DS Teachers are Life-Long Learners

Community begins with a shared vision.  At Duke School our faculty members belong to a professional learning community; together they share the vision of always becoming better at their practice.  Our highly skilled teachers work daily in a supportive and collaborative manner to deepen their understanding of curriculum, to implement new teaching practices, to learn better ways to enhance their students’ growth, and to develop a professional community where teachers learn from other teachers.  

Our teachers engage in reflective practice through divisional, team and individual goal setting, study groups, committee work, ongoing team planning, peer coaching, and mentoring. The teachers actively seek out opportunities for professional growth through weekly time set aside for sharing ideas about fine-tuning their current practice and setting goals to implement new instructional methods for their students. Through this time of working together, our teachers think systematically about their practice and learn from each other.  Our math, literacy, and project committee work allows teachers from each grade level to set curriculum goals for improvement. In addition, our curriculum committees set growth goals each year that we develop, implement, and evaluate at the end of each school year.

Our teachers are life-long learners.  They inspire in their students the virtues of a learning community: curiosity, honesty, fairness, respect, the ability to reason and consider multiple perspectives, creativity and risk-taking, and the ability to be a problem solver.  They engage in life-long learning and they recognize their obligation to work together on school wide staff development goals. When you ask teachers what they love about working at Duke School, they will state, “I love the opportunities to learn and grow with my colleagues, and the variety of staff development opportunities provided by the school.”  Our teachers’ willingness to work in continuous collaboration to develop their practice and seek solutions together is a major factor in the success of our learning community and our shared vision.  

-Sandy Gillespie

Lower School Director

October 6 Riff: Validation

From October 2—October 4, the accreditation team came, they saw and they were conquered.  Within 72 hours they interviewed groups of teachers, students, parents, board members, administrators, visited classes, and reviewed our finances. They trekked around the campus numerous times and were glad they brought comfortable shoes.  At the end, they made recommendations—we need to hire more diverse faculty members, we need to do a better job with marketing and we should think about changing our signs.  Then they started their commendations:

·      They commended the faculty for their outstanding constructivist teaching,

·      They commended the strong overall academic program,

·      They commended our project based curriculum and urged we keep it,

·      They commended the strength of the communication between school and parents,

·      They commended the school’s strong sense of community, and

·      They commended the skill and dedication of the administrative staff. 

I literally chocked up hearing Marcia Spiller, our accreditation chair (and Chair of the National Association of Independent Schools board) sharing the team’s accolades at a school-wide faculty meeting.  The team concluded that Duke School is excellent at doing the most important thing--preparing our children for their future.  One team member said he so enjoyed visiting our classrooms that the three days felt like a vacation.   It is great to have an outside group validate your program; it is even better to know our children are getting the best education has to offer.  

We gather to volunteer

As I sat in the circle at the year-end Parent Service Organization (PSO), I looked around the room at some new and some very familiar faces. This was my first PSO meeting and after seeing Jenny Wainwright in action this year, I wanted to go to her meeting. I heard about all of their accomplishments from teacher lunch breaks to the Fall Festival from the Auction to pizza delivery. I watched as they sat there quietly pleased with what they have done so far. I also watched the excitement they had for next year.

As a person with no children and having never been part of a PSO or PTA, it became very clear, very quickly that this is one of the most important aspects of a school. Who would be in charge of New Parent Night? Who would get pizza to the students on Wednesday? Who would be responsible for teacher appreciation week? Who would be in charge of community service? This is a group that at times flies under the radar but is still so vital to the community.

I left the meeting feeling compelled to help more; I left the meeting feeling that my charge was to communicate to people how important this group is as well as how rewarded they feel by what they do. At Duke School, we are a community. I think that people who come here cannot only see it but can feel it. The PSO is a great way to show your support to the school and to the countless parents that have spent years being the key volunteers.

My hope for Duke School in the coming years is to have every person in our community participate with the PSO in any way they can. Not only is the PSO a great way to help the community but also the events are great way to meet other parents. 

Let's get the volunteering started!

Earthquakes and Voicethread in 6th Grade

6^th Graders have been working on earthquakes in science.  As part of their investigation they created a building that could withstand the impact of primary, secondary, and surface seismic waves associated with an earthquake.  Students sketched and took pictures of their structure before it went on the “earthquake table” and recorded a hypothesis in Voicethread.  After the earthquake, another picture was taken and student’s then recorded a conclusion.  Many students also left comments for their peers about the structures.  This exploration not only helped students learn more about earthquakes, buildings, and structural integrity but also, demonstrated how to share and communicate their thoughts digitally.

If Voicethread does not load above you can also access it with this link: http://voicethread.com/share/1649682/

*Please note: There will be some misspellings in the Voicethread as it was used as part of the process and not an end product.