Dear Parents,

As the leaves unfold around campus and juniors enjoy their senior privileges in anticipation of their increased responsibilities and leadership next year, I wanted to reflect on the year and look ahead toward the years to come. A colleague once commented that one’s first year at a school is like a year of Mondays–nearly everything happens for the first time. If this is indeed the case, then we are certainly into the afternoon of the first day when some traction has been established and momentum is built for Tuesday and beyond.

For my family and me, this has been a year of getting to know an exceptional community while building a real admiration for the core values of an NYA education. Even after the thorough research and interview processes from the previous year, it is not until one lives a school’s and a community’s yearly rhythms that it’s possible to build a deeply rooted appreciation of an institution’s strengths as well as its untapped potential. As I sat in on classes of every faculty member this winter and spring, I started to savor the kind of instruction and quality interactions we offer students every day. As I grew to know my advisees and worked with members of the Class of 2012 on their senior speech preparations, I understood how one-on-one relationships are key to what we offer students and why it’s important to provide our faculty more time to have these opportunities. As I met students at drop off, I witnessed their transition from home to school in every kind of weather Maine can offer.

All of these interactions and conversations with every constituency at NYA has allowed for a great foundation for our shared work in the next years. I am more excited than ever to work with each member of the community and grow the school in key ways with the knowledge I’ve developed in the past 10 months. While a Head of School’s position does involve external relations and travel perhaps more now than ever, I also hope to expand the key responsibilities that keep me connected to the experiences we offer students and to set aside time to meet with parents and others in the community during regular times during the week. I’ll maintain my office hours and look forward to continuing our regular Parents’ Association coffee hour. I am also looking at ways to assume some teaching responsibilities next year. If you have other ideas for conversations, forums or ways to build fibers in our community, never hesitate to let me know.

While the summer months are increasingly on the minds of our students, I also hope that we can finish the year as strongly as it began. The immediate weeks ahead are filled with instruction and important opportunities to review and incorporate critical material. It is tempting for students, no matter their age, to start dreaming of unstructured time. Let’s encourage our children to finish well: to provide their coaches, teachers and each other with their best effort. Summer will come to feel like that much more of a reward.

Yours truly,

Brad Choyt
Head of School

For the NYA online community publication, Emerge, students conducted “An Interview with Head of School and Artist Brad Choyt.” Click on the title to read the entire piece.

Dear Parents,

I am delighted to announce the appointment of Jack Hardy as our new Athletic Director, beginning July 15. After an extensive search and review of over 85 applications, the Search Committee unanimously selected Jack as someone we are confident will bring great leadership to NYA’s athletic program while also working closely with students and coaches during each season and on every level.

For the last seven years, Jack served as the Assistant Principal in Falmouth schools. Prior to that position, he was the Athletic Director in the Greely High School and Middle School in Cumberland for 14 years, where he worked with students in grades 6-12, earning the respect and admiration of many other Athletic Directors, coaches and student athletes throughout Maine. Jack’s experience in schools dates back to the late 1970’s when he began his career as a physical education and classroom teacher in Cape Elizabeth. Most recently, Jack has become very familiar with NYA as the parent of a current senior, Anthony.

Following his tenure as an Assistant Principal, Jack looks forward to returning to athletic administration where he can focus on the important task of delivering the best possible program for our student athletes. After meeting Jack last week, many students, parents, and coaches noted his knowledge of Maine athletics and his emphasis on teaching character through both practice and team competition. These qualities set Jack apart from the other highly qualified candidates.

Jack will join me at the Parents’ Association Morning Forum on Thursday, April 12, from 8:00 – 9:00 a.m. in the Middle School Community Room to speak about the future of NYA’s athletics.

On a related note, I am also pleased that our Strength and Conditioning Coach, Shelby Turcotte, will be returning to NYA next year and continuing his important role working with our students in this capacity. By all accounts, Shelby has been a very effective coach for our athletes and will continue to have regular hours in our weight room Monday through Friday next year.

Thank you to all who participated in the search process. I welcome your continued thoughts and support of our athletic program in future years.

Yours truly,

Brad Choyt
Head of School

The opinion and editorial pages of  today’s Portland Press Herald feature an editorial by Brad Choyt:

Plugged-in teens sacrifice ability to complete tasks, connect off-line

Dear Parents,

As you prepare for what I hope will be a restful spring break, I wanted to take a moment to update you on our school today and to look ahead a bit toward next year. With the help of many of you in our community and the great work of our admission team, we have seen an increase of nearly 50% in the number of inquiries about NYA in our current enrollment cycle. What is equally impressive is that we are thrilled about the kind of students we are seeing in this pool and are confident that these additions to our classrooms, rehearsal halls and athletic teams will bring many talents to enliven our community.

When I meet prospective families, I often emphasize how our teachers and coaches truly know students here and that colleges truly know our school. In the last year, our College Counseling Office has hosted 90 representatives from schools across the country who have met with our students individually and in small groups. These efforts, as well as the one-on-one counseling available to all students as they make their choices for their learning environment after they leave NYA, has resulted in some terrific outcomes for the Class of 2012. Twenty-three seniors applied in the early rounds of college admission and 16 were accepted into their first-choice schools. More news from the College Counseling Office will be coming in the regular decision cycle later this month, but we continue to be encouraged by how colleges view NYA students and how well our graduates are prepared for their next academic experience.

Equipping students for difficult challenges is an on-going discussion at any good school. As you know, our faculty are now planning for a new range of electives and interdisciplinary classes for next year that will build on the strong academic offerings already in place. And as they do, we intend to give them more time to prepare for their classes and meet with students and advisees through a reduction in course load in the coming years. We know that good teaching is individualized and takes time, which is why we keep our class size small and provide teachers with free periods to plan and meet one-on-one with students.

Our Trustees, parents, alumni, and others in the community recognize the importance of ensuring a quality program as well and have generously donated to the Annual Fund this year as a way of showing their support. While we still have some distance to go to meet our goal this spring, gifts to date have exceeded last year’s. We are also looking forward to a great auction on May 5. More information on that community gathering and celebration will be coming from our Development Office soon. In the meantime, a big thanks to those of you who are already hard at work to make this year’s auction a huge success.

As educators, we know that student excellence takes many forms. Witnessing the performers in Honk!, I was struck by how engaged and happy the members of the cast were. Whether students were new or experienced singers and actors, both Middle School and Upper School students supported each other to create a wonderfully entertaining and dynamic performance. In case you haven’t seen it, the exhibition of NYA art by students, faculty and alumni that opened on Tuesday night at Mercy Primary Care on Route One is definitely worth a visit, highlighting incredible photography and Xerox transfer lithographs based on personal significant stories.

At a recent gathering at my home, students from the boys state championship Nordic team reflected on their season and journey together. They shared stories about the camaraderie they developed as novice skiers and how they worked hard to be prepared not for themselves but for their team. The state championship they earned for the second straight season was a well-deserved outcome of their dedication and an inspiration for all our athletes. Over the last ten years, NYA’s teams have brought 34 state championships to our school. This remarkable statistic only tells part of the story. These victories also encompass our students’ ability to handle difficulty and to develop their character on and off the playing fields. The leadership in our athletic department over the years has helped make these powerful lessons possible. For that and many other contributions, I would like to thank Mike Dutton, who will be stepping down from his position as Athletic Director at NYA at the end of this school year. I am grateful for Mike’s effort in managing a large set of responsibilities and for the level of integrity he has demonstrated on a daily basis. As a community, we will have the chance to honor Mike’s contributions to NYA later this spring. In the meantime, I have formed a search committee for the new Athletic Director, and we will begin to interview candidates in the coming weeks.

With all of these developments, we must never lose sight of the most important task at hand: providing engaging and meaningful learning experiences for your sons and daughters. I am grateful for the trust you place in our faculty and staff and welcome your participation and feedback. I continue to hold office hours on Friday mornings from 9:45 to 11:00 a.m., and you are free to stop by or make an appointment.

Here’s wishing you and your family all the best for the spring break, and I look forward to seeing you at the end of March.

Yours truly,

Brad Choyt
Head of School

Dear Parents:

On Monday, our faculty met to discuss Experiential Education at NYA and to reflect on how this program has taken shape in the first half of the year as well as to determine its goals in the spring and in future years. The conversation focused on generating a working definition for Experiential Education for our school and describing in greater detail the natural intersections between these opportunities and current practices. As teachers, we are all very interested in forming tangible connections between our core curriculum and the Experiential Education program, thus expanding the traditional notion of a classroom and engaging a broader range of learners. Before I discuss these initiatives more concretely, I want to share some specific experiences that bring to light both what Experiential Education is and what it can be.

As one of our teachers wrote, “On Cow Island, the 10th graders faced both rain and cold. The crew offered the kids the option of going with the initial team challenge that would mean being out in the elements or changing the plan to do something where they would be under cover, dry, and warm. There was little hesitation among the sophomores, and they opted for the former, which ended up being an initiative that involved raft building and racing, with small groups of students collaborating to design, build, and then race their own small rafts in the chilly waters of Casco Bay. Their willingness — even eagerness to take the more difficult path was of the typical spirit of those couple days. If there were individuals who were hesitant, it was not apparent, as they all collaborated with humor, and patience, and good-fellowship. This was just one moment from two days of experiences that imbued them with a wonderful sense of shared accomplishment that was palpable in the classroom and around school. I saw it in each of my classes and was approached by other teachers who were struck by the same thing. Interestingly, I asked a class of sophomores today what they thought was the best moment from the trip, and most pointed to that afternoon as being the most fun and memorable. They each had countless specific recollections from those couple of hours, but nobody mentioned being cold and wet.”

Another teacher described a moment on Cow Island between two students climbing a rock wall. One student was having trouble coming down the wall, so another went to that person’s aid. As this teacher noted, “They were two kids who have not spent time together and likely did not know much about each other, but in that moment exhibited a tangible reliance on each other that created a bond. The few days on Cow Island were filled with experiences like these, challenges that brought together unlikely alliances, pushed students to take supported physical or emotional risks, and forged connections within the group that have demonstrated to be long lasting.”

Cooperation – Risk Taking – Ability to maintain hopefulness despite difficult circumstances – Enjoying the company of others outside the classroom – A chance to connect with teachers in a fresh environment. One 9th grader said of the trip that started that class’s school year, “I had an amazing time. Climbing a mountain was the perfect way to begin 9th grade, and our high school journey as a class. It was definitely one of the most memorable experiences of my life, and I’M SO glad I went.” Another wrote, “I really enjoyed the hiking part of the trip, mostly because it was a lovely hike up and the top of the mountain was BEAUTIFUL. I also enjoyed it because it gave me a good opportunity to talk with people I hadn’t yet.”

Other students have also reaped the benefits of these programs. The 6th graders spent a night camping at Myers farm where they engaged in team-building activities. The 7th and 8th graders spent time at the Leadership School at Kieve where they went sea kayaking and climbed high ropes courses. Later this spring, the 5th grade is planning an expedition on a schooner, and the juniors will spend time in Boston. There will be a senior class trip to Cow Island that will culminate both to the Experiential Education curriculum as well as their experience at NYA as a whole.

We are thrilled to have had a terrific start to these programs this year. We are working hard to make these moments in our students’ lives even more powerful and useful. Some of the goals we want to achieve through these special activities include: enhancing an ability to problem solve; fostering a respect for the natural environment; nurturing strong relationships within and across NYA classes; and building self confidence and reliance when lessons do not go precisely as planned. Like the students, we are learning as a faculty and finding ways that Experiential Education will not simply be a series of activities or challenges in a less familiar environment, but also opportunities to be fully connected to our mission through fostering integrity, character, and intellect.

While the curriculum for our Experiential Education program is a work in progress, we are making great strides in planning these excursions and lessons with the help of many in the community. As these programs become more established, I welcome your feedback and thoughts for improving this important facet of our school’s commitment to learning.

Yours truly,

Brad Choyt
Head of School

The opinion and editorial pages of the Portland Press Herald feature Brad Choyt’s article.

Dear Parents, 

Hello and Happy New Year.  As we begin 2012, I wanted to provide an update on some important events occurring across campus.  First, I wanted to pause and share some wonderful moments of the winter term with you:  your children are engaged in exciting and important work in their classrooms and some samples of that learning are available below.  Next, I wanted to let you know about an important administrative initiative that will be moving forward this spring.  For our teaching faculty, this is an exciting time of the year when students often take great strides in both covering material and going deeper with their learning.  Though it takes many forms and crosses divisions and disciplines, below are samples of the many explorations that take place in NYA’s classes every day: 

In seventh grade civics class, David Echeverria’s students are learning about the early moments in the Constitution’s history.  Before the winter break, the students held a mock convention in the classroom, with students assigned to research different delegates.  During their re-enactment, students were expected to argue as their assigned delegate did and, to the best of their ability, imitate his performance.  And Mr. Echeverria added a little twist:  What if the delegates had had social media in 1787?  After each day, students posted comments about the day’s events on the class blog.  And some replied to comments made by their fellow delegates.  You can read their unfolding conversation here. 

Abbie Sewall is enjoying her class of Levels II and III photo students.  In addition to creating their own images, students have also been asked to incorporate journal writing, sketching, and problem solving into their visual process.  Each student made a collage constructed from a variety of image sources, and students are now identifying themes from these collages that will inform subsequent photos.  Critiques have played an important role in this exploration in the class. Click here to view a sample.

In Jack McMahon’s English class, eighth graders read Lawrence and Lee’s “Inherit the Wind,” a play about the Scopes trial in 1925.  Mr. McMahon has emphasized the way this writing uses language to create special effects. His students have truly enjoyed these witticisms, and some entertaining examples can be found here.

Liz Smith’s chemistry students are answering weekly challenge questions. The questions link material in the class to the real world. The goal is to help students think more deeply about their own understanding as well as confront common misconceptions or phenomena in chemistry. The questions and their answers may surprise you and can be found here. 

Heidi Grant’s English I students are studying a range of topics including the concept of tragedy, the structure of ancient Greek Drama, and the theme of civil disobedience.  Her postings provide great insight into the rich variety of the ninth grade English curriculum. 

In AP Statistics, Eric Austin’s students have recently worked through a unit on methods of collecting data, the power of randomization, sample surveys, observational studies, and experiments.  After creating their own surveys and examining different forms of unintended (and at times intended) bias, they are currently designing some review questions of their own to test on their peers to discuss both virtually and in class.

In eighth grade Human Biology, Nate Smith’s students are beginning a new chapter on food and digestion.  While this work leads to a unit on the anatomy and function of the digestion system, Mr. Smith’s students are first investigating the food they eat and how it stacks up to the USDA recommended amounts on their website.  Once they have analyzed their current eating habits, they will have a chance to improve them by completing and analyzing a second food log.  For Mr. Smith, this is one of the most meaningful projects of the year because he is able to witness his students becoming more aware of nutrition with the hope that they will make healthy food choices more consistently.  More information on his work with these students can be found here. 

In the Foreign Languages Department, there is a fun range of activity happening in each classroom. Patia Maule’s AP Spanish class recently wrote an open letter to the president on the importance of art and art education both in society and for the individual.  Heidi O’Connor’s French 1B and Spanish 1B students are building fluency through skit performances.  There are some great examples of how French students shop for food here.  Irene Marchenay’s Upper School French classes are exploring similar themes.  Madame Marchenay’s French I class has visited cafes and restaurants, the French II class has left behind the regions of France to study technology, while French III is becoming familiar with pirates of the (French!) Caribbean.  French IV discovered “le Petit Nicolas” and his friends playing soccer without a ball, and the AP French class is writing formal e-mails, with a smile, to prepare for the AP exam.  Visit Madame’s teacher page to learn more about her students’ explorations.

I hope you find these teacher postings as inspiring as I do.  If you don’t see your son’s or daughter’s courses mentioned above, I encourage you to visit the teacher pages on our website and read first-hand what is being covered in each class.  I look forward to sharing more teaching moments from our classrooms as the year progresses.

On another note, I wanted to share a new administrative structure that the Board of Trustees approved in our last meeting.  Over the next several months, NYA will be conducting a search for a Director of Institutional Advancement, a position that will work with current staff to oversee operations in both admissions and development.  The trend to form an Advancement Office for smaller independent schools is one that we believe will lead to greater efficiency in revenue generation as well as support and promote the long-term strategic goals for our school.  Information on this position can be found here.  If you have any questions, please feel welcome to be in touch with me directly.

Finally, in keeping with the examples listed above from several NYA classes, I wanted to include a link to a piece I wrote in today’s Portland Press Herald.  I welcome hearing your thoughts about some of the challenges and opportunities facing educators today.

Yours truly,

Brad Choyt
Head of School

Dear NYA Families:

In five short months, my family and I have seen our corner of Maine shift from the green fullness of summer to the crisp blue days of late fall; it’s been wonderful to experience that change in our surroundings. We are deeply grateful to have arrived in Yarmouth and are looking forward to our first New England winter since we lived in New Hampshire six years ago. In short, we feel privileged to be here, to be part of this community and to have had the chance to meet and talk with so many of you here at NYA.

I feel privileged as well to have gotten to know so many of your children and to have seen them excel in so many varied areas. These opportunities have ranged from witnessing 7th grade students present their scientific findings on the Royal River to sitting in on Upper School class discussion where students have created their own political advertisements and debated strategy for candidates in next year’s presidential primaries. In short, it has been a thrilling fall and an extremely busy one. Be assured that your children aren’t the only ones looking forward to vacation. We caught our son doing math at the dinner table only to learn he was calculating how many hours (or was it minutes?) it would be until vacation started. But soon enough, we’ll be launched again into the challenge of learning. January 2012 will be here very quickly, hopefully with some snow for all the skiers in our midst.

Taking a moment to reflect on this learning and how we are involved in our children’s discoveries is perhaps more important than ever. Yesterday, at a coffee sponsored by Parents’ Association, we discussed Thomas Friedman’s op-ed article from the The New York Times and the role teachers and parents have when bridging the learning that takes place at school with opportunities to reflect on that learning at home. What Friedman reports will probably strike you as common sense – parents need to talk and listen to their children – but I wanted to underline the point he makes about the kind of interaction that apparently matters. We need, Friedman reports, to tell each other stories. We need to relive the events of the day to a sympathetic listener and then we need to prepare to receive a story just as sympathetically on the other side. It’s my hope for you and for your families that these few weeks away from the sometimes unsparing nature of our schedule will allow the chance to trade stories, create them, savor them, share them, whether it’s in front of a fire, in the car, on a snowy trail or around a kitchen table.

Thank you again for all that you have done for my family and me these last months and for helping us to create a new home and a new part of our history. I look forward to seeing you in the New Year. I am certain that 2012 will be a year full of achievement, excitement, challenge and opportunity, the chance to trade and create powerful stories about who we are, who we can be, as individuals and as a community. Please accept my best wishes for a lovely and memorable holiday season.

Yours truly,

Brad Choyt
Head of School

Dear Parents,

As we approach the final weeks of our fall trimester, I continue to be encouraged by the many conversations taking place about our program, important dialogues which foster learning and create fresh ways to see and examine familiar issues. In recent forums that have involved students, parents, faculty and the Board, we have touched upon topics that impact our school every day through open and honest dialogue. And in some cases, these conversations have helped us formulate mission-driven adjustments to our program.

In this letter to our community, I wanted to highlight two such conversations. The first took place on October 18 in a continuation of our community’s examination of the movie Race to Nowhere with a particular focus on homework. Students, parents and faculty worked together in small groups to discuss how homework is assigned and completed at NYA and to make recommendations for improving our practice. We have since presented these findings to faculty, and I am pleased that the discussion both supported the rigor inherent in an NYA education and offered suggestions for improvement.  Some of these suggestions from our group discussions will be implemented this year. Among these are setting clear guidelines for the amount of homework in each grade level; treating the weekend as one day of homework, not more; thinking carefully about the assignment of homework over vacations and limiting this practice except when a continuity of learning is essential in certain disciplines; adding clarity to the process of students contacting their teachers if they struggle with a homework assignment beyond a reasonable time; and creating a Major Commitment Calendar online that will include major academic projects as well as school performances and distant athletic competitions so faculty have greater awareness of overall student workload. As a faculty, we continue to have discussions about making homework more meaningful to maximize the engagement of students and foster curiosity.

A second conversation occurred the following week on October 26. In a coffee house sponsored by the Parents’ Association, we examined an article from the New York Times Magazine on developing character in schools. In that forum, we discussed the importance of having the right amount of challenge mixed with the correct proportion of guidance so faculty and students can set high standards and goals and we can provide one-on-one attention and support when it is needed. We are also looking at ways that we can take advantage of the learning moments that naturally happen on our athletic fields, courts and arenas. We are involving coaches and student leaders in this conversation to both set and achieve goals for developing camaraderie, sportsmanship, and resilience as individuals and a team. Finally, we are exploring various ways to provide students with greater leadership opportunities as part of the curriculum, during service days, through our experiential education program, and as mentors to younger students.

Strengthening our academic program and providing opportunities to foster character within a school community are ongoing processes. Given the many challenges that the current generation of students will face in their lifetimes, schools need to continually consider how they will address these complex issues and adapt their program to meet future needs. What has been particularly encouraging about our school’s process is the degree to which members of every constituency at NYA are listening carefully to one another and striving toward making meaningful change in a thoughtful and respectful way.

I look forward to having many more such dialogues in the years ahead and to hearing from greater numbers of you through these conversations. I am proud of the foundation of communication and trust we have already established at NYA and welcome your energy and voice as these conversations continue.

Yours truly,

Brad Choyt
Head of School