September 22, 2022
Breaking the People Pleasing Cycle
What do we do when our children don’t get what they want? When they’re little, we coach them on the value of sharing, waiting their turn, or accepting the situation. If you are a parent of siblings, you’ve probably set multiple invisible timers to negotiate toy time between equally indignant children. You’ve heard ‘it’s-my-time-with-the-Xbox!’ and ‘I WAS […]
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September 1, 2022
Pride and Promise
Pride and Promise I love August! There is a wonderful spirit of pride and promise that fills the air as we welcome students back to campus for a new school year–and as we enter into a new year of our school’s five-year strategic plan. Before we launch fully into a new year of strategic goal […]
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August 11, 2022
Centering Student Wellness
We are delighted to welcome students back to campus for our 26th year at Cary Academy. It was so lovely to see students yesterday, as we brought back a modified version of our “handshake ceremony.” As I told the students, this ceremony has been a tradition dating back to the founding of the school. It […]
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April 14, 2022
Reflections on AsEA
Legendary Asian American civil rights activist Yuri Kochiyama once said, “Life is not what you alone make it. Life is the input of everyone who touched your life and every experience that entered it. We are all part of one another.” Ironically, it’s often when I gather with people under the banner of a shared […]
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February 24, 2022
Art is essential
Several years after I completed an undergraduate degree, my university reached out to me. To my surprise, they weren’t asking for money; rather, the Studio Art Department was politely requesting that I fill out a survey detailing how I was using my art degree after my time at the university. A young teacher at the […]
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February 17, 2022
If at first you don’t succeed…
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the value of a good design challenge—one that taps into students’ intrinsic motivation, encourages experimentation and problem-solving and treats failure as an essential part of the path to success. The wheels started turning for me (literally) at the recent ISEEN Winter Institute in Arizona, where I had the […]
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February 10, 2022
Glimpsing the future
Every year with great anticipation, I count down the days to one of the big educational technology conferences that I have the privilege of attending. Not only do I look forward to connecting with my brethren at other schools, but to sharing and learning from others all over the world. A sneak peek at all […]
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January 27, 2022
I’ve Been to the Mountains, ISEEN It All
Cary Academy’s commitment to discovery and innovation keeps us looking for ways to improve, and one of our key avenues for growth is paying attention to what other excellent educators are doing around the world. Back in 2015, I first connected with an awesome group called the Independent School Experiential Education Network (ISEEN), made up […]
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January 13, 2022
Making the climb
I woke to a loud crack that sounded like a tree branch snapping. My tent collapsed on top of me – and I shot bolt up, startled out of the fog of early morning sleep. It was 5am, January 3, at Camp 90 on the Lakeshore Trail in the Smoky Mountains National Park – during […]
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