May 18, 2020

Focus: Celebrating the season!

Kravis drop-in sessions: Tuesday and Thursday at 2:00 in Sara's Zoom Room Come talk about summer PD, share your thoughts on a possible schedules for next fall, or whatever else is on your mind.

Dear Colleagues,

As we enter what is traditionally a season of celebrations, it is hard not to think about all that the faculty has accomplished over the past two months. The Department Heads offer below brief remarks which speak to the dedication, perseverance, and resilience of their colleagues. It is easy to see what makes Loomis Chaffee such an amazing place not only to work, but also to learn.

Congratulations and enjoy this final week of classes with our seniors!

The English department has prioritized three components of the English classroom experience: Reading, Conversation, and Writing. I have been blown away by the amount of feedback that I have received from students and parents about how close to "normal" the experience has been in the online English classroom. My colleagues in the department have worked incredibly hard to decide what elements of each class to preserve and have built a compelling and intriguing experience for their students. They really have made the best of this unique opportunity. Steve Colgate

I've been supremely impressed by the department's positivity, creativity, curiosity, perseverance, and dedication to our students. As a department, we've also garnered thre new jobs (sad for us, happy for them), one new graduate degree, and one new baby! Welcome Sophia! We've organized events to build community, such as Cultural Outburst and a Ramadan celebration for faculty children, and put together impressive presentations for Admissions and the Board of Trustees. I couldn't be more proud. Rachel Nisselson

My Math Department colleagues did an awesome job of meeting the students where they are, even when the students were anywhere in the world. They synched, they asynched, they dropped a box and dropped a beat. They cheered, challenged, cajoled, coddled, collaborated, cringed, clapped and communicated with each of their students and the circumstances before them. Most of all, they created environments where students felt safe, important and confident to continue to be their best selves and better understand their opportunities to work towards a common good. What an amazing group of people! Joe Cleary

Kudos to the Science Department faculty for stepping out of their comfort zones to try so many new modes of instruction this spring. As a department, we have created close to 100 instructional videos for students, focused extensively on the science of COVID-19, embraced virtual labs and computer simulations, written case studies, run Zoom classes using multiple cameras, and worked outside to bring students' ideas to fruition. Despite the fact that distance learning has been a challenge over the last few months, so many of my colleagues make it look easy! Naomi Appel

The Music Department has been creatively flexible and flexibly creative in maintaining the goals of staying musically active, continuing to advance music literacy, and keeping alive our community of music-makers. Having decided there would be no busy work and no rehashing of previous repertoire, we jumped into new ways to engage our students. Overall, we've learned a LOT and look ahead to empowering students to share music in any way we can. Sue Chrzanowski

Across the board, the members of the Social Science Department members have risen to the challenge. While I know first-hand the effort required to adapt one's courses to a virtual format, to turn one's own daily schedule upside-down, and to chain yourself to your laptop for hours each day rather than connecting in-person with your students in your physical classroom, I've heard nary a complaint. Week after week, my Social Science colleagues have thought about and worked to find new and better ways to connect with our students and to give them the best educational experience possible during this trying time. Alec McCandless

The Art Department faculty have shown great openness to innovation in creating online curricula and hands on projects for our Pelicans at home. They are a positive and innovative team that is determined to keep our classes highly educational but also allow for invention and creativity on the part of our students. I feel we have such a strong team and we will take on any challenges that come our way in the future, always with student experience at the forefront. Jen McCandless

Who's ever said historians and philosophers were stuck in the past? Whether adapting the junior research project to a distance learning environment, creating spaces and assignments for students to continue collaborating with one another, or engaging students –– both synchronously and asynchronously –– in philosophical debates, faculty in the HPR department has been forward-looking and steadfast in confronting the various COVID-related, challenges. And history faculty received a shout out in the latest edition of The Log! "Though U.S. History students have found themselves in a difficult situation, they have the privilege of abundant asynchronous research time combined with constant faculty feedback. As a result of these adjustments, the research paper process is running extremely smoothly online." Harrison Shure

Have a good week, and I hope to see you during the Kravis Center drop in session on Tuesday and Thursday at 2:00 in Sara's Zoom Room (https://zoom.us/j/4512570408)

Sara, on behalf of the Kravis Center

Several of you are excited to take advantage of the opportunities that have been listed at the end of each Monday Musings. As a true believer in collaboration, knowing that we accomplish the most when given the opportunity to ask someone's opinion and receive feedback, I would highly recommend that if you are looking to pursue any of these opportunities, please find a colleague to work with you! For example, Hannah Insuik would like to pursue Neuroteach Global and is looking for a colleague or a few to take advantage of this opportunity with her. We are looking for more opportunities to create professional learning cohorts (PLCs / PLGs) as we move forward.

Online professional growth opportunities

Stay tuned for more internal options coming soon!

Given the reality that many in-person conferences and other professional development opportunities will likely be canceled this summer, the Kravis Center wants to draw your attention to the online offerings from the

Harvard Graduate School of Education
Neuroteach Global (If you are interested in learning more about the Neuroteach program run through the Center for Transformative Teaching and Learning or CTTL, Sara Markman, Martha Ince, Erica Gerace, Candice Chirgotis have all completed various portions of the program)
Athena (ask Eric LaForest and Laura Rochette about their experience). We'd love to support groups of three or more interested in participating in Neuroteach Global or Athena; please click here to let us know that you're interested.

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Resources and articles:

Has video killed the red grading pen?, The Hechinger Report

An informative article from Carol Ann Tomlinson and David A. Sousa, The Sciences of Teaching: "The fields of neuroscience and psychology, when paired, offer new insights on the principles of effective instruction."

The Unproductive Debate of Synchronous vs Asynchronous Learning, Education Rickshaw

CDC Guidelines for Reopening Schools, NPR

Intrinsic Motivation can be Contagious, ASCD

Practical Tips for Teaching Online Small-Group Discussions, ASCD

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Valuable Resources for distance teaching

Vanderbilt's Center for Teaching is an invaluable resource which includes a plethora of topics ranging from grading student work, to teaching statement to student evaluations of teaching, to writing good multiple choice questions. Check it out!

Deans for Impact and the pdf of The Science of Learning - a must read on teh neuroscience of learning.

Academic Tenacity by Dweck, Walter, and Cohen The New Faculty Cohort (NFC) read excerpts for orientation. A must read on creating a sense of belonging and increasing classroom motivation.

Leadership and Design's monthly newsletter is a great window into current conversations in independent schools