For 10 months of every year, Manhasset resident Elizabeth Lyons is focused on making sure each of the students in toddler through fourth grade at Buckley Country Day School are being challenged and educated at the highest level.
When those students took a break to enjoy the summer, however, the Assistant Headmaster and Head of Lower School went back to school herself — participating in Harvard University’s Leadership: An Evolving Vision. For Ms. Lyons, switching from educator to student comes very naturally.
“Even though I have been doing this for many years, I definitely feel that there are always new opportunities for learning and my experience at Harvard really validated that feeling,” said Mrs. Lyons, who just began her 11th year at Buckley. “I guess I’ve always been a lifelong learner and I hope I always will be.”
Not only did Lyons have the chance to work with Harvard faculty and experts on school leadership, but she was able to sit side-by-side with some of the finest educators from around the world. In her group there were colleagues from various states, in addition to those from Australia, New Zealand and Dubai.
“There were large group sessions covering many topics, including what you have to unlearn as you move forward in your career, as well as ways of enhancing students performance, which is really what my passion is,” Lyons said. “How we can move students forward in their learning and how we can make sure every single child is given the opportunity to learn to his or her full potential.”
To that end, one of the ideas that Lyons brought home with her from Cambridge was how using interim assessments would be very helpful.
“Doing on-the-spot assessments every day, with every lesson, prevents the gap…not waiting until the end of a quarter, or even end of a unit to see who is not learning,” Lyons said. “We have definitely been doing that here, but it’s a process I plan to formalize at Buckley.”
One of the biggest aspects of the conference for Lyons was the emphasis placed on school culture and the message a school sends out. She related that to Buckley’s vision of the 5 C’s: Communication, Collaboration, Critical thinking, Creativity and Character.
“If we say that part of our culture (at Buckley) is that we believe that every child can learn, then what are the behaviors that we expect to see to support that belief,” Lyons asked. “A lot of what I did (at Harvard) really validated so much of what we do here, which was a really good thing.”
Ironically, while reflecting back on her week at Harvard, Lyons stressed that a major takeaway from Leadership: An Evolving Vision was the importance of reflection for all educators.
“I think so many times, we go through our day and our weeks and our months and we don’t take the time to take a step back and think about how is what I am doing supporting children in their learning. Because that’s really what we’re all about,” she said. “I came away with some wonderful ideas that I would like to implement, but I was really pleased at where Buckley is in the realm of education today.”
