What We Did this Summer

Hackley faculty and staff don't just take the summer off -- they use the summer to refresh, enrich and expand their practice for the upcoming academic year. Read about their many pursuits here.
Wil Lobko (US English) and Amanda Esteves-Kraus (US Science) attended the NAIS Equity Design Lab in Bethesda, MD, where they worked with Zaretta Hammond on how to redesign curricula -- and school culture -- to be more culturally inclusive.

Science teachers Jason Gilley, Kate Netto and Katherine Hannon attended a week long workshop in Maine on Modeling in the Chemistry Classroom (Katherine as department chair attended for two weeks). They discovered a new and innovative way to increase student engagement and learning in chemistry and now actively working to redesign Hackley’s chemistry curriculum.

Lower School teachers Stacy Kaegi, Josh Samuel and Madeleine Lopez worked on a new social studies curriculum for third grade and fourth grade. The new curriculum moves away from focusing exclusively on New York State in third and US History in fourth to a two year US History program that highlights NY history. The third grade curriculum will introduce US Geography and delve into US History from Native Americans to the Revolutionary War. The fourth grade will begin with the formation of our new country and government until present day. They have also added more “history come alive” activities, tweaked assessments, incorporated more social justice topics and multicultural picture books, and added IXL lessons for blended learning.

Dianne Fahy (MS Math), Katherine Hannon (Science Department Chair), Trevor Ogden (MS English) and Emma Olsen (MS Science) met regularly over the summer to find ways to foster gender and sexuality inclusiveness in their daily teaching. Last spring, they proposed and were approved for a Hackley iGrant on this topic: “During middle school, gender and sexuality are often particularly at the forefront of our young scholars’ minds, yet they are topics to which we dedicate limited time and provide minimal information.” The committee has created a faculty resource page to serve as a toolbox of resources based on the materials they gathered. They look forward to introducing these resources and discussing their summer experiences as a committee with Middle School colleagues.

Hackley College Counselors Peter Latson, Jean Nadell, and Rebecca Hall attended the ACCIS (Association of College Counselors in Independent Schools) annual conference at Trinity in Hartford, Connecticut. They spent three days networking with college counseling colleagues from across the country, attending sessions such as “The Junior Conference: How to Keep it Fresh and Lively,” “Racism in the College Process,” and “Counseling Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming Students.” They stayed in residence halls at Trinity, spent several hours touring the campus and learning about their vibrant student community, and had an evening out in West Hartford.

Melissa Boviero (MS Science) completed the NYSAIS Emerging Leadership Institute, a two-year educational institute that focuses on leadership development of faculty and staff in independent schools. The program consisted of monthly cohort meetings, attending conferences, and residential experiences, as well as participating in an accreditation committee and undertaking a school leadership project. Through ELI, participants further develop as leaders through the resources of NYSAIS and through their experiences at their own schools. ELI has helped Melissa through my work as the sixth grade dean, and she look forwards to continuing to apply what I have learned and being a resource in the middle school. In addition, Melissa was accepted into the Regeneron STEM teaching Fellowship. Through this sixteen month fellowship, fellows attend graduate classes and will earn a Leadership Certificate in STEM from Columbia Teacher’s College in partnership with NASA Endeavor Science Teaching Certificate Project. They will learn research based STEM pedagogical strategies and will also participate in a research mentorship experience at Regeneron, all of which can then be brought directly into the curriculum and classroom.

Jackson Blossom (US Librarian) attended a course on Writing Memoirs for Elders and a Mindfulness and Education conference at the Omega Institute.

Bettie-Ann Candelora (Director of Performing Arts) began course work on a second Master’s Degree in Music Education at Ithaca College. Course work included Curricular Design and Development, Choral Rehearsal Technique, Woodwinds Pedagogy, Voice, and Research in Music. The Curricular Design course was particularly helpful and provided great resources on backwards design, essential questions, and the role of context in teaching.

Thomas Chin (Art/Photography) took a course in color correction at School of Visual Arts, which focused on color calibration and the linkage between monitor, scanner and output. He plans to apply the new knowledge to his digital photography programs. Then, he set off for Croatia, where in addition to enjoying the magnificent scenery, he took the time to do his own photography.

Sarah Coble (Art/Sculpture) worked on an exciting commission for the Clay Art Center In Portchester. She sculpted a large section of a mural about George Washington Carver to be installed in the lobby of the Carver Center in Portchester. While she has worked on large tile murals, this is the largest scale portrait that she has modeled. It is approximately 700 lbs. of clay, 7' high! She is completing the glazing and hopes to install it this fall.

Claudia DeSantis (Classics) spent a week at the Conventiculum Bostoniense workshop in Salem, MA for teachers who want to become fluent in speaking Latin. Some of the leading spoken-Latin proponents in the world gathered to work with about 35 Latin teachers and classics graduate students. She reports, “Our task was to take the Latin words and grammatical constructions that we had only ever seen on paper and learn to turn them into speech.” A daunting task, since none of the participants had ever contemplated speaking a language that they were taught only to read and write, and all were required to swear an oath on the first evening to use only Latin at all times for the next seven days. She says, “Since we lived together in dormitory suites, this presented us with some interesting situations. How DO you say, ‘I've lost my key, can I borrow yours?’ We had to figure that out in real time.” Claudia worked through the challenge and found, upon returning home, that she was still trying to turn English sentences into Latin. She looks forward to challenging her students to incorporate more spoken Latin into the classroom!

Jed Dioguardi (Director of Information Technology) presented a session, A Design Approach to Problem Solving in Project Based Learning at Woodward Academy’s Summit for Transformative Learning in College Park, GA on July 28. He was also a facilitator at the NYSAIS STEAM Camp, August 17-19.

Regina DiStefano (LS Science) attended the NSTA STEM Expo, NYSAIS STEAM Camp, and completed an online course, Health Across the Gender Spectrum through Stanford University.

Elizabeth Condon Fitzpatrick (Music) served as a mentor, with Daisy Jopling's Global Music Academy, performing at Alice Tully Hall. Also, she enjoyed teaching and coaching chamber music at Hoff Barthelson's Summer Arts Festival.

Steve Fitzpatrick (History/Debate) spent eight days in July at Claremont McKenna College in California working and coaching in their MS debate summer camp. In addition, he was able to observe and experience (vicariously!) the Claremont Summer High School Leadership and Professional Communication Program where participants created a multimedia presentation on Criminal Justice Reform, led panel discussions on the Electoral College, wrote research papers on the death penalty, and more. He reports, “I hope to bring back and share some of the ideas and observations with the HackLeads initiative as well as our newly created Board of Magistrates. It was a great week!”

Michelle Foeder (Lower School) worked this summer to create a resource for teachers that supports the Lower School Fountas & Pinnell guided reading expectations for 2nd graders. She says, “It was great fun reading many fiction and non-fiction books from our lending library (levels J through M). I generated targeted questions that teachers can use during guided reading lessons to scaffold students to a higher reading level. The questions focus on skills such as thinking within the text (summarizing), thinking beyond the text (predicting, making connections, synthesizing, inferring) and thinking about the text (analyzing, critiquing).”

John Gillard (US Science) attended a week long workshop at the Milwaukee School of Engineering entitled “Modeling the molecular world.” The main focus of the course was on bringing science classrooms alive by using models of every type of biochemical process covered in high school Biology. Participants were asked to design proteins that could then be built using 3-D printers as well as learning about all of the kits that the school produces. This included learning out to implement currently used products but also testing new designs that are prototypes for new models going to market in the coming months.

Jon Gruenberg (US Math) attended an AP Statistics conference at the Taft Educational Center. He focused on various strategies and projects to use during the year, and learnedabout how the AP graders approach certain problems, and familiarized himself with the expectations and nuances of how responses should be written.

Sue Harmon (Lower School) worked this summer to develop and create new curriculum, lessons, scope and sequence, and activities for 3rd grade Social Studies, Literacy, and Handwriting.

Stacy Kaegi (Lower School) attended Chair Yoga Teacher Training (through Little Flower Yoga) at The Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, New York. She learned how to bring yoga practice off the mat and into the chair where it becomes more accessible, more sustainable, and much easier to integrate into any busy school day. She reports, “It was a wonderful experience learning how to adapt a variety of yoga poses while also incorporating breath work and relaxation exercises. I look forward to introducing and teaching Chair Yoga to my 3rd grade students this year, so they can discover and practice mindful life skills that will hopefully inspire them to practice independently at home and develop as a healthy habit as they grow.”

Eve Kleeger (LS Psychologist) attended a workshop on treating school refusal at the Columbia University Clinic for Anxiety and Related Disorders, and completed an in-service with an Occupational Therapist on treating children with difficulties with regulation.

Dan Lipin (MS Science) worked at the Summer Institute for the Gifted (SIG) at Sarah Lawrence College for three weeks in July, where he taught chemistry, VEX robotics and nuclear physics. Both topics were new to him, so were useful learning experiences. He says, “I then taught ceramics at Camp Dudley in August. Again, I had no experience with ceramics but it was fun to learn the science behind the process and to help students be creative with clay.” Dan reflects, “This was basically the summer where I said 'Sure, I will do whatever you need me to do...'” And so people asked him to do things he had never done before.

Madeleine Lopez  (Lower School) attended the Klingenstein Program at Columbia University, working toward an MEd in Private School Leadership, for 6 weeks this summer. She took courses in Negotiations, The Science of Learning, Ethics and Education, Research Methods in Education, and Leadership in Private Schools & Nonprofit Organizations. She reports, “It was fantastic and challenging all at the same time! I will have two projects to complete during this school year and 6 more weeks of classes next summer.”

Will Molter (Computer Science) attended the four-day NJAIS Instructional Skills workshop in preparation for his first year of full-time teaching. In addition to learning teaching terminology and the associated skills, he had the opportunity to do a live practicum where he demonstrated part of a lesson with the newly-learned skills to a classroom of our peers. The workshop helped to solidify his teaching ahead of the new school year.

Adrianne Pierce (Classics Department Chair; Allstrom Chair in Foreign Affairs) attended the first of what will hopefully become annual Summer Classics Seminars at Swarthmore. This was organized by the current Classics Department there for all who graduated with Classics degrees who are still active in the field. They heard from teachers and grad students and researchers about the state of the profession and how to recruit and retain students and majors in the field. She reports, “It was a great learning opportunity as well as a chance to reconnect with old friends. I have formed a small group of Swat alums who are teaching in the NYC area; there are about seven of us, at Brearley, Chapin, and other schools.” She also participated in a risk management webinar given by ISOS about a new tracking system that will help to keep our international travelers safer and more connected in the event of an incident.

Linda Sadler (Director of Support Services) took a five day, intensive foundational course in cognitive-behavioral therapy for practicing professionals. CBT is a form of psychotherapy based on a model that problem behavior stems from dysfunctional thinking. The course covered in-depth background information and training in CBT, with a focus on application in the treatment of anxiety. In the course she received training and practice of skills she can use with students when counseling them to help with a variety of issues. She notes, “One of the most interesting ideas of CBT is that while you want students to develop coping behaviors, you also don’t want students to rely on them. The goal is to be able to help a student tolerate anxiety and to learn that anxiety in itself is not harmful. So, listening to music, taking a walk or talking to a friend is great for the moment, but the goal is to build long term tolerance of negative feelings. It starts with understanding the thought process that is often distorted and causes irrational anxiety and dysfunctional behavior.” She looks forward to integrating the theory and techniques in my work with students around test anxiety, social concerns, general worry, and so many other issues.

Roy Sheldon (Modern Languages/Chinese) researched and taught a summer session program at the 92nd Street Y entitled “What President Trump Needs to Know about US-China Relations.” He taught two sessions, with about 40 engaged participants. In addition, he began work as a volunteer at the Mohonk Preserve in New Paltz as part of their water monitoring program for the state. Finally, he beta tested two new electronic resources that will encourage Hackley Chinese language students to read for pleasure in the target language. The best of the two will be launched in September for our MS and US classes.

Steele Sternberg (US History) had a busy summer of traveling and learning. At the end of June, Steele road-tripped north to Phillips Exeter Academy to attend the Exeter Humanities Institute, which is the foremost training program for individuals interested in implementing a student-led discussion pedagogy in their classrooms. Next, Steele traveled abroad with some college friends, visiting Israel and Spain. Spain, especially, provided useful insights into the hubris and majesty of pre-enlightenment monarchies, which should be fun to share with students in 9th grade history. Finally, Steele headed to the Bay Area to study the American Gilded Age (~1865-1896) under Richard White (author of the upcoming seminal history of that era, The Republic for Which It Stands) at Stanford University. The seminar was useful in its ability to articulate the tragedy of an age in which a vision of America’s future (Lincoln’s Free Labor ideology) that ought to have been triumphant in the wake of the Civil War, in fact failed to materialize.

Erich Tusch (Director of Educational Technology) attended a NYSAIS STEAM workshop in August in Rensselaerville, NY. The workshop engaged participants with a wide variety of learning tools, providing opportunities to build projects and lesson units that can be implemented in their classrooms. He developed a unit he hopes will involve not only computer science, but also the visual and musical arts.

Eva van Buren (LS Math) attended a five day math workshop at the Fay School in Southborough, MA. Time was spent learning and discussing new ideas and best practices. The five day workshop focused on modeling of mathematical concepts and procedures; application and identification of multiple strategies and approaches in solving problems; need for conceptual understanding as well as procedural proficiency; identification and implementation of rich mathematical tasks and problems that empower students to apply mathematical understanding; curricular application and implementation of mathematical standards; positive disposition necessary in approaching new challenges; exploration of different models of assessment; best practice of meeting the needs of a wide range of students; and study of mathematics including probability, number, geometry, logic, measurement, and pattern. She reports, “The time was well spent and I am excited to try new ideas in the classroom.”

Emily Washington (Modern Languages/Spanish) attended the Community Works Institute’s Summer WEST institute on Service-Learning in Los Angeles, California. During this week-long institute titled, “Place as Context, Service-Learning as the Strategy, Sustainable Communities as the Goal,” participants explored the theoretical and practical applications of Service-Learning as a way to achieve academic goals, while fostering civic engagement and sustaining relationships with community partners. Mrs. Washington’s Spanish V and PostAP classes have carried out Service-Learning projects for the past ten years, working closely with Neighbors Link (Mount Kisco) and Open Door Health Clinic (Sleepy Hollow).
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