We’re back with another year of the faculty and staff growth newsletter, which will appear six times through May! Please read on for interesting education articles, a CATDC workshop with an early bird deadline of Sept. 22, and Part 1 of a list of Prep faculty and staff’s robust summer professional growth. Suggestions are always welcome.
Interesting Recent Articles
Bianca Nunes, Unmasking Our Emotions, Well-Schooled
Written by a teacher pursuing a master’s in education, this article encourages us to name how we in schools feel as we emerge from years of being “masked.”
Given the recent need to literally and figuratively hide behind different constraints, social emotional awareness and development in schools has become increasingly important. Our masks need to be lifted, and emotions need to be normalized in and out of the school setting.
Dave Stuart Jr., How to Feel Less Nuts This School Year
This concise article suggests first being aware of ourselves as “five-part creatures” (intellectual, social, emotional, physical, volitional) and then aiming to streamline our workload.
A great petri dish for wisdom's growth is in the simplification of tasks. This can begin as easily as looking at a too-much-to-do list and saying, “What would this be like if it were simple?”
Nora Macaluso, Linking Philly Girls of Color to Coding Through Dance Reflects National Trend, Chalkbeat
A weekend class in Philadelphia for middle and high school girls includes both coding and dance, emphasizing that both are “methods of creation” that use their own languages of “repetition and combination.”
“If you can get them early enough, when they’re talking about, ‘I want to work for NASA, I want to be an engineer or a gamer or a doctor’ — if you get them early enough, you can say, ‘You can do this.’”
Ongoing CATDC Program
The California Teacher Development Collaborative continues to expand its offerings all the time, and it was a pleasure to host one of its workshops on Prep’s campus in August.
One of the CATDC’s ongoing programs this year is a Climate Leaders Alliance workshop, with three-hour online morning meetings in October, January, March and May. The course description asks: “How might our schools approach this multi-dimensional problem appropriately, with all of the passion and talents of our students, faculty and community? How might we move with courage, innovation, and collaboration?” Prep is a member school, and the early bird discount ends Sept. 22.
As always, if you are interested in applying for professional growth funds, please fill out the Faculty and Staff Professional Growth Application on the Faculty and Staff Resources page in onCampus.
Summer Faculty and Staff Professional Growth, Part 1
-
Two teachers participated in the College Board’s AP Summer Institutes: Reuben Allen for AP Music Theory and Claire Kinder for AP Art History.
-
In June, World Language Department Chair Fabian Bejarano and English teacher Scott Myers served as Exam Readers for AP Spanish Language and AP English Literature.
-
Colleen Bissner, Student Life and External Affairs Administrator, attended the Alumni Career Services Network Conference in San Diego.
-
Global Studies Coordinator Ingrid Herskind received one of two summer Curricular Innovation Grants from Prep for research into global competencies for the history department. She presented on this curricular research to faculty in Prep’s August opening meetings. In addition, some of her action research from the spring is featured in this blog post from the Global Education Benchmark Group.
-
Math teacher Joel Ishii took part in the Anja S. Greer Conference on Mathematics and Technology at Phillips Exeter Academy.
-
Laura Kaufman, Science Department Chair, joined other Science Olympiad coaches at the Science Olympiad Summer Workshops to learn about changes for the 2022-2023 season.
-
Information Systems Specialist Jess Moxley attended sessions through the online Blackbaud K-12 Conference.
-
Tyke O’Brien, English Department Chair, received one of two summer Curricular Innovation Grants from Prep for research into “Film as Literacy: Culture, History and Text.” She presented on this curricular research to faculty in Prep’s August opening meetings.
-
Dean of Students Beth Pattinelli took part in an Independent School Management seminar, Balance Your Roles as Upper School Dean of Students, in Philadelphia.
-
Josh Perlman, History Department Chair, attended the game-based pedagogy conference hosted by Reacting to the Past Consortium at the University of Colorado Boulder.
-
Andrew Phillips, physical education teacher and head water polo coach, attended the 2022 CAPE Workshop, hosted by California Athletics and Physical Education at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.
-
Danilo Ramos, Prep’s groundskeeper, this summer became a certified Irrigation Repair Technician through Irrigator Tech.
-
English and drama teacher Austin Roy was selected to take part in the two-week Klingenstein Summer Institute, offered through Teachers College at Columbia University and taking place at the Hotchkiss School in Connecticut.