12 minute read
Teaching and Learning
Spotlight on New International Teachers
As an international community of learners and families, we are very happy to be able to welcome four new San Domenico teachers who hail from Italy, Ireland, and China!
Advertisement
Sara Chamberlin is a
native of Italy and holds a Master of Arts in Foreign Languages and European Studies (Languages: English, French, Italian, and Spanish), University of Milan, Linguistic Lyceum, Bianconi. Once in California, she earned her Teaching Credential Program from Dominican University in San Rafael. Sara speaks, and teaches, Italian, French, Spanish, and English. In her spare time, she enjoys playing tennis and volleyball and spending time sailing, kayaking, and just looking at the sea during a long walk by the water or lying on the beach. Shares Sara, “I am an enthusiastic energetic teacher, and I love teaching through cooking and art projects. I firmly believe that a smile is the best way to start each day and that with love, we reach the impossible. My favorite part of being a member of the San Domenico community is the atmosphere of spirituality, empathy, and engagement. And as a newer teacher, I have relatively recently spent thousands of hours observing and teaching at other schools. I can therefore tell you that the SD Middle School Spanish students are more advanced than many of the high school students I’ve seen around the world!”
Shu-Chen Lin grew up in Hualien, Taiwan, and holds a Master of Teaching Chinese as a Second Language from Middlebury College and a Master of Business Administration from Lawrence Technological University.
Prior to joining us to teach Mandarin in Grades K-12, Shu-Chen worked at The Branson School, where she taught Mandarin and served as the Global Education Coordinator from 2011-2020. Prior to that, Shu-Chen taught at The Eaglebrook School in Deerfield, Massachusetts, from 2007-2011.
Shares Shu-Chen, “My teaching philosophy is hands-on because I consider Mandarin more than just a language. Working on projects and activities in a variety of contexts makes the richness of the Mandarin language and culture more accessible to students of all ages.”
Teachers
Claire O'Donnell grew up in Cork City, Ireland, and holds a bachelor’s degree in Education from Mary Immaculate College with Diplomas in Religion and Special Education, as well as the California Basic Educational Skills Test. Claire is not only a dedicated teacher, but also a competitive runner, even qualifying for the Boston Marathon this year. Coaching local running clubs, she gets immense satisfaction in helping and supporting others, a propensity that comes through in the classroom and on the trails.
Shares Claire, “My passion is instilling a love of learning by creating a fun, stimulating learning environment. SD already feels like a home away from home. And the students here are so impressive. We adults may have hard days, but the kids are models of resilience and flexibility.”
Fan Huang grew up in Hefei, the capital of Anhui Province, China. She holds a Master of Science in Mathematics from University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Shanghai Institute of Foreign Trade. Before joining San Domenico as an Upper School Math Teacher and Resident Faculty member, Fan taught AP Statistics, Calculus, Math I, and Pre-Calculus at Besant Hill School in Ojai, California. She has also taught math at Ross Mathematics Program in Columbus, Ohio, and at the Tianjin Yinghua Cambridge International School in Tianjin. In addition to teaching, Fan has worked with students as a coach, mentor, and dorm parent.
Fan Talks with Resident Faculty Member Sonya Evans
What brought you to San Domenico? The kind and wonderful learning community, the beautiful campus, and great colleagues in the math and computer science team.
What do you like best about being a Resident Faculty
member at San Domenico? Taking student musicians to practice music in the Hall of the Arts (HOTA).
What do you like to do in your free time? Reading novels, playing piano, learning computer science, hiking near the ocean, and drawing cats!
What are you looking forward to this year? Improving as a teacher and a programmer, more hikes by the ocean, learning The Sonata for Two Pianos in D major, K. 448 with my husband.
How did you enjoy the Halloween Full Moon Hike? The full moon hike was fun and intense! My knees felt sore for a couple of days after that hike but I know I just need more practice.
TEACHING AND LEARNING
Food Justice Inquiry Project
Everyone has an opinion, but what about a solution? Our states, nation, and world have countless challenges, and even more critics, but where are the people with ideas and, more importantly, the determination to make a difference? These are the questions Social Justice teacher, Kathy Hagee, put to juniors in a recent study unit designed to tie in with our annual San Domenico Food Drive.
Students tackled one of the 13 unintended consequences of the large manufacturing food system. The learning included identifying a problem, writing three inquiry questions, and then researching the root causes and the current condition of said problem. As a final step, students had to propose a logical and sustainable solution. Each student showcased their six-week journey during this food justice project in a video shown during our annual food drive.
1 Declining food quality 2Compromised food safety 3 Animal welfare concerns 4 Soil erosion and depletion 5 Water pollution 6 Separation of crops and livestock 7 Loss of farmland 8 Energy consumption 9 Food access 10 Food security 11 Diet-related illness 12 Farmworker exploitation 13 Aging and fewer farmers
Science Lab in AP Chemistry
In AP Chemistry, seniors and juniors are doing hands-on labs such as this titration experiment, where a volume of a solution of a known concentration is added to a volume of another solution in order to determine its concentration. In this project, juniors and seniors made a buffer solution and then tested to see how the solution resists a change in pH when an acid solution or base solution is added. Students used a pH meter to measure pH and graph their data to visualize their results. To provide some context, classroom discussions included how our blood is a buffer and it needs to resist changes in pH so that it functions properly.”
- Robin Huffman, Upper School Science Teacher
Teachers
Reflections
How has my move to California been? Nothing like a pandemic to shake things up, but honestly it’s been good!”
- Rahna Schiff, Upper School Math Teacher With a husband who is a Marin County Fire Department Captain and working in education myself, I am surrounded by heroic front line workers. Seeing what my teaching team is doing every day to meet the needs of students in both on-campus and distance-learning mode at the same time, sometimes while facing their own childcare and health concerns, you see how much they care about the students and their work, showing up day after day.”
- Kate Reeser, Assistant Head of School for Academics and Director of Upper School
I am always grateful to the faculty and staff here at SD and yet, the last months have brought a new layer of appreciation. I've watched incredible moments of generosity, kindness, and teamwork as they've stepped up to cover for one another when there were absences among colleagues - people not feeling well, pets needing to go to the emergency vet, etc. My team members always quickly volunteer to take someone's duties and classes and to help out. They are truly an amazing group of kind and generous individuals. I am often struck by how they help each other in a pinch—they are so supportive and there is a real community spirit!”
- LeaAnne Parlette, Director of Lower and Middle School
ON CAMPUS
Creative Teaching: Learning Mandarin Across Grades K-12
Since joining our San Domenico World Languages Department this fall, Mandarin
Teacher Shu-Chen Lin
has been creating multi-sensory lesson plans for all ages, as evidenced by her recent projects with Upper, Middle, and Lower School grades. For an Upper School Mandarin II unit on learning how to describe colors and clothes in Chinese, Ms. Lin wanted to support this language learning with ecoliteracy education, and fun all at the same time. To do this, Ms. Lin planned to have a tie dye fashion show at school. Instead of ordering tie dye kits from art stores, SD Director of Sustainability, Shelley Flint, taught students how to use beets, red cabbage, and turmeric to make red, blue, and orange colors to dye T-shirts. The goal with this unit was spending time together in the garden, learning Mandarin in a creative way, and making something the students could wear to remember the experience. Make DIY Tie-Dye Colors
•Remove the desired portion of the plant • Chop or tear the blossoms, leaves, etc. apart to expose more surface area • Combine in a large kettle • Add enough water to cover the plant material • Simmer on range until the plant material looks faded and dye has transferred to the water (about 1 hour) • Strain out leftover plant material and discard • The remaining liquid is your dye.
You may experiment with different plants and vegetables to extract colors. Here are some to try:
RED: Lichen, eucalyptus, St. John’s Wort, chokecherries, beets, bloodroot, pomegranate, crab apple, juniper, rose petals, blackberries
ORANGE: Paprika, carrots, butternut seeds, dahlias, chicory, sunflower, turmeric
YELLOW:Marigold, yarrow leaves, horseradish, saffron, sage, turmeric, alfalfa, bay leaves, celery leaves, dead daffodil heads, dahlias, dandelions, elderberry
GREEN: Artichokes, nettle leaves, red onion, spinach, sage, peppermint, Queen Anne’s Lace, chamomile, bayberry, foxglove, larkspur, hydrangea, lilac
BLUE:Indigo, elderberries, blueberries, dogwood, hyacinth, red cabbage, purple iris
Learning Mandarin
When introducing Chinese characters to Sixth Graders, Ms. Lin planned the first activity around learning how to create the characters, and then worked on how to pronounce, read, and write eight characters: 山 (shān: mountain), 水(shuǐ: water), 木(mù: wood), 日(rì: sun), 月(yuè: moon), 鹿 (lù: deer, 火(huǒ: fire). Students then progressed to writing characters stroke by stroke, learning Chinese calligraphy using brush and ink to practice writing the eight characters. Ms. Lin also encouraged mindfulness as they practiced this brand new skill.
Through project-based learning, the third activity gave students an opportunity to be creative and have fun working
on a project close to Halloween. Students headed over to the one-acre organic Garden of Hope to carve pumpkins - with a twist. Not a traditional jack-o’-lantern, the requirement was that they draw characters or carve Chinese characters onto their pumpkins. During the carving project, students worked together, helping each other to find the right tools, and learning how to solve problems as a team. Director of Sustainability Shelley Flint roasted some pumpkin seeds for our students to enjoy as they worked.
In Lower School,Ms. Lin and students celebrated the Mid-Autumn Festival by making colorful lanterns. She had them draw a picture of a lantern, showing three examples. Next they wrote three new Mandarin vocabulary words, and attached the new words “hidden” into the lantern. After they finished making their lanterns, they broke into small groups to guess which words were hidden in each other’s lanterns.
“With these sorts of cross-departmental projects,” says Ms. Lin, “students are not merely learning a new language.
They are learning the culture and history of the language, while incorporating other areas of study to deepen the connections amongst classes. These creative lessons result in a multi-sensory experience the students will not soon forget, as they master a new language.”
ON CAMPUS
On October 8, 2020, San Domenico held its first ever virtual Leadership Donor Celebration to honor the generosity of our philanthropic community. This “Charcuterie and Champagne” event featured delectable treats curated by Insalata’s in San Anselmo, hand delivered to guests at home by the SD Advancement Department. The highlight of the evening was an impressive livestream performance of “Por Una Cabeza,” a tango written by Carlos Gardel in 1935 and featured in the film “Scent of a Woman,” performed by members of San Domenico’s acclaimed Virtuoso Program. Thank you to Virtuoso Program performers Minyoung “Olivia” Choi ’23, Anthony Chukhlov ’24, Alexandra Chukhlov ’22, and Meilani Huynh ’23 for sharing their time and talent with our guests.
An Evening with Isabel Allende,
in Conversation with John Bowermaster
Isabel Allende is not only a world-renowned author and National Book Award winner, she is the grandmother of San Domenico alums Aza Frias ’10 and Nicole Frias ’12, and kindly agreed to be part of our 2020-21 San Domenico Speaker Series! Hosting the conversation was beloved SD English and Philosophy teacher emeritus, John Bowermaster. For more on upcoming events, visit www.sandomenico.org/SpeakerSeries.
SAN DOMENICO SPEAKER SERIES 2020-21 Please join us for a conversation with legendary author and National Book Award winner Isabel Allende. Born in Peru and raised in Chile, Isabel is one of the most widely-read authors in the world, having sold more than 74 million books. She is the recipient of more than 60 awards in 15 countries, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2014 by President Barack Obama. In addition to her work as a writer, Allende devotes much of her time to human rights causes. In 1996, following the death of her daughter, Paula, she established the Isabel Allende Foundation to empower women and girls worldwide. Hosting the conversation will be beloved San Domenico English teacher emeritus, John Bowermaster. An Evening with Isabel Allende In conversation with John Bowermaster Livestream Wednesday, December 9 7:00-8:00 PM PT We hope you can be with us for this special evening. There is no charge to attend, however registration is required. Due to anticipated demand and limited capacity, please register early to secure your spot.
Community Events
Seventh Grade Gingerbread House Decorating Celebration
36 families joined hosts Shannon Kirchner and Chantelle Masdea (Class Parents) as well as Advancement’s Heather Wright-Ojha for this fun and festive community event. With candy, frosting, and shared time together, it was the sweetest event ever (pun intended).
Halloween Treats
Together with the SD Panther and Epicurean staff members,
Mrs. Stock, Parlette, and Robley
delivered cupcakes and special treats to all of the K-8 students on campus.
Third Grade Social
The Third Grade Social was hosted by Class Parents Kelly Weidner and Heather Woollen. Using the online game Kahoot!, they played the game Three Truths and a Lie. Parents submitted their answers ahead of time, and had to guess which answer was the lie. Family photos were included in the game, and fun was had by all.
