By Jan Baldwin, LL ‘14, Middle School Dean of Students and Chair of the Visual and Performing Art Department, Stuart Country Day School (NJ)
This is a word that I have used as a Musical Theatre director for years. It’s a dance term that allows a person to move in 360 degrees. What no one in education anticipated was our unique ability to pivot so quickly in March 2020.
Sitting on a new task force to look at many scenarios for 2020-2021 requires the ability to think as if we are pivoting. We are trying to anticipate all possibilities for classes, student life, health and wellness, athletics, and the arts. This leadership model requires agility and “good enough” forecasting. How do you prepare for something when you don’t know what is coming?
You must be prepared to pivot. Whatever plan is anticipated, we most likely will have to pivot – possibly more than once.
We define leadership characteristics with terms such as listening and communication skills, perspective-taking, creative problem solving, knowing our strengths and challenges, and the ability to encourage and work beside a team. These are all still firmly what any good leader must embrace. Now we also have an additional new normal. Pivot. Anticipate and plan for all the possibilities with a very short timeline. Look at any concern in 360 degrees and do it quickly. Be agile. Reassess. Keep the audience in focus. What do we bring forward and what do we leave behind?
So how do we translate this into leadership for students? The new vision has become an opportunity to finally realize what theory has declared. How can we prepare leaders for a future that we cannot anticipate? Brene Brown speaks to this on her Twitter page. The World Leadership School talks in-depth about this at their Purpose Summit. gcLi affords participants a hands-on experience at every Leadership Lab. Through this pandemic, we now have practicality. Now we have the reality of how we must teach in order to prepare for the unexpected and unknown. I learned of another term for teaching during this uncertain climate. It is called elastic proximity. I like that. The ability to change directions to expand or contract in order to accommodate the needs of students, peers, and leadership. With ever-changing guidelines, we are constantly changing directions.
My class in leadership through The National Center For Girls Leadership at Stuart debated topics such as health and wellness versus economic stability, asynchronous learning versus synchronous with regard to student health, and the advantage or disadvantage of National AP online testing. I have shared our notes from meetings with The National Coalition of Girls Schools about possibilities for student life in three scenarios: remote, socially distanced, and a hybrid model. Students discuss their views, research, and collaborate with other Sacred Heart Schools and are learning how to take a 360° perspective. They are choosing their priorities for student life. Can we have a musical, travel for choir, or create an assembly for social awareness using social distancing and safety protocols? What are the alternative choices in order to have a student life experience? They are learning the tools necessary to pivot. This ability to be flexible can empower leaders to see more creative possibilities. Doggedly adhering to what has always been can be an easy path for leadership. We must keep re-imagining, anticipating, and planning for all possibilities even if we do not know the outcome.
My colleagues are inspirational as they re-imagine remote student wellness and engagement. We re-work AP’s, science labs, art classes, Prize Days, remote Conge (a Sacred Heart tradition of a day of play), graduation, and every simple assessment. They are the choreographers for this new dance as we all learn and teach our students and ourselves to pivot.
Ms. Baldwin is the Dean of students in the Middle School at Stuart Country Day School and Chair of the Visual and Performing Art Department. She has studied Leadership at NAIS and the Gardner Carney Leadership Institute. Ms. Baldwin has also participated in a conference at the Institute for Social Emotional Learning, Global Leadership Institute, and NAIS leadership. Ms. Baldwin has presented workshops in leadership and public speaking at NJAIS and #Leadlikeagirl. She is a faculty member for the Center for Girls Leadership at Stuart. As an adjunct professor, Ms. Baldwin has taught Architecture and A survey course of Art and Performing Arts history. She has taught classes in Leadership, Public Speaking, Theatre, Cinematography and Architecture at Stuart. Ms. Baldwin holds a bachelor’s degree in English and Theatre from Skidmore College Cum Laude and a Master’s of Arts in Education with Distinction from LaSalle University.