Professional Development

Just as our mission aims to build children who are lifelong learners, we expect the same of our faculty and staff. We are proud to report that 100% of our faculty and staff participated in professional development throughout the course of the 2021-2022 school year. Experiences ranged from CPR certification to Responsive Classroom training, enabling all teachers to have a “student-centered, social and emotional learning approach to teaching and discipline.”

Donations to the Oak Fund last year enabled our teachers to pursue professional development across the country.

Lower School art teacher, Ann Oliver attended a Responsive Classroom conference. After the conference, Oliver restructured the beginning of her class. “The students sit together for the introduction of the lesson, instead of our tables; we have an opening message to let the students know what we are doing in art class. I have found this to be a very warm and welcoming way to start the class as a group and create an even stronger sense of community in the classroom.” Kindergarten teacher, Coneale Bethurum attended a reading institute through the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project at Columbia University and has been able to incorporate new techniques based on the science of reading research into her reading instruction.

Our unparalleled commitment to professional development and to our teachers helps us attract and maintain a strong faculty and staff, eager to invest in themselves, not to mention it helps us provide the best educational experience for our students.