{"id":602,"date":"2017-11-14T13:10:56","date_gmt":"2017-11-14T20:10:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hillbrook.us\/voices\/?p=602"},"modified":"2017-11-16T14:16:45","modified_gmt":"2017-11-16T21:16:45","slug":"the-hillbrook-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.hillbrook.us\/voices\/2017\/11\/the-hillbrook-way\/","title":{"rendered":"The Hillbrook Way: It’s Not Just A Tree"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Contributed by Colleen Schilly, Head of Lower School<\/p>\n

In my third year at Hillbrook School, I am increasingly grateful and proud to work in this community and contribute to it. I was recently reminded of the talent and caliber of our teachers at a faculty meeting when it was shared that the two large trees in the center of the JK – 2nd grade playground will need to be removed over Thanksgiving break. You too may have observed that over the past spring and summer the trees never regrew their leaves. You may also have been wondering what this meant for their health and survival. The impact of the multi-year drought, construction, and last winter\u2019s extraordinarily heavy rains proved to be more than the trees could adapt and adjust to. The tree in the center of the treehouse will have its limbs removed and trimmed, and the one outside the treehouse will be completely removed and a younger, new tree will be planted.<\/span><\/p>\n

But that\u2019s not the whole story.<\/span><\/p>\n

At Monday\u2019s Hillbrook School Parent Council Meeting, Mark Silver shared about the school\u2019s progress on Vision 2020, forecast our key initiatives for the 2017-2018 school year, and illustrated how the school approaches achieving its mission and vision with an approach we call \u201cThe Hillbrook Way\u201d. When we put student choice and engagement at the center, we honor the individuality and humanity that each student, no matter their age, brings to the community and the process of learning. <\/span>We ask<\/b> because we know that when we begin with questions we honor our core value to Be Curious and acknowledge that we are all learners. <\/span>We start <\/b>because we believe in striving for excellence, and we know that if we wait until everything is perfect we will miss the opportunities to learn from struggle and failure towards a more excellent outcome. As adults and children, when we have a bias towards action, towards <\/span>starting<\/span><\/i>, we model our core value to Take a Risk. <\/span>We collaborate<\/b> because we know that while we might be effective alone, we achieve our aim to Be Our Best when we leverage the power of multiple perspectives and talents that comes from working together as a team. <\/span>We show<\/b> our work because we care deeply about making things better and making a difference.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Hillbrook Way\u201d is our core values, mission, and vision in action. <\/span><\/p>\n

The trees are dear to all who play on that playground, and when teachers learned of their removal there was the expected and natural moment of sadness. When our \u201cplace\u201d changes, whether that place is our home, our playground, or our surrounding community, it brings a feeling of loss. The playground will look different. It may even <\/span>feel<\/span><\/i> different initially. When the news was shared, faculty quietly processed the announcement.<\/span><\/p>\n

And then….\u201cThe Hillbrook Way\u201d kicked in. Someone asked \u201cCan we save parts of the tree?\u201d and within moments we were collaborating to generate possibilities for how we might re-purpose parts of the tree. Blocks? Stools? Woodchips? Porch Swing? A moment of sadness was used to catalyze creativity and action that will make things better. Are we still disappointed? Absolutely. Nevertheless, as a community we know that you can hold both disappointment and creativity in the same space. The Hillbrook Way doesn\u2019t require ignoring frustration, loss, disappointment, confusion, or any other emotion or challenge. It is not a modern set of rose-colored glasses. This particular example of The Hillbrook Way in action showed me that it is an incredibly useful process by which we, individually and collectively, anchored by our shared values and vision, might effectively move through whatever shows up. <\/span><\/p>\n

On Thursday and Friday, faculty in JK – 2nd grade will reflect and plan with students on the change that is coming. The students too will use The Hillbrook Way as they ask questions, collaborate on ways to memorialize the two trees, and show their thinking to each other and the community. The Hillbrook Way is part of each child\u2019s daily experience learning and living on campus and it will become a profound part of who they are as they continue to grow up into their dreams and strive to reach beyond themselves to make a difference.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Contributed by Colleen Schilly, Head of Lower School In my third year at Hillbrook School, I am increasingly grateful and proud to work in this …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","content-type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[143,57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-core-values","category-extraordinary-educational-experience"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hillbrook.us\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hillbrook.us\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hillbrook.us\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hillbrook.us\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hillbrook.us\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=602"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.hillbrook.us\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":605,"href":"http:\/\/www.hillbrook.us\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602\/revisions\/605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hillbrook.us\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hillbrook.us\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hillbrook.us\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}