Looking Back to Move Forward

3/27/2013

Kate Raven, Communications Manager

At I.S. 318, an intermediate school in Brooklyn, N.Y., chess is a way of life. Since they started up a chess team, the school has won more national championships than any other American school, both public and private. Students at I.S. 318 face challenges both on and off the chessboard – 70 per cent of its students live below the poverty line.

As he explained at our March 27 assembly, Principal Hardy learned about I.S. 318 through Paul Tough, the author of How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character; the school is now gaining national attention through a documentary about five of its chess-playing students. Principal Hardy is particularly interested in what the team’s coach, Elizabeth Spiegel, does when one of her players loses a match.

“After a loss, Ms. Spiegel sits down with the player at a chessboard and replays the entire game with them,” Principal Hardy said. “In the process, students often realize that they made mistakes when they played too quickly, or without a clear strategy.” Ms. Spiegel acts as a “mirror” for the players, reflecting their own play back to them.

“In this final, very busy term, it’s important to always have clear goals, and a strategy for accomplishing them,” Principal Hardy said. “Your teachers at Greenwood help you set goals by acting as mirrors for you – they reflect back your progress, and give you things to think about in your efforts to move forward.

“Once you set an academic goal – perhaps to improve your performance in a specific course – take a look back through your past work, and reflect on errors you may have made,” Principal Hardy said. “We learn by making mistakes, but we get better by thinking about why we made those mistakes, and by not repeating them in the future.”

As part of his presentation at assembly, Principal Hardy showed students the trailer for Brooklyn Castles, the documentary about I.S. 318. Check it out below.

Back

When one of her players loses a match, chess coach Elizabeth Spiegel helps them reflect on their play by replaying the entire game with them.

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Greenwood College School

443 Mount Pleasant Road
Toronto, ON M4S 2L8
Tel: 416 482 9811

We acknowledge with gratitude the Ancestral lands upon which our main campus is situated. These lands are the Ancestral territories of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, Anishinabek and the Wendake. The shared responsibility of this land is honoured in the Dish with One Spoon Treaty and we strive to care for the land, the waters, and all creatures in the spirit of peace. We are responsible for respecting and supporting the enduring presence of all First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples. When away from this campus we vow to be respectful to the land by protecting and honouring it. We will create relationships with the people and the land we may visit by understanding the territories we enter and the nations who inhabit them.