Professional Development

Steward faculty regularly engage in professional development to keep up with best practices and trends, meet peers in their fields, and bring fresh ideas back to the classroom. This summer, Steward teachers engaged in a variety of professional development. 

Lower School Innovation Specialist Suzanne Casey, Upper School Social Studies Teacher Eliza McGehee, and Middle School English Teacher Danny Spiziri attended the National Association of Independent Schools and Close Up Foundation’s Civil Discourse Lab in Washington, D.C. The conference, “Building a Plan to Foster Constructive Conversations During Election Season,” offered participants a framework to foster open, authentic dialogue around pressing cultural and political issues. 

Ms. Casey said, “The lessons we learned will help us further define how civil discourse can be woven into the Steward experience across divisions.” She added, “Civil discourse is a core value of the Steward community, and this year’s schoolwide theme is ‘dialogue.’ When we find ways to respectfully communicate with each other, we allow ourselves the humility to change our minds as we become more informed.” 

World Languages Teacher Claudia Ramirez spent 10 days in Rouen, France this summer learning how to speak French. At the Alliance Française, she and nine other students from around the world immersed themselves in the intensive course.

“It was the most wonderful experience,” said Ms. Ramirez, who teaches Spanish. She said she is grateful that the trip was made possible as a result of her designation as the 2024 Paul R. Cramer Award recipient. The award includes a grant to use toward professional development. 

The best part of the experience, said Ms. Ramirez, was “thinking and speaking in a different language. I ask my students to do that every day in class and when they travel internationally with me.” When she wasn’t in class, Ms. Ramirez traveled throughout the Normandy region of France, including Étretat, Giverny, and Mont Saint-Michel. “I will be forever thankful for this opportunity,” she said. 

Each year, Middle School English Teacher Mary Hopkins assigns her seventh-grade students “Twelfth Night,” one of Shakespeare’s most beloved plays, as well as some of the Bard’s other works. In June, Ms. Hopkins traveled to England to study Shakespeare with the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC). The prestigious RSC performs 20 productions a year in the United Kingdom and internationally. During the five-day course, Ms. Hopkins and 21 other participants lodged at Wroxton College, located on the campus of Fairleigh Dickinson University. 

 

“The focus of the course was to use ‘rehearsal room techniques’ to teach Shakespeare’s plays,” explained Ms. Hopkins. “The premise of the course was that reading these plays in the classroom is not enough. Leading students through acting exercises and scene work deepens their understanding of Shakespeare’s genius, improves their vocabulary and writing skills, and boosts their confidence.” 

A field trip to Stratford Upon Avon included a tour of Shakespeare’s birthplace, a performance and talk-back with the actors, and a presentation from the education department of the Royal Shakespeare Company. “I returned to Steward with practical techniques that I can use in my classroom and a renewed commitment to the beauty and genius of the Bard,” said Ms. Hopkins. 

School Counselor Jentae Scott-Mayo attended the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) Leadership Development Institute, where she presented the Pinnacle Award to another state school counselor association as a member of the ASCA National Advisory Committee. She was also an invited speaker at the ASCA National Conference on increasing representation in school counseling leadership for school counselors of color.  

 

In addition, Mrs. Scott-Mayo created a Steward summer grant research opportunity to collaborate with local independent school counselors. The research will offer counselors new ways to provide support services to their school communities. Lastly, Mrs. Scott-Mayo was featured on a podcast for the Cameron K. Gallagher Foundation to educate parents about the process involved when seeking mental health resources for their children.  

The Art of Poetry 

Upper School English Teacher Stephanie Arnold participated in a webinar, “Selected Poems of Emily Dickinson,” through Saint John’s College. 

“The webinar provided me with a great opportunity to talk with other people who are deeply interested in Dickinson’s work,” said Ms. Arnold, who teaches Dickinson in her American Literature and AP Literature courses. “I love her enigmatic poetry and the odd rhythms she uses, which create an opportunity to understand the subjects of her poems in fresh and surprising ways.” 

Last year, inspired by Dickinson, Ms. Arnold and her students borrowed elements of the poet’s style to compose snippets of poems on scraps of paper and the backs of envelopes. “Then we headed to the Bryan Innovation Lab to pick flowers to press, just as Dickinson the naturalist did in the pages of her herbarium,” she said. 

The webinar gave Ms. Arnold “great empathy for my students by helping me to remember how essential it is for the classroom to be a safe space to share ideas,” she noted. Professional development “enlivens my practice by helping to keep me inspired and intellectually challenged.”

Upper School Mathematics Teachers Karen Hudson and Scottie O’Neill participated in a webinar titled EFFL 101 (Experience First, Formalize Later). “EFFL is an approach to math that encourages trust, collaboration, and dialogue; it values learning over knowing,” explained Ms. Hudson. “Students work together to construct their own understanding of new content before the teacher helps them arrive at formal definitions and formulas.”

Webinar participants teamed up in small groups to collaborate on math activities to experience the flow of a lesson, practice good questioning, and communicate clearly.

“This is the same framework Ms. O’Neill and I use in our Algebra 2 and pre-calculus classes,” said Ms. Householder. “It helps us foster a more collaborative, thought-driven approach to teaching and learning.” 

Ms. O’Neill, Upper School Science Teacher Kristen Householder, and Upper School English Teacher Peter Hurley teamed up to build a new advisory framework. The trio worked with Upper School administration to amend the weekly advisory schedule. 

“We now meet on Wednesdays instead of Fridays,” said Ms. O’Neill. “Making this change results in more opportunities for advisories to meet since Fridays are often busy with special programming, holidays, and half days that would interfere with advisory. More time within advisory helps foster relationships between faculty and students.”

The three also developed key goals for students in each grade level: grade 9 — finding a balance between responsibility and freedom; grade 10 — building relationships like an adult; grade 11 — becoming the best version of yourself; and grade 12 — considering your legacy and building it. The goals will help facilitate more intentional conversations between advisors and advisees.

Ms. O’Neill added, “We also purchased a deck of cards and other materials so that advisors can engage with their groups through play. This helps groups get comfortable with each other. It's also a lot of fun!”

Grade 5 Teacher Heidi Bailey took part in three summertime professional development opportunities. 

The Reading and Writing Connections Advanced Institute with Teachers College at Columbia University virtual event gave Ms. Bailey a fresh perspective on classroom  tools. “I discovered books that support diversity; learned about the advantages of encouraging close reading [reading a text several times to understand it more deeply]; and explored the use of picture books to boost comprehension and writing skills for celebrating different cultures and diversity,” she said. 

As a result of this experience, “I have used more picture books for writing and for morning meetings to promote character education, diversity, empathy, and classroom norms,” said Ms. Bailey. “I also shared new books with my colleagues.” 

When she participated in an Orton-Gillingham Morphology Plus class through the Institute for Multi-Sensory Learning, Ms. Bailey learned how to teach morphology (prefixes, roots, and suffixes) through a researched, systematic approach. Finally, Ms. Bailey collaborated with Grade 2 Teacher Lyn Lunsford to audit the current Lower School writing curriculum with a focus on genre writing and building lifelong writers.

“We shared our ideas with Lower School Director Becky Groves and Lower School Academic Dean Lisa Moore and look forward to deepening our practices,” she said. “Professional development is important to me because it is vital to stay current with innovative ways to teach reading and writing. It also rejuvenates me and inspires excitement for the new school year.”