News for Collegiate School Families and Friends
Fall 2015
Looking at the Big Picture Academic Dean Susan Droke will focus on our existing curriculum structure and new opportunities to add important, exciting components.
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ust inside the south entrance of the Sharp Academic Commons, Academic Dean Susan Droke is in her office busily digging into the details of Collegiate’s curriculum, junior kindergarten through senior year. While a close examination of all that we do in our classrooms in every grade level and every course subject may seem like a daunting task, Mrs. Droke is delighted to be on the job. “This is what I love to do,” she says with enthusiasm and energy that is completely convincing. Mrs. Droke earned her BS and MEd degrees at the University of Memphis, and she has been a classroom teacher, a gifted education teacher, a reading specialist and an administrator. For the last 14 years, she held the position of Assistant Head of School for Teaching and Learning at Presbyterian Day School in Memphis. When the open position here caught her eye, she was interested. “Collegiate has a reputation for excellence outside this community so I was excited to come see the school,” she says. “When I visited, I was struck by the people, the programs, leadership, the teachers who are passionate about what they do.” Another aspect of our community that she liked was our logo tag line. “‘Minds that seek, hearts that serve’ really resonated with me and drew me in when I came to visit. We need to be lifelong learners and marry that knowledge with action that can make a difference in the world.” As Mrs. Droke begins her work to ensure
that our curriculum follows a cohesive and developmentally appropriate continuum, she’ll be working with teachers to complete the mapping of the curriculum. A curriculum map provides a systematic way to look at what we are teaching across grade levels and disciplines — the map informs our curriculum decisions going forward, identifying new opportunities for growth as well redundancies to eliminate and gaps to fill. Another focus for her this year will be building on our STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and math) initiative, facilitating efforts throughout the curriculum to connect these disciplines in relevant and authentic ways. Initially, three areas will receive strong attention: engineering, coding and robotics. “Collegiate has a rich tradition of offering a balanced comprehensive liberal arts curriculum that encourages our students to think critically and creatively. The STEAM focus supports and strengthens that tradition and helps ensure that our young people leave with a firm and connected grounding in the humanities, arts, natural sciences and social sciences.” Mrs. Droke’s professional expertise should serve Collegiate well as she works to make learning relevant to the future for our students. She has presented at numerous national and international conferences including the NAIS (National Association of Independent Schools), ERB (Educational Records Bureau) and Project Zero Perspectives. She has participated in
Academic Dean Susan Droke
Harvard’s Project Zero (mission: to understand and enhance high-level thinking and learning across disciplines and cultures and in a range of contexts, including schools, businesses, museums, and digital environments) three times and was selected as a Project Zero Fellow in 2014. While she is spending plenty of time on campus, Mrs. Droke and her husband Stan have also been settling into their new home and enjoying exploring Richmond (a favorite restaurant: Southbound). She is looking at the experience as an adventure and fully enjoying it. Similarly, at school, she says, “I’ll be doing a lot of listening and learning and becoming fully acquainted with the school. When I first came to visit, I felt at home. I thought that this was a school I could become a part of … there was an instant connection.”