Faculty Professional Development

The week before Thanksgiving, a group of Lower School and Early Childhood teachers attended the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) Concerence in Washington D.C. Four teachers also led two presentations for attendees. Taylor Davis and Lea Crongeyer's presentation, "Is This a Waste of Time? Debunking Traditional Calendar and Daily Schedules in the Pre-K Classroom," focused on the concept that elapsed time, or time between events, is abstract to young children. "Young children understand time in a 'I know I did this' in the past or 'I want to do this' in the future," said Crongeyer. "We believe that the precious minutes we have with our children during group time should be spent sharing news, singing songs, and reading stories, not wasted on things that are beyond a young child's understanding." In their session they offered alternatives to traditional calendar time by showing how to make the class calendar into a living document that can be visited many times during the school day. They also discussed the importance of documentation and journal writing to support findings. 

 

Sandra Flores and Maggie Secrest presented on Family Engagement and Support. "We began by inviting participants to share and explore various templates and approaches to newsletters to enhance parents' engagement," said Flores. "Maggie and I offered a series of recommendations to improve the readability of these critical resources — including short paragraphs, bullet points, keeping it simple, highlighting essential information, and ensuring the font is easy to read. Creating two-way communication demonstrates how effective this can be when you actively listen, address concerns to families, and keep a positive attitude."

 

Middle and Upper School teachers Susan Pace, Monica Colletti, and Cullen Brown traveled with Assistant Head of School for Teaching and Learning Julie Rust to National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) in Anaheim, CA. Colletti and Rust presented a session titled "Finding Grace: Practical tools for the Overworked or Overwhelmed ELA Teacher" to a packed room of 50-65 teachers ready to vent and problem solve together. The past few years have brought about record levels of stress, anxiety, and disenchantment among English teachers across the globe, leaving many educators questioning their career choice and considering leaving the profession. The pressure comes from many sources (e.g. systems, parents, kids, administrators, colleagues) but can also be self-inflicted when there are unrealistic expectations. "In this session, we offered practical tools to get out of the stress cycle, lesson plan our way into more sustainable rhythms, and push for systems that support," said Rust. "By recognizing the challenges in this moment/profession and providing ample space within topic for participants to dialogue about their own survival techniques, we hoped to subvert the toxic positivity that often permeates conferences while also providing a pathway toward dreaming for a better future together."