CSI Connect

Uptown, CSI's sixth through eighth grades, will be doing some iteration next year and changing things up! Here is information regarding the 22-23 school year.

“Think big, dream big, believe big, and the results will be big.”    

 -Timothy Kasbe

     This school year has offered some unique moments. We have had so many changes and interesting challenges. This is a perfect time to understand why we need the important skill of dreaming big. We often hear people say, “Dream Big!” when they ask someone for a big, bold idea and they are designing something new and exciting, but how does dreaming big help us with those smaller moments, those constantly changing times? 

Dreaming big is a skill that can be practiced and appreciated. When we dream big, we focus on something that excites us, something that creates anticipation and encourages us to hold on tight to a vision of something better. These can be big things, but they can also be small things that help us move through difficult times, such as emerging from a pandemic. Our dreams come before our reality, so when we focus on what could be, we must overcome some of our self-imposed limits. Impossible does not apply anymore. We seek out inspiration, we research, we explore, and we learn new habits, accepting failure as part of the process and using that information to push us forward to something possible that was once only a dream. We've been stuck for awhile and we need some inspiration to move us forward.

Children naturally dream big. It’s built into their early learning DNA. How might we continue to encourage and build these skills as our children grow into adults? And how do we, as adults, reignite our own abilities to dream big? Here at Campbell School of Innovation, we value a “Dream Big” attitude and practice. We encourage each other to dream of things that excite us and keep us focused on creating something better, whether it’s something that helps us have a better afternoon, a better month, or a better school year. Big or small, dreaming is what will help us become unstuck and get us through the unknown as it gives us a direction for where we want to go, so we can create our path to get there.

Our CUSD open enrollment window is January 18 through February 11th. If you are interested in attending CSI for the 22-23 school year, please join us for a tour! We offer the following in person tour dates:

Monday, January 31, 4:00-5:00 pm - Kindergarten focused (Register here)

Friday, February 4, - 4:00-5:00 pm - Uptown (grades 6-8) focused (Register here)

Tours will meet in our Town Square in the center of campus. We will start with a short presentation and then do small group walk arounds. You may attend either tour, but our kindergarten program will be showcased on our Jan. 31 tour and our middle school program will be highlighted on Feb. 4. We will have parent, teacher, district, and student representatives at both tours to help answer your questions. All participants must be masked to attend. While registration is not a requirement, we encourage families to register so that we can plan accordingly.

Find Your Place in the Wolfpack

One of my favorite quotes comes from Theodore Roosevelt:

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."

In our current times, it is easy to sit on the sidelines offering only comments and critiques of other people's work or contributions. Everyone has many opnions and social media has made it easy for us to share every thought. It makes the fear of pushing something new or different out into the world greater. 

For our students, they have those same fears. "What will people say? How will they react to this creative risk that I'm taking? What if they don't like it?" Here at CSI, we work to give students many opportunities to build, to make, to create, to design, and to share. We help them with feedback skills, both in how to give feedback and how to recieve feedback, so that the risk seems less scary. This is a critical piece as they learn to understand the difference between feedback and comments. 

Here is a great piece from A.J. Juliani, speaking to the idea that creating is greater than commenting. It is something we embrace here at CSI and we strive to help our students develop their creative confidence so they can enter the arena, rather than just sit on the sidelines.