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Don MacMillan

Don MacMillan on Sportsmanship

October 22, 2010 | Athletics, Blogs, Don MacMillan, Guest Bloggers, Malcolm's Blog

Sportsmanship has been on my mind recently.  Like all schools, Hyde implores its players and coaches to have good sportsmanship.  After a couple of incidents in which our sportsmanship was not as good as hoped for, it occurred to me that we probably need to be very explicit regarding what does constitute good sportsmanship.  So [...]

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Eno Boards

September 05, 2010 | By | Blogs, Don MacMillan, Guest Bloggers, Malcolm's Blog

At the risk of showing my relative ignorance when it comes to things technological, I’m very impressed with the capability of the new interactive eno boards recently installed in our classrooms.  They allow a teacher, even one as late to the game as I am, to move from a Power Point presentation to the Internet [...]

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A Moment in Time #3

January 22, 2010 | By | Blogs, Don MacMillan, Guest Bloggers, Malcolm's Blog

From guest blogger Susie Chubbuck: After being accepted by Hyde School and from the actual date we were dropping off our son at the Woodstock, CT campus, time dragged. There was a lot to do to get him ready as far as packing etc., but it played out in slow motion for me. His behavior [...]

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A Moment in Time #2

January 08, 2010 | By | Blogs, Don MacMillan, Guest Bloggers, Malcolm's Blog

The second installment from guest blogger Susie Chubbuck: A moment of clarity is not always a pleasant experience; as a matter of fact, it can be downright unpleasant, but at that exact moment in time, you know something so much clearer than before. As a Hyde School staff member, I am aware that the Hyde [...]

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Guest Blog- A Moment in Time

December 08, 2009 | By | Blogs, Don MacMillan, Guest Bloggers, Malcolm's Blog

My name is Susie Chubbuck and I have been a member of the Hyde School staff for 12 years in the Business Office. I love Hyde and all that it stands for, and have seen many great things happen there.The people at Hyde School are like no others. They all are genuinely caring individuals with [...]

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Hand Ball

December 03, 2009 | By | Don MacMillan

Perhaps you have seen Thierry Henry’s “hand goal” that propelled France into the World Cup and kept out Ireland. There is no doubt that Henry used his hand illegally, and that it led directly to the winning goal. It is right there on the video and Henry has said he used his hand in case [...]

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Cell phones

October 30, 2009 | By | Don MacMillan

During the family weekends on each campus, I attended a meeting to hear parents’ thoughts on student access to cell phones and social networking sites such as Facebook. Most parents present voiced their strong desire for their sons and daughters to have either very limited access or no access to cell phones, with a bit [...]

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Winning and Losing

October 05, 2009 | By | Don MacMillan, Uncategorized

Saturday, October 3rd had been circled on my calendar for a while. It was the first weekend when all of our teams would be playing at home (with the exception of the cross country teams whom I had the pleasure of seeing at the Hyde Invitational the weekend before). With almost all the teams home, [...]

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Marcus Chae, Class of 1994

October 04, 2009 | By | Don MacMillan

Last weekend during Homecoming, Marcus Chae, Class of 1994, made his graduation speech. As odd as that might sound (Why does someone make a speech 15 years after graduating?), it is simply another unique aspect of our school; former students who wish to complete their Hyde education with a speech are encouraged to do so [...]

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Rookie Teachers

September 25, 2009 | By | Don MacMillan

I was speaking with our rookie teachers a week or so ago, and remembering some of my own frustrations during that first year of teaching, tried to console them a bit by telling them, “Trust me, even if the kids don’t let you know they’re listening, they are.” I went on to share that if [...]

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Co-curricular or extra-curricular?

September 18, 2009 | By | Don MacMillan

A local middle school has asked Hyde to facilitate a day-long program for their 8th graders. As a school, Hyde worked with this group of kids last year, putting them through a “Know Yourself, Be Yourself” workshop. (“Know Yourself, Be Yourself” is a complementary program to The Biggest Job parenting workshops conducted by Hyde). Obviously [...]

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A Parent Thing

September 14, 2009 | By | Don MacMillan

A few years ago, I was running an impromptu school meeting regarding a group of students who had been breaking some of the rules. This type of meeting happens periodically at Hyde, and provides an opportunity for students to act on their conscience and be truthful about transgressions, running the gamut from lying to their [...]

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Two Things

September 11, 2009 | By | Don MacMillan

Here are two things that I need to remind myself are usual at Hyde but necessarily usual at most other schools. First, during the three week August orientation program, the students, student leaders and faculty, myself included, had a “seminar” in which we cleared the decks with each other. Clearing the decks is a simple [...]

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