What Our Faculty Learned This Summer

Three Casten trips ran this summer, offering meaningful experiential education and professional development.

• Nicole Butterfield (English), Katy Bowers (History) and Steve Fitzpatrick (History) travelled to India where they saw many Hindu and Buddhist temples, attended a teaching of the Dalai Lama, and just generally immersed in Indian culture. The experience will lend depth and perspective to the 8th grade history course this year in which the students study the religions of the world. The 11th grade’s 20th Century History classes (which study India in the early to mid 20th century) will also benefit from experience gained by our chaperones and teachers.

• Jessica Spates (Modern Languages/Spanish), Brad Walters (English) and Cyndy Jean (English) led a group of eight Upper School students to Senegal. This Casten trip encouraged students to explore the history and language of francophone West Africa, as well as farming techniques and projects related to economic sustainability. All three teachers hope to incorporate elements of this trip into their lessons and class discussions – visual presentations, audio clips, etc. – and to continue the discourse of sustainability development of countries around the world. We hope to continue broadening Hackley’s scope of global education by sharing with our students the experiences we shared this summer.

• Jennie Lyons (Computer Department) planned and organized the Casten Trip to Peru, co-chaperoned by Diane Remenar (Modern Languages/Spanish) and Andrew Ying (Science). Jennie designed the trip in partnership with one of her students on the Dial, and the trip was a great opportunity to expand the way teachers and students think about the ways in which they may extend the messages of cultural bridge building and service through journalism.  The Peru trip covered a lot of ground from the desert sea shore of Lima to Lake Titicaca at 12,500 ft. Highlights ranged community service at a local kindergarten in the farming region of Canete to discussing community needs with presidential candidate Pedro Pablo Kuczynski at his home in Lima. Unusual in that the students studied Peruvian history and art before taking off, their visits to pre-Colombian sites and art museums became particularly relevant. From the agriculture perspective, they travelled through avocado, orange, grape and cotton fields. They picked mandarin oranges and visited the packaging plant where workers prepared them for export. They tried new foods and toured a winery. Historically, they visited churches, museums, Incan ruins and climbed lots of stone steps. The more adventurous climbed Huayna Picchu (the most photographed part of Machu Picchu) while others trekked to the Sun Gate. And everyone was amazed by the floating reed islands on Lake Titicaca. Language, art, history, community service, writing and cultural emersion were all part of the educational experiences that students and teachers brought back to Hackley.

The Middle School Faculty developed dialogue around two common texts they all read -- Teach with Your Strengths by Rosanne Liesveld and Jo Ann Miller, and Teach Like a Champion by Doug Lemov. The faculty has begun to discuss the books and will continue to do so in grade level and divisional faculty meetings.

This summer seven Hackley Lower School teachers attended the Reading Workshop at Columbia University. This week-long, very intensive workshop is run by the top literacy experts in the field of balanced literacy, a method of teaching reading and writing recently embraced by the Lower School. Maribeth Bischof, Stacy Kaegi, Andrew Lopez, Madeleine Lopez, Rachel Mwakitawa, Mary Piscina and Beth Retzloff represented Hackley. They were joined by teachers from all over the world. Not only did they increase their knowledge base, they were also inspired by the quality of the keynote speakers and of the small group work. They look forward to putting what they learned to good use in the classroom, and they unanimously expressed great appreciation to Hackley for providing them with this opportunity,

Sixty-one members of the Hackley faculty and staff participated in Technology for Learning Academy workshops at Hackley this summer on the following topics.

o SMART Board Usability 101, 102a, 102b, 103

o SMART Board Interactive Lesson Development

o SMART Board Lesson Presentations

o iPad Basics

o Google Docs

o New Teacher Technology Orientation

o Tell Me More software training

Karen Casper (Math) and Jennie Lyons (Computer Department) traveled to Rwanda as part of Hackley’s ongoing partnership with REAP (Rwanda's Education Assistance Project), an organization committed to support educational improvement in Rwanda. They worked with the faculty and students at the Duha School. In Karen’s words, “what an impressive group of people we were fortunate to get to know at the Duha School! Passionate, dedicated, bright, and appreciative are just a few words that come to mind.”

Suzy Akin (Communications, English) completed the first two credits toward a Masters degree at the Bread Loaf School of English at Middlebury College. This accelerated degree program compresses a semester’s worth of work into six weeks, meeting five days a week. She took two courses – in Shakespeare and African American Literature – which delved into themes of class, gender and race identity as well as English and American folklore.

Betsy Block (Modern Languages/Spanish) spent some time in Puerto Rico gathering cultural richness to share with her Middle School students, and took a course in New York City that focused on encouraging the use of advanced grammar concepts to sharpen student writing skills.

After returning from the Casten trip to India, Katy Bowers (History) then traveled to Ghana to volunteer as a teacher in a Ghanaian school.

Thomas Chin (Visual Arts) participated in the Successful Classroom Management workshop, organized by the New York State Association of Independent Schools. The four-day workshop focused mainly on techniques of how to keep students focused on their learning. These include establishing expectations, creating daily routines and agendas, punctuality, and pace of instruction. He also learned strategies on how to improve instructional practice by creating criteria for self-assessment. He looks forward to implementing the knowledge and the techniques learned from this workshop in his own classroom management strategies for middle school art classes at Hackley.

John Chen (History) attended the Collegiate School Teaching Institute and a workshop run by the Association of Independent School Admissions Professionals.

Michael Clark, LS Librarian, attended the American Library Association’s annual conference, held this year in New Orleans, LA. Among the highlights of the almost weeklong conference were the awards ceremony for the Caldecott and Newbery winners, visiting the libraries of three NOLA area Independent Schools, meeting children’s authors and illustrators and exploring through workshops and sessions the burgeoning use of e-Books in libraries, especially with the youngest patrons. Michael also attended a professional development workshop on the Whole Books Approach at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art. This Fall he will be instructing local Westchester Public Children’s Librarians on the philosophy of Whole Books at the Katonah Museum of Art in conjunction with the Learning Center’s exhibition - “Storied City: New York in Picture Book Art,” which runs Oct. 2 to Dec. 31, 2011. This summer Michael also did the first major reorganization of the LS Library collections. For the first time all the Non-fiction and Fiction collections are separated into their own designated spaces and there is now expanded room for the overflowing picture books. In addition, reference books are more accessible, the biography sections will be leveled, and additional shelving will be added to the Fiction collections for greater accessibility and future expansion.

Sarah Coble (Visual Arts) completed a model and met with architects and the city planning commission to continue her work on a large scale public art project for the city of New Rochelle. She designed sculptural mosaic benches, a fountain, a drinking fountain and a rain catchment for the Ward Acres Community Garden. The project is titled "The Meeting Place." It is a three year project and will begin this fall. As the lead artist she will select and supervise a group of ceramic artists who will produce mosaic tiles with local community groups. Creating and fostering community spirit through the arts is important and rewarding to me. She hopes to involve her middle school students in a community mosaic project for Hackley.

Bill Davies (History) spent the summer developing the curriculum for the new course offering in Hackley’s history department: Modern Latin America.

Tia Donlevy (Lower School) spent the month of August in Russia, living with the same family that hosted her 18 years ago, and taught English at two camps. She visited historical and cultural sites and returned with an assortment of items to supplement the Kindergarten geography studies.

Jennifer Fertig (Lower School) continued her graduate studies at Manhattanville College this Summer where she successfully completed a course on the Structure of Language. She is looking forward to incorporating the knowledge gained from this graduate course in her interdisciplinary approach to teaching Spanish. Mrs. Fertig also successfully completed the New York State mandated teacher workshops on Child Abuse and Violence Prevention.

Jared Fishman (History) took courses on Classroom Management, Issues in Education, and Lives of Children. He found all three to be tremendously valuable. The first reinforced practices ensuring that students play a part in designing classroom standards and rules. The second shed light on the evolution of education in the U.S., and the ways our points of view on learning and teaching have changed. The third delved into the many challenges children face, and how factors such as language ability, socioeconomic class, ethnicity, race, gender, and sexuality influence and shape education.

Michelle Foerder (Lower School) and Eva Van Buren (Lower School) attended the Educators National Conference on Singapore Math Strategies in Las Vegas, Nevada for a week in July. This informative conference included several workshops on breakthrough instructional strategies for implementation in the classroom. Some of the highlights included a dynamic presentation by author Greg Tang. Mr. Tang discussed mental math strategies to use in the classroom, presented a variety of math games that accommodate different learning styles and discussed methods to help children move towards a more sophisticated way of thinking about and manipulating numbers. Catherine Kuhns, a Presidential Award winner for Excellence in Teaching Elementary Mathematics presented a workshop entitled: Math Is a Language. Ms. Kuhns gave several ways to incorporate children’s writing into mathematics by using literature, the newspaper, receipts and even cereal boxes! This conference provided many valuable strategies, tips, techniques and hands-on games that will surely make math more accessible, intuitive and enjoyable for our Lower School students.

Megan Fogarty (Performing Arts) did the Dalcroze Summer Intensive at the Lucy Moses School / Kaufman Center in NYC. The Summer Intensive offers adult students the opportunity to immerse themselves in the Dalcroze method, which includes studying rhythm, pitch and harmony through creative movement and physical, vocal and instrumental improvisation. Summer Intensive classes lead towards Dalcroze certification at the Certificate and License levels.

Eleanor Friedman, Hackley’s new archivist, took a graduate class at Queens College in Archives and Manuscripts. She also attended a workshop through Taft Education Center called “Archives in the School,” which focused specifically on the development and procedure of an archive collection in an independent school. In addition, she also visited archives at Hotchkiss, Trinity-Pawling, and Vassar College.

Anne Gatschet (Modern Languages/Spanish, Sustainability Coordinator) ran a Spanish immersion program for Hackley students. Students travelled with Anne to Hispanic cultural centers in New York City including the Hispanic Society of America, El Museo del barrio, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art for the Spanish Masters and Pre Columbian exhibits. Anne also worked on a curriculum project which designed lessons in sustainability based on our extant Spanish language curriculum.

John Gillard (Science) took an undergraduate course in Chemistry at Fordham University.

Sue Harmon (Lower School) and Lesley Turton (Lower School) attended the Technology For Learning Academy, offered by Hackley School this summer. It was comprised of a series of workshops focusing on SMART Board usage in the classroom, using the iPad, and Google Docs. In addition, they met throughout the summer to learn about Word Study. From their research, they compiled lessons and resources to facilitate the third grade program, including creating teacher resource binders and various student materials for each classroom. They shared their summer work and teacher resources with colleagues in their 3rd grade team meeting before the opening of school.

Erica Jablon (History) attended a weeklong workshop at the Bard College Institute for Writing and Thinking in order to find a way to make writing more enjoyable and productive for students. The process clarified how teachers might use informal writing to hone student thinking about texts, and create an emotionally safe environment in which to collaborate on and discuss works in progress. She is especially excited to try the approach she learned there in her class’s study of Hammurabi's Code this year.

Tessa Johnson (Science) took courses in gardening, tree identification and landscape design.

Seth Karpinski (Science, Cross Country) studied Spanish this summer and also worked at Nike’s running camp in Vermont, bringing 14 Hackley runners with him.

Upper School Director Andy King attended a conference on the role of college and college admissions in independent schools held at Horace Mann School and developed his curriculum for a new Upper School history seminar focused on modern Africa.

Julie Lillis (College Counseling) visited nine colleges and universities.

Anne Longley (Modern Languages) attended a three week course at the Sorbonne in Paris entitled "Cours de Civilisation Française de la Sorbonne." It was a course designed for teachers of French. It was an advanced level immersion program in which we studied History and Civilization, pedagogy of teaching French as a Foreign Language, Written Expression and Phonetics. Anne also took a week-long AP Institute at Manhattan College in Riverdale in preparation for AP French Language and Culture.

Andrew Lopez (Lower School) attended Columbia University’s Teachers College Reading and Writing Project’s Reading Institute where he studied with fellow classroom teachers and curriculum specialists who are committed to turning classrooms into richly literate reading workshops. During the five-day institute, he learned the central role of curriculum development and planning in the teaching of reading, how to implement and scaffold the reading workshop for young readers, the importance of assessment-based instruction, methods of holding our students accountable, and classroom structures that support inquiry and collaboration. The small group sections afforded the opportunity to practice newly learned strategies and to implement these powerful techniques on the first day of school. He left the Institute bursting with innovative reading strategies that he is energized to implement.

In addition to attending the Teacher’s College Reading Workshop with her colleagues, Madeleine Lopez (Lower School) also attended a SMART Board training at Hackley, earning her SMART Board certification. Madeleine plans to incorporate lots of the skills and techniques learned to plan and implement interactive and enjoyable lessons for her students.

Merideth Maddox (Performing Arts) attended the powerful Diversity Directions conference at Brooks School in July, along with four other members of the Hackley community. In August, Merideth participated in SMART Board training and is looking forward to finding new ways she can integrate new technology into the ancient art of theatre performance. Merideth also went back to the classroom as a teacher, leading workshops in Improvisation, Period Styles, and Character Development for the Theatre Arts Center's teen summer program in Queens.

Science Department Chair Bill McLay took an undergraduate course in biology. Bill is a trained physicist who, in his own words, “had not studied biology for years.” The course enhanced his knowledge of biology and afforded him the opportunity to see what a college professor would choose to emphasize in an introductory bio course. Bill also continued editing the e-text which has become the course text for our 9th Grade Physics course.

Jean Nadell (College Counseling) attended the Advanced Placement Conference in San Francisco in July where she learned about changes to the AP program and best practices in the administration of the AP program. In addition, she visited 27 colleges and universities in support of her work in College Counseling.

In July, Orlando Pandolfi and Bette Fitzpatrick (Performing Arts) attended a SmartMusic intensive workshop. SmartMusic is interactive music software that helps provide practice support at home. Students are able to record their practice, access their band music and practice scale based exercises. Mr. Pandolfi and Ms. Fitzpatrick will be introducing this program to select Middle School instrumental classes this year. As performers, Mr. Pandolfi and Ms. Fitzpatrick performed Mozart in an orchestral concert at the Summit Music Festival, Manhattanville College. Mr. Pandolfi also attended a four-day workshop offered by the ISM (Independent School Management) team entitled “Chairing your Department: The First Five Years.”

Adrianne Pierce (Classics, Allstrom global studies program chair) attended the Partnership for Global Learning Conference sponsored by the Asia Society. She calls it “One of the best things I have ever done.” For more information, visit their website: http://asiasociety.org/education/partnership-global-learning

Carole Pugliese (Lower School) worked along with 18 other artists and teachers for a week at the Hudson Valley Artist Workshops near Albany, New York. The workshop leader was Gerald Brommer, a former Art Teacher, now a well known artist and author of many of the books she uses in the LS Art Room. She reports that it is always exciting being a “student” again, following suggestions, and exploring new techniques and ideas.

Susan Reynolds (Lower School) took classes on Smart Board operations, and plans to use what she learned to enrich her math and literacy lessons.

Keshena Richardson (Math) attended an AP Statistics conference at Stanford University. The course was designed for experienced AP Stats teachers like Keshena who aim to delve deeply into the topics.

Lauren Rigby (Performing Arts) took violin lessons over the summer with two different teachers, both professional violinists with whom she works (as a cellist) on a regular basis. She wanted to improve her skills and comfort on the violin so as to help her teaching and understanding of violin technique. From a pedagogical perspective, it was quite helpful to study with two different people who each have a very unique approach to teaching and performing. In addition, she performed frequently with her quartet and practiced her own cello.

Roy Sheldon (Modern Languages/Chinese) Participated in the Children's Environmental Literacy Foundation (CELF) three day "Summer Institute: Education for Sustainability" at Manhattanville College, focusing on developing the learning experience in the classroom to better prepare students for the global/local issues that they will address as a adults. In addition, he taught a seven week summer education program course at the 92nd Street Y in New York City on modern Chinese history, focusing on the writings and activities of women and men that have helped further the understanding between the "western world" and China. He tested and set up multiple on line resources for Chinese language acquisition that will be used in his classes this year. And just for the fun of it, he re-read Simon Manchester's "The Man Who Loved China."

Jessica Spates (Modern Languages/Spanish) attended a four day AATSP (American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese) conference in Washington D.C. and brought back great ideas for her classes. Interaction with fellow teachers charged up her passion for teaching. Highlights included a visit to the Spanish embassy and hearing the Dalai Lama speak. She also practiced her Spanish outside on the Casten trip to Senegal during a 12 hour layover in Madrid on the way home, which allowed a visit to the city. She capped off her summer with a visit to Montreal with Spanish-speaking family, and she observes, “The opportunities to be forced to use Spanish with non-English speakers is so crucial. As much as I like to practice with people here in the United States, it is very rare that those people do not speak English as well, and that changes everything.”

Oshon Temple (Math) attended four days of SMART Board training offered by Teq SMART Board trainers, and became a certified SMART Board user. However, the major highlight of Oshon’s summer was a trip to Salamanca, Spain. He earned a certificate for 20 hours of language study at Colegio Delibes, and took tours of the University of Salamanca—the second oldest university in the world— as well as various museums and cathedrals.

Miryah Walters (Middle School Math, Boarding) took a graduate Educational Leadership course “Making Effective Decisions and Problem Solving” at Manhattanville College this summer. In addition, she attended a TABS (The Associate of Boarding Schools) Boot Camp conference at Boston University, the conference covered many topics pertaining to boarding schools, as well as independent schools.

Heidi Wolfgang (Lower School Music) enjoyed her studies in Dalcroze Eurhythmics along with over three hundred other faculty, staff and students at the Interlochen Center for the Arts. The highly acclaimed Dalcroze method is an approach used by music educators to foster music appreciation, ear training and improvisation while improving musical abilities. Eurhythmics connects music, movement, mind, and body. In addition, Ms Wolfgang continued her studies in violin and viola.