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Recognizing FACULTY

TEACHERS DEDICATED TO CONTINUING STUDIES

The Lower School Math faculty attended a Mathodology Institute led by Singapore math experts Dr. Yeap Ban Har and Sarah
Schaefer. The teachers employed a teaching method called “Lesson Study”, which is currently incorporated into the curriculum.
“Lesson Study” is a cycle of instruction in which teachers work closely to formulate goals for students’ learning and long term
development, collaborate and plan a research lesson designed to bring goals to life, conduct the lesson within a classroom,
reflect on and discuss the evidence gathered during the lesson, and improve the lesson, unit, and instruction. Attending faculty
included Julie Erickson, Jacquie Flynn, Liz Kenney, Anita Meadows, Linda Nelson, David Rogers, Michele Scales, Mina
Spadaro, and Gail Voyles.

After completing their Google Level 1 Certification, Kelly Fykes and Carolina Ramirez travelled to the ISTE (International
Society for Technology in Education) conference in Denver at the end of June. They attended sessions on Twitter, micro-writing,
gamifying your classroom, becoming a Google Ninja, and incorporating virtual reality into the classroom. Upon returning to
school, they have been implementing the new skills and knowledge that they learned in their classrooms with their students.

In a world where more than 1.3 billion people speak Chinese, a student
who is both fluent in English and Chinese will be able to communicate
with half of the world’s population. As a response to this ever-increasing
demand, Dr. Bao created a Chinese Adventure Camp for the students
aged from 1 to 5 years old. The camp focused on speech, gesture, body
language, games, singing, dancing, music, technology, cooking, etc.

SES student interest in attending college abroad has increased. Because
of this, U.K. schools now have a greater presence in the U.S.
Mrs. Sternberg and Ms. Bixel joined the “College Tour in the U.K. and
Ireland” offered by EF Educational Tours. They visited Kings College,
London School of Economics, Oxford University, University of Manchester,
Durham University, University of St Andrews, University of Edinburgh,
University of Glasgow, Trinity College, and National University of Ireland.

Clockwise from
top left: Kelly Fykes, This summer’s stipend allowed Mr. Hurley to not only improve his
Dr. Bao, Mr. Hurley proprietary resources for students, but also create new, dynamic methods
to teach intricate math concepts. One example is “GeoGebra,” a dynamic
mathematics software that helps students to visualize and further explore
challenging concepts, and it is accompanied by fully produced videos of
him working through example problems.

Mina Spadaro, Margy Kulczycki and Paula Hollingsworth attended the Orton-Gillingham training program, where they
sharpened their skills with phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary development, fluency, and comprehension strategies.
This multi-sensory program enhances the School’s reading program, increases reading proficiency and decoding skills for
students in the primary grades and focuses on spelling skills, which aid in the development of reading and writing proficiency.

Mrs. Chris Stephenson attended the ATLIS Early Career and Aspiring Technology Directors Institute, where she continued to
build technology leadership skills, and developed a personal learning network to connect with other independent school
academic technology directors.

10 | Watermark FALL 2016