Welcome to
Areté
2016, our aspirations Classical Greek for excellence, justice, or virtue, the concept of October areté nicely captures for children at Moses Brown. We seek to foster the inner promise in all students, and promote habits of mind, body, and spirit that prepare our graduates to do both well and good in the world.
MB’s Teacher Cohort Program Turns Five! By Matt Glendinning Welcome back to the start of a new school year, the 233rd year since the founding of Moses Brown School. Over the summer, I thought a lot about great teaching—what it is, and what schools can do to help faculty continuously refine their craft and ensure that every child receives a world-class education. While supervisory methods such as observation and coaching are most effective in the first five years of a teacher’s career, administrators often struggle to find ways to support longer-tenured faculty. Hoping to fill that gap, five years ago a team of MB teachers and administrators designed the Teacher Cohort Program at Moses Brown as a way to help veteran teachers continue to grow deep into their careers. After all, great teaching thrives in a rich intellectual environment. While great teaching fosters learning, the reverse is equally true. Students tend to be excited about their learning if teachers are excited about theirs, and each year the Cohort program challenges around 20 teachers (one fifth of the faculty) to undertake a significant
growth project. Supported by a professional development fund established by Dick Chadwell ’51 and Wanda Lincoln, cohort members since 2011 have undertaken a great variety of work: • Kindergarten teacher Melinda Van Lare wrote and illustrated a series of Early Reader books; her teaching partner Martha Handley studied the famous Reggio Emilia teaching method in Italy, and is now researching foods that help students with ADHD. • Former fourth grade (and now lower school science) teacher Elizabeth Grumbach attended a Design Thinking symposium in Atlanta and pioneered the use of Project-Based Learning at MB. • Middle school English teacher Maureen Nagle created a cross-grade, studentdirected reading program for middle schoolers that led to a school-wide book collection to benefit Books are Wings. • Middle School French teacher Karim Sow tapped into ethnic tensions in his home country, Côte d’Ivoire—and the genocide in Rwanda—to teach grammar and vocabulary and the role of language in conflict. He shared his findings at at the national People of Color Conference. continued inside
The Cohort Program Moses Brown’s faculty cohort model is a professional development and evaluation program for veteran teachers. Evoking our commitment to lifelong learning, a year of transformational study launches a five-year cycle of professional development. A cohort of teachers drawn from all three divisions sets goals, serves as resources for one another’s evaluations, and shares professional development plans at year’s end. At the heart of the program are cohort projects, each teacher’s big idea for personal growth to be shared in the classroom. The benefit to students is clear: teachers are continuously engaged in deepening their expertise, refining their curriculum, bringing the latest research back to the classroom, and partnering with colleagues to improve the learning experience.
Areté, October 2016 • Middle school humanities teacher Jon Gold joined the blogging team at Teaching Tolerance and some of his writing has appeared in The Huffington Post and The New York Times Learning Network. He was also interviewed for an Education Week story on teaching the election.
from front
• Upper school English teacher Abby Phyfe enriched her Literature of War class through a partnership with Operation Stand Down Rhode Island, a nonprofit organization that assists local veterans, and a trip to Washington, D.C. Students toured war memorials, learned about Quaker responses to war, volunteered at the D.C. VA Medical Center, and visited Arlington National Cemetery. Her work was featured at a conference of the Friends Association of Higher Education. • Humanities teacher Jennifer Stewart co-led MB’s first-ever trip to Cuba and designed a series of sessions about Cuban history and culture to prepare students and families for the trip. (Throughout this issue you’ll read about other cohort projects, and a full list is on page 5.) So, does the Cohort program work? When viewed over the span of five years, its impact has been considerable. First, it has provided opportunity for teachers to collaborate across disciplines. What do teachers of Ceramics and Physics have in common? Anni Barnard and George Tsakraklides found out in a project focused on “flipping” the classroom (using video and screen-casting to record lessons for students to watch at night, freeing up class time for more hands-on,
collaborative work). Second, many projects have advanced the chief initiatives of MB’s strategic plan, MB Believes, e.g., Project-Based Learning, global awareness and travel, and ethical leadership. And third, a number of teachers have presented their Cohort ideas on the national stage. In that sense, the program has functioned as a sort of lab where faculty develop new methods and knowledge that
Students tend to be excited about their learning if teachers are excited about theirs. keep Moses Brown at the forefront of 21st century education. Besides a self-designed growth project, the Cohort program also delivers more traditional evaluative data. Working with administrators, each teacher receives three classroom visits with written feedback and many tap into additional sources of feedback such as videography or student surveys. Watching yourself teach—or do any job, for that matter—on video can be both humbling and illuminating. Moses Brown School is a vibrant learning community, for teachers as much as for students, and the Cohort program is a critical component of professional development for faculty at MB. It provides a structure for teachers to renew their practice and bring leading-edge research back to the classroom. It’s a potent reminder that at Moses Brown, we are devoted to nurturing a love of learning in students of all ages.
Learning is for Everyone By Gara Field Director of Global Education
The purpose of professional development is to reinvigorate teachers as learners, enlivening their experience and deepening the context of self, society, and the world they bring to the classroom each day. When I think back to my best classes as a high school history teacher, I do not recall the classes I spent as the ‘sage on the stage.’ My favorite days were those when the students taught each other—and me. Some of my most memorable classes were a culmination of creative productivity and purpose, such as a World Cultures class that raised enough money to buy an acre of rainforest; a Women’s History elective that raised social and political awareness in the late 1990s about human rights violations by the Taliban; and a student-driven rally that marched into the Governor’s Office in Concord, N.H. and eventually convinced the legislature to rename ‘Civil Rights Day’ after Martin Luther King, Jr. In my current sophomore Modern World History course, we are digging deep by connecting past to present, working collaboratively, and engaging in projectbased learning. We’re embracing expert thinking not by becoming ‘experts’ per se, but by thinking like experts, using course content to grapple with real problems. Examples of Expert Thinking, Ethical Leadership, and Global Awareness abound at MB, and I am enjoying working alongside colleagues who push each other to apply learning in meaningful ways; and to embrace critical thinking over memorization.
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Moses Brown’s new Director of Global Education Dr. Gara Field is well versed in faculty and curriculum development. Gara comes to MB from Pleasant View Elementary School in the Manton neighborhood of Providence, where she was principal since 2011. Named Providence’s Elementary Principal of the Year in 2013, she is a nationally-recognized scholar who has been featured by PBS News Hour. A specialist in blended and gifted learning, in 2014 Gara was invited to speak at the White House about her work. During her tenure at Pleasant View she helped secure more than $3.5 million in state and federal grants in support of her innovative model for school transformation. In her new position at MB, Gara will be responsible for coordinating and accelerating the vision for global education articulated in the school’s strategic plan.
October 2016, Areté
Alumni Hall Re-boot
Designing the Y-Lab with Lance Evans Take a historic space where creativity and passion are in the DNA of the very walls. Add duct tape, balsa wood, origami paper, electronics, tin cans, a green screen, screws, pvc pipe … what do you get? We’ll see! With the Woodman Family Community & Performance Center opening this December, MB is now finalizing plans for Alumni Hall to house a new maker space, engineering, and design studio—the Y-Lab (named for Quaker scientific pioneer Thomas Young). Enthused about Project-Based Learning (PBL) in his classroom, fifth grade teacher Lance Evans investigated designs for the Y-Lab as his cohort project last year. Lance visited other schools with “maker spaces,” providing useful research for the planning team. MB faculty are already doing classroom work that requires extensive prototyping, from costumes and props for Greek theater, to wind turbines and DNA models. Teachers have creative ideas and ambitious
plans—though not always room for project building, engineering, robotics, and storage. At a school where the athletic track is the site of a water-carrying project and deep stairwells give rise to gravity experiments, who knows what new ideas may arise in the creative incubator? Lance studied labs at Cambridge Friends, Fessenden, Newton North, Baldwin, and Westtown, enjoying the overall cohort experience: “Letting people choose what they want to focus on for professional growth is a great way to keep teachers invested in what they are doing,” he says. “We have to let our curriculum and mission drive how we design and use the Y-lab. With good research and faculty support, we’ll build a Y-Lab that is more than just a ‘cool space with lots of toys.’ It will be a place where students can challenge themselves to try anything, safely fail, discover, create, and succeed.” Lance has taught in MB’s fifth grade for five years and brings a creative approach to a range of
Re-assessing Spanish
Becoming a better speaker with Emilia In our rapidly changing world, schools train students towards fluency in foreign languages. Moses Brown’s “north star” principle of global awareness encourages students to engage actively with their community, both around the world and as citizens of Providence, Rhode Island. Providence’s Latino and Spanish-speaking population is growing rapidly. Middle school Spanish teacher Emilia Peña-Disla, a Providence native who graduated from Hope High School in 2002, is evaluating MB’s progress in preparing students to speak, read, write, and understand Spanish.
Middle school Spanish teacher Emilia Peña-Disla.
“I’ve always wondered how proficient our students are at the end of their foreign language journey, since many of them begin our Spanish program in lower school” Emilia says. Most MB students study language through all four years of upper school, after three years in middle school. She
Fifth grade teacher Lance Evans with MB’s 3D printer. work at MB, from TEDx events, to the Woodman Community and Performing Arts Center design and planning, and chaperoning MB’s first lower school TRIP in the White Mountains. A PBL advocate, he introduced the Fifth Grade Math Arcade four years ago. It’s now an endof-year hallmark for the entire lower school and a perfect maker prototype. He envisions the Y-Lab as a place where students will tackle difficult challenges
with the energy and motivation they naturally bring to PBL work.
adds: “The American Council of Teaching Foreign Language (ACTFL) defines proficiency as ‘the ability to use language in realworld situations in a spontaneous interaction and non-rehearsed context, and in a manner acceptable and appropriate to native speakers of the language.’” According to the ACTFL, students in a K-12 language program should graduate at an Intermediate, High, or Advanced level. “Is our students’ success in Spanish consistent with their time and effort?” Emilia asks. “Are our students on track to reach the ACFTL’s expected level of performance? What are the strengths and weaknesses of our program, measured with national standards?”
the strengths and weaknesses of our curriculum using ACTFL’s performance and proficiency standards.” What does she think she’ll discover? “I believe MB’s approach of language immersion helps our students a great deal in reading, writing, and listening comprehension,” she says, “but they lack the opportunity to use the language in meaningful ways outside the classroom, which sets them back in oral proficiency. I’d love to offer our kids more frequent, organic encounters with native speakers.”
Emilia will survey a sample of Spanish students in middle and upper school, with baseline questionnaires in September, January, and May. “I’ll track our students’ growth in reading, writing, listening, and speaking,” she says, “and find
If design and fundraising proceed as planned, the re-envisioned space will debut fall 2017 and will be home base for MB’s Expert Thinking program. An anonymous couple has provided a generous challenge gift to transform Alumni Hall. All gifts to the Y-Lab will be matched, up to $750,000, donated by these parents of alumni. See MBbelieves.org/y-lab for more.
World languages department chair Ignacio Pérez is on board with Emilia’s plans. In addition, MB plans to personalize incoming ninth graders’ placement in upper school Spanish classes with a new assessment, rather than their eighth grade syllabi and a questionnaire. Emilia’s initiatives will help improve student experience and outcomes, with more meaningful Spanish conversations for all.
Areté, October 2016
Waking Up With the Birds In the field with Eric Aaronian High school science department chair Eric Aaronian had every reason to be confident about launching a new advanced course. Since global warming is big news, environmental science students are eager to grapple with the problem and seek solutions for the planet. Frequent field trips, a bonus. But departures at dawn… before breakfast? For teenagers? When your subject is birds, you’ve got to get out early. Ornithology is Eric’s new fieldbased course, to begin in spring 2017. The class will spend time outdoors in different habitats to see as many different species as possible. “In this course, the field will be our classroom, along with the laboratory and Harkness table,” Eric explains, referring to the student-driven, discussionbased pedagogy embraced at MB. “The field component makes this course the first of its kind we’ve offered in at least ten years.” All year long, Eric has been getting his ducks in a row: planning the curriculum, scouting locations, budgeting for a spotting scope and binoculars, and working with administration on implementation: “How do you plan a course with six or seven field trips of several hours, while not interrupting other classes?” He crafted the course description, aimed at kids who enjoy science and the great outdoors: Field
identification of locally common species will be emphasized through required early morning field trips to varied habitats where winter finches, waterfowl, shorebirds, and spring migrants can be studied and observed. Prerequisites: one year of introductory biology, energy, enthusiasm, and interest. “For students, this course can open up an unknown—but easily accessible—part of our natural world,” Eric says. “Certainly, they may never have seen it at this time of day!” he laughs. “Field work takes time and patience, but the potential rewards are great, for us as individuals and for essential habitat, both near and far.” Since the class can’t be in the field every day, Eric reached out to nearby college colleagues, seeking donations of study skins (basic specimens prepared so students can study the physical features). He’ll also share natural resources with former lower school science teacher Carol Entin, an avid birder with a large collection of study skins, skeletons, and stuffed birds. With registration period nearly complete, Eric is pleased to report that a solid core of students—some teenagers are morning people—have enrolled (and others are welcome to join). Dress warm, kids, and don’t forget the binoculars.
Upper school music students work with a student from San Miguel.
Each One Teach One Music to Steve Toro’s ears With the philosophy of “each one teach one,” Instrumental Music Director Steve Toro’s cohort project turned music students into teachers. When Steve arrived in 1995, the MB music program was limited to chorus and handbells. There was no formal instrumental music program: “I had six kids,” he recalls. Two decades later, our instrumental music is thriving: 250 lower, middle, and upper school students take part in ten instrumental ensembles, studentrun groups, winter and spring concerts, overnight music trips, private lessons, MB Rocks, and the annual Student Performing Arts Festival. Some years ago, MB parent Wendyll Brown P’16 told Steve about San Miguel School, where she mentored. An independent boys’ school on Branch Ave. (grades 5-8), the school had reached its 20th anniversary with an excellent record of achievement, but no music program. Steve visited San Miguel and immediately saw the need— and potential. He began volunteering with their fifth graders a few times a month, with the goal of starting a school band. The task was considerable;
Outside the classroom, Eric coaches the boys’ varsity soccer team, currently ranked #22 nationally by USA Today.
Steve had to teach students how to read music before they could progress to the next level. The school provides students with recorders and music; all other instruments are donated. “I knew then what my cohort project would be,” he says. For his cohort year, he designed an instrumental music program at San Miguel which involved bringing MB students to San Miguel and San Miguel students to visit MB classes. “Each one teach one,” Steve says. “It was beautiful to see that philosophy in action, as the MB students realized they could become mentors.” The upper school students’ proud encouragement matched the delight on the youngest faces. Today, Steve’s first group of fifth grade students at San Miguel are in their 8th grade year and Steve is continuing to volunteer and mentor there across all four grades. “The physical setting of San Miguel is different from MB, but the eagerness of the San Miguel students to learn and become young musicians is equal to that of my MB students,” Steve says. “It’s an absolute joy to teach in both settings.”
Any instrument donations for this great partnership are welcome. If interested in donating an instrument to a student at San Miguel, contact Steve at MB at (401) 831-7350 or storo@mosesbrown.org.
TEACHER COHORT PROJECTS 2011-2017
Faculty
Project
Andrew, Tom Aaronian, Eric Ahlborn, Simone Ardente, Lisa Arrighi, Kelly Barnard, Anni Barnum, Sarah Buonanno-Chase, Carolyn Copans, Gail DeAngelo, Michael Denoyelle, Katie Evans, Lance Evans, Lisa Fifer, Meg Flaxman, David Garth, Carolyn Gold, Jonathan Goldman, Katie Greene, Kendall Griffin, Ransom Grumbach, Elizabeth Hamann, Galen Handley, Martha Harris, Chandra Herreid, Matt Himelfarb, Michael Holland, Graham Hunt, Laura Jenkins, Christine Kenny, Kate Krive, Anne Landis, Anne Lantz, Beth Lustig, Karen Major, Hilary Mansolillo, Elena McClellan, Tony McEnery, Erika Moss, David Nagle, Maureen O’Connell, Kathy Ohl, Daniel Peña-Disla, Emilia Pérez-Ibáñez, Ignacio Peters, Justin Peterson, Elena Phyfe, Abby Powell, Ruffin Runci, Beth Santarpia, David Savage, Patricia Skillings, James Sow, Karim Spurling, Allie Stewart, Jennifer Stewart, Jessica Street, Kristin Street, Randy Toro, Steve Tsakraklides, George Tsakraklides, Tara Van Lare, Melinda van Teinhoven, Karen Weiner, Ana Wilson, Jerrett Wood, Lenke
Focused on developing student writing in his classes, assisted in the organization of a visit for Afghan women attending college. Developed new science elective with heavy fieldwork component. Focused on diversity and teaching intercultural communication. Co-created simple narratives with students acting out stories. Starting 2016-17: Plans to broaden knowledge of Roman History and collaborate with an intern for bi-directional learning. Created a health and nutrition program for 2nd graders. Integrated a “flipped classroom” with video demonstrations so students had more class time to work with clay. Starting 2016-17: Reviewing the LS implementation of social/emotional learning. Starting 2016-17: Exploring Dr. Robert Brooks’s “Charismatic Adult” model for guiding adolescent development. Collaborate with other mathematics faculty to develop new syllabi, materials, and assignments for pre-calculus. Researched and implemented learning styles and differentiated instruction. Starting 2016-17: Focusing on promoting faculty and staff wellness. Explored the maker movement in education and prepared for the creation of MB’s Y-Lab. Incorporated more “real life” experiences and “hands-on” in-class activities into the algebra curriculum. Evaluated how students respond to written feedback, thereby refining how written feedback supports her goals. Took on the challenge of learning French, to better understand the process that students experience in the classroom. Integrated writing and Spanish into her classroom by implementing writing workshops and a weekly Spanish activity. Published blogs for Teaching Tolerance; traveled to AL to interview Butler Browder about his mother’s involvement in the civil rights movement. Developed a middle school sex education curriculum that spans all 3 years of middle school. Implemented innovative ways of using wooden blocks to teach literacy, math, engineering, and social studies. Developed a presentation on the PBL structure as an upper school elective, Expository Writing; integrated Google Drive as a way to go paperless. Researched the way PBL pedagogy can be used to facilitate deep thinking and real-world context in the 4th grade. Researched Friends Education scope and sequence, obtained Chaplaincy certification, and started a lower school spiritual initiative. Created a curriculum inspired by the Reggio Emilia approach to early education. Brought AP Italian back to the curriculum. Focused on transition between arithmetic and algebraic thinking; developed a new project to support and germinate this transition. Redesigned the upper school Fiction Into Film class, exploring new fiction/film pairings. Intensive reading/research to deepen his knowledge that relates to American History and Global Thinking courses for 7th and 8th grade. Investigated best practices for incorporating student-led discussion into the 3rd grade curriculum. Worked on creating a culture of connection and sharing among the upper school math department. Starting 2016-17: To incorporate short activities weekly that will reinforce a small topic that the class is covering. Investigated neuroscience and learning, and how mindfulness can be applied to enhance learning. Framed the development of world history around 1500CE as a foundational context for later period studies. Explored the links between cognitive science, brain research, learning, and curriculum design. Created a project-based, team-taught class entitled The Poetry of Science. Created a writing method book for beginning strings players, piloting with LS ensemble. Better connected service and Spanish art to the curriculum. Explored the effect of building community and collaborative connections between colleagues in science. Integrated iPads more fully into the LS; had 5th graders create programming tutorial videos for younger students. Integrated inquiry-based teaching in AP Chemistry and Honors Physics and incorporated techniques of the “flipped classroom.” Focused on developing a love of independent reading in students; further developed the CARS reading program. Deepened her understanding of the works of Quaker writer Parker Palmer; explored literature dealing with Muslim women. Worked with finding the right balance between conceptual and practical knowledge and where/when technology lends a helping hand. Starting 2016-17: Track Spanish students’ growth in reading, writing, listening, and speaking; find strengths and weaknesses in the curriculum. Starting 2016-17: Fostering a spring break cultural and academic exchange program with students in Spain. Developed the Music and Computers elective with new Mac tools, to benefit most of the Performing Arts dept. and co-curricular programs. Starting 2016-17: Focusing on bringing students out of the classroom with field trips and speakers; less focus on theory and more on action. Enhanced the Literature of War elective by partnering with Operation Stand Down Rhode Island and planned a TRIP to D.C. Integrated library skills to all subjects in 9th grade, using video graphing in each class and having local libraries critique the lessons. Orchestrated an overnight trip for 3rd graders to Nantucket, to engage them fully in their unit on whaling and the environment. Explore Kamishibai storytelling-theater, and incorporating this style and method directly during the 2nd grade Japan unit. Learned new ways to practice differentiated learning and experimented with the concept of “stations” in her classroom. Starting 2016-17: Plans to increase curriculum by including more games that are creative by nature, with less emphasis on traditional sports. Created a cross-curricular unit entitled Ethnic Justice, which investigated the use of the French language during the genocide in Rwanda. Developed work boxes that allow her to differentiate math instruction for our youngest learners. Executed a plan and implementation of six mandatory sessions for students signed on to travel to Cuba. Starting 2016-17: Plans to improve community resources for psychological and emotional support, and establish a suicide prevention program. Created the PBL Tinker, Tailor, Maker course where students engaged in a rigorous process of asking questions, using resources, and developing answers. Adapted the “flipped learning” philosophy in the woodshop; introduced new material for hands-on learning outside the course. Designed an instrumental program in collaboration with the San Miguel School in Providence. Integrated the “flipped classroom” into his classes to support students and the stress they feel as a result of missing classes due to obligations. Explored ways to bring greater attention to outdoor and environmental education, and to engage students with their physical surroundings. Wrote and illustrated Early Reader books that encourage kindergarteners to read and re-read books. Explored ways in which students with learning differences can be better supported by teachers and the classroom by creating child study teams. Created a “Utopian Communities” PBL to explore human rights, fair trade, civil rights, slavery, and the caste system. Developed a cost-efficient student trip to Quebec City while incorporating more writing skills and more literature in French and AP Spanish. Participated in a Marines ‘boot camp for teachers’ to understand the nuanced ways our Quaker school responds to the military.
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This quarterly publication is designed to share strategic updates from Moses Brown’s Head of School and stories of growth and progress from across our campus.
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GREAT TEACHING
OCTOBER 2016
A PUBLICATION FROM HEAD OF SCHOOL MATT GLENDINNING
Areté, October 2016