The Beacon Spring 2014

Page 1

The Windward School

The

Beacon The Windward School Newsletter for Professionals, Parents and Faculty Spring 2014 Vol 3 Issue 1

In This Issue Professional Development

Dyslexia with 2020 Vision Page 1 Head Lines

From the Head of School Page 2 Alumni Corner

Ian Sherman ’14: “Windward Gave Me the Tools to Succeed” Page 9 Faculty

Christopher Eberhard: Faculty Profile Page 10 News from Windward Manhattan

Windward Manhattan Becomes a Reality: Construction Begins! Page 12 Windward Teacher Training Institute

Faculty Present at National Conferences Page 14

The Beacon Spring 2014 Professional Development 1

Dyslexia with 2020 Vision

Where Will We Be in the Next 10 Years? by Gordon F. Sherman and Carolyn D. Cowen Gordon F. Sherman, Ph.D., is Executive Director of The Newgrange School, the Laurel School, and the Newgrange Education Center. Before joining the Newgrange organization, Dr. Sherman was the Director of the Dyslexia Research Laboratory at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and was a faculty member in neurology (neuroscience) at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Sherman received his doctorate in developmental psychobiology from the University of Connecticut. He is a former President of IDA and a recipient of two of its most prestigious honors, the Samuel T. Orton Award and the Norman Geschwind Memorial Lecture Award. He also was inducted into the Sylvia O. Richardson Hall of Honor. Dr. Sherman speaks nationally and internationally to parents, teachers, and scientists about cerebrodiversity, learning differences, brain development, and the future. Carolyn D. Cowen, Ed.M., is an educator and social entrepreneur known for developing, launching, and managing programs and initiatives that improve the teachinglearning landscape for people with learning differences. She serves as an advising Social Media Editor/Strategist for the IDA Examiner. She also is a founding member on the Literate Nation Board of Directors. She was Executive Director of Carroll School’s Center for Innovative Education, where she oversaw various outreach and professional-development programs, convened the Dyslexia Leadership Summit, and spearheaded the Dyslexia Geno-Phenotyping Initiative. Prior to that, she was Executive Director of The Learning Disabilities Network. Carolyn earned her master’s degree in reading education and learning disabilities from Harvard University. Currently she serves on the Board of Trustees for the Newgrange Organization and on the Board of Directors for the Research Institute for Learning and Development. She is especially interested in new-media/print literacy intersections, social media as a tool for driving change, and creative ways nonprofits can “power the mission with the message.”

Editor’s Note: On April 30, Dr. Sherman will deliver the Robert J. Schwartz Memorial Lecture at The Windward School, and his topic will be “Welcome to the Future: Where Diverse Brains Thrive.” Men might as well project a voyage to the Moon as attempt to employ steam navigation against the stormy North Atlantic Ocean. Dr. Dionysus Lardner, Professor of Natural Philosophy and Astronomy, University College, London, 1838 By the year 2000 we will undoubtedly have a sizable operation on the Moon, we will have achieved a manned Mars landing, and it’s entirely possible we will have flown with men to the outer planets. Dr. Wernher von Braun, 1969

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redicting the future is a dicey business. In the words of Yogi Berra, “The future ain’t what it used to be.” Said another way, predictions of the future are products of the zeitgeist–the intellectual, moral, and cultural mindset of a given era, which is shaped by the technologies of the time. Technological advances have a way of altering that mindset and recalibrating views of the future. Indeed, “technological change,” as Albert Einstein said, “is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal.” Both quotes help us Please turn to page 4


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