St. Andrew's Teachers Share Their Expertise and Passion for Their Work
Posted January 13, 2012
Last Saturday, no less than 19 St. Andrew's teachers representing the school and its Center for Transformative Teaching and Learning shared their understanding of what exceptional teaching and learning should be for all students during two different programs.
On the Postoak Campus, David Brown, Scott Corkran, Tracey Goodrich, Stacy Kincaid and Glenn Whitman led the third day of the Teaching All Kinds of Minds Neurodevelopmental Learning framework workshop. Susheela Robinson and Sung Hee Kim were facilitators earlier in the workshop. The workshop participants included six St. Andrew's teachers: Lisa Anzelone, Eileen Eades, Lisa Sidel, Mickey Belcher, Christina Chalmers, Judah Brownstein, who participated in the workshop with other area educators (See attached photographs).
At the same time, at Gallaudet University, 14 St. Andrew's teachers were part of the launch of a pilot, "Teacher to Teacher" Mentor Program with Teach For America. Dale Kynoch, Natalie Adams, Maria Diaz, Chantal Cassan-Moudoud, Whitney Boykin, Gregg Ponitch, Kim O'Shaugnessy, Chuck James, Ian Kelleher, Alex Haight, Amy Helms, Frank Wagner, Phyllis Robinson and Paul Ternes were paired with second year teachers who were teaching the same classes. There is great interest in this pilot program to see if it raises the quality of instruction and performance of students as well as to see if it is a replicable program in other regions of the country.
So how does St. Andrew's and its students benefit from its teachers conducting such work? As one St. Andrew's teacher said, "the core benefit of this workshop was honoring what we know and value about instruction. By planning this, we bring to the fore the elements of our own instruction that we can easily take for granted. I learned more about my students work from having others examine my students' products."
The response from Teach for America's program leader was, "several CMs [Corps Members] came up to me afterward and said that this could be the best thing they're been involved with during their 2-year experience."
This was a great mission-driven day, as each of these educators was dedicated to exceptional teaching, learning, and service.
