启明星人｜三里屯校区小学部创校校长Kari King：为市中心的“小而美”涂上文化底色

2017年夏，启明星大家庭迎来了重要的新成员——三里屯校区。这座小而美的校园掩映在使馆区葱茏的绿树当中，从最初的几十个孩子开始，一年年稳步递增，直到满员。如今，三里屯校区已经获得IBPYP正式授权，提供小学教育，下启艾毅幼儿园，上承启明星学校中学部。

是什么样的力量助推着这座校区快速成长，下一步它的方向在哪里？三里屯校区最可宝贵的资源是什么？……所有这些答案都在它的创校校长Kari King心里。

Kari来自美国，在北卡罗来纳州的公立学校开启执教生涯，之后在国际学校工作多年。她学习音乐教育专业出身，热情、活泼，热衷探究式教育和合作式学习方式，一个“新生”的、够她挥洒想象力和热情的环境是再适合不过的地方了。

来启明星之前，Kari在巴拿马工作了9年，开始寻找新的挑战——一所能让她成长的学校。她拜访了很多地方，遇到了正在筹备三里屯校区的启明星。

“在启明星的整个面试过程让我看到这所学校正在努力的方向，以及每个人想要为学校做些什么——我能感受这和我对自己的期待、还有我对教育的信念有着深层的联结。不但如此，校方也特别和我谈论了想要让学生们成长为什么样的人和启明星的核心价值观。我觉得这些真的对我很有意义，对我的职业生涯来说也是更好的下一步。”回忆加入启明星的初心，Kari说。

Kari和一位导师一起开办过一所新的学校。那样的经历让她认识到自己对“创建”新事物的热情：“我喜欢发挥创造力，即便压力很大，我也享受在这个过程中解决问题。”

社区活动老照片

创校吸引Kari的另一个原因是，三里屯是一座全新的社区，就像一块空白的画布。志同道合的人可以聚在一起，从第一天起，一道决定什么对大家来说很重要，决定校园的感觉和样子，一道面对挑战解决问题，就好像在画布上合力创作。

很自然的，从一开始，“创新”就嵌入了三里屯校区的基因。一方面，它吸引了和Kari同样热衷做些新鲜事的员工；另一方面，在Kari为核心的团队支持下，校区成为大家放飞想法、开心做事的平台。

“我们招聘员工的时候，会向他们特别明确要做什么样的事业。事业之初，我们吸纳的员工是有创造力和灵活的人。这让我们逐渐从中获益！”Kari说。

英文老师James Thomason和Kari同年加入三里屯校区。他说，之所以愿意做创校教师，也是因为他喜欢从零开始的工作，喜欢为新社区做点什么。

热爱自然的他带着孩子们建起了校园花园。花园沿着学校围墙蜿蜿蜿蜒蜒，小小一块。孩子们在这里亲近自然，参加James指导的园艺课，在果蔬成熟的季节，还能亲手摘下自己种成的黄瓜、番茄 、豌豆……交给餐厅的师傅烹饪好，端上大家的餐桌！在车水马龙的城市中心，这样的体验堪称“世外桃源”！

美术老师高巍也得以逐年实现自己的教育想法。

“艺术源于生活，我们可以在艺术里做很多想做的事，一件废物也能成为创作的起点。”高巍说。这种充满环保意识的创作理念和启明星倡导的环境保护想法一致，得到了校长的支持和全社区的鼎力相助。

上学期，高老师带着三里屯校区的孩子们用各种回收材料制作成一棵树，并受邀在北京今日美术馆展出。这是“一棵树一世界”展览中，唯一一棵用环保材料制作的树。

至于学年末的美术作品展，高老师并不想仅仅罗列孩子的作品，而是带着学生画了一面墙。

面对身边这些有想法又有热情的团队，Kari看重且努力经营着。从建校第一年开始，每次团队开会，“庆祝”（社区中的好事情）都是第一个环节，作为接下来的会议的出发点。在会上大家讨论问题，解决问题，尽管会有不同意见，但这样的开场提醒每个人，社区中发生的大多数事情都是好事。“我们以‘庆祝’开启每一天，也确定了我们彼此沟通应该抱有的心态。”Kari说。

为建设团队Kari做的另一件事是，对每个人都设定了高期待：“我希望大家能达到。当然，人都会犯错，也会失败，但这些高期待，我从来没有真正动摇过。而我也愿意为大家达到期待提供帮助。”

学生永远是启明星教育的中心。鼓励和支持他们，Kari的方法是不同的——主要是认可他们达到期待的行为。比如，建校的第二年，学校向孩子们展示了践行核心价值观的榜样，为他们设定期待，引导他们践行，养成习惯，然后一起讨论这些事情的更深层的意义。

Kari发起了“和校长共进午餐”这个活动。起初，她用标明学校核心价值观的贴纸来认可孩子们的行为。比如，奖励孩子贴纸时她会非常明确说：“我给你这张‘服务’贴纸是因为当Tommy在餐厅把午餐打翻时，是你第一个过去帮他擦干净，还帮他拿了份新的，这表示你践行了自己保持社区清洁的承诺。”后来，Kari想要集中认可他们，就带他们吃午餐。吃午餐时，她会和孩子们聊有趣的事儿，也会讨论践行启明星的5个核心价值观当中的哪一个最难被看到，为什么？

现在，午餐活动已经变成一项传统，让人惊讶的是，到今天孩子们还为能来参加午餐而兴奋呢！

类似“和校长共进午餐”的例子还有很多。感受到自己被看到，被倾听，有的原本在其他学校是“小透明”的孩子发现，原来自己可以“举足轻重”，可以做自己！一位家长曾这样感叹：“孩子就像变了个人似的，整个人更加充满自信！”

总结一所学校所以取得成功的因素，Kari特别强调文化的作用。

“启明星在支持员工和家庭方面做了很多，我们整个社区相互支持——这就源于社区的基础文化，没有这个基础，你的老师有多好、课程有多好，有什么认证、授权都无关紧要。”Kari说。

至于对三里屯校区文化至关重要的核心价值观建设，她这样解释说：“我们做任何决定都是基于我们的核心价值观，所以每个学年开学之初，我们都会请所有员工审视自己的个人核心价值观是什么，以及它们如何与学校的目标保持一致，然后为自己、为班级，进而为学校设定目标。延展到家庭文化的建设，我们可以和家人谈论对自己家庭最重要的事。对有些家庭说，在一起是最重要的事情，那么从现在起你们就设定一个目标，让大家能有规律地聚在一起。从共同的价值观出发，你们更有可能实现自己的目标。”

三里屯校区在几年内快速成长，方方面面的成绩让身为创校校长的Kari特别自豪：

“从大的方面讲，我为我们一直在成长，在各个方面成长感到自豪。你能看到，每年学生的学术表现都在进步，学生返校率、家长满意度和员工满意度都越来越好，去年外籍员工保留率达到100%……这些表明我们所走的道路是正确的。

“从小的方面讲，我为社区成员的相互支持感到骄傲。我们有一个充满快乐氛围的校园——这是大家告诉我们的，我们也希望人们第一次来校园就能体会到这种轻松、开放的气氛。”

如今，Kari对已经进入“少年期”的三里屯校区有着什么样的下一步愿景呢？

“一直以来，我们要成为帮助孩子应对未来和变化的典范。现在，人工智能大行其道，我们正努力帮助孩子适应人工智能时代。然而，事情总是变化的，我们甚至不知道两三年后会发生什么。我们所能做的就是让孩子们做好准备，学习正确地接受这些事物和之后如何应对它们。回到教育工作中，我们要做的就是如何培养有韧性、有思想的孩子，如何支持善良的，以及那些有内驱力、想要为身边世界做点什么的孩子？”

回顾过去6年在启明星的工作，Kari说，“坚持”这个词最能描述自己。担任三里屯校区校长的这段时间让她更加了解自己，无论什么情况，她都不会轻易放弃。

从新学年开始，Kari又增加了一项头衔——三里屯校区校区长，这意味着她不单是启明星三里屯校区小学部校长，也将领导同在一所校园的艾毅幼儿园三里屯校区。Kari说过，喜欢“在压力很大的过程中解决问题”，相信她会享受这样全新的挑战。

In the summer of 2017, the Daystar community welcomed an important new member - Sanlitun Campus. This small and beautiful campus is nestled among the lush green trees in the embassy area. Student enrollment has steadily increased year by year, from a few dozen students in the first year to today’s full campus. Sanlitun Campus is now officially authorized by IB organization to provide IBPYP education, creating a bridge between Ivy Academy for kindergarten students and Daystar Academy’s secondary schools.

What kind of force is driving the rapid growth of this campus, and what direction will it go next? What is the most valuable resource at Sanlitun Campus? Kari King, the founding principal of Sanlitun Campus Elementary School, has answers to all these questions.

Kari comes from the United States. She began her teaching career at public schools in North Carolina before working at international schools for many years. With a background in music education, she has enthusiastically, energetically, and passionately studied exploratory education methods and collaborative learning. A newly founded school where her imagination and passion can flourish is the perfect place for her.

Before coming to Daystar, Kari worked in Panama for 9 years. At the time, she was looking for a new challenge in her life—a school that could help her grow. She visited a lot of places, and then she encountered Daystar, which was preparing to establish the Sanlitun Campus.

“The entire interview process at Daystar really showed me the direction the school wanted to go and what everyone needed to do for the school. I felt it was deeply connected with my expectations for myself, as well as my beliefs in education. During the interview, the school specifically talked to me about the kind of people they wanted their students to become and the core values of Daystar. This was very meaningful to me and seemed like it would be a good next step in my career.” said Kari while reflecting upon her initial thoughts of joining Daystar.

Kari once started a new school with her mentor. That experience helped her realize her passion for “building” new things: “I like unleashing my creativity. Even when there’s a lot of pressure, I enjoy solving problems.”

Community activities in early years

Another thing that attracted Kari to founding a school was the brand new community, which is like a blank canvas. Like-minded people can come together. From day one at Sanlitun, they decided together what was important to them and what they wanted their campus to feel like and look like. Everybody came together and created this vision as if painting on the same canvas. 

From the beginning, “innovation” has been an inherent part of Sanlitun Campus. Sanlitun Campus attracted staff who were just as enthusiastic about building new things as Kari. With the support of Kari's core team, Sanlitun Campus has become a platform for everyone to explore their ideas and have fun.

“When we recruit staff, we make it very clear to them what kind of campus we want to build. From the beginning, we recruited creative, flexible people. We have gradually seen the benefits of this,” said Kari. 

English teacher James Thomason joined Sanlitun Campus the same year as Kari. He said that he was willing to be one of the founding teachers because he liked the idea of building something from scratch and making a difference in the new community.

As someone who loves nature, James led his students in building a campus garden. The garden is a small area that winds along the school wall. Here, students can experience getting close to nature. They participate in gardening classes taught by James. When the fruits and vegetables are ripe, they can personally pick the cucumbers, tomatoes, peas, and other produce. Then they can give them to the cafeteria chef to prepare and serve to the school. In this busy city center, such an experience can be called a hidden paradise!

Art teacher Vivian Gao has also been able to realize her educational ideas over the years.

“Art comes from life. There are a lot of things we can do in the art world. Even a piece of trash can be a starting point of creation,” said Vivian Gao. This environmentally conscious creative concept is consistent with the environmental protection ideas advocated by Daystar. It has also received the support of the principal and the entire community.

Last semester, Ms. Gao had students from Sanlitun Campus make a tree out of various recycled materials. They were invited to exhibit it at the Today Art Museum in Beijing. It was the only tree made of environmentally-friendly materials in the “One Tree, One World” exhibition.

As for the art exhibition at the end of the school year, Ms. Gao didn't just want to simply showcase the students’ works. Instead, she had the students paint a wall.

Kari values these brilliant and enthusiastic team members and pushes herself to be a good leader. From the time the school was founded, every meeting has started with a “celebration” (good things in the community). These good things serve as the starting point for the following conversations. Everyone discusses problems, solves problems, and shares different opinions during the meetings, but by starting with a “celebration,” everyone is reminded that most of the things that happen in the community are good things. “We start each day with a ‘celebration,’ which directs the mindset we should have when talking with one another,” Kari said.  

Another thing Kari did was to set high expectations for everyone in the community and hope that they would meet those expectations: “Of course, people make mistakes and people fail. But I have never really wavered from those high expectations. I’m also willing to help everyone meet them.”

When summarizing the factors that contribute to the success of a school, Kari particularly emphasizes the role of culture.

“Daystar did a lot to support staff and parents. Our entire community supports one another—this stems from the foundational culture of the community. Without that foundation, it doesn't matter how good your teachers are, or how great your curriculum is, or what accreditations or authorizations or university acceptances you have,” said Kari.

As for the construction of core values that are crucial to the culture of Sanlitun Campus, Kari explained, “Any decision we make is based on our core values. At the beginning of each school year, we ask all of our staff to examine their personal core values and how their values align with the school goals. From that point, we set goals for ourselves, for our classes, and for our school. Within families, we can talk to our family members about what is most important to our own family. Some families say that spending time together is the most important thing for them. If that’s the case, from now on you would set a goal of spending time together regularly. When you start from a shared value, you're more likely to achieve your goal.”

Sanlitun Campus has grown rapidly in recent years. Kari, as the founding principal, is particularly proud of these achievements:

“Looking at it from a broad perspective, I'm proud that we are continuing to grow in every aspect. Every year sees improvements in academic performance, student retention, staff retention, parent satisfaction, and staff satisfaction. Last year, the retention rate of foreign staff reached 100%. We’re clearly on the right path.

From a smaller perspective, I am really proud of the way the community members support each other. We’ve been told by many people that we have a joyful campus. We want people to experience this relaxed and open atmosphere when they visit our campus for the first time.”

Now, what vision does Kari have for Sanlitun Campus as it progresses to its “teenager stage”?

“We have always been a model for helping students cope with the future and change. Right now, it's AI. We're trying to help students adapt to the prevalence of AI. However, things are always changing. We don't know what's down the line even two or three years from now. So, all we can do is to prepare our students by teaching them how to accept things in the correct way and how to deal with them afterward. Going back to education, how do we raise resilient students? How do we produce students who are thoughtful? How do we support students who are kind? And how do we support students who are motivated to help others and the world around them?”

Looking back at her work at Daystar over the past 6 years, Kari said that the word “persistent” can best describe her. During her time as the principal of Sanlitun Campus, she has learned a lot about herself. No matter the situation, she won’t give up easily.

At the beginning of this school year, Kari also added a new title—Campus Director, Sanlitun Campus. This means she is not only the principal of the Daystar Sanlitun Campus Elementary School, but also is in charge of the Ivy Academy located on the Sanlitun Campus. We believe that Kari King, who is persistent, likes innovation, and enjoys solving problems under pressure, will enjoy this new challenge.

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