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.

Resilience in the Teaching of Languages

Above: The Nerf microphone ball enables boys learning remotely to hear their classmates well. The pandemic has challenged educators to reinvent and reimagine units of study to keep learning engaging, regardless of how it is delivered. The following article, written for Saint David’s Magazine by our Modern Languages Chair Dr. Victoria Gilbert and Lower School Spanish teacher Flor Berman, addresses how this was done in the Spanish immersion language program at Saint David's. Ms. Berman and Dr. Gilbert, recipient of the New York State Association of Foreign Language Teachers' Ruth E. Wasley Distinguished Teacher Award, presented on the topic at NYSAIS’s Flexible Classroom Conference last summer. How Spanish Classes Have Bounced Back Resiliency implies an ability to bounce back, but as teachers working with the youngest learners in the school, we would reframe resiliency as the opportunity to reimagine. Whether boys are learning through a face-to-face experience or through the med

The Role of Faith in Social-Emotional Learning and Psychological Well-Being

The following article by our School Psychologist, Dr. Michael Schwartzman, appears in the current issue of Saint David's Magazine : During one of my first observations in a Saint David’s classroom 15 years ago, I witnessed two first grade boys in a verbal altercation. Although it was contained just between the two boys, their observant teacher had them talk it through and then shake hands on being in a better place for having done so. I was very impressed, and still am, with this approach that the school takes many times throughout the day. It helps establish a firm idea of how to behave, especially in social situations where emotions can be stirred and run high. Through this experience repeated consistently day in and day out, better, more productive ways of engaging become increasingly integrated by the boys as they develop socially and emotionally in interaction with each other. As the School Psychologist, I spend a lot of time thinking about the touch points for student and t

Storytelling Demonstrates Understanding

Their time had arrived. As the lights dimmed in our Otto-Bernstein Theatre, the astrophysicists, a mix of jitters and excitement, awaited their opportunity to share insights and stories about the workings of the universe. Which planets might support life? Is there water on Mars? What are Dwarf Planets? "Let's take a look at our closest neighbor, Venus," invited one presenter, before revealing that the planet - while ideal in proximity - has surface temperatures of 900 degrees F: "Imagine - standing on the surface would be like being burned alive!" Later that same day, in our Graham lunchroom, early 20th century immigrants of all ages from Italy, China, Ireland, Russia, among other countries, waited, with hope and determination, their turn to be interviewed for admittance to America. It wasn't going to be easy. They would be asked pointed, potentially life-altering questions by various processors. "What's that cough? It doesn't sound good,&qu

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

Search This Blog