved outside of comfort zones, and emerged with a better understanding of themselves, those around them, and the impact that pursuing their own questions can have on themselves and others. Since these two presentations, several girls have stopped by my office to inquire about applying for their own iQuests — today a newly enrolled student talked to me about something she had been thinking about for a long time — and seeing Claire and Sofia’s video spurred her on to ask her own questions.

Sometimes we have images that we want to expunge from our minds– and we can’t shake them. I rest easy knowing that the images that are sticking in my mind — images of strength, confidence, excitement, and the beauty of girls making their way in the world, will stick with me for a very long time.

*I hope. There have been some technical difficulties — check to page to see if it is there, and if it is, enjoy!

Martha A. Griswold, Academic Dean
Chatham Hall
800 Chatham Hall Circle
Chatham, VA 24531
434.432.5617
http://www.chathamhall.org

iQuest. Why quest?

iQuest. Why quest?

I used to work with an educator, who, when a student, hand waving frantically, would say, “I have a question!” would reply, “Quest away!” I loved that response, because, to me, and to my colleague, it begged more of the student. Ask the question and see where that question and its answer take you. The student already knew he was in a school where answers were not freely given, where asking and then figuring out a solution and answer were more the modus operandi of that very progressive and very student-centered school.

There is no doubt that the best learning takes place when student motivation is internal — when that question springs from outright curiosity, passion, and a desire to find out more. The fact that I love a certain book or historical time period, or French verb tense (!?) demonstrates passion to students — and they need to see that passion, but students need to find their own favorite books, eras, music, type of math or science — and they need to ask their own questions…and answer them, to learn in a way that will be transformational for them and for their lives.

Chatham Hall’s iQuest program is doing just that for its students. A year ago, the Board of Trustees approved a pilot iQuest program in experiential education that allows for students to seriously pursue an area of interest — to quest for knowledge based on that internal desire and burning question. The “Oooohhhhh!” that swept through assembly that day as Dennis Reichelderfer and Mary Lee Black, the two co-chairs of the iQuest committee, explained the program and the process for application, was one of excitement and possibility. You could already see the wheels turning, and several students descended upon my office asking if I thought their ideas were meritorious and would lead to strong proposals. An important lesson was those ideas were already well-formulated!

As we move into spring of this year, the first iQuest participants are wrapping up their projects — and they were varied. What they all demonstrated was a desire to look closely at a topic and learn by getting their hands dirty. Along with research, all of these projects involved “doing” and trying something new.

Kendahl melded her love of chemistry and make up. After an internship in a make-up company last summer, she has set up a lab off the main chemistry lab in Shaw Science, and, with her chemistry for cosmetics textbook, has set about the create her own make-up. I remember the day that she had a result, saying, “Well, it’s more like rouge than lipstick, but it’s a beginning!” Kendahl recently exclaimed that she did, in fact, meet her goal of creating the “perfect red” lipstick, among other colors.

Julia is a rider who clearly loves horses (and other animals) and who spent the summer working with a veterinarian near her home town. She focused on dermatologic issues, and is spending the school year researching five of those diseases and writing a scientific research paper on causes, cures, and the future. That paper will be reviewed by the veterinarian she worked with over the summer for it’s accuracy and tone.

Meg, possible architect-to-be, set off for Chicago to study the buildings of Frank Lloyd Wright as well as to attend a workshop for aspiring architects at the Frank Lloyd Wright Society. Meg gave a presentation recently in front of about 20 interested students and faculty. Her excitement was evident as she recalled walking past Wright’s homes on her way to the workshop each day.

Erin and Kinaya brought an interest in community, sustainability , and gardening to a project on community gardens based on travels to Africa as well as an interest in the possibilities in and around their hometowns.

A new group of students submitted proposals in February for the remaining money. One student participated in a pilgrimage in Spain, another tracked the work of prominent female physicist, and another spent time with a singer/song writer in Nashville who was able to give sound advice to a talented student who performs locally. We will soon take in the proposals for projects for next year. Who knows what Chatham Hall students will construct in the way of experiential learning for themselves, but if this first year of the program is any indication, the iQuest program has opened up a world of imagination and possibility for our students.

Martha A. Griswold, Academic Dean
Chatham Hall
800 Chatham Hall Circle
Chatham, VA 24531
434.432.5617

Chatham Hall is at the forefront of all-girls education. We value academic excellence, inspire integrity, and instill global
responsibility in tomorrow’s leaders.

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Where Will They Rest their Hands?

Maybe it’s because I have had to drive past the exit three times, now,
and will do it one more time on my Christmas vacation, that I am still
thinking about the kids, the teachers, the parents, and the siblings.
Maybe it’s the memorial that someone erected alongside the highway — 26
small American flags, one large one, and fairy lights, that invades my
mind. Maybe it’s because I have spent my entire career working in
schools. It could be because I am a parent that I cannot get the tragedy
at Sandy Hook Elementary School out of my mind. Or maybe it’s because I
am human.

Most surreally, the words of a young teacher ring in my mind.
Interviewed the day of the school invasion, in shock, probably surprised
to still be alive, she told of hiding her students in a bathroom,
helping them to be quiet, and telling them that she loved them because
she wanted that “to be the last thing they heard.” Weeping, she
apologized for having said that because she knew that teachers were not
supposed to cross that line. I do not think there was a person who heard
that interview who did not think she had done the right thing. I hope
she knows that.

But as I made my way through the Christmas-New Year’s festivities and
the errands that led up to those two holidays, I began to think about 6-
and 7-year olds. I remember when my son was that age. It felt very
comfortable and natural, as we were walking along or standing in line,
to put my hand on his head. Frankly, it was a great place to store my
right hand. His head was just the right height. By the time he was
eight, my elbow pitched at an awkward angle when I tried to rest my hand
there comfortably. Now, he will sometimes use my head as elbow storage
as he stands next to me. But at the age of six, his head was in just the
right spot.

There is something about a child’s head that draws a hand to it. At the
age of six, kids’ eyes are still large in relation to the size of their
head — they still have that little kid quality that they’ll soon
outgrow. There seems to be a strong link between what goes on in the
heart and head of a first grader. With my hand to my son’s head, I would
feel the energy of excitement, fun, joy, curiosity, warmth (and sweat!)
emanate from his head. I could feel every twist and turn, know where he
was looking and know what drew his attention. I felt as though I could
protect him. I miss that. He is a good sport, though. When he is sitting
near me these days, he allows me to rest my hand on his head, muss up
his hair, and search for those qualities that I felt so easily when he
was younger.

I guess I am thinking about those parents and wondering where they will
put their hands as they are standing in line or taking a walk or
crossing the street. Will they put their hand out to just the right
height and find nothing? It’s such moments when the loss of a child will
probably hit the hardest.

And this brings us back to that young teacher who told her students she
loved them. Spoiler alert: Teachers love their students! It does not
matter whether they are young elementary kids whose eyes are the size of
dinner plates or old seniors who have one foot out the door as they
prepare to take leave and head on to their next challenge. We love you
when you try and things work…or they don’t. We love you because we know
you’ll have to try again. Teachers know that growing up is messy. Some
days, teenagers feel at one with the universe, and the next, nothing
makes sense. We love that you are you! While it would be so much easier
if all students loved all of their courses equally, loved each book that
teachers chose to have them read, always turned in their homework on
time…the fact that these things do not happen signals that everyone has
her own story, the everyone has lived a different life, and that as a
school, we have all kinds of diversity — diversity of spirit, of
energy, of interests, of talents, of viewpoints, of caring, of joy.

Our students teach us. Thirty years from now, teachers will say, Oh! is the student who had me look at [book title] quite differently than I had before.” You’ll be remembered as “the student who painted that amazing self-portrait!” Amazing because we got your spirit — and you
captured that sprit in that painting. You’ll be remembered for being
brave, friendly, challenging, a great writer, a fine problem-solver, or
for being that leader who truly inspired other students and your
teachers. You’ll be remembered for taking a risk…taking a tough class,
writing a great iQuest proposal, and living away from home. You won’t be
remembered for being the kid who got all As. Our students are much, much
more than the grades they receive, and to love a student for that reason
does a huge disservice to all that student brings to school life.

The tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School certainly does force the
reaction of holding our kids a little tighter, telling them we love them
at every turn, and resting our hands on their heads just a little
longer. For teachers, it’s a similar thing. Looking back at other such
tragedies, teachers did their utmost to make their students safe. We
feel a responsibility that is not lessened by age of student. High
school (and college) students are still kids with their lives ahead of
them. With promise…and the promise of promise. And who, I hope, will
have, some day, the joy of resting a hand on the head of a child they
love — for a very long time.

Martha Griswold
Academic Dean

Mentor Me.

As I was walking home the other day to put the finishing touches on a pie for seated meal with my advisees, I heard two voices coming from the stairs on the back side of the Arcade. I was headed for the front staircase. As I began my descent, I turned to confirm that one of the voices was that of Don Wood, Chair of the Math Department and advisor. The other voice was that of a new student who was talking to Don about her classes and work that she needed to do. I would have taken a photo if I could have done so without being noticed, because it was classic: younger person and older person profiles with blue sky and trees arching behind them, framed by the barrel vault curve of the arcade over the staircase on which they perched. Classic. And that is what a lot of our mentor/mentee pairings look like. A wise adult working with a younger student to help guide her through those, at times, turbulent years of adolescence. Our students come to us having learned so much in 13 plus years of life. And they come to us with the possibility of learning so much more. From the concrete to abstract learned in the classroom to those skills one learns by being part of a community — some harder lessons than others — members of the Chatham Hall community rely on one another to make sure that we all take in what we need to learn –in ways that individuals can hear.n

In Chapel the other day, Chaplain Ned Edwards finished his four-part series on what it means to be an Episcopal school with a chapel program (different from being an Episcopal church). He talked, in part, about applying the lessons we learn in Chapel to our everyday lives. We say “Thank you,” because we learn to do so in Chapel. We hold the doors for seemingly hours for someone who has exited the door at one end of the Arcade and who is headed for the other end. We are a community of helpers and thankers (Auto-correct is sending me a message by trying to correct “thankers” to “thinkers.” Yes, we are a community of thinkers, too.). And we give thanks to those who help us learn our lessons.

We all need mentors. In class the other day, as French 1 students were finishing up their first quiz and moving it from their editing app to Dropbox, several students asked how to do that with an app I had never used before. In a harried moment, I looked at the app, received a question from a student who was still taking the quiz, and looked back to the iPad with the unfamiliar app. Part of the fun with apps is figuring them out, but at this moment, I was pulled in too many directions. A student who had finished her quiz raised her hand with a look of uncertainty on her face and said, “I know how to do it. May I show her?” Oh, yes! She made her way around the table and took the student and me (I am good at looking over shoulders and taking in information) through the process. Now I know how to do it. Student as mentor. It happens here a lot. The classic idea of mentors is that older/younger model, but it makes me think about the depth of this community that we all recognize that mentors come in all shapes, sizes, ages, genders, and that we can seek help and inspiration from all. Martha Griswold
Academic Dean

Martha A. Griswold, Academic Dean
Chatham Hall
800 Chatham Hall Circle
Chatham, VA 24531
434.432.5617

Chatham Hall is at the forefront of all-girls education. We value academic excellence, inspire integrity, and instill global responsibility in tomorrow’s leaders.

Part kindness, part challenge

The faculty went into the first week of teaching with quite a lot to
think about. Dr. JoAnn Deak had just spent a day with us to talk about
girls’ brains, development, and how we can best serve those girls who
come to Chatham Hall to spend their high school years. Among other
things, we learned of the importance of water (Drink it!) in helping
neurons to fire and synapses to form and how what Dr. Deak refers to as
“crucible” moments and events can very deeply affect a girl for a very
long time. Adolescent girls are particularly wired to have significant
(positive or negative) events affect them deeply and well into their
lives. Such news was valuable to hear as meanness on the part of others,
mis-directed humor, and off-hand remarks can determine how a girl will
react to and engage in a new community such as a boarding school.

As I looked around “Dutch,” Chatham Hall’s lecture hall named after a
former rector whose ability to inspire and support young women continues
to this day, I felt a deep gratitude for those who make up Chatham
Hall’s faculty. As one of my students said once, referring to a
classmate who was quite verbose: “You have to open the windows to let
the words out!” Well, I feel that way here: you have to open the window
to let some of the kindness out — that’s how much there is here.

But providing girls this kindness-filled community is certainly not
enough. That warmth and support without challenge and depth of thought
would leave our students, well, kind, bored, and, perhaps, a little
boring — begging the questions, “What do we and parents want for our
students?” and more importantly, “What do they want for themselves?”
Chatham Hall needs to be school (and hopes that all schools are!) that
at once offers the warmth, support, and encouragement that girls need,
fends off the negative, and ensures that students push themselves to
take academic and other healthy risks to, as Dr. Deak says, “to stretch
their brains.” Brains can grow and we all become smarter when we use
them to figure things out. Girls have a tough time wanting to figure things out. One of Dr. Deak’s
points was that boys, when presented with a tough problem, will, by and
large, work to figure it out. They may hit road blocks, they may make
mistakes, but having chosen a goal, they will rarely give up. Girls,
having seen that something is hard or might appear impossible, will
frequently give up. The boys may never find a solution, but all that
work actually makes them more intelligent. Girls, when they give up, are
losing out on the chance to grow their brains.

So how does Chatham Hall help girls grow their brains? All students
study physics, chemistry, and biology. All students are strongly
encouraged to take four years of math???and most do. In English classes,
students wrestle with literature, the have writing conferences with
their teachers to figure out how to solve problems of language and
grammar. In history, girls argue causes of conflict, create videos for
other classes to use, write persuasive essays, and grapple with ethical
issues and decision-making. In studio art classes, students figure out
how to make a whistle, how to turn the sketch they have made into a 3-D
creation, what colors really make black, and how to blow up a drop of
water into a 3 foot by 4 foot painting. Musically, Chatham Hall girls
figure out fingerings, harmonies. compose. A clan of ukulele players
works to get their arrangement right for Chapel on Sunday. St. Mary’s
Choir rehearses its vocal and instrumental parts with the help of a
director who envisions the (complex) possible and helps singers figure
out how to achieve it. Kids who have never held a field hockey stick
find themselves immersed in games after just a few practices; girls who
have been riding horses forever continue to improve — to jump higher
and with better position.

Our iPad Pilot program, now in its second year, supports girls’ brain
development, too, through the use of this tool as a teaching
enhancement, but also as girls are frequently asked to figure things
out. What app will work best to present the assignment at hand? How can
an app best be used to incorporate a variety of media to create a very
individualized project? Girls share information about how they answered
these questions and troubleshoot problems encountered along the way. So, as I looked around “Dutch” thinking of the kindness that emanates
from my colleagues, I also knew that each one of them does her or his
best to grow brains. Whether it’s Amy Davis in the greenhouse (I’ll
sidestep the obvious metaphor) or Mary Lee Black in the French classroom
or Gwen Couch inculcating a love of theater and literature, or Don Wood
with his AP Calculus AB students having them make educated guesses about
the forms that graphs take, the faculty at Chatham Hall makes sure that
girls brains are tired from over use when they get to the end of the
class day???and send them off to athletics, for a different kind of
stretching their brains. Martha Griswold

That’s a Lot of Years!

Our kids know what they have. Yesterday, as Chatham Hall does every year around this time, we
gathered in St. Mary’s Chapel to recognize years of service to the
school. What is truly wonderful about this gathering is that everyone is
present. Office staff, teachers, food service employees, the building
and grounds crew, the housekeeping staff who keep this place looking
immaculate, administrators, and those people for whom this place exists:
the students. As the Chapel filled up, those arriving early were being asked to move
all the way down their row, to fill in and leave the end seats open for
those of us who were finishing up phone calls, vacuuming that last bit
of carpet, setting up lunch, keeping up with the acres of mowing. Many
of us were milling around looking for a place to sit, when a body of us
headed up to the choir seats up front. Feeling a bit on display and
knowing that we would not necessarily be, as a group, meeting the high
standards of any of our choirs, we took seats on both sides and I found
myself between two department chairs, behind Admissions, and, as I
looked across to the other set of seats, I was looking at the Building
and Grounds staff. After a hymn and some words about blessings on the part of our
chaplain Dr. Edwards, Dr. Fountain spoke eloquently about those
employees who have, as of this year, worked at Chatham Hall for 5, 10,
15, 20, 25, 30, and 50 years. As each person made his or way up to the
front to receive a certificate, the place erupted in cheers and
applause. That cheering and applause continued, as enthusiastically as
when it first broke out, as the employee accepted the certificate, in
many cases received a hug, and made the way back to his or her seat. It
seemed that many of the recipients had sat toward the rear of the
Chapel, so the walk down and back, was extra long. And the cheering
continued. And the applause never diminished until after each person had
regained a seat. Chatham Hall’s students know what they have here. They have beloved
teachers (Dennis Reichelderfer – 5 years! Sheppard Morrison — 10
years! Mary Lee Black — 20 years! Cheryl Haymes, Cathy LaDuke, and Geoff Braun — 25 years! And the retiring Bill Black — 30 years!), and
beloved food service people (Stella Hubbard, Tim Morehead, Bernice Oakes
— 10 years; Cheyenne Martin Barksdale — 15 years! And Lucille Payne
— 50 years!). Our students have beloved Housekeepers (Brenda Lawence —
5 years! Catherine Tucker — 10 years!), and administrators (Vicki
Wright and Robert Ankrom — 5 years!). Chatham Hall students have people
who care about them — and who care about them a lot. This place is
clean (very clean), the food is good (very good), the grounds and
buildings are all kept beautifully (very beautifully), and the classroom
teachers (we’re all teachers, right?) open the minds of our students to
explore, question, and think. (And they do that pretty well, too!)

I don’t know about the kids, but my hands hurt when all was said and
done. We had celebrated 16 people — a combined 260 years of service.
There was even one standing ovation (Hey! We get out of our seats for
retirement!). There is a lot of good will in this place because everyone
works hard and we all appreciate the efforts of our colleagues and of
our students. As Lucille Payne received her certificate, I thought that
every student who was applauding and cheering for her had certainly
indulged in one of the cookies on the platter on the cart that she
wheels all the way from Yardley to the Arcade every Wednesday. By senior
year, everyone will have taken a class with Geoff Braun, Dennis
Reichelderfer, and Cheryl Haymes. Everyone has been overcome by the
sheer beauty of this campus and by all the work that is behind that
beauty. A year from now, as this year’s recipients move into their sixth,
eleventh, sixteenth, and so on, years of service, we will meet again,
overflowing into the choir loft, to recognize a new group who has
achieved the “years ending in five and zero” milestone. And kids will
clap and cheer. And not because this next crop will be all of their
favorites???because it is not about favorites. It’s about a community and
the important work that everyone does to make Chatham Hall the school
that it is. (Standing ovation!)

Sheer Joy

Our chaplain Dr. Ned Edwards said it best yesterday: “Sometimes joy just
surprises you!”

The last third of the year is underway; everyone seems to have returned
from Spring Break in one piece. In doing so, we have all hit the ground
running. In our first year of a switch to semesters, we returned in late
March to courses that had already been going since January and did not
have the luxury of those few days of new course, clean slate, easing
back into our work. We headed back into courses with notes already
taken, projects already begun, and homework expected that very first
night. By the end of last week (our first week back, remember), it was hard to
fathom, on Friday, as several faculty shared a lunch table with me, that
we had, indeed, only been back for five days. We had had classes, a
concert by musician Tiff Merritt, preparations for Revisit Weekend,
meetings, tornado drills, a fire drill, seated meals, and on top of all
that, that first week back was the week when most students heard back
from most of their colleges. And to add more depth, the weather,
normally “Virginia-like” was more “New England-like” — hot one day,
cold and raw the next. Happily, we are in an upswing regarding the
weather, and have had several glorious days in a row where students
plead for “class outside,” and sweaters necessary in the early morning
are doffed by lunchtime. The birds are alive and well; the flowers are
bursting with color. And joy just surprises us sometimes. In the past few days, there have
been a few events which, in very visible ways, are the answers to the
question, “Why would anyone want to go into education as a livelihood?”

On Saturday, a group of students addressed accepted students and their
families at a session during Revisit Weekend. One to four students were
present at this session to let the audience know something of the
curriculum from their point of view — projects tackled, challenges
surmounted, progress made. As the students, many of them first year
students, moved through the program, I felt joy because these girls were
doing this job better than any adult in the room could have — and
that’s the point. Sort of like parenting, a teacher’s job is to make
students not need us anymore. At 11:00 a.m. last Saturday, those
students did not need us. They were poised, spoke eloquently about their
learning and their passions, and demonstrated the power of leaving the
words to the kids. Their mission, which they had all chosen to accept,
was accomplished with great energy, spirit, and intelligence.

Yesterday, in Chapel, joy overtook us again. To being with, there are
not enough jobs where one can interrupt the flow of work to gather,
contemplate, and sing in as beautiful a setting as St. Mary’s Chapel.
Secondly, there are also not enough jobs where one is able to witness
what we experienced yesterday in chapel. One of our seniors, Siyi, delivered a chapel talk in which she
established a very moving cadence of “Happiness is???” phrases, some
surprising, some funny, all heartfelt from a student who moved 15,000
miles from home to attend a boarding school???a new place to be. As is
typical at the end of chapel talks, friends or family will sing a song
for the speaker. Yesterday, two of Siyi’s friends stood up, and,
atypically, began to sing a song in Chinese to a track accompaniment (We
usually have live music???tracks are frowned upon. And rules are made to
be broken. Music Director David Grimes, who approves all post-chapel
talk music, said, “This was too good!”). The song, “Love-ing,” was
bouncy, happy, loud, and perfect for the kind of day that was happening
outside the chapel — bouncy and happy — just ask the birds! Back in
the chapel, a minute or so into the song, four more friends stood up and
took on the role of backup group. They danced, they sang, they formed
the letters L-O-V-E with their arms and legs. They got us clapping. They
formed a cha-cha line into which they drew Siyi. They moved up the aisle
and back to the front of the chapel. They included other students who
held up signs with L-O-V-E spelled out. They smiled. They laughed. They
enjoyed themselves.

And so did we. We all took note that one of our quieter students???also
having moved 15,000 miles to attend Chatham Hall, was right up there
setting a new standard for backup dancer???with enthusiasm, obvious
talent, and courage. These unexpected moments of sheer happiness (Note
to Siyi: Happiness is seeing a group of students do something for a
friend that was so darned over-the-top with love for that friend!) had
us all smiling at the content (fun song, lively music, excellent backup
energy!), but also at the players. They had found their power. They had
found their voice. And that is joy.

Martha Griswold
Academic Dean

Martha A. Griswold, Academic Dean
Chatham Hall
800 Chatham Hall Circle
Chatham, VA 24531
434.432.5617

Chatham Hall is at the forefront of all-girls education. We value
academic excellence, inspire integrity, and instill global
responsibility in tomorrow’s leaders.

Et tu, Robot?

If one of the on-campus weekend activities included a scavenger hunt
asking students to track down a photo of Justin Bieber, a Christmas
Tree, a set of allen wrenches, a mobile, a ratchet set, an orange
bowling ball and a wooden ramp, many students would probably scratch
their head and scatter in any number of directions. There is a group of
students, though, who, with a glimmer in their eyes, would take off for
one destination, knowing that victory would be theirs.

This group, Chatham Hall’s first Robotics Team, would know that in Shaw
Science building, in the physics room, they would be able to grab all
of the listed items (Photo of Justin Bieber? Just grab the mobile with
his photo that hangs from the ceiling! Christmas tree? Decorated with
physics-related decorations made by students.) Well, the bowling ball
might be hard to get a good purchase on, but these girls could probably
figure a way to employ the ramp to move the ball in a forward direction
using their knowledge of momentum and slope.

Senior Meredith Lee, who has a strong interest in things robotic,
created a Discovery Challenge for herself last year, the focus of which
was robotics. Part of that Discovery Challenge involved doing the
research regarding the steps necessary to start a competitive robotics
team here at Chatham Hall. Thanks to her and to her faculty sponsor,
physics teacher Molly Thomas, a group of students now meets regularly to
design, build, program, and learn how to manipulate a 17″ x17″ x 17 inch
robot, complete with arm and the eventual ability, when all the bugs are
worked out, to roll the bowling ball and pick up some small small
plastic milk crates.

On a recent Wednesday night, the group gathered around a table in the
physics classroom. Three adults were present as a support system: Molly
Thomas, and two current parents, both with vast experience coaching
successful, local robotics teams — Dan Waters and David Wilton.

On the evening that I was able to observe, there was excitement over
the fact that at the previous meeting time, the robot, silver and shiny,
much like an overgrown erector set model, but with wires and and
receivers and transmitters, had had a successful foray across the floor
of the physics room. In the intervening time, however, difficulties had
occurred, necessitating some reprogramming. Meredith and Mr. Waters were
at the computer as Meredith worked through some of the issues. At the other table, Antoinette Flowers ’14, Roc??o Rodriguez ’12, and
Amy MacDonough ’13 (Kathryn Waters ’14 is also a member of the team,
another duty calling her away), skillfully tossed around allen wrenches,
grabbed ratchet tools, and added necessary nuts and bolts to secure the
construction. Three to four heads, at any one moment, bent and huddled
around the robot, building, speculating, figuring out what, in order to
balance the robot, taking into account the eventual movement of the arm,
had to be moved or adjusted.

Time was something of an issue because the girls will have their first
FTC FIRST (First Technical Challenge — For Inspiration and Recognition
of Science and Technology) competition on December 17, in Richmond. They
will get up early (very early) and make the trip to the site where they
will be paired with a group unknown to them. The two groups will work
together to complete the challenges (bowling ball roll and crate
pick-up). The robot needs to be up and running soon. Recently, the group
was having to rethink the arm and the overall balance of the robot.
Hopefully, there will be resolution to that issue quickly.

Girls and tools. My dad always says, “You can’t manage people if you
haven’t held a tool.” Having worked side by side with him on many
different projects involving power and hand tools, I feel that there is
something to this. When you use tools, you have to make decisions about
what works, what doesn’t, and while the tool does not talk back the way
a person does, if the tool is not the right one for the job, you know
pretty quickly. The casualness with which this robotic team would look
at one tool, set it down, and reach for another speaks of a level of
comfort with the materials at hand. It speaks of collaboration and
knowledge coupled with the ability to make a decision, and see that
something else would work better. It is problem-solving at its best.
What these girls learn here they will take, of course, to robotic
challenges, but also to work they will do with other people, with those
they will support, work with, and even befriend. For some, these lessons
will support their future job and career choices and also help them in
ways that will not be restricted to the laboratory. It is about taking
risks???risking to see what will work, and the courage to change stream
mid-course.

So, with two competitions in the near future (the December one and then
a second in January), the team has some good work to do in order to
prepare. It can be tough, dealing with a machine that seems to have a
mind of its own, but these girls have built something from the ground up
and are unrelenting in their desire to figure out and resolve any
problems, and to learn how to make things work while working
together???girls against(?) machine.

Martha Griswold
Academic Dean

Martha A. Griswold, Academic Dean
Chatham Hall
800 Chatham Hall Circle
Chatham, VA 24531
434.432.5617

Chatham Hall is at the forefront of all-girls education. We value
academic excellence, inspire integrity, and instill global
responsibility in tomorrow’s leaders.

Something Wonderful This Way Comes!

The past week has offered a wonderful look at the talents of the
Performing Arts and other performance groups at Chatham Hall. As someone
who knows how participation in the performing and fine arts can support
other academic pursuits, I love any chance to see students perform. Our dance classes and Panache, Chatham Hall’s select dance troupe,
performed on Wednesday, October 26, in Dutch. Panache performed a piece
entitled “Tightrope,” choreographed by Lauren Wilson, our dance
instructor. The girls were precise and fluid in their movements; the
extensive rehearsal time is clearly paying off. As this piece finished
and the entire body of dancers took the stage for the next part of the
evening, I noticed some faces that were unfamiliar to me. I learned that
they were students of the Community School of Davidson and the reason
for their presence among the Chatham Hall dancers became apparent. As
pen pals, the Chatham Hall and Davidson dancers had acquainted
themselves with each other through letter-writing and the creation of
collages. They then developed dances based on those exchanges. The back
and forth was powerful, as students worked in teams to present the short
and numerous dances that they had choreographed from a distance. This
unique experiment played right into two of the ways through which girls
tend to learn well: connection and collaboration.

On Sunday, October 30, Chapel was dedicated to Halloween and how this
celebration developed. As an anthem, St. Mary’s Choir performed the
Benjamin Britten piece, “Ride by Nights.” This piece showcased the
talents of this group as you could hear all the voices that combined to
bring us this eerily enchanting song. A short piece, I wish it would
have gone on longer as the sound was magnificent. St. Mary’s has really
come alive this year. Just shy of thirty members, voices blend well.
They have been a constant presence in our chapel services. This piece,
on the night before Halloween, reminded me of the “Something Wicked this
Way Comes,” from Harry Potter III (The Prisioner of Azkaban), I told my
husband on the phone that night. Halloween dawned bright and a little brisk. I taught my first class and
then headed up from Wilis to the Well, where Assembly was taking place.
My students and I arrived just in time to hear Sextet, the
student-directed senior a cappella group. They began to sing and I could
not believe my ears! They had clearly listened in on my phone call to my
husband the night before, because they were performing “Something Wicked
this Way Comes,” from Harry Potter! It was a pleasure to listen to these
voices directed by Senior Rebecca Oh. The Sextet stood around the Well
on Second Pruden and their voices drifted down to us, making the effect
even more eerie than it might have been. The piece was a perfect for the
time and place. Many of these students have taken or are currently
taking voice lessons with our Director of Music, David Grimes. It was
wonderful to hear these girls putting their musical knowledge to good
and much appreciated use — and doing this under their own direction.

That is a week in the life of performing arts at Chatham Hall. On any
other given week, we might be treated to a Senior Chapel Talk featuring
singing or instrumental music. You might hear the Chatham Hall Ukelele
Orchestra (we have a lot of uke players!) or the NIche, a rock singing
group, performing in Chapel, or you might hear a group of students
hoping to be selected to perform in the musical harmonizing together as
they sit behind you on a bus to an activity. No matter where you are, it
is apparent that the performing arts are ever-present on campus. Confidence, the ability to stand in front of another group of people
and perform, and the knowledge that hard work and practice achieve great
results are are among the skills and lessons that Chatham Hall students
gain from their involvement in the performing arts. This melds with
Chatham Hall’s Writing and Speaking Across the Curriculum initiative,
and indeed, with all of Chatham Hall’s academic goals. Working hard to
perfect a grand jet?? and then nailing the move in performance may be
easier to see than how working hard to understand quadratic equations
brings satisfaction and reward because the grand jet?? is viewed by many.
It’s all the same thing. Hard work and commitment to a movement, a
song, or an equation brings about success.

Martha Griswold
Academic Dean

The Amazing ___________________ Fill in the Blank with the Best Teacher You’ve Ever Had

This is a speech I wrote for Chatham Hall’s Fall Convocation on October 15, 2011. I have been asked by some to post it, so here goes.

I was seven years old when I began to think that I had ESP. At that time, my older brother was fascinated by the Amazing Kreskin, the only person whom I knew of who had ESP. To those of you here who are too young to know of Kreskin, he was kind of a modern-day Houdini — cheesy and dramatic. He could read peoples minds, hypnotize, and always find his paycheck hidden somewhere in the audience (or the performance was free). My brother read books about Kreskin, acquired the Kreskins ESP board game, and we even attended a show at Springfield, MAs, Storrowton theater. I knew at the time that I did not want to be like Kreskin, he came across as a little supercilious and kind of nerdy, but I was convinced that I could read minds and predict the future as Kreskin could. This feeling of having ESP persisted until I was about 44 when the head of school where I worked at the time decided, in a truly genius move, to invite the entire faculty to take the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, a psychological assessment which helps to show how people perceive the world and make decisions, the results of which are used to help determine career paths and other future endeavors. This assessment identifies people as introverted or extroverted, intuitive versus sensing, which identifies how they take in information, thinking or feeling, based on how a person makes decisions, and judging or perceiving, based on how they use their thinking and feeling characteristics. We found out later that we were taking the test because there was some discord between one faculty member and what seemed to be the rest of us. We all sat down at our computers, answered the questions, waited the few moments, and were assigned the four letters that described what kind of people we were. What we learned was earth-shaking for me, as well as professionally meaningful.

That, as an INFJ, I fell heavily in to the introverted, intuitive categories, was not a surprise. I have always needed to restore alone, with a good book, after spending time with people and I have always taken great store in my hunches — because I am frequently right. Because humans tend to think of introverts as being shy, I was much comforted to learn that both are just other ways of being. Shy, introverted people sometimes feel that extroverts are more highly valued than introverts. As an introvert, I sometimes thought that extroverts had things easier than I…everyone loves that person who charges into the room and who gets the party started — and stays for more than an hour. If you are shy or introverted, you sometimes find yourself wanting to be that person. What I learned next, however, made me value myself more.

What shocked me, as I read through the explanation of my INFJ character type, it explained that many INFJs think they have ESP. They do not. What they do have is a super-sensitivity to the thoughts and actions of those around them, and a great ability to predict outcomes based on what they know about people. At once I felt validated and a little disappointed — visions of the Amazing Griswold board game selling used for $1.99 on eBay went right out the window, but this seemed to be a reasonable explanation of what I had been feeling for most of my life. I also felt a sense of undeserved pride because it turns out that INFJs are a rare commodity, making up only 1-3% of the population.

What I learned about teachers, was most astounding. The person who was leading us through this exercise and its debriefing, told us that everything says that extroverts would make the best teachers, but that, strangely, most teachers are introverts…and many are INFJs…that rare commodity. At my former school, this was driven home by the scattergram we did of our typologies…33 people in the lower left quadrant of the scattergram…and, way, way up in the diametrically opposed corner, was the dot representing Barney*, the colleague who drove us all crazy. A plethora of INFJs. So basically, anytime you are in a room full of teachers, there is a very good chance you are in a room full of know it alls — people who think they can read peoples minds, have a significant depth of knowledge, and who know whats best because of the strength of their intuition. And those are the people who are teaching the students of Chatham Hall.

So what do all those INFJ teachers provide their students? They do tend to read a lot. Settling down with a good book, after a long day of working with people is one of the best ways for them to refresh — a benefit of which is their keeping current with their disciplines…broadening and, most importantly to them, deepening their knowledge. Teachers tend to be up on what is going on in the world…especially at as global a school as Chatham Hall. INFJs also seem to intuitively know what will work for certain kinds of students. They adapt, they try different ways of presenting material, and they know the best ways to push their students to move beyond their comfort zones and to achieve.

And that is what much of Chatham Halls new strategic plan is about — student achievement. As we move into the second year of our new strategic plan, academics and the technology to support that program are two of the primary foci. Over the summer, we made great strides in updating technology. All teachers have received or will receive shortly a new computer in order to keep up with those skills that students will need as they move on. The computers are put to good use every day as many teachers use Edmodo and Dropbox to communicate with students and create assignments. We are constantly striving to make our teaching more student centered, with students motivation at the root of what we do. One teacher I can think of is having students direct literary discussions based on what they found to be important while reading. This teacher was pleased, at the end of one particular class, to discover that students had brought up just about all of the passages she would have chosen. And this manner of teaching gave students voice, motivation, and power. The chair of the math department spent time last year researching best practices in teaching math and in teaching girls math. Why is this so important? My Ethics students have learned about priming…subconcious influences that guide decision-making, actions, and emotions. Research has shown that girls are primed by having to indicate their gender on math tests such as the SAT. The mere action of having to fill in a bubble letting the College Board know they are female primes them to do worse on math tests. Ouch. The same is not true for boys.

The strategic plan asked that Chatham Hall begin to offer non-Western languages — something which makes good sense based on the world shrinking every day and the simple fact that a good portion of our student body comes from non-Western countries. Why not offer a language that expands the curriculum to other areas of the world. We are in our second year of Chinese instruction; it is so exciting to pass through Holt during E period and hear Spanish, French, and Chinese emanating from three different classrooms. And teacher intuition would predict that some students would learn a language based on characters more readily than another. Not only has Chinese begun to fill the classroom, but we have a teacher from China who freely shares information about her land and culture, as well as her teaching skills.

All of those INFJ teachers who need their summers to regroup, spent time either preparing to teach using the iPad or planning how they could incorporate it into a unit or two over the course of this year. This was no short order. For some of the people sitting behind me, this meant getting to know this iPad inside and out. It meant developing new ways of producing work, submitting homework, commenting on that work, and sending it back to students. For others, it meant developing a new textbook (and saving students hundreds of dollars). Many f
igured out how to best us e-books, how to teach annotation and note-taking. And they continue to learn. Students are using iPads in their photo classes because their teacher spent time investigating the iPads photo-taking and editing abilities. Our Science Department Chair was explaining to a group of people last weekend that he had found an on-line chem textbook that could be altered…adapted, to include exactly the chapters that he wished, and to which videos of long-deceased chemists such as J. J. Morton, who discovered electrons, could be inserted. A member of the audience asked, Isnt that a lot of work? Yes! But what better way to bring some of the chemists who made startling and important discoveries which guide doctors, researchers, and scientists now, into the lives of students learning chemistry today? Yes! It is a lot of work. It is not easy. Teachers live for this kind of thing though…making learning more accessible and real. Time for a sidebar…we all know that people do not go into teaching for the money, but they also do not go into the profession because its easy.

Two skills that have remained consistently important as they control so much of how we present ourselves, and indeed, in many cases are that first impression upon which everything depends, are writing and speaking. The importance which Chatham Hall attaches to these skills is evident in their inclusion in the strategic plan. Writing and speaking across the curriculum will be a focus in the years to come. Whatever career paths students choose, they will have written and spoken in English classes, history, foreign languages, science, math, and art, by producing work appropriate to each discipline. Introverts and extroverts alike will use voice to leave Chatham Hall with strong speaking and writing skills. No amount of intuition can predict exactly what our graduates will be doing soon after graduation or 25 years from now. Technology, how we receive information, and how we produce, are changing at such a rapid pace that much of what we do may seem like our best guess, or hunch about what will work best and what will provide students with the skills they will need in order to be successful in their near and distance future endeavors.

Could the Amazing Kreskin have predicted way back in 1967, when I was 7 years old, that our students would be using iPads so extensively that some teachers have not made one photocopy this year? That all of their work would be safely stored in dropbox? That students would study the first book printed by Gutenburg in the 1400s in e-book form in order to fulfill their religion requirement now? Could Kreskin, however amazing, have predicted that a boy, 11 in 1967, would have grown to become the Einstein of his generation, and that that boy would have had the impact on education that Steve Jobs had? That having used an iPad, it would seem criminal to go back? I googled Steve Jobs intuition, because in the eyes of many, he took great risk in following his intuition. I was taken to his 2005 Stanford Commencement Address, which in the past few days has been referred to as the Gettysburg Address of our times, and in which Jobs asked graduates to not let the noise of others (those loud extroverts who were supposed to go into teaching) drown out their own inner voice, heart, and intuition. And when he said those words, he was talking about what teachers do every day, and do best — engage their students and reach them in the most meaningful way possible…drawing on their inner voice and intuition to shape the learning experience for their students, and on their heart…what dedicates them so passionately to their students and their profession. Thank you.

*Not real name!