Volume 3, Issue 3: November 2023 | |
Grow with Great Hearts - November
In this fall season of goodwill and generosity, Grow with Great Hearts brings inspiring reflections from several veteran Great Hearts faculty who have joined the launch at Great Hearts Harveston. They speak of their leadership in this new region and the challenges and rewards of cultivating "great-heartedness" across the academy and larger community. In the feature article this month, Texas Executive Director Monet Lessner shares how her experiences in leadership have commanded her to seek the good first - and to leave a "wake" of goodwill for others along her path.
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Leading with Relentless Goodwill
by Monet Lessner, Executive Director - Texas
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Three Great Hearts Harveston founding team members provide insights into the significance of launching a new academy, and the ways in which that experience continues to bring opportunities for grace, joy, and perseverance. | |
Britney Daglow
Reading Interventionist, Harveston
After a five-year journey from Apprentice Teacher to Lead Teacher and Team Lead at Archway North Phoenix, Britney Daglow took the leap and joined Great Hearts Harveston in Baton Rouge, where she serves as Reading Interventionist. This new role has been both challenging and rewarding, and Ms. Daglow reflected that the “daily (sometimes hourly!) need to be flexible and adaptable has helped me to grow professionally and personally.” She credits her APEX coursework for providing valuable leadership insights, and she has also been grateful for the support through Great Hearts continuing education in guiding her enrollment for master’s degree work at University of Arizona, including support for tuition assistance.
“It has been exciting and challenging to be on the frontier of our organization,” she shared, “and we offer something to the community of Baton Rouge that is not available anywhere else in the city: a high-quality education that is both classical and free to the public.” In acknowledging the hurdles of establishing the Great Hearts culture at a new academy, she observed, “The culture of elevated learning and pursuit of virtue that characterizes our schools demands much from our students. An immense amount of perseverance and goodwill has been necessary as we train scholars’ hearts and minds to pursue the good, the true, and the beautiful together as a community of learners.” For Daglow, “Great Hearts has become a home and a haven for me. It has been an integral part of my life for nearly six years, and I feel immensely honored to bring our unique vision and culture to Louisiana.”
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Laurel Fischer
Assistant Head of School, Harveston
With a degree from St. John’s College, Laurel Fischer was no stranger to the liberal arts, but that education inspired her to teach with Great Hearts, and in her words, “help others learn from great thinkers of the past.” She began as an Apprentice Teacher but quickly moved into a lead teacher role, then Teacher Resource Portal author, Dean of Curriculum, and now Assistant Head of School. She credits Dean of Curriculum Debra Bettis at Archway Chandler, who provided her with the intense, daily support that enabled to grow as a teacher, but most importantly, to grow in her ability to self-reflect. “I've also learned a lot from the home office members who have been on the ground supporting us at Harveston, and not just about bolstering the basic school functions, but about what it means to be a leader.”
In contemplating the launch of Great Hearts Harveston, Ms. Fischer shared, “It has been most fulfilling to hear from parents that their students have never loved school nor ‘fit in’ before but are now thriving. It has also been great to see the immediate growth in our students with the curriculum and intervention structure.” Though the daily work is challenging, she has enjoyed “launching a new school and being presented with a new puzzle to solve every day. In Louisiana, we work within a district rather than being a district unto ourselves. We have been learning how to work within another district's ecosystem while still keeping what makes Great Hearts unique.” Ms. Fischer expressed her gratitude to serve a new region and observed, “It's been fascinating to see how the parts of a region work together to provide opportunity for the teachers to thrive, and therefore for the students to thrive.”
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Brianna Rogers
5th Grade Lead Teacher, Harveston
Brianna Rogers’ journey with Great Hearts began much further back than most – as a student in 7th Grade, where she fell in love with the Socratic style on a school tour and actually wrote a compelling letter to her parents convincing them to send her to Chandler Prep in its inaugural year. More than a few years later, Brianna returned to Great Hearts as a teacher, after teaching in district public schools, because she deeply missed the classical curriculum and Socratic teaching style. Since then she has served many roles - lead teacher, SST Coordinator, and Dean, and she credits former Headmaster of Archway Chandler, Laura Pyper for inspiring her to leadership. “She recognized leadership potential in me before I recognized (or even desired) it myself. She put the steps in motion to help me achieve those goals, such as inviting me to join the Academy’s Leadership Team and promoting me to Dean.”
Her passion for service took her to Harveston, where she candidly expresses, “Serving the network by helping to open our first school in Louisiana has been just as rewarding as it has been challenging. Much of the school district we are a part of was entirely shut down during the Covid years, and the gaps in knowledge we are discovering in our students are astronomical. It makes me even more grateful for Great Hearts, knowing we did as much as we could (safely) to provide for our students in Arizona and Texas.” Though the fledgling campus is still gaining traction and trust with families, Ms. Rogers takes heart in the notion that "as long as we don’t give up on the vision, school culture will improve in time. Having the perseverance to not give up on that vision (or on any of these children) on the most difficult days takes a servant’s heart and a real passion for wanting to bring change to this community.”
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Each month, Grow with Great Hearts curates a short listing of highlighted opportunities - to share with you new avenues for growth available across our network. Feel free to share these opportunities with colleagues outside of Great Hearts, and receive a faculty/staff referral bonus. | |
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Academy Leadership and Non-Teaching Positions
Academy Special Education Leadership Positions
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Home Office Positions
ARIZONA
TEXAS
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Questions or Suggestions? Email us today! | | | | |
