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A Sturdy Confidence Inside this Issue Beehives Have Science Buzzing Partnership with Reynolda House Museum Spotlight on Professional Development: Lower School Orton-Gillingham Training Educator/Athlete Inspires Teamwork Flipped Classroom Reflects a Tradition of Innovation
Upper School Science Teacher Honored with NAISNAIS with “Teacher “Teacher of theofFuture” the Future” Award Award Last spring, Summit students enjoyed eating hydroponic lettuce that Jason Felten’s Eighth Grade Science class grew in towers they helped build in the school’s greenhouse. This fall, Felten’s vision of Summit students tending beehives set up on campus became a reality.
Such projects have garnered attention from the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS), which named Felten one of 24 NAIS Teachers of the Future for 2013-2014. The recognition is given to teachers who weave environmental sustainability, globalism, creativity and technology into their lessons. continued on page 3
Kristin Bennett: Inaugural Director of the Center for Excellence and Innovation A Global Reach: Ninth Grade Service Project Cheryl Dickson Receives Marian Millaway Douglas ’69 Award Challenging Gifted Learners Parent-School Partnership
A Sturdy Confidence A message from the Head of School
At Summit, we never underestimate a child. This is as true in 2013 as it was in 1933. This belief in students translates into graduates who are: PREPARED
Having acquired a strong academic, athletic, artistic and technological foundation HONORABLE
Operating from an ethical compass, guided by character, competence and confidence CURIOUS
Exhibiting intellectual curiosity, including critical and creative thinking with a commitment to lifelong learning ACCEPTING
Demonstrating global awareness, embracing diversity and working collaboratively within and beyond the school community
What is the single biggest variable in students’ learning and success? The quality of the classroom teacher.
SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE
Committing to civic responsibility, service and stewardship—both locally and globally What is the single biggest variable in students’ learning and success? The quality of the classroom teacher. Years of experience along with a broad range of internationally recognized research confirm this simple fact. This issue of Summit News shines the spotlight on Summit’s most valuable and enduring asset: our educators. Every teacher at Summit sees, celebrates and inspires the distinctive potential and unique voice of each child. We cherish students’ individuality and we are committed to discovering their gifts.
Summit News
Our educators understand that confidence is essential for students’ academic achievement and lifelong success. The best way to cultivate a child’s sturdy confidence is to build authentic competence. Our teachers apply these same principles to themselves—always refining their teaching, always deepening their learning—all toward inspiring their students’ success within and beyond the classroom. Supported by Summit’s Center for Excellence and Innovation in Teaching and Learning (CEI), our teachers are constantly developing their expertise through exceptional curriculum design and professional growth, including global service projects, the “flipped classroom,” OrtonGillingham literacy training, problem-based learning projects, peer coaching, on-line science courses, technology integration, reading & writing across the curriculum, and the list goes on. Founding Head of School Louise Futrell said, “Until the child has learned, you have not taught.” In the pages that follow, you will see that Summit’s children are learning because Summit’s educators are teaching with skill, expertise, inspiration, and joy. Extraordinary teachers are the mainstay of extraordinary schools. Summit School has known this for 80 years, and we will hold fast to this wisdom for 80 more. Onward and upward,
Michael Ebeling
ISSUE V of VI, Fall 2013
Summit School • 2100 Reynolda Road, Winston-Salem, N C 27106 • 336.722.2777 • www.summitschool.com Photography: Martin Tucker • Design: One Hero Creative, Inc. • Summit School admits students of any race, religion, color, and national or ethnic origin.
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“It’s a departure from the way I was taught with the day in, day out, lecture and test,” Felten said. “It’s a way of teaching outside of traditional views, of bringing in what’s current. I don’t know of any other subject like science to bring our attention to everything that’s going on across the planet.”
TOWER
Felten and Chris Culp, Summit’s Director of Technology, collaborated last year on a series of independent projects that students could work on in one class period a week. In addition to helping build the hydroponic towers, they made soap, put together worm compost and designed prototypes for wind turbines. This kind of engagement in real-world work is a hallmark of the Progressive Tradition, for which Summit is so well known. When he taught in public schools, Felten said every lab and topic was mapped out. Unless teachers hit on a topic children liked, they were often helpless to tailor the curriculum to students’ interests and current events. The old science curriculum also tended to get bogged down in a disconnected barrage of facts. Students often forget such knowledge years later.
TRANSFORMER
Today science teachers concentrate on introducing concepts in Sixth Grade, revisiting them in Seventh Grade and moving toward mastery of a subject in Eighth Grade. Teachers weave problemsolving and technology into a curriculum that emphasizes sustainability, the way biological systems remain diverse and productive over time. It’s science that children can see, touch, smell and in the case of the lettuce, even taste. It’s also the kind of science that will stay with children for life. “Rather than having them look exclusively at textbooks or mindlessly fill out worksheets,” Felten said, “we spend a lot of class discussing things before, during and after we have explored them with both our hands and our minds. I can focus on real science that is relevant to students and the world around them.”
Teachers of the Future Mission Statement
Teachers of the Future energize and empower independent school educators to cultivate innovative pedagogical practices, building an environment of empathy for global challenges.
All of Felten’s science courses exist online as well as in the classroom. He likes the fact that he can go in and change the course as new knowledge becomes available. Having the courses online also allows students to go back and review what was discussed in class.
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Beehives Have Science Buzzing
One of the projects award-winning Science teacher Jason Felten and Director of Technology Chris Culp are most excited about are the beehives they started working with last year. The project isn’t quite ready for students to take over completely yet, but the hives have given both teachers a chance to be students again. “We’re learning it as we go,” Felten said. “And we’re modeling that learning for our students.” Last spring they ordered a nucleus hive and a queen bee. The hive grew quickly and then, the unexpected happened – 8,000 to 10,000 bees swarmed and set up in a tree on Reynolda Road. Felten and Culp ordered two new queens and went to introduce them into what was left of the bees that had stayed in the Summit hive. They found that hive had raised its own queen, which they’ve kept at Summit. They each took one of the new queens home and started hives. The hives have to be about two miles apart or the colonies will rejoin. Bees are prey to illness, so having separate hives increases the chance that at least one hive will be healthy. In preparing the project, Culp learned that North Carolina is a major beekeeping state and that many of the state’s beekeepers are growing older, with no one to replace them. He is taking an online course in beekeeping at North Carolina
“I don’t know of any other subject like science to bring our attention to everything that’s going on across the planet.”
State University, which puts him in touch with the knowledge of many of those experienced beekeepers. Beekeepers do a lot to keep hives healthy, Culp said. The rain in the spring meant that bees couldn’t get to pollen or nectar, so he and Felten fed the bees syrup to keep them alive. A colony of bees has much to teach students. There are the facts, such as bees pollinate 30 percent of our food and that in China, people have to pollinate plants by hand because pollution has destroyed the bees. Students build the frames for bees to build the comb on, which involves the use of math and geometry. Counting the number of bees that come out of hives in one minute helps estimate the size of the hive. “This is one of the easiest things you can do to change the environment,” Culp said. “Something like this really makes a difference, and it’s not that hard.” There are also larger lessons to learn in seeing how bees work together and give their lives to support the colony. “Teaching kids that has a lot of power,” Culp said. “It teaches them that there are systems out there that are more complex than they realize.” Summit students have observed the hives in action and watched inspections. Bees are very delicate and it takes awhile to get a hive to the point of producing honey, but Culp and Felten hope the hives will be producing honey by spring. Eventually, they envision Summit hives set up at home as well as in Reynolda Gardens and other nearby locations. This year the Sixth Grade Science Class has built hive traps that they have baited with pheromones to attract wild bees. Culp and Felten are certain they will transfer their curiosity about bees to other areas of science. And once the hives are established? Well, Culp and Felten have an idea that involves raising chickens!
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Lower School Partners
Reynolda House Museum of American Art Thousands of visitors to Reynolda House Museum of American Art have seen the Gilbert Stuart portrait of Mrs. Harrison Gray Otis, a stately woman of the early 1800s. Few of them have probably seen a ghost in the painting’s foggy white background and said, “I think the ghost is her husband wearing a coat that makes him look invisible.” That creative insight, and many others, come from Summit’s youngest students, who visited the museum last winter with their parents through a partnership with Reynolda House. The program used art to develop children’s ability to observe and analyze through the use of a Thinking Routine. Junior Kindergartners were asked to describe what they saw, what they thought was going on and what they wondered about in a painting, video or piece of sculpture. Jodi Turner, who teaches Junior Kindergarten, said that she had taken children to the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (SECCA) for a similar exercise and was surprised by what she heard. “The observations the children made were powerful and insightful,” she said. “The security guards were just staring, saying, ‘These kids are five?’” “The Thinking Routine, which has been used in Summit classrooms over the last few years, is useful for teachers because it gives them a window into children’s minds and how they work,” Turner said. Children learn to look at something from many points of view and in listening to other children’s ideas, they learn that not everyone sees the world in the same way. Another benefit of such programs is that young children not only become more comfortable observing the world and drawing conclusions, but museums become places of discovery. “They felt at home and comfortable; instead of it being an intimidating, boring place, it became a place of interest and excitement.” Turner said. Planning for the project began last fall, with meetings between Summit and Reynolda’s education department. Thinking Routines
emerged from Project Zero, an initiative at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Its mission is to understand high levels of thinking and learning across disciplines, ages and cultures. Last winter, 36 children in Junior Kindergarten attended sessions at Reynolda House. Julia Hood, coordinator of education at Reynolda House, said that the first time children came to visit, the staff gave them an orientation in how to visit a museum. They talked about the value of observing the surroundings quietly and not touching things. “At a basic level, we want them to have had a fun experience in a museum and to want to come back,” Hood said. Summit students were assigned one of five works of art to view, along with a sheet of questions to consider when they looked at the art. Between January and March, students viewed the work with their parents. Some children returned to the museum with their grandparents. Parents told Turner, Hood and Cheryl Dickson, who also teaches in Junior Kindergarten, that they had no idea their children could enjoy a museum as much as they did.
“We had a great time being together in a museum. My son really enjoyed teaching ME the ‘see, think, wonder’ routine.”
“Children are people in little bodies,” Dickson said. “They have wonderful ideas and they can remember lots of things. The beauty of art is that you can express yourself so openly.” One parent told Turner, “We had a great time being together in a museum. My son really enjoyed teaching ME the ‘see, think, wonder’ routine.” Dickson said that the partnership has changed the way she approaches every lesson she’s taught at the school because it’s a reminder not to underestimate children’s powers of thinking and observing, even at a young age.
Summit students at SECCA
“I think it’s helped me listen to them first,” she said. “A lot of times we’re trying to give them words and they already have words.”
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Spotlight on Professional Development
Lower School Teachers Receive Orton-Gillingham Literacy Training
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Last spring Carrie Malloy, Division Director of Triad Academy and Julie Smith, Division Director of Lower School, noticed how much they were seeking each other out and collaborating. Many of their conversations centered around how to best serve the needs of students in their divisions. The work led them to think about how important it would be to train the Lower School teachers in the Orton-Gillingham Approach. Malloy knew of a 30-hour Classroom Educators course offered by the Orton-Gillingham Academy. And Smith had learned that several independent schools in Atlanta had trained classroom teachers and felt that all of their students were benefiting from the Orton-Gillingham Approach.
After only a few months teachers are already applying what they are learning in the classrooms at Summit. Kindergarten teacher Heather Scantland says,
Malloy and Amy Lawrence, a Triad Language Tutorial Teacher and Orton-Gillingham Training Fellow, are both certified to teach this course. As a result, this fall, Lower School teachers in Junior Kindergarten through Second Grade began to receive 30 hours of training which not only represents the gold standard of teaching practices for children with dyslexia but is recognized as research-based best practice in early literacy instruction for all children. The course will help Early Childhood and Lower School teachers identify children with languagebased learning differences earlier, when they’re easier to remediate. It is also a way for teachers to continue refining their literacy instruction with all children based on the research the Orton-Gillingham Approach can provide.
Kristin Bennett, Director of Summit’s Center for Excellence and Innovation (CEI), said that such collaboration between the two divisions is an example of how Summit’s “internal expertise” is transforming the way education works for all students at Summit. The CEI was established at Summit last year by a faculty committee, to encourage professional development, both on campus and in the larger community. Such centers started at universities as a way to translate educational theory into practice. Summit has developed the only JrK - 9th gradefocused center of its kind in North Carolina.
“In the OG training we are learning both theory and practice. So far, in the theory piece we are learning about the different parts of the brain. In the practice piece, we are learning methods and ways to integrate OG into the classroom. We were lucky to have Ron Yoshimoto, a Fellow and Training director of the Multisensory Structured Language Centre in Hawaii and Singapore, come and teach us as a part of our course. He also provided us with materials. I have been using Ron’s materials which reinforce letter recognition, letter sound, and letter formation nearly everyday. The children enjoy this activity because it is multisensory.”
Bennett said that OG training is only the beginning of what she hopes will be a larger faculty-driven education effort that will spread to the surrounding public schools. “Triad Academy and Summit have merged successfully in large part because they share a common philosophy about challenging and supporting each and every student,” Bennett said. “By exchanging insights about how they reach their students, teachers in both divisions will continue to grow stronger.”
Educator/Athlete Inspires Teamwork -- And a New Generation of Runners Christy Haulsee put on her first pair of athletic shoes at the age of five and began running in her father, John Dunkelberg’s, footsteps. Today Haulsee, who ran cross country at Wake Forest University, is initiating a new generation of runners into the challenges and rewards of the sport as Summit’s Track and Cross Country Coach.
“You want kids to get out there and get moving and enjoy it,” she said. “Running attracts kids who may not be interested in other sports.” Haulsee, who also teaches Second Grade at Summit, said that one of the pleasures of her position as coach is that she is able to see students progress as runners throughout their school careers. Students who might not excel at team sports can become stand out runners, often to their own surprise. One young runner used to cry any time someone passed him. His competitive spirit allowed him to go on to become a top runner. Dunkelberg, who was a runner at Clemson University and went to the Olympic Trials after college, said that his young daughter would take part in the Fun Runs that were a part of the longer, more competitive runs he was participating in back in Winston-Salem in the 1970s and 1980s. “At that age, you don’t beat anybody,” he said. “The big thing is, she did it and she enjoyed it.” Despite her early start as a runner, Haulsee couldn’t make it all the way around Hanes Park when she went out for the cross country team at Reynolds High School.
“I thought, ‘This is hard,’” she said, though she didn’t stop working. Haulsee ran all four years at Reynolds High School and won a conference championship as a freshman when the Reynolds senior who was in front, stopped for a bathroom break. The senior told Haulsee she had to take over. “I thought, this was part of my job. I have to do this,” Haulsee said. Haulsee went to Wake Forest University where she majored in health and sports science and joined the cross country team. During her sophomore year, Haulsee was eighth in the two mile event at the ACC Championship. Her father said that he saw how running gave Haulsee a kind of confidence that was different from the intellectual confidence she gained from studying scholarly subjects. “You realize you have to work to be near the top. You can’t make it just on talent,” Dunkelberg said. “You realize to excel as a student or an athlete you have to push yourself.” After graduation Haulsee earned her masters degree in teaching at Salem College and spent her first year of teaching at Summit. Her family left Winston-Salem and lived in Brazil for three years. There, Haulsee taught English literature at the Esfera Escola International School.
As a coach, Haulsee says that her most important job is learning to read her students and to understand what motivates them. Running is a mental challenge as much as a physical one and she wants her students to understand that there are good days and bad days. “I remind the kids that part of running is learning that it’s OK to be uncomfortable,” she said. For Haulsee, success as a coach is as much about the way the team works together as the honors they bring home. She describes her team as 12 boys and 12 girls who look out for each other. One student never completed a 5K run in under 50 minutes, which is about twice the average time. The team would go out and run in with her. “I tell my kids it doesn’t matter where you start,” she said. “It’s where you end. Almost anybody can pick up running and almost anyone can see great gains from it.”
Haulsee’s philosophy of running fits perfectly into Summit’s emphasis on transformational coaching, which emphasizes the joys of physical fitness and teamwork over winning awards, meets and games.
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Flipped Classroom Reflects Last year Rachel Brewbaker, the Triad Division’s Sixth through Ninth Grade Math teacher, was presented with a problem in her Sixth Grade Math Class that she wasn’t sure how to solve. “There were a lot of different learning styles and a lot of different needs,” she said. “Some students needed to be challenged and some students needed more time to work the problems.” Brewbaker knew that Sixth Grade lays the foundation for pre-algebra, as students begin to move from concrete to abstract problems. She didn’t want her students to get discouraged at that point in their school careers. She consulted with Parker Tegeler, a Third Grade Teacher in the Triad Division who was working on her masters degree and had learned about the flipped classroom from another student in her graduate class. Brewbaker researched the concept and thought it might work for her. It has.
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Instead of using class as the time for the teacher to lecture and homework as the time for students to work independently, the flipped classroom uses video tutorials created by the teacher as homework. Teachers use class time to work one-on-one and in small groups with students--both with those who are excelling and with those who are having trouble understanding that day’s lesson. Sometimes a student who is having trouble will be paired with a classmate who better understands the concept.
a Tradition of Innovation Brewbaker creates the video tutorials, which she posts on YouTube. She used Doceri, an app that allowed her to make the videos at home. She asked employees at Doceri about modifying the technology to her needs.
The flipped classroom also avoids the problem of rushing through material in class and sending children who still don’t understand off to flounder over their homework alone. “If there’s some sort of breakdown in your understanding, I don’t want you to go off and work on what you don’t understand,” Brewbaker said. “This gives me a chance to address the problem before frustration sets in.” The flipped classroom also gives students confidence by allowing them to move between videos and individual attention, according to what they need. Some students still need the verbal interaction in class with a teacher in order to understand a lesson.
For example, she wanted to have a surface that she could write on and erase, like a blackboard, yet still be able to save those frames. Doceri helped Brewbaker do that. Brewbaker has created 115 math videos. Creating them has been a learning experience for her as well as her students. She promised students that no video would last more than ten minutes and they include problems in the student’s homework. The videos don’t replace the teacher, but they allow the teacher to concentrate her attention on deepening and extending students’ learning oneon-one and in small groups.
In her Eighth Grade Math class, students told Brewbaker that they needed to be able to ask her questions right away, so that class works along more traditional lines. “As a teacher you have to know your students and be able to be flexible,” she said. “I could see students relax. Math was the last class of the day,” she said, “I could see that little bit of nervous tension behind their eyes. Once we went over the videos, I could hear them say, ‘I feel comfortable in class.’ If they didn’t get a concept in the video, they knew they would be able to get help during class.” Brewbaker found the videos were popular with parents, who often watched with their children and were interested to see how teaching techniques had changed since they were in school.
Students can stop the videos and go back over parts they don’t understand, so they don’t have to feel pressured to raise their hand and stop the class.
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Kristin Bennett: Inaugural Director of the Center for Excellence and Innovation
Kristin Bennett’s fascination with the science of what makes an exceptional teacher grew, in truth, out of just a little bit of desperation. She was 21, a recent college graduate with a degree in political science, and she got a job teaching eighth graders – without ever having taken courses in education. She knew how to be a good student, but she didn’t necessarily know how to teach. “I learned pretty quickly that teaching is an art – and that you need an education in that field to teach well,” said Bennett, a Summit parent since 2005. “There’s a science behind learning, and I didn’t know it at that time. So I had to learn quickly, and that’s how teacher development became my passion.” Her goal as director of Summit School’s new Center for Excellence and Innovation is to make sure teachers have all of the resources they need to excel as educators. They won’t have to scramble as she did early in her career. Knowing that research shows that the quality of the classroom teacher has the most impact on student success, Summit School launched the Center for Excellence and Innovation (CEI) in 2012 to provide professional development opportunities throughout the year. The CEI’s aim is to use the latest research, science and best practices to develop the talents, skills and passion for teaching among faculty, staff and administrators. The center also helps Summit School fulfill one of its Six Promises by supporting “A Sturdy Confidence” in teachers. For the 2013-14 school year, the CEI has developed a range of offerings – everything from informal “Coffee & Conversation” breakfast
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sessions for sharing successes, to Monday afternoon “Deep Dive” training on new tools and methods, to full-day workshops on curriculum. Bennett said the Deep Dive is the most important part of the equation. Deep Dives are planned for at least once a month to provide intensive training on topics such as reading and writing across subject areas – a big push in Summit classrooms this year. Deep Dive topics include:
Orton-Gillingham Training for Classroom Educators Arts Integration Courageous Conversations Practicing Mindfulness Responsive Classroom Reading and Writing across the content areas Technology Integration: iPads, Veracross “The Deep Dive is meant to address immediate needs, but deeply and frequently,” she said. “Since we have large portions of the faculty working on the same concepts, they are all learning the same lessons, working through problems together, and speaking the same language in the classroom. That gives students consistency and spreads the impact of the lesson.” The CEI was established and run by Summit School teachers in 2012. They wrote its mission statement and planned the development activities. Bringing on Bennett, who has consulted at Summit on problem-based learning, iPad integration, peer coaching and the teacher evaluation process, will allow faculty to focus on classroom teaching while Bennett expands the CEI’s reach to meet its founding vision.
Marian Millaway Douglas ’69 Award for Faculty Excellence
“Summit has a history of maintaining quality educators for a very long time and has a depth of knowledge in its teaching base,” Bennett said. “With the CEI, those teachers created a platform for teachers leading teachers, which will continue to enrich the classroom experience at Summit for educators and students.”
Established by family and friends to honor Mrs. Douglas for her love of and dedication to Summit and to recognize her parents who made a Summit education a priority for their daughter. The fund rewards teachers whose excellence and enthusiasm spark the flame of learning in students.
Bennett earned her master’s degree in secondary social studies education at Wake Forest University and her Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
Any teacher who has taught at Summit for more than five years is eligible for this award. Recipients must demonstrate the following:
After graduation, she taught aspiring teachers in UNCG’s undergraduate education program, as well as teachers already in the field who were returning for graduate degrees.
Commitment to the teaching profession High expectations for students
She then joined the Department of Education at Wake Forest where she helped develop innovative methods for learning, using electronic textbooks. She worked with undergraduates on inquiry teaching and learning, and encouraged them to use new technologies in the classroom.
An ability to connect with students
“My goal then was to give teachers both the understanding of how the brain learns and also the skills and fluency in the use of mobile technology to support teaching and learning,” she said. “And my focus with the CEI is still on encouraging new and inventive ways of helping students succeed. This new role combines and completely engages my experience and passion for teaching in a positive place, where I can see immediate translation into the success of children.”
Willingness to work with colleagues
Energy, excitement and passion for teaching
Loyalty to the school A desire to go beyond what is expected
This year’s recipient? Turn the page to find out.
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A Global Reach:
Ninth Grade Service Project Benefits School in India In 1916, Shri Sri Ram Arora’s father died, and the 16-year-old left school to help take care of his family. He took over the primary school that his great-great-grandmother had founded in her home in the village of Atrauli, India. Under his guidance, the school expanded and flourished. Today the school is still in operation and one of Arora’s descendents, Aditi Pilani (Summit ’13), and her classmates are helping to keep Arora’s dreams of educating others alive. Summit’s Class of 2013 raised $1,022 and collected several boxes of books for the school. Pat Capps, the Ninth Grade Dean, said that the class was moved by the powerpoint presentation Pilani put together about the visit she and her mother made to the school over spring break.
All Ninth Graders lead a service project, and each year, one or two must have a global perspective. It is rewarding for faculty and administration to see Ninth Graders more fully develop a worldview, Capps said, as they study world history, produce regular news broadcasts that cover happenings in other countries, and carry out service initiatives that make a difference in other parts of the world. “The fact that the kids felt they had a reason to help this school and stepped forward to initiate it, shows the kind of confidence and global awareness we’re looking for as our students graduate,” she said. Vinita Pilani, Aditi’s mother, said that her family was moved by Summit students’ enthusiasm for the project. “I applaud the staff of Summit School for teaching something which is so lacking in today’s world – compassion,” she said. “This kind of teaching can only happen at Summit.” The fundraiser represents the principles that Arora worked for throughout his life, Vinita Pilani said. Arora could afford advanced education for his immediate family, but he wanted to extend an education to every child in the village. The Pilanis visited the primary school for grades one through five. Under Arora’s leadership, the school added grades six through 12. The primary school is built around a courtyard. There are six small classrooms, one for each grade plus a teacher’s meeting building. The students take courses such as math, Hindi and English. “The students also have a drawing class that happens once a week,” Aditi said. “This is something the kids really look forward to.”
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Aditi was moved by the poverty that she saw, both in the village and at the school and she said that has encouraged her to be more compassionate toward people in need, whether in India or the U.S. “Everything kind of felt old-fashioned,” she said. “However, the children were all wearing clean uniforms and they were so inviting and kind. When the teacher wasn’t around, some of the younger children immediately had me join in a game with them. They were so enthusiastic about everything they did.” Aditi’s presentation and stories about the school moved her classmates. Capps said that when the children saw a powerpoint presentation about the trip, one child said, “‘I have $23 in my pocket. I’m going to give you that.’ That started us talking about how we could help.” The Ninth Grade class decided to do a chore for a neighbor or parent and then take the money they would have earned and donate it to the school. Some students also chose a special book to donate and wrote a message inside about why that particular book had been important to them. As word of the project spread, staff donated to the project, and after reading about the project on the back of the graduation program, some parents donated as well. Capps said that in late summer, a member of the Pilani family took the check with them to present to the school when they reached India. Aditi said that she is proud to have the help of her classmates in continuing the work that her ancestor began. Although Arora was never able to complete his education, he made certain that his siblings and all seven of his children received an education that went beyond the basics – no small feat in a tiny village where few people could read. “He was determined to spread education to as many people as possible,” she said. “He served as a role model to both his students and those to come in future generations.”
Cheryl Dickson Receives Marian Millaway Douglas ’69 Award for Excellence in Teaching Cheryl Dickson, a lead Junior Kindergarten Teacher, is often one of the first teachers students meet when they begin their Summit careers. She is not, however, a teacher that they leave behind when their time in her classroom is over. Many of them come back to visit and even introduce their own children to the teacher they remember with so much affection. Dickson is the 2012-2013 recipient of the Marian Millaway Douglas ’69 Award for Excellence. The award was established in 2000, and recognizes teachers who bring energy, excitement and passion to teaching along with an ability to connect with students and work with their colleagues. Douglas is an alumna and enthusiastic supporter of Summit.
An artist in her own right, Dickson also brings a level of artistry to her classroom and every corner she touches at Summit. Her love of color and design is evident not only in her classroom but in last summer’s elegant recasting of the Anne Coggan Johnston Dining Room for Young Children. Most recently she has lent her design talents in the new Center for Excellence and Innovation (CEI). The space she created there set a warm, collegial tone, where every faculty member feels welcomed and valued. Dickson had an earlier career as a nurse, but she found herself drawn to the classroom when she started out as a parent helper at her children’s grade school. From there she moved to substitute teaching and in 1994, she came to Summit as a Junior Kindergarten teacher. In the classroom, children feel her warmth, calm and patience. The respect she shows toward young children helps them feel at ease as they make their transition to being in school. Her colleagues describe her as someone who knows how to bring out the best in people, whether children or adults.
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Gifted Education at Summit: Where have we been? Where Are We Headed? Summit understands that students may possess many areas of giftedness. Our school has a long and rich history of supporting the gifts and talents of students in multiple ways. Our learning experiences are designed to be much more challenging than would be found in typical classrooms. Students embrace complexity and deep thinking. At times we also accelerate the pace of learning. Our collective commitment to understanding and developing the unique
An important part of our Summit tradition is extending our reach and continuing to create educational opportunities based on current research. The work done over the last several years by the AAP is being studied by classroom teachers and administrators. We are focusing on how the needs of our most advanced students are met in the classroom and throughout campus.
learning profile of each child is well known. Summit’s curriculum leaders have continually addressed the needs of gifted students through Summit’s challenging programs. In the fall of 2010, the chair of the SAIS/SACS re-accreditation visiting team described Summit’s program as “more attuned to gifted learners than most gifted programs.”
THIS GRAPH REPRESENTS RENZULLI’S THREE RING CONCEPTION OF GIFTEDNESS.
Above Average Ability
Task Commitment Gifted
Creativity
Summit believes that giftedness is the interaction of three human traits: + ABOVE AVERAGE ABILITY + TASK COMMITMENT A student’s ability to take energy and concentrate it on a specific task + HIGH LEVELS OF CREATIVITY A student’s ability to produce original, novel, and unique ideas or products Tom Shaver teaches accelerated Math Class
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Summit teachers Barbara Scantland, Bebe Krewson, Jan Standerfer with Joseph Renzulli.
Two years ago a group of faculty members who were particularly interested in gifted education formed the Academic Program Achievement committee (AAP). The goal of this committee has been to understand, research, and synthesize best practices in meeting the needs of gifted students. As part of this work, this committee visited schools that focus on teaching gifted students in Indianapolis and Denver, attended the National Association for Gifted Children conference, and read articles and listened to talks by nationally known experts like University of Connecticut’s Joseph Renzulli and Harvard’s Howard Gardner. As a result of this initiative we now have two learning specialists in the lower school dedicated to flexible small group learning that enriches and challenges students outside of the classroom. We are also working to identify the elements in our current learning experiences that are particularly suited to enrichment of gifted learners, including:
• Everyday Mathematics • 6+1 Traits of Writing • Robotics • Animation Studio • Design Center • Literature Circles • Accelerated Math Classes • Independent Study Projects
Julie Smith speaks at a Mindful Parenting class.
Summit’s Parent-School Partnership In Action The Parent-School Partnership is a unique feature of Summit School. That vital partnership takes many forms, including the following: • Director of Lower Julie Smith and Assistant Director of Lower School Bekah Sidden taught a four-week course called Mindful Parenting. Fifteen parents of Lower School students attended. • On October 24, the 2013-2014 Inspiring Learning Series kicked off with Rogan Kersh, Provost at Wake Forest, speaking about the distinguishing characteristics of Gen Y. Over 100 people attended from the Summit community and beyond to hear about Kersh’s nationally recognized research. • On November 20, Dr. Kersh returned to host a small group dinner discussion with Summit parents and grandparents that centered around the question, “What can Gen Y teach us about being a better parent now?“ • Head of School Michael Ebeling and other Summit administrators hosted a discussion on October 28 that centered around the question, “How can we support our children’s healthy use of technology at home and school?” The title of the discussion was “Maintaining Family and School Values in the Age of Social Media.”
Wake Forest University Provost, Professor Rogan Kersh
Summit lives its mission of educating the WHOLE child in every classroom. 15 5
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Scholarship at Its Best We are committed to seeing students move from mastery of the fundamentals to discovery, expertise and impact. A Fertile Learning Environment Our curriculum develops fluency, creativity and competency in every area of a child’s life. A Sturdy Confidence The best foundation for confidence is the development of real competence. Intellectual independence We give children the tools to meet challenges, take risks and be successful in a complex world. S t a t e of the A r t Facilities Designed to inspire, illuminate and connect, our facilities provide spaces for memorable exchange and individual learning. Educators Who Engage the Whole Child We equip each student for the rich journey of lifelong learning.