Learning From Our Colleagues

Well over half of Westtown’s faculty engaged in some sort of active, beyond reading a book, professional development this past summer. In our opening of school meetings I experimented with a forum for faculty to share what they did and learned with colleagues. I invited ten faculty who had  attended week long or longer pd experiences to create posters of their learning. I arranged for a reception complete with cheese crackers, freshly backed chocolate chip cookies and beverages. I made sure there were no other conflicts with the time of the reception and I invited the community to a gallery walk/poster talk session. The posters were hung around our Science Building Lobby. Colleagues visited with each other, stopped to ask about the posters, and heard what was learned.  High school teachers learned from lower school colleagues about social emotional needs of learners. Math teachers discussed the effort to create depth in images depicted on clay. Everyone wanted to learn to play the ukulele. One of the recurring laments of teachers is the lack of time to hear about their colleagues experiences.  One of my long term goals is to insure that our professional development investments reach out beyond the individual attendees of workshops. In this session cross pollination and appreciation for each other’s questions and wisdom were very much in evidence. This first ever experiment was well received and will be repeated. Below are images and short explanations of the posters or topics discussed.

Robert Frazier attended   The Kendall Betts Horn Camp, an intensive week of individual instruction and ensemble playing. He even learned to play the “natural horn.”

Karyn Payton attended “The Neuropsychology of Learning Disabilities: Developing Interventions to Help Students” at the  Learning and The Brain Conference, Santa Barbara, CA.

Lulu Cossich attended the Eastman Kodak Conservatory’s Orff Level II certification course. She also developed a ukulele curriculum for Lower School students.

Joyce Nagata spent her summer sabbatical at Watershed Studio in Maine. Her focus was on stepping back into her own practice as an artist. More of her work will be on display in the faculty show in Westtown’s gallery in September.

Brian Blackmore spent several weeks at Westtown’s sister school, Heritage Academy in Ghana. While there he taught World Religions and helped further school director, Kwesi Koomson’s projects.

Barry Vargo and Alana Kilcullen both attended the Anja S. Greer Conference on Mathematics and Technology. They each came back with different practices to implement in their math classrooms.

Marion and Marc Dear spent a week at the Social and Emotional Learning Conference. “Social and emotional learning (SEL) is the process through which children and adults acquire and effectively apply the knowledge, attitudes and skills necessary to understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions (www.CASEL.org).”

Sue Gold’s poster focused on her research into her missionary ancestors. She spent several weeks of her sabbatical in the Schlesinger Library at Harvard University reading the papers of Adoniram Judson Tuttle and Frances Davidson Tuttle. You can read about her research in her blog.