The Best Job at a School: A Photo Collage

Probably 90% of my school time these days is spent in meetings and with adults. As a 10-year Upper School history teacher, 25-year varsity volleyball coach and Middle School Spanish and history teacher, I definitely miss the old days with the ratio flipped: I remember fondly spending 90% of my time with students. They’re the reason you become an educator, of course. 

These days, I know I need to make the most of my 10% kid time. Since my November Notes, I’ve had some particularly cherished time: riding bikes to school with our Lower School Friday commuters; chaperoning our Student Diversity Leadership Conference (SDLC) attendees in Denver; having lunches with alums who are current undergrads (most recently, that was at Rice University); finishing co-teaching with Aaron Hoover our fall semester Middle School Awesomeness Initiative (AI) class on media literacy; and, also from throughout the fall, being able to fully participate with Michael Settle ’99 in our Middle School boys volleyball program.

These photos are sources of real joy for me.

• Bike Bus 
• Student Diversity Leadership Conference 
• Volleyball Team 
• AI Class 
• Rice University Undergrads Lunch 

The long story behind those photos
For a guy who grew up wanting to be a teacher, being Head of School is an absolutely wonderful job. I get to talk a lot of shop with a very talented team of educator leaders; I can wander anywhere on campus and get to observe highly skilled teachers working their magic; I often get to partner with parents and guardians whose child might be struggling or making significant mistakes; and, I get to strategize on the very long-term future of our school with our Board of Trustees.

Board, faculty, staff, fellow leadership team members, parents, and guardians are all constituencies that make for energizing challenges and motivating opportunities being Head of a JK-12 school. While the adult interactions are the majority of my work, the icing on the cake is the time I spend with the students. Until I joined the FWCD community in 2015, I had 30 years working with middle and upper school students. I am challenged, motivated, rewarded, and just plain invigorated by being with students.

As Head of School, I get to talk to students about their college choices; I get to visit alums at the college they chose. Meetings among adults are important, but greeting students at carpool, engaging with them during lunch, and visiting classes are some of my favorite ways to connect.

Selfishly, I found a way in the last few years to add some more student time to my days. Head of Middle School Stephen Blan gives me the opportunity to teach an elective in our Grades 7-8 Awesomeness Initiative (AI) program; Athletic Director Leigh Block allows me to coach middle school boys volleyball; and Director of Community Engagement and Inclusion Nicole Masole-Rose invited me to serve as a chaperone this year for the Upper School students attending the Student Diversity Leadership Conference (SDLC) of the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS).

The AI class I have been co-teaching with different Middle School teachers is about media literacy. Over five class periods spread throughout the semester, the goal is to raise kids’ awareness of misinformation and manipulation, from fake websites to the strategies of mainstream advertisers. I hope the mini-course benefits the handful of students who have chosen the elective. I know it helps me to have to prepare a lesson; it reminds me of the work that all of the faculty are doing day in and day out. It serves me well to have some lessons flop and to partner with a faculty colleague. Mostly, though, I just have fun interacting with the students in the class.

As much as I like the AI class, a gym with boys volleyball teams is consistently my happiest place. Boys usually have not played volleyball before middle school. Getting to teach kids the fundamentals of a truly great game, combining varied skills and essential teamwork, is thrilling. Coaching is an incredibly challenging and rewarding form of teaching: The results of your teaching are on display. My goal over more than 25 years as a coach is always to be the most-improved team in the league, from the beginning to the end of the season. To that end, coaching the Middle School boys team this fall was so fulfilling. We played Trinity Valley School three times. We lost the first two matches. We ended our season with a 27-25, 25-16 win against the same Trojans. (I did not have to look the score up. I remember it well.) I used the final timeout of the year to suggest that we not do a crazy, wild, celebratory dance after winning because we were, at season’s end, better than our rival, and we had simply played to our potential. We saved our celebrating for the next day in our own Sid W. Richardson Round Gym. I hope the season was just as energizing and rewarding for the boys as it was for me. 

A couple of weeks ago, I spent three days with six Upper School students who had successfully applied to represent FWCD at the national Student Diversity Leadership Conference in Denver. Their dedication and insight made me deeply proud. Each morning and evening, after a full day of programming, they shared their experiences and reflections, exploring how to help make FWCD more and more welcoming to the broadest variety of students and families and sharing joys and challenges each of them has faced as members of our community. 

In my 39th year as an educator, “kid time” is still the best time for me. FWCD students, from the knee-huggers in JK to our college-bound seniors sharing difficult memories, are the constant subject of my daily gratitude practice. I am lucky to be in the Head of School role with these students, their teachers, parents and our Board members.