I hope that this letter finds you well, and that your family has been enjoying these summer months, taking full advantage of the opportunities available. I alluded to Mark Twain’s take on these opportunities in an earlier message: summer provides a rich time for the growth and learning that happens outside of school. Meaningful time spent together as families, exploration of passions both old and new and the healthy exploration of a multitude of outdoor activities.

 

For those families that are new to Lake Forest Country Day School, I extend our warm welcome. I am looking forward to getting to know you and your children, and to working with your family – as are our faculty, our room parents, and the entire school community. Welcome!

As we have been preparing for the start of the school year, the interim Upper School administration has done yeoman’s work on many fronts. They have maintained and built upon the hard work that came before them, ensuring that the school retained both its high academic standards and its unswerving focus on the individual needs of students and their families in a caring, nurturing environment. Simultaneously, they laid the groundwork for both the ePAL tablet PC roll-out this fall and our ISACS self-study. They have been enormously supportive, helping me to get situated as the incoming Head of Upper School, sharing their knowledge and experience and connecting me to fa milies and faculty who are key to the character of the school. My heartfelt thanks go to Bob Bullard, Lynn Beuttell and Andy Sperling – and to the entire Upper School faculty – for their work over the past year. And Susan Murphy continues to be the glue that holds us all together. Thank you all!

 

The ePAL – electronic Portable Anytime Learning – tablet PCs are an evolutionary step forward in LFCDS’ efforts to provide the most relevant, engaging and developmentally appropriate education possible to our students. For the past several years, our faculty and students have been working with notebook computers, netbooks and tablet PCs to explore possibilities for enhancing and transforming our educational experience through the thoughtful use of technology. The ePAL program streamlines our use of technology, eliminating the logistical overhead of computer carts and shared computers and providing anytime, anywhere access to a consistent learning environment for our students both in school and at home while simultaneously providing faculty with a richer, more detailed understanding of individual student learning processes.

 

The ePAL tablet PCs will provide the opportunity to work with our students, both in school and at home, to develop their relationship to computers as tools for learning and communication. There is no substitute for the face-to-face relationship between a teacher and a student, and our faculty are committed to integrating technology into that relationship, helping students develop the organizational and literacy skills they will need for a life in the twenty-first century while maintaining the core values of an LFCDS education that are manifest in our relationships to other people: personal excellence, responsible citizenship, engagement with the community and a broad diversity of backgrounds and perspectives. The ePAL tablet PCs will enhance what makes LFCDS the unique and wonderful school community that has brought us all together.

 

I have asked Andy Sperling to continue permanently in his role from the past year, as the Assistant Head of Upper School for Student Affairs. His deep knowledge of the workings of the school, combined with his passion for the development of middle school students and the care and affection that he brings to his work with each individual child makes him an outstanding asset not just in the classroom, but also to larger school community. Andy will lead us in the supervisi on and support of students outside of class, student government and student discipline.

 

As we embark on the ePAL, we believe that it is imperative that students become increasingly comfortable and confident both with the use of technology and with the creative twenty-first century skills that are crucial both to school and the world around us. Each Upper School student will take part in a semester-long course taught by his or her English teacher during the Fine Arts rotation.

 

On a related topic, we are also thrilled to announce that Jeff Miller will now be teaching all of the seventh grade English sections. While Jeff has been sharing his passion for technology for the past several years, his educational training and expertise truly lies in his teaching of English and literature. Formalizing this position now affords us an opportunity to engage students in a fully integrated and diverse English curriculum with four individual grade level teachers.

 

Janie Hodgkinson will be changing roles as well, continuing her focus on the refinement of the school’s health and wellness curriculum under the aegis of the PE department. Janie has been a wonderful fifth grade history teacher, and we are delighted that she is now able to apply her skills and concern for the healthy development of our students throughout the Upper School curriculum.

 

We are joined this year by Paul Hedlund, who will be teaching history in the fifth grade and working closely with Jessica Hill on the new Resource class in the fifth grade, focused on organizational skills, reading instruction and technological literacy. Paul comes to us most recently from Millburn Elementary School in Wadsworth, IL. At Millburn, Paul was deeply focused on the social and emotional growth of his students, exploring interdisciplinary and d evelopmentally-driven approaches to assessing and meeting individual student learning needs. A father and a youth sports coach, Paul is a wonderful addition to our fifth grade team!

 

In the interest of a smooth start to this school year for one and all, I want to draw your attention to the following list of reminders and information, all of which are on the Panther Portal at http://lfcds.net. If you have questions about any of these details, please do not hesitate to contact…

Sincerely,

 

Seth Battis
Head of Upper School
Lake Forest Country Day School