–

Last winter, the Headmaster of The Hill School, Zachary Lehman, had a vision for his annual board retreat: he would engage trustees more meaningfully and educate them about the 21st century learning concepts which he’s leading his school toward by reconstructing the board retreat itself as a 21st century classroom.     Headmaster Lehman asked my assistance, which I was delighted to provide, and we fashioned a 2 day program which was by all accounts highly successful.    The Hill School’s videographers fashioned the video above to tell the story, at least in part. Enjoy.

Zack Lehman and I presented about this new kind of board meeting, which can also be a model for other types of meetings in school, including admin retreats and faculty days, at the annual meetings of both PAIS and TABS (Washington DC, December.  For NAIS (Boston, February), I’ll be accompanied by Clair Ward, Head of School at Valley School of Ligonier; if you are attending either event, please consider this video a trailer and teaser for the full session, and we hope you will join us.

Having enjoyed the success of this experience, the Hill School board intends never to revert to previous form; this is the new format of their meetings.  At their most recent event, they went on to employ Design Thinking to develop programs as part of the capital campaign and master plan planning.     We both, Headmaster Lehman and myself, are converts and believers, and are eager to advance this model of meeting and learning, and are both happy to answer questions or be of service to schools wishing to employ this model in their meetings. Contact me at jonathanemartin@gmail.com for more information.