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Showing posts from January, 2026

"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...

Reflective Practice Is Best Practice

Our faculty are doing groundbreaking work leveraging our new professional development model, the Teaching Boys Initiative at Saint David’s School™ (TBI) to enhance their teaching, optimize our boys’ engagement and learning, and continue their professional growth as lifelong learners. In so doing, we ensure the use of mission-driven, evidence-based tools and strategies in the classroom.  At last Friday’s PA Meeting, Director of Teaching and Learning Jamie MacNeille, TBI Visiting Scholar Ric Campbell, Research Coordinator Tori Gilbert, and Director of Supervision and Evaluation Nora Sundar were joined by seven faculty members across disciplines and grades (Jarrett Culotta, Sophie Firestein, Leslie Geary, Frankie White Levin, Kevin Neylon, Cathy O’Neill, and Kate Samuels ), who have engaged in reflective practice within the three branches of TBI: Onboarding/Mentoring, Supervision and Evaluation, and Research Programs, which all operate under our common, customized professional develop...