Summer Renewal for Faculty

 

Spanish teacher Jill McCulley spent a week in Spain on a Faculty Enrichment Grant, traveling around Vigo, Santiago de Compostela, and A Coruña in the northwestern region of Spain, an area of historical interest she had never explored. McCulley then spent time in Sevilla, taking language teaching workshops at the Centro Universitario EUSA (Estudios Universitarios y Superiores de Andalucía) and enjoying cultural activities and excursions with other workshop participants.

 

“I realized that for the first time in years, I was surrounded by the language and culture and therefore completely immersed,” said McCulley. “I spoke Spanish for hours on end, learning new words and expressions, meeting people, exploring places, and learning about the different cities and their history.”

 

Science teacher Chris Dalton spent a week in Nantucket Harbor, collaborating on a project with researchers at Northeastern University's Marine Science Center in Nahant. He supported a crew of divers who set up the initial phase of a study on the effect of algae on the health of scallop beds. Researchers suspect that a recently arrived, invasive algae in the harbor might be creating an anaerobic environment at the bottom of the harbor that is smothering the scallops. The divers divided up the beds to create an algae-free section and will return periodically to monitor the health of the scallops in each section. In addition to enjoying the challenge of field work, which he hadn’t done since earning his doctorate from Cornell, Dalton plans to use his study as the basis for a unit in his AP Environmental Science Class, providing students with valuable insights into real-world research.

 

Science teacher Theresa Riedl attended Harvard’s CS50 Teacher Training Workshop, in order to gather resources and best practices to build a curriculum and classroom environment that sparks students’ interest and effectively teaches them how to code. This year Riedl will be teaching three computer science electives: a foundation course utilizing languages including Scratch, C, and Python; an app development course using Apple’s programming language, Swift; and a game design course using Greenfoot, an interactive Java development environment, and Procreate, an iPad illustration app.

 

 “Through last year's Girls Who Code club and the speakers that the club brought to campus to talk about coding experiences, it became apparent that students had an interest in learning more about what coding actually is, how to code, and its applications,” said Riedl.  

 

Other faculty members pursued personal interests which fall beyond their areas of classroom expertise, thanks to support from Faculty Enrichment Grants. Several teachers delved into the visual arts: math teacher Dan McCartney took a workshop in creative landscape photography and Language Department chair Cathy Favreau attended a workshop in quiltmaking. History teacher Carol Davidson participated in the Bennington Chamber Music Conference, while IDS Chair Julian Willard performed in a production of “Hamlet” at the famed Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Christine Fitzgerald, who teaches math and is a class dean, enrolled in an Outward Bound program in Colorado called Alpine Backpacking for Educators.

 

It would be hard to top Ben Liston’s excellent summer adventure, though. Rivers’ Director of Counseling and Wellness competed with a team of four in the World Cup of Formation Skydiving in Saarlouis, Germany, finishing 5^th in a field of 30, just behind the Russians. Making their strong showing particularly sweet was the fact that theirs was the only team competing that does not train full-time.

 

“I'm proud to be a member of the official United States Parachute team—it's the skydiver version of being on the Olympic team. I hope my experience will serve as an example to students of dedication and perseverance in a 20-year pursuit, along with the necessity of managing physical risks in the adventures they have ahead and working to keep a healthy work/life balance as they forge their own paths in the world.”