Looking Ahead: Sharing a Toolbox for Virtual Teaching and Learning

As we settle into the summer with an eye to the upcoming school year, our faculty are participating in a series of professional development workshops, led by Jamie MacNeille and Nora Sundar. Reflecting upon and sharing what worked best in our spring distance learning platform is helping us to evolve the delivery of our curriculum in ways that amplify relationships, increase student engagement, and promote student agency regardless of the platform--virtual or in-person.

During yesterday's "Toolbox Share," faculty shared new tools and techniques they employed to attain several educational outcomes, among these: an app that enables boys to write, illustrate, and narrate - in Spanish - books about animals, which they can then share with each other; iMovie tutorials that boys can rewatch to deepen understanding and practice new art skills; circle talks where boys come together to share their thoughts and feelings; podcasts that engage boys' imaginations and speak to different learning styles and interests; and use of breakout rooms to support small group collaboration.

I've always been impressed by the ingenuity, creativity, and dedication of our faculty, but never more so than during this past spring. Their generous give-and-take sharing of new best practice approaches yesterday underscores their collegiality and deep commitment to our boys' education and well-being.

As I've written previously, this upcoming school year will require us to be nimble and able to pivot quickly from in-person, to hybrid, to virtual learning. In fact, throughout the year we will always deliver a simultaneous live streaming session of in-person classes, forever linking tech and pedagogy. This is a good thing; we know that when done correctly, the marriage of technology and pedagogy can boost learning. In so doing, we are making an investment not only for these unusual times. Moving forward, this approach will augment and enrich our program of studies, increasing the student ownership and intrinsic motivation essential to building lifelong learners.

"The Wisdom Within" - Building Student Motivation Through Choice

In the third entry of our Teaching Boys Initiative quarterly blog series, Master Teacher Jim Barbieri explores how providing boys with agency to choose builds motivation and enhances learning. BUILDING STUDENT MOTIVATION THROUGH CHOICE By the time I was eight years old, I had become completely absorbed in all things baseball. Living in New York was perfect for a baseball fan; although I was a Mets fan thanks to my idol, Tom Seaver, I was also interested in learning about all the amazing Yankees stars of yore. How could I call myself a baseball fan if I didn’t know the history and records of stars like Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and Yogi Berra? I loved collecting baseball cards and reading the career statistics of each player on the back. Looking through my collection one day, I discovered that I shared a birthday with the legendary Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Roberto Clemente. At eight years old, I was crushed to hear the news that he had died tragically in a plane crash while trying to ...

"The Wisdom Within" - The Superpower of Performance

In the following entry of our Teaching Boys Initiative blog series, Saint David's Director of Music and Master Teacher Jeffrey Moore explores how participating in performances and productions build transformative competencies, transmit values, and inspire boys to excel. Jose Antonio Abreu, one of the leading educators in classical music and the founder of El Sistema said this: “Music has to be recognized as an agent of social development in the highest sense, because it transmits the highest values — solidarity, harmony, mutual compassion. And it can unite an entire community and express sublime feelings.”¹ At Saint David’s School, performance begins in the very first years. Each class, from Pre-K through Eighth Grade, presents their work to an audience of peers and parents, whether it is a story, a skit, a play, a lecture, or a musical presentation. But the increasing complexity and demands on our boys to push themselves to another level is the key to their development and succes...

"The Wisdom Within" - Writing and Thinking

In our continuing efforts through the Teaching Boys Initiative at Saint David's School ™ , one of our visiting scholars, Dr. Ric Campbell, engages in ongoing reflective practice with our faculty. Below, Dr. Campbell shares an example of a freewriting initiative that was born from the collaboration between literature teacher Jamie MacNeille and history teacher Drew Burton, who sought to address forms of student engagement in their respective disciplines. WRITING and THINKING: A Learning Community Engaged in the Knowledge-Making Practices of the Disciplines “Whoa, this freewriting is really helpful !” The above quote by a sixth-grade literature student captures a revelatory moment; he has discovered the wealth of ideas at the end of his pen as he writes to describe what he is noticing in the novel the class is reading and discovers that what he notices leads to questions, and that those questions, in turn, lead to bigger ideas. “All there is to thinking is seeing something not...

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

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