welcome to the center for teaching & learning
dedicated to the advancement of learning ABOUT US
SERVICES
In September 2009, Windward was thrilled to unveil its Center for Teaching & Learning, a three-story complex that rivals a college library and serves as Windward’s gathering place for 21st century research, writing, new media production, and scholarship across the disciplines. By creating learning environments that promote active learning, critical thinking, and collaborative learning, the CTL enriches the learning and teaching at Windward, and provides a locus for conversations within the Windward community and with our university partners. The CTL is dedicated to excellence and innovation in education.
Our service philosophy is to provide the most supportive environment for faculty and students who invest their time in scholarship and learning. By bringing together the collective talents of faculty, library staff, information and instructional technology professionals, and other school resources, the CTL supports research and classroom instruction throughout campus.
Not so long ago, a school library was most likely a oneroom schoolhouse with books piled on dusty shelves, a librarian shushing children as they scratched pencils across paper. Today’s libraries are a far cry from the small-room model. Students do not merely book-learn these days. They have multiple learning styles, process knowledge in different ways, and accept technology in ways we never dreamed. Today’s library must keep pace with those advances.
PARTNERSHIPS In collaboration with expert faculty, the CTL is developing partnerships with university centers and libraries, such as MIT, Stanford, Northwestern, UCLA, USC, Middlebury College and innovative high schools such as Exeter and Lick-Wilmerding to ensure Windward students experience a seamless transition to college.
CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT The Center for Teaching & Learning helps Windward faculty to create innovate, cross-disciplinary projects that teachers can personalize for their own classrooms.
The Windward Center for Teaching & Learning does not aim to replace the old library but seeks to retain the best of a traditional library and integrate it with new technologies and understandings of learning styles. The CTL is at the forefront of education innovation for teachers and students, and prepares our students for rigorous university study, and helps produce people who embody the School’s philosophy of being well informed, ethical, and prepared. The Center’s Co-Directors, Jim Bologna and Larisa Showalter, collaborate with universities and with experts in a variety of fields to facilitate the exchange of ideas and new educational technologies. Our goal is to pair with institutions of higher learning so that Windward students discover in high school the joy of inquiry they’ll find in college.
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research center
first floor
If the second floor of the CTL is a sanctuary for concentrated, individual study, the first floor - the Research Center - is a stimulating space of collaboration and social learning. Through our partnerships with Stanford University’s Wallenberg Hall and Emory University’s Center for Educational Technology, Windward’s Research Center features digital and modern technologies found in the best universities that help Windward students prepare for collegiate research. Computing clusters and laptops, electronic databases, digitized scholarly journals, SMARTBoards, Presentation Corners with touch-screen displays, teaming stations, and whiteboards create an interactive, social learning space. Separate study rooms with sliding glass doors mimic the features of our most spacious urban public libraries. This open space is abuzz with activity, where students are invited to work together at collaborative computing areas to explore, discuss, and share ideas. The Research Center is the hub of intellectual collaboration at Windward School.
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reading room
second floor
The Reading Room is an oasis for the Windward community, designed to be a warm and inviting setting – the best of a traditional library. It provides space for reflection, contemplation, and individual pursuits, where students can curl up with a book in a comfortable chair and read poetry by the fireplace. The Reading Room serves as refuge to inspire students. This light-filled space, whose walls are lined with literature, ensures the affordances of the outdoors are pulled inside with the Reading Deck, a patio that complements the room, enhancing the learning environment for students and creating connections throughout the campus. The Reading Room exudes an almost palpable sense of scholarship.
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digital media commons
lower level
The Digital Media Studio houses a multimedia-intensive classroom studio, broadcast studio, graphic design and motion video gallery, and a state-ofthe-art video editing lab. By working closely with faculty, students develop analytical and creative competencies in the use of images, sound, video, text, and interactive media. The Digital Media Studio is a vibrant center for innovation and experimentation supported by specially-trained staff, providing leading-edge new media tools and a unique set of facilities to enable the exploration of rich, immersive visual, aural, and interactive media for teaching, learning, collaboration, and creative expression. It is a living laboratory, encouraging risk-taking and exploration and is supported with a myriad of technologies that allow students to create documentaries, news stories, Web publications, oral histories, designs, and short films. This new language of expression, which is becoming part of our vernacular, will be required in areas ranging from research, publication, and teaching. The Studio serves as an incubator on campus where students and faculty explore what it means to be a storyteller, scholar, and artist in the 21st century.
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research support WINDWARD ONLINE LIBRARY CATALOG
student resources
Windward provides access to the Windward Library holdings; you can also now search our partner libraries to access over 250,000 books and periodicals through our interlibrary loan program, available from home and school.
LAPL CATALOG AND ONLINE DATABASES Los Angeles Public Library memberships are available to every 7th grader at Windward, and resources include comprehensive information and entertainment resources, Web site indexes, extensive databases, virtual reference librarian, downloadable audiobooks, and much more. Databases include AccessScience, Biographical databases, Newspapers and Archives, Census Data, Literature Resource Center, Research Library, Grangers World of Poetry, Grove Dictionary of Art, Grove Dictionary of Musicians, Oxford English Dictionary, and World Book Encyclopedia.
AMERICAN GOVERNMENT
AP MULTIMEDIA ARCHIVE The Associated Press Photo archive contains over 500,000 images from 1844 to the present.
ARTSTOR ARTstor is a searchable database of more than 1,000,000 digital images and associated catalog data. ARTstor covers many time periods and cultures and documents the fields of architecture, painting, sculpture, photography, decorative arts, and design, and many other forms of visual culture. Users can search, view, and download images.
ABC-CLIO Schools’ highly praised American Government database provides impeccable CHICAGO MANUAL OF STYLE ONLINE content, helpful study tools, and innovative ways of matching current events with enduring themes Online edition of The Chicago Manual of Style. of American politics and public policy at all levels— from grassroots activism to the White House. THE ECONOMIST Authoritative weekly newspaper focusing on international politics and business news and opinion. AMERICAN HISTORY From the first explorers in the New World to the ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA OLINE developments in today’s headlines, ABC-CLIO Schools’ authoritative American History database A searchable encyclopedia with full-text articles, a investigates the people, events, and themes of our world atlas, the Merriam-Webster’s English-Spanish dictionary, and an extensive multimedia library nation’s evolution. which can be searched by keyword, subject, phrase, or question.
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research support student resources JSTOR: ONLINE JOURNAL ARCHIVE The JSTOR archive holds the complete digitized back runs of core scholarly journals, starting with the very first issues, some dating as far back as the 1600s. New titles and disciplines are being added regularly. Issues of journals are never “out”; they are always accessible, and in excellent condition. The capacity for search across disciplines opens up vast possibilities for scholarship and research.
GOOGLE DOCS & SPREADSHEETS Students and teachers create documents and spreadsheets then collaborate with each other.
GOOGLE SITES
NATURE Nature Publication Group (NPG) is the world’s best science and medicine on your desktop. NPG publishes journals and online databases across the life, physical and applied sciences and, most recently, clinical medicine.
Google Sites is an online application that makes creating a group web site as easy as editing a THE NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS document. With Google Sites, students can Online archives of The New York Review of Books. quickly gather a variety of information in one place -- including videos, calendars, presentations, NOODLEBIB attachments, comments, and text -- and easily share it for viewing or editing with a small group or Powerful online note-taking software that helps ensure comprehensive and accurate MLA- and APAclass. style bibliography.
ISSUES: UNDERSTANDING CONTROVERSY AND SOCIETY Research 150 of today’s most significant social issues, accessing 7,000 articles and 4,500 multimedia primary sources.
JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL EDUCATION The Journal of Chemical Education delivers a wide range of interesting articles and activities useful in both the classroom and laboratory.
PROQUEST PLATINUM A periodical database that provides articles from publications including New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, plus over 1300 other journals and magazines.
ROSETTA STONE A multimedia language-learning program available for French, Japanese and Spanish classes that provides listening, speaking, reading, and writing reinforcement.
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research support student resources SCIENCE Science Magazine is the world’s leading journal of original scientific research, global news, and commentary, published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
STATE GEOGRAPHY
just inform—it helps develop students’ information literacy, critical thinking skills, and understanding of global issues.
WORLD HISTORY: ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL ERAS This addition to ABC-CLIO Schools’ award-winning series of subscription databases covers human history in all corners of the globe—from prehistoric times to the beginnings of the Renaissance—with an unmatched collection of online reference entries, primary sources, interactive lessons, study tools, and librarian and teacher support features.
Whether focusing on an individual state or on the nation as a whole, ABC-CLIO Schools’ State Geography database offers teachers, librarians, and students an unbeatable combination of authoritative research sources, standards-aligned lessons and activities, and engaging current events features—all your students’ state geography needs WORLD HISTORY: THE MODERN ERA in one place. Spanning the globe from 1500 to the present, this comprehensive, award-winning database enhances any world history collection by combining a wealth of TURNITIN research sources, with overviews and activities that Recognized worldwide as the standard in online provide context. plagiarism prevention, Turnitin helps educators and students take full advantage of the internet’s educational potential. VOICETHREAD FOR EDUCATION Ed.VoiceThread is a place for creating and collaborating on digital stories and documentaries, UNITED STATES AT WAR practicing and documenting language skills, exploring Developed by a team of military historians and geography and culture, solving math problems, or expert educators, this online resource provides access to authoritative reference content, pertinent simply finding and honing student voices. primary sources, and a wealth of historical insight and analysis on the important themes and consequences of all major U.S.-involved wars, from the founding of the country to the present.
WORLD GEOGRAPHY Comprehensive, current, authoritative, accessible, and aligned to your curriculum, this flagship collection of geography resources does more than
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technology support student resources
CAMPUS CONNECTIVITY
STUDENT INFORMATION SESSIONS
The Windward School campus is connected to the Internet via a high-speed 12MB connect that is content-filtered by WebSense. The campus has a 10-gigabit backbone with GB connections to all classrooms. A secure wireless a/b/g network covers 95% of the campus.
Windward School uses a series of student information systems to display announcements, campus news, and student artwork. The systems are installed in the lobby of the Palms building, the first floor of the Center for Teaching & Learning, the Life Science lab, and the dining Pavilion.
CLASSROOM PRESENTATION EQUIPMENT Windward School’s philosophy of presentation technology is to equip the classroom with technology appropriate to the curriculum taught in the space. Most of our classrooms have Interactive Whiteboards and 95% of classrooms have some form of projection capabilities.
WINDWARD WEB SITE As a member of our online community, you can check your student’s class schedule, class syllabus, homework assignments, and class information. Members can see up-to-theminute school calendars and sports schedules, download important forms, and view photos and videos online. Students also receive weekly e-newsletters.
COMPUTER LABS Windward School has over 250 computers available for student use, including one general-use computer lab and specialty labs for language, Media, Visual Arts, Music, and Science.
STUDENT SERVICES Students are provided GoogleDocs accounts to store academic work and collaborate with classmates. In addition, every student receives a FirstClass email account to communicate with teachers and other students at Windward.
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artstor art, architecture, photogrpahy & artifacts DESCRIPTION ARTstor is a digital library of over one million outstanding images and artifacts from museums, libraries, universities, and private collections from around the world. As a secondary school charter member, Windward has incorporated its own private collection and provides students and faculty images of art, architecture and archeology viewable by collection, category, and class.
DIGITAL LIBARY FEATURES • Analysis of images: Image viewer provides an enlarged high-resolution to can zoom in on details, pan to different sections, and rotate the image 360 degrees. • Image Descriptions: Descriptive information about each image such as creator, title, object date, subject headings, and more. • Image Groups: Images can be grouped with commentary based on faculty expertise. • Compare and Contrast: Two images can be displayed at one time in order to compare and contrast two artifacts. • Charter Collection: Documents artistic traditions across many times and cultures and embraces architecture, painting, sculpture, photography, decorative arts, and design, and many other forms of visual culture.
FACULTY PARTNERSHIP Faculty Partners: Jeff Miller, Daniel Gutierrez, Larisa Showalter, and Tony de los Reyes Departments: Visual Arts and History Courses: Studio Art I, II, and III European History AP, Art History AP and The Rise and Fall of Modernism “ARTstor primary sources such as paintings and photographs of artifacts from around the world give my students easy access to materials that can serve simply as illustrations to a lecture and can also provide points of comparison for discussion.” − Tony de los Reyes “Having a resource with a deep collection of artwork from around the globe and from all aspects of art history is an invaluable teaching aid. We use all types of historical and cross-cultural artwork to illustrate curricular concepts and stimulate students about how to make and improve their own artwork.” − Jeff Miller
COLLECTIONS INCLUDED IN ARTSTOR • Art History Survey Collection • Carnegie Arts Collection • Huntington Archive of Asian Art • Illustrated Bartsch • Mellon International Dunhuang Archive • MoMA Architecture and Design • Native American Art and Culture , Smithsonian Institution • Schlesinger History of Women in America • Windward School Student Art Collection
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self. identity. monologue. telling stories through theatre DESCRIPTION In the Self, Identity, and Monologue project, Windward theater students work with other disciplines to develop moving, engaging monologues based on their own lives as teenagers that they later perform. Self, Identity, and Monologue, part of the Student Publication Initiative, engages students in purposeful writing and theater genre studies. As lead faculty member Jordan Fox notes, “the personal monologue project gives the theater students a chance to express their own unique interpretation of the teenage experience.” By examining monologues, collaborating with professional playwrights and actors, and sharing their work in a printed and DVD publication, students find their artistic voices in their own community.
CURRICULUM FEATURES • The Writing Process and Genre Study: Based on the research of Peter Elbow, Lucy Calkins, and Nancy Atwell, students worked with the writing peers to receive feedback in order to create a more compelling monologue. • Professional Connections: Jim Louckes, playwright and actor, performed his original work Cemetery Golf and mentored students on how to effectively write a “one-man show.”
• Connecting to College: Windward’s College Counselors discussed the connection between “personal statements” in college essays and theatrical monologues. • GoogleDocs and Editing: Student monologues are published into an online collaboration and writing tool where students in the advanced theater classes mentored students in the beginning and intermediate theater classes. • New Media and Performance: Every student performed their monologue which in turn became a DVD publication.
FACULTY PARTNERSHIPS Faculty Partners: Jordan Fox and Molly Branch Department: Performing Arts Courses: Theater I, Theater II, and Advanced Theater “This project allowed me to see how people view themselves and what moments have significance to them. It was so interesting to see what others picked. For people I knew, I got to see a different side of them and for people I didn’t know, it was interesting to see the assumptions I had made about them. − Sarah Beth, Student “The Self, Identity, and Monologue project let theater students express their own unique interpretation of the teenage experience. This project was successful on many levels, but two specific things stand out: 1) the students’ capacity to share and perform meaningful stories and experiences from their lives with their peers and 2) the Center for Teaching & Learning’s guidance in pairing the raw content of each specific project with sophisticated and easy to use tips to communicate with one another even more through technology. Because of the CTL, the students not only could refine their own work but connect with other members of the classes creating an even stronger theater community at Windward.” − Jordan Fox, Performing Arts
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voices from the past Personalizing history through written correspondence DESCRIPTION
research of Peter Elbow, Lucy Calkins, and Nancy Atwell, students wrote compelling, personal, an intimate letters In Windward’s Voices from the Past, 8th grade history with their partners about a particular historical moment, students study historical letters, photographs, and which helps reinforce their knowledge of history. memorabilia from figures such as Frederick Douglass, • Library of Congress’ American Memory Project: A digital Harriet Beacher Stowe, and Andrew Jackson, then write library of written and spoken words, sound recordings, still and re-imagine themselves as historical participants. and moving images, prints, maps, and sheet music that Voices from the Past draws upon the tradition of letter document the American experience. This repository serves writing and diaries that historians depend on to reveal as a digital record of American history and chronicles events, differences between our own time and a historical moment by sharing letters based on historical documents. people, places, and ideas that continue to shape America. • ARTstor Digital Library: A visual resource of more than one These lively exchanges encourage dialogue between million primary source materials, ranging from postcards these writers and readers, for imagined characters that reveal the lived experience of 19th century Americans. As to historical photographs from world renowned collections such as the George Eastman House Archives, maps and historian Steven Stowe comments, “History is shaped by travel photography from Cornell University and the Library the contingencies of distance and time between writer and recipient” and this curriculum assists young historians of congress. • GoogleDocs and Editing: Students letters are published personalize their knowledge of a significant event in into an online collaboration and writing tool where students American history. Reading, writing, and analyzing these personal letters provides a valuable window into the past exchanged this historical. • Google Sites: Students were able to share their work with while teaching the 21st century skill of storytelling. their writing partner, classmates, other classes, and the entire Windward community by using a collaborative wiki space.
FACULTY PARTNERSHIP Faculty Partners: Larisa Showalter Department: History Course: American History 8
CURRICULUM FEATURES • The Eyewitness Historical Approach: Based on the research and practice of Joan Broadsky Schur and Steven Stowe, students work with their historical fictionalized writing partners and incorporate secondary and primary sources to construct a portrait of events such as The Trail of Tears, the Civil War, and Abolition. • The Writing Process and Genre Study: Based on the
“With a framework of writing a series of historical fiction letters, our 8th graders stepped into the lives of different people from the early-to-mid 1800s. The writing of these letters enlivened the students’ historical imaginations, especially with the creation of their characters, yet they were also grounded in research on social history and important political events of the time. Working in GoogleDocs allowed for collaboration and the excitement of receiving their partner’s letters in a modern way.” − Larisa Showalter, History Department
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writing fellows conversation, writing, and mentorship DESCRIPTION In Windward’s Writing Fellows program, dedicated 11th grade students work one-on-one with a writing mentor an experienced Windward faculty member - to develop a cogent research paper over the course of several months. The program helps students grow as writers by treating writing as a unique opportunity to explore ideas, share work with dedicated and knowledgeable readers, and develop a voice with clarity and poise. Fellows adhere to the belief that good writing derives from a sound process and is best accomplished through extensive conversation and written critique. Writing Fellows help students conceptualize writing and learning as a partnership, where effective habits of mind are formed and new ideas can be discovered along the way.
CURRICULUM FEATURES • Mentorship: Founded upon the premise that writing is a lifelong process. • The Writing Process and Genre Study: Based on the research and practice of Neal Learner, Muriel Harris, Pamela Childers, Jeanne Simpson, Christina Murphy, Brad Hughes, helps students become more effective and confident writers.
• A Collaborative Approach: a methodical approach that is multi-faceted, flexible, and individualized and that respects the voice of the young writer. • Responsive to the needs of the writer: a process that targets the growth of a writer by helping them organize a complex argument; marshal evidence effectively; handle evidence that contradicts an argument; acknowledges how ideas are formed and articulated by sourcing materials; developing a coherent thesis; and other tailored responses to each student.
FACULTY PARTNERSHIP Faculty Partners: Ryan Staude, Bud Pell, Stephen Johnson, Tony de los Reyes, Rob Latimer Department: History Course: American History 11 “The Writing Fellows program has aided the 11th grade research project tremendously. Students work with faculty mentors to help shape and craft their written pieces while helping students discover their voices as writers. Students develop relationships with faculty that carry on past the project.” − Ryan Staude, History Department Chair “Windward teachers and students go above and beyond the typical, secondaryschool classroom relationship. The oneon-one editorial meetings allow teacher and student to develop a mentor-like relationship that is actually much closer to a college or even graduate school dynamic. It’s a privilege to watch students actively engage in the writing process and gain self-assurance and mastery and think of themselves as writers by the end of the process.” − Stephen Johnson, Director of Communications
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we media political interest groups & public opinion DESCRIPTION The We Media project engages 7th grade government students in researching, analyzing, and debating current political issues such as gun control, stem cell research, and wars abroad. Students write letters to their senators advocating positions on issues and make multimedia presentations to the class in support of their views, thus development academic skills such as researching critical reading, writing, public speaking, and new media presentation skills. The We Media digital library study environment resulted from a desire to expand students’ understanding of contemporary political and civic issues. Based on the rise of political advocacy groups using information communication technologies, the digital library and research environment provides a rich resource for student to research, analyze, and act on issues that are important to their community. The digital library features a rich multimedia archive of primary and secondary sources, including historical documents and photos.
DIGITAL LIBRARY AND RESEARCH FEATURES • Structured Inquiry: Students gain a rich understanding of issues such as the Endangered Species Act, the Patriot Act, affirmative action, and internet privacy by examining political and historical contexts. • Media Literacy: Provides an environment and curriculum for students to read and write, speak and listen, critique, and analyze, as well as create and shape their own message using a multimedia toolkit. • Civic engagement with senators. • Research Resources: Students are introduced to the importance of information literacy by knowing how to identify, locate, manage, evaluate, and use reliable resources effectively. • Los Angeles Public Library Partnership: Students are provided with LAPL membership cards, which allow them to access an extensive collection of online databases and materials from branch libraries.
• Images: Associated Press archival photographs provide students with imagery and a context for the case study.
FACULTY PARTNERSHIP Faculty Partners: Eric Mandel, Bud Pell, and Dirk Binkley Department: History Course: History 7, Introduction to American Government “Our 7th grade students will come away with a better understanding of the important social and political issues facing the country and the power and influence of interest groups in the political process. At the same time, they also learn how to find relevant information, how to determine what information is reliable, and how to give credit to their sources appropriately.” − Eric Mandel “I am so pleased that training in historical research and writing is becoming indispensable in developing analytical thinkers and coherent, persuasive writers. These skills are requisite for success in whichever fields students choose. Windward’s step-by-step approach to historical research - at the core of what historians do - sets our students on the path to real, active learning. Perhaps most importantly, it reinforces that learning is a lifelong, self-guided process.” − Bud Pell
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