Dear Families,

As I write this letter from my home office, I look outside and see signs of spring. I have learned that our backyard has a lively array of feathered and furry visitors throughout the day, which is fun to see, but I would readily trade that view for my Ursuline view of our students and teachers moving through their days at school.

I have been reflecting frequently on what I am supposed to be learning in this moment, what I am supposed to carry forward when we are “back to normal.” So far, I am holding three clear insights in mind: 

• First, learning can be different. School has been school for a long time, and what we have seen in these first few weeks of distance learning is that school can shift quickly to meet the needs of our students. Change has been rapid, and our teachers and students have risen to meet this change in amazing ways. We now know that we can shift the way learning happens, and that learning will still happen!
• Second, I have learned that nothing can replace the community experience of being at school together. I love the opportunity to chat with my advisory or meet with teachers or the administrative team using the video chat feature – it is good to see the faces and hear the voices – but we all know it is not quite the same as being together “in real life.” The feeling of being in community is exquisite, and we all miss it.
• My third take-away is that we are all learners. Teachers and administrators are learning from each other, and we are all learning from our students. We have each had a chance to humbly say, “Wow, I did not know how to do that, and you have taught me something I will now use!” It’s wonderful. 

As I consider these three realizations, I am thinking of a featured speaker in our August 2019 employee in-service, Dave Mochel. In his work, he addresses the importance and challenge of recognizing the hedonic and eudaimonic forms of happiness in our lives. In brief, hedonic happiness is that in our lives which brings comfort and ease but is fleeting. Eudaimonic happiness comes out of living lives of purpose and fulfilment. For many of us, happiness looks a bit different right now. I have made a habit of asking myself when I begin to feel a little down if I am feeling this way because I am looking for hedonic happiness and perhaps missing the eudaimonic happiness all around me. Often, I can quickly lift my eyes and remember to look for purpose and fulfilment, and other times, to be honest, it takes a little longer.

Dave offered our faculty tools to help us show up for what life brings, rather than waiting for life to show up perfectly for us. He joined faculty on Monday, April 20, for a virtual refresher on keeping the truly important facets of life in our focus. As educators, we are lucky that it is never very hard to remember the why of what we do, because it is actually a who– your daughters – and they always offer inspiration and a source of energy.

Your daughters and families are in my prayers every day!

Sincerely,

Dr. Andrea Shurley
Principal