s your room clean?” “Did you walk Frosty?” “Is your jersey in the laundry basket?” “Have you finished your homework?” were questions that my parents asked me daily. I dreaded these questions because I knew that my answers were usually “no.” I wasn’t trying to be irresponsible or rebellious. In fact, I like to think of my younger self as a well-intentioned teenager. I worked hard in school, participated in school and community activities, and had wonderful friendships. It was just that I didn’t have a good plan for managing my own life even though I thought that I did.

Through my adult eyes, I see the error in my teenage thinking. Fortunately, my parents were patient, understanding, and firm. They guided me through those years, and by the time I moved into my college dorm room, I had figured out how to manage my own life.

At Saint Mary’s School, we believe that girls’ learning to serve and shape their world begins with developing and practicing the skills required to manage their own lives. Having effective habits and routines liberate girls to pursue their passions and interests; their minds have space to wonder, imagine, and dream. In her latest best seller Better Than Before, Gretchen Rubin offers keen insights and strategies to establishing habits, “the invisible architecture of daily life.” She writes, “With habits, we conserve our self-control…Of course, it takes self-control to establish good habits. But once the habit is in place, we can effortlessly do the things we need to do.” (continued on page 3)

By Monica M. Gillespie, Ph.D., Head of School

HEADLINES

A newsletter for Saint Mary’s School Parents

SAINT MARY’S

FEATURESVol. 1, No. 3

February 2016

Educating Girls

Doing the Math

Tips for Parents

Lifelong Learning

Upcoming Events

Good habits formed at youth make all the difference. ~ Aristotle

Educating Girls Developing skills

(continued from page 1)When girls establish “a string of habits” necessary to manage their own lives, such as doing laundry every Sunday afternoon, using their free period to study, or exercising after classes, they eliminate the need to make these decisions every day. The real key to habits is decision making, Rubin asserts, “—or more accurately, the lack of

decision making.” She adds, “When possible, the brain makes a behavior into a habit, which saves effort and therefore gives us more capacity to deal with complex, novel, or urgent matters. Habits mean we don’t strain ourselves to make decisions, weigh choices, dole out rewards, or prod ourselves to begin.”

Forming good habits is essential for girls to manage their own lives. Within our schedule, policies, and structure, Saint Mary’s incorporates the essential strategies Rubin promotes as Pillars of Habits: Monitoring, Scheduling, Accountability, and the most important one—Foundation. We have different mechanisms for monitoring such as

academic assessments, regular check-ins with advisors, and feedback from coaches or instructors. We use scheduling, which is “one of the most familiar and powerful strategies of habit formation.” And, we rely on accountability because “when girls believe that they may be held accountable for their actions—even when they’re accountable only to themselves—they show more self-command.” These three strategies depend on “the habits that serve as the Foundation for forming other good habits…that help us to sleep; move [physical activity]; eat and drink right; and unclutter.”

While they are at Saint Mary’s, our girls develop good habits in all four areas and are able to truly manage their own lives now and in the future. Frequently, our young alumnae tell me that they still set aside at least two hours for studying every night and even “park” their cell phones during this time. Others mention that they get up every day and have breakfast just like they did at Saint Mary’s. Our alumnae experience success in college and life because they have developed good habits during their high school years.

When I refl ect on my teenage years, I realize that by forming good habits like establishing a regular schedule for studying, I not only stopped the daily questions from my parents, but also made it possible to engage fully in learning and living. This is what we want for all of our girls because we know that “it is important to cultivate an atmosphere of growth—the sense that we’re learning new things, getting stronger, forging new relationships, making things better, helping other people.” At Saint Mary’s School, we understand that “habits have a tremendous role to play in creating an atmosphere of growth because they help us make consistent, reliable progress.” Our girls are learning how to manage their own lives and are able to direct their energy and passion toward learning to serve and shape their world.

Excerpted from Better Than Before... by Gretchen Rubin

Guiding Questions to Understanding Your Personal Nature Designed for adults

BROADER QUESTIONS• Am I a morning person or night person? Am I a

lark or an owl?• Am I a marathoner, a sprinter, or a procrastinator?• Am I an underbuyer or an overbuyer?• Am I a simplicity lover or an abundance lover?• Am I a fi nisher or an opener?• Am I a familiarity lover or a novelty lover?• Am I promotion-focused or prevention-focused?• Do I like to take small steps or big steps?

ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS• How do I like to spend my time?• At what time of day do I feel energized? When do I drag?• Do I like racing from one activity to another, or do I prefer

unhurried transitions?• What activities take up my time but aren’t particularly useful

or stimulating?• Would I like to spend more time with friends, or by myself?• Do I have several things on my calendar that I anticipate with

pleasure?• What can I do for hours without feeling bored?• What daily or weekly activity did I do for fun when I was 10

years old?

WHAT I VALUE• What’s most satisfying to me: saving time, or money,

or effort?• Does it bother me to act differently from other people, or do I

get a charge out of it?• Do I spend a lot of time on something that’s important to

someone else, but not to me?• If I had $500 that I had to spend on fun, how would I spend it?• Do I like to listen to experts, or do I prefer to fi gure things out

for myself?• Does spending money on an activity make me feel more

committed to it, or less committed?• Would I be happy to see my children have the life I’ve had?

MY CURRENT HABITS• Am I more likely to indulge in a bad habit in a group, or when I’m alone?• If I could magically, effortlessly change one habit in my life, what would it be?• If the people around me could change one of my habits, what would they choose?• Of my existing habits, which would I like to see my children adopt? Or not?

TipS FOR pARENTS

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Our girls are learning how to manage their own lives and are able to direct their energy and passion toward learning to serve and shape their world.

hile in the Ecuadorian village, I taught lessons on fractions and on linear equations. My goal in those lessons was to help students see how they could use math in their own lives,” say Dr. Holstein. “When I came back to Saint Mary’s School,” she continues, “I knew I wanted to do an activity with my students that would help them to think about math in Third World countries. I felt the Math for a Change project was one way to do that. It allowed for the girls to think about how others live and the inequities in the world. It also provided a context for students to explore math in the real world.”

Designed to allow students to apply algebraic concepts to real world issues, the project centered on three areas of social justice: water and sanitation, currency, and world hunger. The fi rst part of the project involved students choosing a country, from Central America, Africa, or Asia, on which to focus. Once a student selected her “project country,” she researched facts about water and sanitation in that country and used her knowledge of algebra to answer questions like these:

• Approximately what is your country’s population? What fraction of the world’s population does not have access to safe water or access to adequate sanitation? Write your answers as simplifi ed fractions.

• How many children’s lives would be saved per year if water was accessible for proper hand washing? Per day?

• Assuming a family who lives a kilometer from their water source has to refresh their water supply once a day, how many miles would they have to walk in a week?

• Compare the water usage of the people living more than a kilometer from their water source with usage in the U.S.A.

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In addition to doing the math, the girls also refl ected on the issues themselves,

exploring ways they might envision making water available now in the future for those who lack

clean water, for instance.

The second focus of the Math for a Change project involved students in calculating currency exchange rates around the world and specifi cally in their project country. Students used their math skills to calculate the differences in exchange rates from country to country and to consider how that might affect a nation’s wealth or poverty and whether these differences seemed fair and justifi ed.

Lastly, students researched worldwide hunger and used their math skills to calculate the percentage of people in poverty and the fertility and literacy rates in their project country. In the process of applying math to the real-world scenarios, the students made important connections about literacy, poverty, hunger, and growing populations and how these issues impact people, nations, and the wider world.

Throughout the Math for a Change project, students were to apply and build their mathematics knowledge in new and relevant ways. Regan Roberts ’19 said that she “enjoyed the freedom of creating my own project independently… and learning how to compare different statistics and multiply large fractions of money.” In addition, girls were able to expand their understanding of the interconnectedness of our work and the issues that face our global communities.

“I enjoyed being able to learn facts about other places and people around the world,” said ninth grader Hannah Sherman. “It made me understand more about who in the world does not have access to clean necessities and are suffering every day.”

*T2T International “provides global professional development opportunities for teachers. With a focus on STEM, we send educators to build meaningful, long-term partnerships in schools around the world. We emphasize a culturally relevant approach that encourages student-centered instruction while respecting each community’s learning goals.” (www.t2t-i.org)

** Math for a Change: http://webpages.math.luc.edu/~lauve/courses/108 sp2013/resources/MathForAChange.pdf

Doing the math: a global perspectiveBy Krista Holstein, Ph.D., math instructor and math department chairand Laura Novia, director of marketing and communications

Inspired by her 2015 summer experience in Ecuador with Teachers 2 Teachers -International (T2T-I)*, math instructor and math department chair Dr. Krista Holstein adapted a Math for a Change** project for her Saint Mary’s Algebra 1 students.

Saint Mary’s Habits of a Lifelong Learner are not only for our students, but for everyone in our learning and living community. That’s why we believe and invest in professional development for our faculty and staff. We know when teachers are given opportunities to grow as experts in their field, they are able to give students the best learning experience possible. The following are some professional development and achievement highlights of our faculty and staff.

900 Hillsborough StreetRaleigh, North Carolina27603-1689

SCHOOLCOURAGE

HEADLINES

See online calendar for details | www.sms.edu

EVENTSFEbRUARy 24 Re-enrollment contracts due

FEbRUARy 27 Exploration Day

MARCH 3 Curriculum Night

MARCH 4 Parent Education Workshop with Dr. Gillespie

MARCH 4-5 Spring Musical: Legally Blonde

MARCH 11 COMPASS Career Day

MARCH 18-19 Orchesis Concert

MARCH 25-ApRiL 4 Spring Break Dorms close at 10 a.m. March 25 Dorms open at 2 p.m. April 4

ApRiL 5-8 COMPASS Leadership Development Week

ApRiL 12 Easter Eucharist Chapel PA Volunteer Appreciation Lunch

ApRiL 13 Celebration of the Arts Assembly

ApRiL 15 Grandparents and Grandfriends Day

ApRiL 16 Saint Mary’s Prom Spring Swing

Workshops and Conferences• N.C. Outward Bound Educators

Initiative • Carnegie Hall Inaugural Music Educators

Workshop• Online School for Girls: Introduction

to Teaching Girls (sponsored by the National Coalition of Girls’ Schools)

• National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy

• Women in Leadership Conference North Carolina Association of Independent Schools (NCAIS)

• Institute for Emerging Issues, #YouthEngageNC

• NCAIS Global Education Workshop• National Council for the Social Studies• EdLeader21 National Conference

• The Association of Boarding Schools (TABS) Conference

• Having Difficult Conversations Through Art workshop, North Carolina Museum of Art

publications• When We Were British: Interdisciplinary

Approaches to Visualizing Early America, Chapter 9: “Settlement of the Carolinas,” Mr. Aragona

presenters and Memberships• 2015 NCAIS Conference

Fostering Communication, Critical Thinking, and Character in the Math Classroom Using Rubrics Co-presented by Ms. Hencher, Dr. Holstein, Ms. Little

• TABS Annual Conference Women in Leadership Roles in Independent Boarding Schools Presented by Dr. Gillespie

• Planning Committee for the North Carolina Geographic Alliance’s participation in North Carolina Council for the Social Studies 2015-2016 Mr. Aragona, member

• TABS Annual Conference Planning Dr. Gillespie, committee member and conference presider

Lifelong Learning