Tag Archives: Head of School

06.09.23
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TNCS Bids a Fond Farewell to the Class of 2023!

Another first has just transpired at The New Century School: the first-ever student to start at the then-brand-new TNCS campus at age 2 and ascend all the way through the preprimary, primary, elementary, and middle school divisions has just graduated 8th grade. Yes, the class of 2023 has done it: they are high school bound. They are TNCS’s fourth graduating class.

This school year at TNCS has been a transformative one, and, as TNCS Head of School Erika Johnson eloquently stated at Wednesday’s 8th-grade graduation ceremony, endings are really only beginnings. One chapter closes to allow another to open. This is true not just for the 2023 TNCS graduates, but also for the school itself. Refer to the retrospective post to revisit all the heights scaled, victories achieved, and obstacles hurdled in TNCS’s first 13 years as a school, and then just reflect back on this 2022–2023 school year to really see TNCS coming into its own. We owe this to all of the vision; love; nurturing; energy; passion; and, yes, sometimes, headaches, that go into founding and then sustaining a school from TNCS community members both past and present.

Class of 2023 Ceremony

As always, the ceremony was heartwarming and bittersweet, engendering as many (joyful) tears as smiles. The graduates were dressed in white from head to toe, with bright yellow sashes around their shoulders. They were resplendent.

TNCS Dean of Student Support Alexis Boyd was Master of Ceremonies, while speakers included Head of School Erika Johnson with the commencement address and other beautiful speeches from TNCS Music Director Martellies Warren as well as from various TNCS students. The graduating 8th-graders passed the baton to the rising 8th-graders, and the rising 8th-graders to the rising 6th-graders (who very, very solemnly “accepted”). Ms. Johnson’s ask of the graduates is that they move through their next chapters as “trustworthy,” “steadfast,” and “true” human beings. They fervently promised to do so, one of many very touching moments.

Some rousing musical performances followed, and then each student gave a bouquet of flowers to their teachers, who were sitting opposite from them on the stage. Finally, each student was presented with their graduation certificate and had a photo op with Ms. Johnson on stage. At this point, smiles had reached maximum width! For your viewing pleasure, here are the wonderful photos gathered from parents, Ms. Boyd, and even some students.

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Scholarly Pursuits

With this post, we also want to share TNCS’s accomplishments from a different perspective—that of the graduates themselves. They’ve been active participants in not only blossoming within its walls but also in shaping the school from the inside out. So let’s hear it from them! They are each true TNCS originals.

From DM

My fondest memory at TNCS is this one time where me and [M] would ‘go to the bathroom’ and stay outside for like 15 minutes, thinking we were so cool. Some VERY found memories that involved me getting into trouble include me stealing Kate’s gel pens and REFUSING to admit I did it, stealing [I’s] squishy toys and iPod, and the uh…van incident (I’m so glad I am not that type of troublemaker anymore). Every second hanging out with the 4th and 5th grade classes was incredible. All of them were like my long lost cousins, and felt like a second family. The amount of times we burst out laughing and supporting each other through our hardships will forever warm my heart.

From CH

One of my favorite memories from TNCS was when the 7th and 8th grade classes went to Puerto Rico. This was such a special experience and to be on vacation with all of my friends was something I wasn’t expecting to happen. I will always remember this trip.

From KW

Whether it was playing games at recess, having hotdog eating contests at the Spring Fest, or us goofing off during dismissal, there was never a dull moment with these 8th-graders!

From NM

Coming into my 8th grade year, I didn’t expect much. I was ready to get over this grade level and go on to the next. I didn’t expect to meet the people I did. This year hasn’t been the greatest, but I don’t think I would change it. Maybe some bits, but I really am grateful for the time I have had. I remember graduation, and my parents got the time wrong so they came after the event. I told Ms. Boyd and Mrs. Johnson, and at first I thought they were joking when they brought up the idea to redo the graduation for my parents to see, but to my surprise they weren’t. We redid the graduation, and I think that’s one of the nicest things someone did for me. So in other words I really am grateful for the time I was given at The New Century School.

From DD

My fondest memory was when I went on the Superman when we were on a field trip to Six Flags, I was excited to go on the ride and I enjoyed it 😄!

Editor’s Note: More quotes will be added as they come in. Some students were not ready for more homework so soon after graduating 😅🎓! Indeed, we owe a very special thanks to CH and KW for collecting the student quotes!

06.25.21
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TNCS Head of School Bequeaths a Beautiful Legacy

This spring, The New Century School community learned that our beloved Señora Duncan is stepping down. Although this news was sad to many of us, in some ways, her reasons for leaving TNCS and the legacy she leaves behind are more than adequate consolation. All in all, the story of Sra. Duncan and TNCS is one of success after success in overcoming obstacles, turning pitfalls into opportunities, and strengthening the TNCS community, and she closes the tale with a happy ending.

Sra. Duncan is a thoughtful, reflective individual, so she had already done some introspection on what her time at TNCS meant to her and to the school. She says that, initially, she could not point to anything that “wasn’t what anyone would have done because things needed doing.” But that quickly dissipated (how many of you readers are thinking, ‘she can’t be serious!’?), and she realized that she accomplished her original goals and then some. It must be acknowledged that she also shepherded TNCS through the many crises brought by the pandemic with grace, kindness, and steady leadership. She sees her legacy as trifold.

The first relates to her original goals, which hark back to Immersed‘s first conversation with her: Shara Khon Duncan Joins TNCS as Head of School!. “Infrastructure was my goal in the beginning and I think I really did accomplish all that behind-the-scenes work,” she said. “There’s still work to be done—there’s always work to be done—but I put a lot of systems in place to help things move more smoothly. We also made and documented internal and external policies to formalize processes that have made this program better.”

Read more about Sra. Duncan’s tenure at TNCS from Immersed‘s archives:

The second part of her legacy lies in her commitment to social justice and keeping important social issues in the community’s awareness. She is always ready to both talk about tough issues and, more importantly, to work on them.

This one took her by surprise a bit, though, and arose in part from the world in turmoil over racial injustices and the conflict inherent therein.

Every time I had to sit down and write a letter about something horrible happening in our country, such as George Floyd’s death, it was so hard, but at the same time, it’s just such important work. I really didn’t expect social justice to be part of my legacy at a school that’s so wonderfully diverse, but at TNCS we’ve gotten so much further along than others in a lot of ways. And it rang home how much more work still needs to be done. But we have a community of people who are willing to do it, and that’s the thing that just amazes me and is so refreshing and wonderful about TNCS.

Sra. Duncan’s letters of wisdom, faith, and hope were solace, even beacons of light and hope, for many during turbulent times, and are certainly a mark of the true leader she is. “There were so many teachable moments in this past year,” she said. “I couldn’t imagine being radio silent on those issues. It’s just not in my nature.”

See her moving letters to the community here:

The third part of her legacy is one she is especially proud of: being a Head of School of color and a woman. “It’s just an amazing first in my life, and I am so proud that my daughters and TNCS students, not matter what color, got to see that this is possible. They see that positive role model.”

What’s Next for Sra. Duncan?

We mentioned a happy ending, but it’s really more bittersweet—happiness tinged with some sorrow. Sra. Duncan had not planned to leave TNCS after 3 years, but she says being a Head of School during a pandemic took a toll on her:

Being the head of a small school meant that I had on far more hats than I normally would have. The job was already tough enough before the pandemic, but the pandemic made it even tougher in that there just wasn’t enough of me to go around to make decisions and to keep people healthy and doing well. My focus was always the students and what was going to be best for them, and safety was really important, too.

Even though I’m usually pretty good at separating work and home, working from home made that much harder, and I had no downtime to process like I had when I drove back and forth to school. But even though it was a tough decision, in some ways I’m sad to leave.

She also laments leaving before seeing the pandemic all the way through, but recognizes that she steered us on a straight path through the worst of it, and, frankly, by far most of it. Finally, she wonders what it might have been like to stay at TNCS until retirement.

“It makes me sad that I won’t get to see everything that I wanted to get done, done. There’s so much more work that needs to be done, but at the same time, I did something to make it a better place (not that it was a bad place before), and that makes me feel happy that I’m leaving on a good note.”

See the tribute video below to see just how high of a note that is!

Of course, we’re all eager to know what her plans are for the future. In the days immediately after her time at TNCS ends (at the end of June), she plans to focus on her family. Big things are happening in her daughters’ lives, and she plans to be there for that. She also has set herself the goal of unpacking the moving boxes from her move to a new house in 2019. “It would be nice to get my literal house in order before I think about the figurative,” she joked.

As for next professional moves? “That’s the beauty of it” she said. “I’m leaving without going toward something else. It would be nice if I still had some kind of link to education, but I’m going to see what lands in my lap.” That kind of hopeful, positive outlook is just so Sra. Duncan. Whatever she chooses (or chooses her), we can be confident that the world will be the better for it.

TNCS is just such a magical place. When I first got here, I remember thinking, this is the reward. I finally get to be in an environment that’s such a wonderful mix of people. It was just so incredible to look out on the playground and see those beautiful children out there all playing together and to see the staff working together. I’ll never work in a place as diverse and as wonderful as this again, and that saddens me, but I’m glad to know that such a place exists.

We wish you joy in all of your future endeavors, and we look forward to seeing you on campus for those visits you promised! ¡Abrazos fuertes!

06.14.19
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TNCS Head of School Wraps up the 2018–2019 School Year!

Shara Khon Duncan has been Head of School at The New Century School for a full year.  Immersed had another sit-down with her for a nostalgic look back at her first year, what goals she set and accomplished, what went well, what she’s continuing to address, and what she’ll tackle next.

Immediately, Sra. Duncan expressed her pleasure and gratitude for what she called a great year.

It’s really great—I love it. Friends, family, and former colleagues will say things like, ‘you don’t look tired enough,’ or ‘you’re still smiling; how is that possible?’, and it’s because I love what I do. It’s not a job. I love coming to this place everyday, where I have such wonderful people to work with as well as wonderful students and families. I tell people that this is one of the most diverse environments that I’ve been in. It’s a blessing to be here.

Diversity and languages are, indeed, important to Sra. Duncan, who was a Diversity Coordinator at one of her former schools. She is amazed that TNCS doesn’t even need one—it organically attracts a culturally diverse population and is inherently inclusive and respectful of the community’s various needs. And the languages really elevate the school for her; in fact, that’s what originally drew her to TNCS (see TNCS Welcomes Shara Khon Duncan as Head of School for her rich history with languages). She gets to use her adopted language Spanish daily, and she is even picking up some Mandarin, thanks to the perseverance of Li Laoshi. Sra. Duncan joked that, so far, she can tell you whether it’s raining or not. “In all seriousness, though, it’s just wonderful to hear the students speaking in Spanish and Mandarin,” said Sra. Duncan. It amazes me to hear kindergarten students who just started in the fall and spoke only English singing in both languages at the spring concert and sounding like they’ve been doing it all their lives. It gives me chills.”

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Goals Accomplished

The year went really fast in a lot of ways, and in a lot of ways I feel like I’ve been here a long time,” said Sra. Duncan. “It presented some challenges in the sense that there was a lot of work to do just putting systems into place, trying to make it so that we can run more efficiently in the background, which was one of my goals.” She explained that in order to be as visible and out and about on campus as she’d like to be, she needed to first work behind the scenes to establish a framework.

One such system is a new student management system, which the TNCS community will learn about in the coming weeks and will launch for the 2019–2020 school year. It’s called Blackbaud, and it will provide a much more efficient platform for communication—think school delay and closing announcements—as well as much, much more. Staff will be able to readily send out notifications, and teachers will have individual web pages that parents can access to find out what’s going on in the classroom rather than receiving such information from a sometimes unwieldy email platform. Resource boards will also be available to house other kinds of information so parents don’t have to go spelunking through their inboxes to find out, for example, what is the requested dress for an upcoming student performance. It’s right there in one easy-to-access place.

“That process of vetting various systems to see which one would work best for us took a good deal of my time,” said Sra. Duncan, “but we established teams, and I talked to other schools. Things like that take time; you want to do your due diligence. There’s no one system that works well for everyone, perfectly, but our hope is that this one will probably work the best for us.”

Blackbaud will also facilitate the application process as well as the administrative workflow for teachers and other staff so that they can maximize their time. “When you’re a small school, you wear many hats. But anything we can do to make people’s jobs better, so they work smarter not harder, is really important. We can, including me, find ways to use our other skills more effectively,” said Sra. Duncan. Curriculum is one thing that is very much on her mind that Blackbaud will help streamline.

See what other successes the year held in Thoughts on the First Half of the Year from TNCS Head of School Shara Khon Duncan, and read on for what’s to come!

What’s Next

One important change is with the upcoming implementation of i-Ready supplemental work. “We used to use SuccessMaker, but it didn’t really work for us the way we wanted it to this year. What we found through our research is that i-Ready will give students the ability to practice their skills in ELA and Math in a classroom rotation,” said Sra. Duncan. The advantage is that, as a supplemental program rather than a primary curriculum, it will help diagnose any problem areas students might be having and feed that information to the teacher.

Narrowing the focus a bit, with TNCS having graduated its first-ever 8th-grade class this past year, the Middle School is very much on everyone’s mind. One thing that this class showed Sra. Duncan is that test-taking skills are critical. “It’s a double-edged sword,” she said. “Being a school that doesn’t do standardized testing, per se, we nevertheless have to prepare our students for the standardized testing they’ll need to enter high school. So, we’re working on test-taking skills for our middle school students, in particular, and they all took the ISEE test this past year.”

She says she wants to make the TNCS Middle School the best it can possibly be and is focusing on strengthening that program over the summer.

Our goal is to help people understand that we go all the way through 8th grade. We want people to see this as a school that doesn’t end after preschool or even after elementary, it ends at 8th grade, and we want families in for the long haul. Families who enter in preprimary or primary believe that something is good about our program, so why not see how that can continue in their child’s life? They know that language is important, and they get to see it in action. I’m in awe everyday of what our teachers do, but we want that to continue all the way up. So that’s something we are working on.

Another thing the first crop of 8th-graders revealed to Sra. Duncan and to Curriculum Coordinator Adriana DuPrau, TNCS’s “resident expert on high school applications,” is that middle schoolers must get used to doing daily homework, so they increased the amount mid-year. “That may sound like not a popular thing, but it helps them get that time management piece down that they really need in order to be prepared for high school,” explained Sra. Duncan. “Students adapted to it wonderfully, and parents were right along with us!”

With the test pilot of increased homework having gone so well, this new initiative will continue for the coming year. Additionally, research and other long-term projects are on the horizon. “There’s a lot more that we need to teach our students, such as understanding how to use and be critical of technology. There are pieces that they have to learn about the whole process, and what’s important is helping them understand what goes into the process of researching. It’s almost as important as the writing process,” said Sra. Duncan.

She continued: “We feel very good about our first graduating middle school class, and we learned an awful lot about the whole process. Ultimately, we just want to make sure that we have everything we need to make sure our students are prepared for when it’s time to move on from here.”

It’s a Partnership

With everything that Sra. Duncan and the rest of the school is doing to ensure that TNCS students are learning and flourishing, it’s vital to remember that parents also play important roles in this process. One big theme of Sra. Duncan’s is the importance of two-way communication and that her door is open. When community members hear things thirdhand, for example, but don’t bring their concerns forward, uncertainty spreads. “When people are talking to others about something they’ve heard regarding the school, but they don’t come to me, I can’t address it. If you have a concern, I’m happy to talk to you about it,” she said.

She’s going to be straight with you, but she also really wants to hear what you have to say and is going to be very fair about that. “I know I have more peace of mind if I just say my piece or ask my questions. I don’t want anyone to ever feel like they can’t come talk to us. This is your child. Come talk to us. We may not agree, but we’ve got to talk about it. I get it—I’m a mom, too.”

A second important theme is that TNCS is a work in progress—a very innovative and exciting work in progress—and that there’s no such thing as a perfect school.

The advantage is that we will always keep trying to be better. We are a young school, but that’s a good thing, because we’re trying to figure out how to make this work beautifully every single day. We are trying to learn from every little thing that doesn’t quite work the right way. We fix what doesn’t work, and we figure out how to do more of what goes great. This hidden gem down here is pretty amazing, and when people really find out about it, they are duly amazed.

Final Thoughts

When asked what the main thing she wanted parents to know about her first year at TNCS, Sra. Duncan said: “This is what I was made to do. This is my thing. I’ve been working toward this my whole life, and I didn’t know it. It’s just so wonderful. This is my place. I love it. I really love it.”

And, with characteristic good humor: “Also please don’t run over me while I’m directing traffic. Please.”

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12.21.18
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Thoughts on the First Half of the Year from TNCS Head of School Shara Khon Duncan

Although it may be hard to believe, the first half of the 2018–2019 school year at The New Century School has just drawn to a close. Boy, did the last 3+ months fly by!

However, when we look back at everything that TNCS students have done since August 27th, the real surprise becomes, wow—how’d they squeeze so much active learning into such a short time span?! So, Immersed sat down with TNCS Head of School Shara Khon Duncan to get her perspective on how the school year is progressing so far as well as how she is settling in to her role.

The Skinny from Señora Duncan

SONY DSCIt’s clear right off the bat that Señora Duncan has embraced her position as TNCS Head of School. But that doesn’t mean it’s all smooth sailing all the time. “It seems like just when I feel like I’m starting to cruise a little bit, a new event pops up, or something new is about to happen, or I have to prepare for something coming up down the road. But that’s expected; it’s the first year,” she said smiling. So many things are happening, many simultaneously, that she’s pretty much on her toes all the time—“good thing I danced as a kid,” she joked. She ticks off a partial list of some of the events she either kept track of or oversaw in the preceding weeks, both during and outside of the school day, and each with its own particular set of needs: Observation Week and the Fall Festival for the Primary program, whole-school Book Character Dress-Up Day, Elementary and Middle School Information Night and Open Houses for prospective families, Winter Concerts . . . and the list goes on. “They come so fast, yet they seemed so far off back in June. Now June seems far away, and here we are in December,” she said. “So sometimes it feels like I’m just about to take a breath, but we have to keep moving to get ready for the next thing. It’s great because I either learn something new about the school, or I get to meet some more people, which is even better.” Speaking of new people, she recalls the Maryland Secretary of State’s visit, saying, “Important visitors to our campus brings even another level and layer of excitement and preparation, which makes it all so interesting.”

She means it when she says that she finds all the hubbub exciting:

I’m loving it. I’m really loving it. My friends and family ask, ‘how do you like it?’I tell them, ‘Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had some challenges. It’s not like it’s all sunshine and roses, but it’s so exhilarating to have a new challenge in my life at this stage of my career.’ To be able to do this is wonderful. All of these things that have been in me that I’ve been gathering in my career backpack for education over the last 25 years, I get to pull them out and really use them. It’s all coming to bear. At the same time, I’m still learning, which is just wonderful. I have not taught all of the subjects we teach here, so learning about those I was previously unfamiliar with and listening to our teachers and to our parents about how we can make them better really helps. It gives me an idea of where we need to go.

A Day in the Life

When asked for a description of a typical day as TNCS Head of School, Sra. Duncan laughed. “See, that’s another thing I like about education, there are no typical days!” She explains that some days she visits classrooms to keep track of what’s going on in those environments, whereas other days might find her confined to her office, conducting meetings, handling all of her communication, and the myriad other tasks her position demands of her. “I don’t like those days as much,” she admits. “Not that what goes on in there isn’t important, it is, but I’d rather see what’s going on in the classrooms. There are so many wonderful things going on during the day—I love to sit and listen and watch. I find it utterly amazing.”

Being a linguiphile (she grew up in a household where her mother encouraged all forms of language exposure), she finds Pei Ge‘s (“Ge Laoshi’s”) classroom particularly difficult to tear herself away from and is starting to pick up some Mandarin with Wei Li’s (“Li Laoshi’s”) help.

I want to sit there and be with the kids and go right along with them as they go through the daily routine in Mandarin or talk about fruits in Mandarin. It’s amazing to me that even students who just joined the program this year can become so proficient so fast. It’s magical to see live what happens with the students and their brains. You can talk about studies, you can see them online, you can read all the papers—but when you actually see children speaking the language and then turn around and start speaking English to me or speaking Spanish to Sra. Sanzana . . . it’s just amazing how their brains switch effortlessly to the very next thing.

Another interesting aspect of her role is that not only did she assume it this year, but it is itself new, or maybe refurbished, this year. The school administration expanded to include a Head of School as well as a Head of Lower School/Dean of Students, which position Alicia Danyali took over. Both roles are well defined and eliminate the guesswork that can plague an organization when chain of command is unclear. When asked how this new division of roles has worked out so far, Sra. Duncan wasted no breath: “I don’t know what I would have done without her, and I don’t know how she did it all these years by herself. I mean this is a big job, a really big job!” She also appreciates how well they work together, not just alongside each other: “We’re very like-minded in our philosophies about school, which is ideal. It’s great to be with her,” said Sra. Duncan. And, their strong suits complement each other:

Ms. Danyali has done wonders with handling preschool, which admittedly is not my bailiwick, so having her really cover that has been so wonderful. And having her experience and institutional knowledge has been invaluable. If I have a question about a situation, she can tell me how it was handled last year, 3 years ago, and so on. I feel so lucky to have that. How many people get to work with their predecessor? It should almost be required because it’s so helpful.

Work–Life Balance

Apart from enjoying a new position and being able to handle it, any big career change also has to fit into an individual’s broader life. Fortunately, that, too, is working well for Sra. Duncan. With her two daughters away at college, the daily demands of raising children have largely evaporated, leaving more time, space, energy, and nurturing that Sra. Duncan can direct elsewhere. Also, her husband has been very supportive. Even when she needs to stay late, such as for a school potluck, he will sometimes join her or make sure she has what she needs to get through a long day (“He packs fruit for me everyday”). “But, even though this job does fit into my life pretty well at this stage, I have learned long ago that I have to make a separation between home and work. So, I really try to make sure that I leave TNCS at TNCS, and, when I get home, I’m at home. That’s something I’ve really worked hard to do,” she said.

Her ability to achieve this work–life balance serves her well, but it also serves TNCS and the TNCS community of students, teachers, staff, and families. Sra. Duncan has already earned our love and respect for her unflagging composure, ready smiles, and judicious leadership. We can’t wait to see what the second half of the school year brings!