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Santa Fe Leadership Center
Monthly Newsletter February, 2012
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Greetings!
At the beginning of every Santa Fe Seminar we set goals and  ground rules for our time together. One of these goals is to come each day unplugged and to be fully present. "Being present" is not only about listening attentively and engaging in the seminar sessions, but also about taking in the whole experience of being in Santa Fe. We often suggest attuning to all fives senses, perhaps awakening some of those senses that might have fallen dormant through the busyness of our daily routines. Listen, taste, touch, smell, and see new things - or things we might have missed when our head was down and we were dashing from one meeting to the next. New Mexico, in particular, is a sensuous place, full of rich smells of roasting chiles and pinon fires, and sights like horizons as far as your eye can see - where brown earth meets turquoise sky. To not be present, is to cheat yourself of the experience. D.H. Lawrence wrote of New Mexico, "Touch the country and you will never be the same again." Rotate the word "touch" with each of the other senses and you will understand why being unplugged and being present are key ingredients to the Santa Fe Seminar experience.
Why unplug? In the summer and fall of 2010, the New York Times ran a series called, "Your Brain on Computers". Many articles in the series argued that the excessive uses of digital devices have rewired our brain - and not for the best. "Some experts believe excessive use of the Internet, cellphones and other technologies can cause us to become more impatient, impulsive, forgetful and even more narcissistic," writes Tara Pope Parker in her article "An Ugly Toll of Technology: Impatience and Forgetfulness" (June 6, 2010) . Another article by Matt Richtel entitled "Digital Devices Deprive Brain of Needed Downtime" (August 24, 2010) discusses how a state of constantly "plugged in" deprives the brain of time alone necessary "to remember information or come up with new ideas." Each of the seven articles, creates a compelling case to take time away from the devices, unplug and get present.We at the SFLC would argue that it isn't just technology, but rather general busyness, that can be a detriment to our mental state. Technology is simply another way to channel the busyness (albeit a highly addictive one, according to the Times series). It seems the being busy has become a virtue in our schools. In this issue of the SFLC Newsletter, we explore what it means to be present, mindful, and real and to sit still in a state of "un-busyness."
In April, we invite you to join us at Leadership Unplugged: The Inner Work of School Leaders in Santa Fe, NM. We have only a few spots left for this seminar, but we expect it to be a rich opportunity to get into this mindful place, to reconnect with your five senses, and to explore the core values of your leadership practices.
And lest you think we are Luddites, this summer we invite you to join us in the heart of the Silicon Valley for Innovative Leadership at Hillbrook School. Being present and plugging in are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Tweeters welcome.
Happy February!
Sincerely,
Carla Silver Gary Gruber Timothy McIntire
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The 2011-2012 Leadership Seminar Schedule 
Interim Headship: Design and Implementation in Real Time, March 3, 2012, Seattle following NAIS Teacher as Leader: Learning Effective Leadership,March 8-12, 2012 Santa Fe, NM WITH GUEST FACULTY: Stanford University Senior Scholar, Ann Lieberman Leadership Unplugged: The Inner Work of School Leaders, April 22-25, 2012, Santa Fe, NM Innovative Leadership: July 15-19, 2012Hillbrook School, Los Gatos, CA, Registration coming soon for: October: The Art and Experience of Leadership, American School in London November: The Art and Experience of Leadership, Santa Fe Visit the Santa Fe Leadership Center Website for more information or contact Carla Silver with any questions. |
SFLC Advisors
"Los Sabios"
Rick Ackerly,
Consultant and Author
Peter Branch,
Head Emeritus, Georgetown Day School, Executive Director, Washington Ballet
Paula Carreiro,
Head of School, Beauvoir
Peter Cheney,
Former Executive Director of NAES
Norm Colb,
Head of School, Menlo School
Lisa Darling,
President, United World College-USA
Phil Deely,
Consultant, Philip Sedgwick Deely and Associates &
Interim Head, The Roeper School
Sandy Drew,
Senior Development Consultant
Richard Kassissieh,
IT Director, Catlin Gabel School
Tony Gerlicz,
Director, American School of Warsaw
Coreen Hester,
Head of School, American School of London
Greg Papay,
Partner, Lake Flato Architects
Mark Silver,
Head of School, Hillbrook School
David Streight
Executive Director,
Council for Spiritual and Ethical Education (CSEE)
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Why Mindfulness?
by Lisa Spengler
Lisa Spengler is the High School Counselor, Wellness Coordinator and Upper School Teacher at Katherine Delmar Burke School in San Francisco, CA. To find out more about the mindfulness work at KDBS, email Lisa at lisa.s@kdbs.org.
As I sit at my desk preparing to write this article, I "put on my mindful body" and spend a minute or so observing my breath. By returning to an intentional focus on my breathing, which is the basis of a mindfulness practice, I am able to bring my attention to the present and thus move into my work with a sharp, invigorated, yet calm state of mind.
In the fall of 2011, the Katherine Delmar Burke School adopted  the practice of mindfulness as a school community. Why mindfulness? A few years prior, Burke's began working with Challenge Success, a project of the Stanford University College of Education, to assess the general health and well being of our school community. Through this work, the Burke's Challenge Success Team found that a common undercurrent of stress existed, to various extents, in the daily lives of many Burke's community members. In a world that is rapidly changing and progressing, it is too easy to live detached from the present moment and to move at a physical and emotional pace that is unhealthy and unproductive. The Challenge Success Team quickly realized that the practice of mindfulness would provide every member of our community with useful tools for slowing down and returning to the present moment.
Our desire to learn more about mindfulness led us to Mindful Schools of Oakland, CA, a non-profit organization dedicated to the integration of mindfulness in education. The team quickly learned from them that through mindfulness it is possible to achieve "better focus and attention, increased sense of calm, decreased stress and anxiety, enhanced health, improved impulse control, increased self-awareness, skillful responses to difficult emotions, increased empathy and understanding of others, and development of natural conflict resolution skills" (Mindful Schools). Through observation of classroom practices and informal conversations with colleagues, we learned that many of our teachers were already using forms of mindfulness in their classrooms. Excited by this discovery, we considered the potential benefits of adopting mindfulness as an
entireschool community and proposed a plan for its implementation.
Burke's Head of School and senior administration enthusiastically supported the plan for a school-wide adoption of mindfulness, which included extensive training to make sure that students, faculty and staff would be able to develop their own practice as well as support classroom and school-wide applications. A partnership with Mindful Schools was formed, and during the summer most faculty and staff read The Mindful Child by Susan Kaiser Greenland.
In August, at our opening faculty and staff meeting, in my capacity as the Wellness Coordinator, I spent some time detailing why we were adopting mindfulness and the process we would engage in to learn the practice together. At the end of that meeting, a faculty member with a long-standing mindfulness practice led us in a guided meditation in order to set the "tone" for the year. The peace and positive energy in the room was palpable. The meditation proved to be the perfect way for our community to start the year, welcome an interim Head of School and move into the final stages of a permanent head search.
Our formal training with Mindful Schools began in late October with a session for the faculty and staff, which was followed by a progression of 15 sessions for the students. During these lessons, students and their teachers learned how to practice mindfulness together. While it seemed as if class time would be "lost" to the training, it was easily recouped by students and teachers that were much more engaged and focused in their work.
Currently, we are working as a community to deepen our understanding of mindfulness and how best to incorporate it in the classroom, as well as within the community as a whole. Our faculty and staff meetings now routinely begin with a few minutes of mindful breathing, allowing everyone the opportunity to shake off the day and center themselves for the work ahead. Each classroom is equipped with a singing bowl that can be used for mindfulness, and teachers are finding thoughtful and creative ways to employ the practice in their classrooms, including mindful moments at the start of class, mindful breaths before a test, or mindful walking during transitions. The results of our adoption are already evident-students at  every grade level are incorporating mindfulness into their lives both in and out of the classroom. When I asked my seventh grade students if they had used mindfulness outside of the formal lessons, hands eagerly shot into the air! One student commented that she is using mindfulness before she begins her homework each evening, another that it helped her focus in the middle of a test, and another used mindfulness in the middle of an exciting and stressful semi-final varsity volleyball game. It has been exciting to watch even our kindergartners move into their mindful bodies, place their hands on their anchor spot, close their eyes and take mindful breaths.
Burke's 7th and 8th grade science teacher related to me that as a scientist she appreciates that neuroscience research is extolling the virtues of a mindfulness practice. She has found that by practicing mindfulness with her students before they take on a challenging lab or assessment, they are better able to move through the obstacles and barriers they may face as part of scientific inquiry. The students' anxiety is diminishing and their learning environment has clearly been enhanced.
On a more personal level, another faculty member has been using mindful breathing to get back to sleep at night. Instead of going over her to-do list at 3:00am, she now labels her thoughts, focuses on her breathing, and is able to resume a restful sleep, undoubtedly allowing her to be more present for her students the following day.
My mindfulness practice slows me down time and again throughout my workday and reminds me that the work will get done, probably more efficiently and effectively, if I can return to a focus on my breath. As I come to the end of my writing, I smile as I listen to kindergartners "playing puppy" below my office window. They are so joyful in their play, and their joy, on a warm and sunny February morning, fills me with gratitude.
Mindfulness is allowing this already tremendous community to become even better in its second century of existence. The lives of everyone at Burke's are being touched in profound and subtle ways, and it is clear that this ancient practice is an essential 21st Century skill.
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On Becoming Real
by Gary R. Gruber
We start out with the world presenting itself to us as it is. Then our parents, teachers, priests, professors and therapists interpret the world for us so we can "see" it in the 'right' way and participate responsibly. These others provide labels, descriptions and names and give voices to the beings and events in it, so that thereafter, it is difficult for us to read and see and feel the world in any other language or hear it saying other things to us.
Our developmental task is to question all of those  interpretations and create our own understanding, so that we can see with a new vision, hear with new ears and speak with a new language thereby letting the world speak to us in a new voice and write all its possible meanings in the new book of our existence. It is our own story of our own making and not an extension of someone else. We are grateful for the contributions made by so many others along the way but at some point, sooner or later, we must take up ownership and become who we really are, a unique individual who may, in fact, see the world in very different ways from most others. Words like authentic, genuine and real get us part of the way and the experience speaks for itself.
It is a risk to expose and express our real self and so we often disguise who we are, or we play a prescribed role, assigned to us and accepted by us. We often want to protect ourselves against criticism or rejection and yet there is much to be learned and gained in those experiences too. This protection comes at a steep price. When we are not known by the other people in our lives, we are misunderstood. Worse, when we succeed in hiding our real self from others, we tend to lose touch with the world and ourselves. This loss of self contributes to dis-ease in its myriad forms.
One of my all-time favorite stories about being real comes from The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams. "What is REAL?" asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. "Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?" "Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real." "Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by bit?"
"It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."
Being real, being honest and transparent, comes with risk and yet without risk there is seldom much gain. The key is knowing when and how to risk sharing one's thoughts and feelings without censoring, being secure within one's self and not worrying very much about the response or the fallout if there is any. Telling the truth as you perceive it may conflict with someone's else truth or reality but that kind of engagement is precisely what is needed if there is to be an authentic and "real" relationship. Sharing one's self with another or with a group encourages others to do the same and if you want the experience to be both real and meaningful, there's a much better chance of that happening by allowing others to see who we really are. Ready, set, go!
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Announcing A New Leadership Seminar:
Innovative Leadership
July 15-19, Hillbrook School, Los Gatos, CA
Registration is now open
Join the Santa Fe Leadership Center and Hillbrook School for  an exploration of innovation in school leadership. This highly interactive seminar is designed for school leaders who want to delve deeper into the concept of innovation, who want to increase their capacity to bring innovative practices to their schools, and who want to foster a culture of innovation and creativity in their communities.
Today, schools are challenged to prepare students for a rapidly changing world which requires rethinking and re-imagining school - from instruction, to physical space, to time, and spirit. To meet this challenge, school leaders must adapt ahead of the curve. They must be innovative.
As a school leader, are you prepared to meet the changing needs of your school and your students? What does it mean to be innovative? What conditions must exist to foster a culture of innovation your school community?
Who should attend? Leaders at all points in their careers and serving in all different capacities are encourage to attend.
Enrollment is limited to 40 school leaders.
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What Does it Mean to Be Present?
by Debra Deverell
Deb Deverell is the Lower School Head at Vail Mountain School. She is a SFLC Leadership Fellow, 2011.
In the mountain resort community of Vail, Colorado sits a small  K-12 independent school, Vail Mountain School. For the past twelve years the lower school has been guided by three simple questions, "Is it safe? Is it kind? Is it my best work?" Students, teachers and parents alike are asked to live by these questions.
As we opened the 2012 year a month ago, we read a fabulous picture book, What Does It Mean to be Present? at one of our weekly Town Meetings. The book stresses the importance of being mindful, slowing down, being present in, and savoring, each moment. As author Rana DiOrio writes, "Being present means...listening carefully when other people are speaking, noticing when someone needs help and taking the time to give them the help they need, focusing on what's happening now, instead of thinking about what's next." Children can be as caught up and frantic as many of the adults around them. It is imperative that we help them slow down, take a breath, and appreciate all that is around them. The book has given us pause and has helped us craft a fourth question important to our daily lives, "Am I present?"
Sometimes the simplest words carry the greatest meaning. Especially when you pay attention to them.
Other books by the same author include: What Does it Mean to be Green? What Does It Mean to be Global?The books are published by The Little Pickle Press.
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Leadership Unplugged
You owe it to yourself to take the time away from the busyness of school and refocus on your personal and professional priorities, your core values, and examine the "whys" of your experience as an educational leader. In your role as a school leader, it is critical to develop the inner resources that allow you to manage the many external challenges and demands of your job. On-going personal reflection, open dialogue with like-minded and trusted colleagues, and intentional time away from the busy-ness of school-life are essential practices that reinvigorate and sustain your passion and joy for your work. This seminar, held in the ideal setting of Santa Fe, NM, explores the inner work of the school leader and provides participants time and space to examine and recommit to the core values that shape their leadership practices. Participants will write, talk, reflect, and creatively approach challenges individually and in groups. Time will also be provided for exploring Santa Fe and enjoying the landscape for both reflection and play. Who should attend? School leaders at all points in their careers who are looking to deepen their understanding of their personal leadership. Registration is also open for the following spring seminars:
At no time in school leadership are opportunity and danger so significant as the term of an interim head. Because the occasion for an interim is yoked with transition, change, and often grieving, it takes skill, foresight, and failure-proof performance in order to cultivate a community of hope for what lies ahead.
Who should attend? - Any head or chief school leader who would be willing to take on an interim role now or in the future
- School leaders who have served as Interims Trustees, Board Chairs, or Search Chairs who will appoint an Interim
- Other school leaders who may be called upon to serve as Interim at the division, department, or group level internally in the school
Please join us for three days of conversation, reflection, and community during which we will explore the transformational possibilities of teacher leadership in our schools. We will discuss the many ways that teacher leadership can take shape in a school - from instructional leadership to department and team leadership to research leadership, among others. Our work together will range from reflective exploration of who we are and want to become as educational leaders to the practical, daily challenges of working as passionate leaders in our schools. Who should attend?
Teachers in all stages of their careers. Whether you are a young teacher energized to lead and create change or an experienced teacher who has worn many leadership hats throughout your career - including department chairs, program directors, class deans, mentor teachers and more. |
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About Us
We are excited to meet you. We are the Santa Fe Leadership Center team, Gary Gruber, Tim McIntire and Carla Silver. Click here to read more about our careers and leadership experiences.
Please visit the Santa Fe Leadership Center to learn more about our programs and our other leadership services and opportunities.
Santa Fe Leadership Center
17 Camino Redondo, Placitas, NM 87043
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