Beech Tree CONNECTION
News from IDS and Annual Reports for 2007 - 2009 A Seasonal Magazine for the IDS Community
Stories of Generosity & Leadership The theme of the IDS Annual Reports for 2007 - 2009 and 2008 -2009 is generosity and leadership. One of the privileges of joining a school like ours is that families have chosen to participate in community. As a community of choice, our parents, teachers, alumni, and friends each embrace the value that an IDS education can offer our students and the communities we serve. Participating in such a community invites each of us to contribute an array of gifts. Generosity of spirit, time, energy, and resources is evident throughout IDS as one of our core values. We hope it is easily recognized throughout these pages, from the events and programs that are driven by the seemingly unlimited energies of volunteers all the way to the financial gifts that are so essential to sustain an intentionally small school like IDS.
New Technologies ‒ White Boards & Websites Just over a year ago, one of our parents, who prefers to remain anonymous, stopped in to say hello, and in the course of our conversation asked me what the school needed that wasn’t funded easily
Issue 1 Volume 12 FALL 2009
by the operating budget. We discussed different unanticipated expenditures that IDS needed to make [including fuel purchases...you remember how quickly oil prices were climbing last summer]. An exciting thread emerged as we considered together how teachers and students were making use of the progression of technology to further activate learning at IDS, such as podcasts, video essays, blogs, the school’s website,
school. In time, these and other electronic media will offer varied ways to display and to interact with student work and creations. After considerable efforts that began in the spring of 2007, IDS launched its new website just before the start of the 2009 – 2010 school year. The site is dynamic, and content is being added all the time. We are in a learning stance with our web – continually exploring and mastering new
and LCD TV monitors. We considered how technologies engage students in the core competencies of gathering varied information, exploring its meanings, considering alternative interpretations, and designing ways of communicating.
features and possibilities. We are also eager to learn from any unintended oversights or glitches. Thus far, reviews from parents, students, and teachers are very positive. The site presents our school’s best face to the larger community and is already enhancing the ease and clarity of our communication with current families; we hope readers of the Beech Tree will also find it to be a refreshing and useful way to easily communicate with IDS. Explore the site at www.independentdayschool.org. We are eager for feedback. Let us know what you think!
Ultimately, the parent generously donated two new LCD TV monitors that grace our Early Childhood and Middle School entrances at IDS. Affectionately referred to as “electronic whiteboards,” in honor of the white boards they replaced, these screens offer the faculty and community flexibility to communicate and celebrate the day-to-day life of our