- Announce lists together – intensive and rotation
- Should we change way that teachers allocate points?
Monday, March 11, 2013
March 11 2013 Minutes
Thursday, October 4, 2012
Cell Phones, Smart Phones and Acceptable Use
Now, the main point of discussion and potential objection would be somewhat analogous to the headphone argument, involving politeness and safety and social interaction. I would argue that the focus of this discussion should be the mobility with cellphones, and not the use in areas such as the AC lobby and pronto room. Again, there really is no difference between cell phones and tablets so if a student is allowed to use a tablet in one area, they should be allowed to use a cellphone there. If someone is sitting in the AC lobby being antisocial on their smartphone, they could just as easily, if not even more easily be antisocial on their tablet. Back to mobility, I do not have an opinion either way, but I am leaning towards the idea that kids should not be able to walk in the hallways whilst on their phones because it takes the visual attention away from the individual, and we don't want students to walk into people and walls etc etc.
So what does everyone else think?
Monday, October 17, 2011
Friday, September 30, 2011
Meeting on September 27
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Meeting on Monday Sept. 19th
On Monday, the senate began a discussion on Community Service. There used to be a community service requirement, but the senate abolished this requirement several years ago in favor of house-based community service. The goal was to create more meaningful partnerships with organizations and maximize our impact as a school. Before the House systems, many students were doing hours of service, but did not forge a relationship or make a long-term difference. The hope was that this would change and under the House System service would become an integral part of our community; has there been a change? Senators Floyd and Mascaro raised the issue of community service because there was a concern that not many students are actively involved in service projects. This concern was echoed by several other senator who see community service now as something that only a few students are passionately involved in. It was brought up that this could be because schedules do not permit students to leave to go on service trips. Many senators were also concerned that service was not weighted heavily enough in the house point totals for the Dobay Cup. Another award for service was suggested, but there was opposition because service should not be seen as secondary. It was largely agreed upon that if the House System were to be more service based it would gain credibility. A service requirement within the House System was suggested--maybe a certain number of required trips. But, this was challenged because requirements don’t usually go over very well. In the end, we decided that there are flaws, but what might be most helpful is time. We are moving in the right direction and there are many good things to come in regards to Service within the context of the House System.
Below please find the complete minutes for the meeting:
added people to the senate blog
Harris:dress code tabled in order to check for opposition
Harris: brings up service
Will and Eric had proposed this awhile ago
Harris: brings up constitutional reform--two committees (that we don't really use)
Ratification requires 2/3 of students and faculty
Minutes, how things get passed (3/4 of votes cast=binding), committees
Floyd: can we get copies of the constitution?
Harrris: yes, going to email them
Floyd: before houses, there was a service requirement. point of houses=to be more involved and incorporated into school. don't really think it's working. not enough time spent to do meaningful work and create meaningful partnerships
Harris: to remove service requirement was one of most contentious things ever done (besides moving activities)
Goals of house-based service:
developing sustainable relationships
forming partnerships
preventing people from doing bare minimum--hassle for service office
incorporated in curriculum
maximizes impact (quality over quantity)
Shouldnt we be spending more time--not leaving after an hour or two
we want to develop projects with organizations
field days=most "diffuse moments"
support individual or group service for house points
written proposal, # of hours, follow up, committee that would handle this
does points for service send a bad message?
no, maybe we should be recognizing whats already going on
Hays: is the problem communication? we need kids to know about the trips/ projects
Rabe: could we create a requirement within houses?
Agar: goal for service is authenticity. deep partnerships. four opportunities a month . what is happening is that the house leaders are taking on too much, need to get other people involved
Senkfor: too few kids involved, some requirement would force the other kids to at least try service
Kerman: what about kids that don't have any long block free? then, to make it a requirement ...punishing kids that take more classes?
Todaro: are kids the ones that are forging these partnerships?
Harris: yes students are doing a good job of forging these partnerships
Agar: echoes harris
Harris: bad to have requirements come from above, not communicated well
Voigt: service relies too heavily on house spirit, biggest failing is that it relies on people buying completely into their house. to have service be a bigger part in the house point totals than activities (like field day)
Harris: houses need to be more focused on quality service and it may be a problem that we allocate more points to activities
Rabe: service is a sacrifice, if a requirement it may force people to fit it in and it may become more important to them. separate reward for most service done?
Harris: don’t want to micromanage house system
Moeller: requirement would create resentment. more service days--wouldn't conflict with classes.
Menon: problem with doing service only within the context of our houses. more service=more value=more buy in to to house system. now the house system kind of seems like a trivial thing (waste of time), but if it were associated more closely with service it would gain meaning
Senkfor: Agrees, don't think many people would do service just for points most people aren’t that invested in the success of their house. don't see people who do it for points
Voigt: don't want to make service secondary in any way. Dobay cup should be based more on service. second "cup" wouldn't be as meaningful
Kerman: in response to hunter: on service days some people are doing really doing valuable things and some aren't
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
September meetings
Over our last two meetings, Friday 9.17 and Tuesday 9.21, the Senate has made significant progress on the Integrity Code. A minor change resulted in the current draft, no.7, below:
As a member of the Hawken community,
I am a person of character.
I believe in fair play.
Therefore, my words and actions reflect my character.
I will not lie, cheat, or steal.
I respect the rights, work, dignity and ideas of all.
While the Senate is in broad agreement about this draft, we hope to engage the community extensively before officially ratifying this code as Hawken's statement of what integrity means. Our next step is to invite student leaders (Student Senators, HIC members, House Leaders, Peer Leaders, and Team Captains) to a meeting Wednesday 9.29 at 8:00 in the White House, when we will broaden the conversation to include this wider group and secure additional student investment. A significant portion of today's meeting was dedicated to discussing the best format for the community-wide presentation of this work. Student senators were almost unanimously skeptical about the efficacy of advisory discussion of this code; we will explore other options, including a series of house meetings, or perhaps lunch or breaktime discussion groups.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Minutes January 26, 2010
Name: "Commended Students" seemed to sit better with most than "Honors" or other alternatives. Senator Murray pointed out the importance of a name that doesn't create laughable acronyms, so we will not, for instance adopt the name Commended Really Interesting Student Program, or worse, Commended for Radical Academics Program. More seriously, Senator Weiskopf advised that our name not set up false expectations by appearing to similar to academic honor rolls at other schools.
Process: The Maurer method was favored by most Senators present. While some details still need attention we were in broad agreement about the following: 1) The process needs to be easy for faculty to understand and complete 2) the process needs to be easy for deans to administer 3) the process needs a quantitative basis to alleviate concerns of subjectivity (though distributed subjectivity is still subjective, even with numbers attached) 4) Deans need to retain some latitude in crafting the final list.
We also agreed that faculty may only nominate students they teach, and while Dean Botella pointed out that one's teaching load may increase or lessen one's ability to affect an individual class list, we saw no way around that effect. I did follow up with Mr. Gillespie, who assured me that Survey Monkey will allow us to pull together scores and comments, but also allow us to look at individual responses, so a Dean could look and see how a students score was generated.
Roughly, the process might look as follows. 1) At the close of a grading period, the Dean of students sends out the survey by email. The survey would include text reminding faculty of the criteria for commendation, and the most recent list of commended students to help faculty look beyond those names. 2) Faculty nominate 1-5 students, assigning each points, not to exceed 10 total points. (i.e. the faculty member has ten points to distribute among the nominated students). Faculty also write 1-3 sentences of commendation for each nominated student, and identify each student's graduating class. 3) Deans receive a survey report sorted by grade and score, and use that report to generate their lists and personalized comments for letters of commendations. Deans also screen the list to reduce repeated commendations, and ensure some diversity of commendations (some for improvement, some for acheivement, etc.) 4) Letter would go home and into the file. 5) Deans announce the list of commended students in school meeting.
Senators, please examine this closely and recommend changes through the blog comments so that we are well placed to make and pass a resolution at our next meeting.