The Country School is an independent, coeducational, Pre-K through 8 school founded in 1934.
Right Start Blog
Professional Development
In addition to Ms. Brent's southwest adventure, several other teachers sought to broaden their horizons as educators and people this past summer.
Part of The Country School’s ethos is to love learning and never stop—no matter our age. In keeping with this, many of the faculty immersed themselves in professional development over the summer and brought back interesting stories and perspectives.
Upper School English teacher Becky Amaral attended Columbia Teacher’s College Reading and Writing Program, her second year in a row at the institution’s immersive course on how to most effectively teach writing to students. (Hint: “Teach the writer, not the writing.”) She and 5th grade teacher Kim Johnson gained a lot from their time there last summer, spending six hours per day for a week on small and large group classes, wherein they experienced the workshop from the student point of view, learning from mini lessons, and writing, writing, writing.
As a result, Ms. Amaral restructured the content of her English class: rather than trying to cover all four content areas (literature, grammar, writing, vocabulary) at once, she began employing an alternating strategy (literature/vocabulary and writing/grammar) so that she could cycle through three genres of writing multiple times each.
Lower School teachers Lisa Kullman, Patti Godlee, and Susan Schorr took Number Sense 101, a course geared toward rethinking the way they teach math. Verbal and object counting, cardinality, spatial relationships, and part-part-whole are just some of the concepts covered in this comprehensive look at building the foundation to mathematical thinking.
“For me, I was so impressed by what I learned last summer and the results I saw in the short time I implemented some new strategies last year that I wanted more,” said Kullman.
Upper School English teacher Chris Nittle traveled to Australia with his daughter, Sydney (a recent Country School graduate), to help run a soccer camp for 120 children in grades Kindergarten through 6th. They flew into Perth at the end of June, spent five days acclimating, and then conducted camp for five days. Nittle coaches multiple sports for The Country School, including basketball, soccer, and lacrosse.
“It was an incredible way to share our love of soccer, learn more about Australian culture, and even do a little sight-seeing,” he said.
Nittle also attended a retreat at UPenn (where he earned his Master of Science in Education from the Graduate School of Education last year) to discuss school-community partnerships, innovating for 21st century education, and other issues schools will navigate in the years ahead.
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2022 Summer Camp Guide
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