October 25, 2013
Dear Campus School Families:
You have heard: We are a twitter sensation. Let me explain: K-MAC announced to the thousands who follow the Smith President's twitter feed: "Visited our amazing Campus School! How lucky our students are to work with the dedicated teachers there." Click here to see it
We launched into the twittersphere on Wednesday afternoon after we hosted K-MAC-- which is what Smith students dubbed President McCartney-- for an afternoon that included her visiting every classroom and then joining us for a lovely lunch catered by our PTO. I would like to tell the story of her visit as it offers a perspective on our Campus School. Last weekend, academic dignitaries from across the globe arrived to celebrate Kathy McCartney's inauguration as the 11th President of Smith College. This was the second inauguration that I experienced in my tenure at Smith (I was here for Carol Christ's inauguration) and both times the pomp, tradition, and solemnity of the event reminds me of the mission of a liberal arts college: to help our students develop vital intellectual capacities -- such as honing critical capacities, making informed decisions, expressing oneself clearly and learning to collaborate to tackle intellectual and social problems. Incidentally, these values of mind and spirit dovetail with what I see and experience here at Gill
Hall. The actual inauguration was held at the indoor athletic facility and I marched in my academic regalia as part of the faculty. To see me decked out in garb, (I look much like a jester) check out guy in red behind the
President's left shoulder. http://www.smith.edu/inaugeration Once seated on the podium with my Smith colleagues the event began with the Campus School chorus singing John Lennon's "All you need is love." Check out what numerous people have described as an “angelic” performance by the Smith College
Campus School Chorus directed by Cindy Naughton. They were the HIT of the inauguration! (It starts @
18:45 http://www.smith.edu/inauguration/live.php
)
You will see our students singing with such transparent joy and love. Once the concert was done, the program segued to more traditional fare and there were several speeches including one from Drew Faust, the first women president of Harvard University. She introduced Preside McCartney and described some of the important accomplishments of Kathy's tenure as the Dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
We heard that Kathy is a bold and innovative leader in higher education and a world-class scholar and

researcher on early childhood education and child care.
The festivities of the weekend concluded on Sunday and on Wednesday, President McCartney joined us at the Campus School for her inaugural visit. We are honored that she chose visit us so soon into her tenure.
The events began with me picking her up at College Hall accompanied by two fifth graders (our 6th graders were at Nature's Classroom). After we toured Kathy's office and headed down those imposing steps at
College Hall, one of our fifth graders, channeling her 60-Minutes-correspondent persona, asked, "President
McCartney, what was your story? How did you become president?" She was a natural with the fifth graders and we landed the inside scoop on what really animates K-MAC: Kathy-- beamed and said, "Thank you for asking me such a wonderful question." She proceeded to tell us the story of how she grew up in Medford,
MA, taking care of many siblings. She told us how she used to play school and 'teach' lessons and that when she arrived at Tufts she hoped to become a teacher. As you can imagine, we were riveted by the story of our college president's life journey! She then told us how she taught second grade and then became fascinated by questions of how children develop. This led her to Yale for graduate study, the University of New
Hampshire where her research on the effects of child care still shape the national policy discussion, and then to heading the lab school at University of New Hampshire http://www.chhs.unh.edu/csdc/index As she finished the story, we arrived at the Campus School and the tour began in earnest. Our first stop was Mr.
Matylas' classroom, which was out on the playground and hard at work doing a project he calls 'chalk math.'
His fifth graders were sprawled out chalking up long-division problems and answering them in individual and small groups. It was math in action: fun, playful, and mind-on-task. From there we headed inside the school and we walked into a physical education class with Betsy Ducharme. Our kindergartners were holding scarfs engaged in a short mindfulness meditation exercise that involved close looking, measured breathing, while watching the bungy scarfs unfold like time-lapsed flowers. We saw the transition moments from meditation to practicing juggling. It was adorable, but deeply meaningful as well.

From there we landed in Ms. Endris' third-grade classroom where students were talking about their theories of how rivers flow. We heard one theory that I will long remember, "A river doesn't always have a enough energy to jump over a rock so it has to go around it." After that mind-bending observation, walked across the hallway into Ms. Szymaszek's room and children were huddled in little pods over big sheets of paper. Ms. S asked them to explain what they were doing and one student raised her hand and said they were, 'letting their markers do the talking." Kathy sat right down at a group and said, "Tell me about your ideas." She heard an earful! Including, "If rivers did not have aslant they would not be a river, they would be a pond. Incidentally, I mentioned to Ms. S's group that some of them were now celebrities after being featured in the Twitter Universe by K-Mac. (Guess the CS celebrities!)

We then walked into Lara Ramsey's room and watched her students assiduously working on what Ms.
Ramsey described as their very first official school test. It is the South American test and Kathy heard about how Ms. Ramsey introduces the idea of a 'test' in relationship to what it means to get prepared to showcase what you have learned and what it means to have a growth mindset around these types of experiences.
Across the hall Ms. Ananda's students were on the rug working through representations of data on a graph.
Kathy was excited to see this and shared how math and quantitative statistics have been such a big part of her own professional journey. We then headed downstairs where Kathy was overjoyed to join Ms. Murphy's second grade classroom. "I feel like I am at home again," she said with a laugh. Ms. Murphy's students were hard at work illustrating books that described their visit to the recycling center in Springfield, MA. We joined
Ms. Sussman's second grade in Ms. Dassatti's technology lab where they were also hard at work creating computer-generated images to describe what they had learned and observed on their trip to the recycling center. We also peeked into Ms. Sussman's class where Kathy lit up looking at the bulletin board celebrating
"Naturalist Heroes" like Thoreau and John Muir.

In Ms. Perkin's first grade class, one of her students was in the midst of sharing about "my mom's sparkly shiny diamond ring." He held up the faux ring and everybody "oohed" as if we were at the counter in
Tiffany's. As we left, Ms. Perkins handed Kathy a laminated Lanston Hughes "pocket poem." Reading the poem, Kathy was obviously deeply touched by the "Dream Keeper."

Across the hall in Ms. Cowley's room, we looked at the many wonderful pieces of student work and representations of children's thinking. Kathy said, "There is so much thoughtful work in this room." We then had a small conversation about the big, wise idea for all of us to hold onto around one of the hopes and dream placards on the wall, "My hope and dream is to get better at pumping my legs on the swing." Before we left the room, Kathy talked with Smith senior and student teacher Lauren Cowing about how Lauren grew up in Truro -- a place that Kathy loves. We crossed the connector to the 5th grade and Ms. Cooney's students were working on their medieval projects. In celebration of the President's visit and inspired by their impending performance of H.M.S. Pinafore, they wrote her a song closely based on the Gilbert and Sullivan song "I Am the Monarch of the Sea." Here are the lyrics Ms. Cooney's students composed for a delighted
Kathy McCartney:
She is the monarch of the sea!
The ruler of the university.
Whose praise Group L5 loudly chants; and so do her cousins and her sisters and her aunts!"
It was getting close to dismissal so we hustled down to the kindergarten room, and on the way we talked about our chorus and instrumental programs and how much music and song lives at the school. The kindergartners were amidst the transition and were pulling on their jackets and organizing their backpacks.
Inside Ms. Henderson's room we saw the room decorated with orange and more orange in preparation for
Halloween. Ms. Block's students gave us a beautiful choral hello that had us beaming as if we were VIPs at a gala event. Our tour ended in the magic of Mr. Hepner's art room where we examined clay renditions of trees and bugs and heard about how Mr. Hepner works to create space for students to make art and talk art.

It was a Campus School sprint! But the halls and classrooms were aglow with the joy vibe. That is what
Kathy described as 'amazing.' Our visit ended with her joining us for lunch in our beautiful library. During lunch we heard more about her time in different schools and her research. One of my favorite moments was when she was talking with Mr. Messenger about importance of play, recess and sport she shared how when she lived in New Hampshire she coached a u10 girls team to a championship. We ended our time together by reading "Dream Keeper." What an apt way for a group of educators to end a session together: to think about what it means to be a place of "heart melodies" and "dreams."

Here is the collection of placards that each teacher wrote as a greeting for President McCartney. They were affixed to the doors as a welcoming gift. We sent her back to her office with a binder of these placards. Here is what Nancy Brady wrote for all of us, "

Dear President McCartney, WELCOME TO THE CAMPUS SCHOOL!! Everyone here is so excited to show you the many activities we do at our school. As you said in you magnificent speech, this is a place where we are all “busy being born” every day. We also remember that success is often preceded by failure – and requires persistent passion – like learning to ride a bike! We love being
“nestled” within the Smith College campus. This relationship encourages many collaborations with
Smith faculty, students and facilities like the Art Museum, Botanical gardens and academic departments. The Smith student teachers who work with us are great models of being both a teacher and learner and enrich our classrooms daily. Have a great visit!
Have a great weekend. It was extraordinarily satisfying for us to be recognized by our new president and world class scholar in education as being an "amazing Campus School!" Sincerely, Sam