As a child, Head of House and iPeriod Coordinator Jill Babb loved the creative freedom that came from playing with a bag of Legos. There were no directions included, so she and her brother could dump out a shopping bag full of legos onto their living room floor and use their imaginations to build absolutely anything that they could think of. Years later, she realized that her stepdaughter’s updated boxes of Legos came with step-by-step instructions that told her exactly what to build and how to build it. Babb realized the importance of creating something unique from our imaginations, which is why she feels so passionately about the iPeriod program.

“Ideally, each person has their own iPeriod goals that are much like the big bag of Legos from my childhood,” Babb said. “Each of us is limited only by [our] imagination.”

She believes that iPeriods are a way that students can not only discover new creative passions, but they can also expose students to activities that they might not normally enjoy. Over the course of the school year, students will explore their passions by participating in two iPeriods at a time, and sign ups for new iPeriods will take place every seven weeks.

“When we are young, our parents easily sell us on trying a sport, an instrument, a class, etc., and we have the chance to try many different things and find where we fit,” Babb said. “As we grow older, we tend to take less risks. iPeriods give all of us the opportunity to discover what we like and don’t like. I remember I took a dance class with my friend in middle school. I completed the month of the lessons and told my mother I was done. On the flip side, I took art lessons and begged for more! It is important to ‘try on’ many activities so that you can truly find your passions.”

Even though iPeriods allow students to learn more about themselves, Babb understands that some students believe that iPeriods are a waste of their time.

“I had planned to be a teacher and spent many hours observing in the classroom. I came home one day complaining about a teacher I was working with and after [my father] patiently listened to me he said, ‘Sometimes you learn what to do, and sometimes you learn what not to do.’ I still use this philosophy,” Babb said. “Some iPeriods will seem like a waste of your time while others connect you with new people and new ideas and hopefully ignite a new passion.”

Babb is currently leading an iPeriod team that was formed in the spring and works on improving the program for students.

“Their goal was to find out what students wanted to explore during iPeriods. This was great information to share with the faculty during planning meetings in August,” Babb said. “Our student coordinators met on the second day of school, and in less than a week, they created a new form for sponsors to complete, shared a spreadsheet of iPeriod descriptions a day before sign up and sent out a more user friendly sign up form. The student team’s work has just begun. Each meeting our goal is to answer, ‘what is next for iPeriods?’”