A Culture of Research and Innovation in Teaching and Learning

Teaching and learning is not just about finding the right answers. It is about asking the right questions.

Schools must continuously reflect upon and review their curriculum in order to remain effective and innovative, and to ensure that they are preparing their students for success.

Today, our faculty participated in discipline-specific professional development workshops in which they analyzed their curriculum across grade levels, looking at the sequencing and content against desired outcomes. In each area of study, faculty closely examined what we teach and why we teach it, using a framework structured around Saint David's four pillars (academics, arts, athletics, spirituality) and our mission's call for the boys to "distinguish themselves as young men of ideas and ideals, action and reflection."

Some examples: Modern language teachers spent the day with Independent Consultant and World Language Specialist Leslie M. Grahn in a session that focused on purposeful planning of language units. They left with enhanced knowledge about releasing responsibility, effective routines for guided instruction, and ways to respond to various student learning needs through formative data.

Grade One teachers brainstormed the most important skills that they teach in history and social studies classes as well as the skills that our boys should ideally possess at the beginning of first grade to be best prepared for success.

Our Grade Five Opera Lab Team, an interdisciplinary group representing music, art and English, refined the upcoming winter sessions of our year-long collaboration with the Metropolitan Opera, which will culminate in our boys' mini production of an original operatic work this March.

Concomitant with the focus on what we teach and why we teach it, is the development of a pedagogical framework that explores how we teach. This strategic initiative, which will evolve into Saint David's Teaching Boys Institute, is beginning to take shape. TBI will enable us to leverage the wisdom of our master teachers while infusing our pedagogy with groundbreaking scientific research on how boys learn best. Front and center will be a concentration on relational teaching: we know that the relationship between student and teacher is most essential to a boy's success in school.

These are exciting times at Saint David's. Our focus on the what, why, and how in teaching and learning is establishing a strong culture of research and innovation, all within the moral context at the core of our school's mission. Ut viri boni sint.

The Wisdom Within - A Matter of Trust

The Teaching Boys Initiative (TBI) is a cornerstone of Saint David’s School’s strategic vision, aimed at developing a robust framework of evidence-based best practices in boys’ education. The initiative’s primary goal is to empower educators with the knowledge, skills, habits, and dispositions of reflective practitioners, enhancing their professional growth and the overall quality of teaching and learning for boys. In TBI's new quarterly blog series, "The Wisdom Within," our faculty share stories that inform, inspire, and encourage reflective practice using evidence-based approaches in teaching and learning for boys. The following inaugural entry, "A Matter of Trust," was written by reflective practitioner and Master Teacher Tom Ryan, who has been inspiring generations of Saint David's boys for more than 53 years. A MATTER OF TRUST …but, I digress. I cannot possibly begin any writing piece, and/or class, without some digression that, as I have said to my s...

Jack Mullin '12 : Reflections on a Mom's Love

The Chapel talk tradition at Saint David's provides faculty and alumni with the opportunity to share with our boys meaningful and inspiring personal stories: their experiences, lessons learned, challenges overcome. The annual Fifth Grade Mother-Son Chapel gathers our fifth-grade boys and their mothers or mother figures for a special shared pre-Mother's Day experience; a Chapel Talk by a young alumnus who reflects upon the role his mother has played in his life. This year, we welcomed former Student Council President Jack Mullin '12. Jack's family has deep roots with school. His older brother Patrick graduated in '08 and his dad, Terry, in 1973. Jack's talk centered on the impact both his alma mater and his mother, Immy, have had on his development into the man he is today. Below are excerpts that I would like to share: "My family's multi-generational lineage is a testament to the incredible sense of community Saint David’s fosters, and I too hope I have...

Strong Values

You can feel it in the air: the indescribable yet readily recognizable excitement of the start of a new school year - in our boys, teachers, families, administrators, and staff. Below, I share excerpts from my opening letter that speak to our 2024-25 school-wide theme, "Strong Values:" "To-morrow I cease to be a puppet, and I become a boy like you and all the other boys."* We teach boys. That’s what we do. And we want our boys to think for themselves. And we want that thinking to be rooted in and guided by “strong values”—our school-wide theme this year, found in the last line of the mission’s second paragraph. In keeping with the school’s classical tradition, these strong values are shaped at Saint David’s by the cardinal and theological virtues of prudence, justice, temperance, and courage, along with faith, hope, and charity. To many Western philosophers, possession of these virtues makes a person good, happy, and thriving. Something we want for all of our sons. ...

David O'Halloran, Headmaster - Saint David's School, New York City

Search This Blog