ON THE HORIZON

The Crescent Centre for Boys’ Education: Discovering How Boys Learn Best

Be The One Training to Empower Positive Student Leadership

Be The One (BTO) empowers positive student leadership by teaching students to be aware, think empathetically and offer help. A new BTO toolkit, featuring visualization and listening exercises, a values exploration and a literature review, has been developed to train student leaders to provide this help. In July 2020, Patricia Alviano & David Finkelstein participated in the CAIS Strategic Change Accelerator. This program brought the implementation of BTO, a Grade 3-12 school program focused on the promotion of nurturing safe and inclusive school culture to new heights. Throughout the school year, a faculty team worked diligently to create a BTO Toolkit for empowering positive student leadership. The 2021-2022 Prefects will be the first to hone their skills using these tools. “Self-reflection and empathy are essential,” says David Finklestein, one of BTO’s teacher supervisors. “Our Prefects have good intentions, and this training will equip them with skills to excel in their goal.”

BTO is a student-led initiative to cultivate a safe and inclusive school culture. The BTO student council, teacher supervisors and faculty groups have created a three-module training program that supports the relationship between emotional intelligence and positive peer interactions. This work is part of Crescent’s Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging Winter/ Spring Action Plan.

“The next phase of exploration will train each school division in the principles and practices of Be The One,” says Patricia Alviano, another teacher supervisor. “There is keen interest from our faculty to be accountability partners in this work to ensure the entire school benefits from increased intrapersonal, interpersonal, and community engagement.”

IBSC Action Research - Fostering Boys’ Empathy and Global Citizenship Through Technology

Lower School teacher Natalie Vera has been inspiring a love of learning through connection and technology at Crescent since 2005. So when the International Boys’ Schools Coalition (IBSC) named Boys and Technology as the 2021-2022 Action Research topic, Vera was immediately intrigued. “I chose Fostering Empathy and Global Citizenship Through Technology as the focus of my research because it feels particularly timely,” says Vera. “The need for our students to show empathy, reflect and understand the world outside of their bubble has never been more important.”

Vera participated in a four-day virtual orientation and training program in late June with 30 other IBSC researchers worldwide. The fieldwork will take place in the fall, and she will present her findings at the 2022 IBSC Conference in Dallas next July.

Trish Cislak, one of the research team advisors for the IBSC program is working alongside Natalie (although leading a different team of researchers) for this project. This is Trish’s ninth year as an IBSC action research advisor.

SPARC 2.0

The CCBE will once again partner with SPARC to empower students to undertake an action research project to foster a positive change in the school community. Boys entering Grades 10 and 11 in September can apply to be part of the research team. We will be tracking the impact of this years’ recommendations as the school year progresses.

New AP Course - Seminar

While Crescent has offered AP courses for over 10 years, AP Seminar is the first of two courses that focus on academic research skills. AP Seminar and AP Research (coming in 2022) use an interdisciplinary approach to develop the critical thinking, research, collaboration, time management, and presentation skills students need for university. Independent, curious and collaborative students will find this an empowering experience and we are excited to integrate this course with Challenge and Change in the fall of 2021. Eight faculty members will undergo an intensive week of professional development in the summer of 2021 in support of this new offering. The CCBE will have an integral role in supporting research skills development as the boys advance their inquiry projects.

ISEEN Partner School

We are very excited to launch next year as a partner school with the Independent School Experiential Educators Network (ISEEN). ISEEN is a collaborative of independent schools from across North America and Crescent’s Director of Outreach Sheryl Murray is a board member of this organization. The partnership demonstrates our commitment to an innovative and future-focused pedagogy in service of pursuing ISEEN’s mission of “Seeking to lead, inform, connect, expand, and steward transformational experiential teaching and learning throughout an interconnected world.” With this status, we can significantly add many professional development opportunities within the realms of Adaptability, Community, Inclusivity and Passion.

IBSC Wired to Connect: Relational Teaching for Boys - August 24 & 25, 2021

Crescent will co-host two online workshops with Michael Reichert and a panel of leading boys’ educators on relational teaching, based on research conducted with IBSC schools. The first workshop focuses on a theory of boys’ education derived from actual practice and confirmed by their students. A panel of teachers will describe how they hone their lessons in response to feedback from the boys in their classrooms.

The second workshop provides an overview of relational gestures shown to be effective for establishing a working alliance and the common phenomenon of relational breakdowns and their repair. The results of a study that explored the relational model with boys in primary grades, in which Dr. Sandra Boyes and Natalie Vera were on the lead research team, will be discussed along with insights from other researchers who have tested the framework with boys of colour.