Rivers Professional Community Reconnects for a Day of Innovation and Learning

Head of School Ryan S. Dahlem welcomed the community for a day of professional development, starting with a continental breakfast prepared by Executive Chef Cory Campbell and his team. Before diving into programming for the day, Dahlem asked attendees to share a moment of joy from over the break with one another. He also shared his own “connection before content” story of his time with family in both Weston and California. 

Dahlem then provided a grounding review of the school’s mission, core values, and highlights from the strategic plan. By revisiting these pillars, the community ensured that the day’s work remained centered on the student experience and the school’s long-term vision.

Morning programming commenced with an update for the professional community on the schedule redesign process, presented by Dean of Academics and Institutional Research Chris Dalton and members of the cross-divisional design team. The team has been working for the past several months with consultant Antonio Viva, a designer, educator, and strategic advisor from L+D Consulting. On Monday, they presented sample prototypes for initial review within the professional community.

“What I love about the design thinking process that we’re following is how it centers and builds around the human needs of those who experience the schedule on a daily basis—most of all, students,” shared Dalton. To gain insight into the lived experience with the schedule, early in the process, each member of the design team shadowed a student for an entire school day and conducted in-depth interviews with both students and professional community members.

Over the next few months, the design team will host a series of focus groups to gather feedback on their prototypes and move toward a final design for the 2026–27 school year. In addition to students and members of the professional community, as part of this collaborative process, parents and caregivers will be invited to participate in a focus group to provide input and feedback on the prototypes.

Director of Technology and Innovation John Adams then led a workshop on artificial intelligence called “Teaming Up with AI and Each Other,” one of many that the school community has engaged with to stay current with and explore AI tools and their applicability to various aspects of school life. Recognizing that AI is rapidly reshaping the educational landscape, Adams guided breakout sessions in which professional community members gathered with their immediate colleagues to think creatively about AI as a problem-solving tool for their team or department’s work. The room was abuzz with ideas as teams creatively worked together in real-time. As an example, Adams highlighted a recent success story, describing his work with the admission team to automate their tour and interview schedule tracker. The project culminated in a sophisticated real-time dashboard that synthesizes tour and interview logistics, providing the team with easy access to up-to-date information about daily schedules. 

Before breaking for lunch, Middle School and Upper School faculty met to discuss “Our Approach to Teaching and Learning,” a document developed over the fall that articulates unified goals regarding the impact of Rivers’ academic program, informed by the mission, core values, and the strategic plan, as well as research on adolescent development. Faculty had the opportunity to discuss the document in more depth in grade 6–12 academic department meetings. 

In the afternoon, the professional community broke into smaller groups to focus on division-specific goals and discussions. Interim Head of Upper School Will Mills and faculty members Mac Caplan and Rachel Rios Lyon—who have both taken on new roles related to Interdisciplinary Studies (IDS)—led a session for Upper School faculty that reviewed the long and fruitful progression of interdisciplinary studies at Rivers, along with an updated vision for the next stage of IDS teaching and learning in the Upper School. Their presentation was followed by department meetings where each department developed a summary of their approach to teaching and studying their subject, to be shared with teachers in other departments who incorporate IDS elements into their courses.

“IDS at Rivers has always been a hallmark of our innovative approach to learning—allowing teachers to collaborate in productive ways across departments and to develop new, creative curricula, while fostering important real-world skills in students who learn how to make connections and problem solve using multiple modes of thinking and analysis,” said Mills. “Monday’s work in departments, led by Rachel and Mac, was an energizing opportunity for faculty to continue that work in our effort to expand IDS elements even further across the Upper School curriculum.”

For Middle School faculty, Head of Middle School John Bower led a discussion centered on the challenge of “attention fracking”—a phrase used to describe the erosion of focus in a world dominated by social media and constant automation. Faculty explored intentional ways to teach focus as a core skill, and Director of Learning Services Jennifer Litman shared specific classroom strategies to counter distractions, such as beginning lessons with a moment of silence or pairing verbal and written instructions.

“We can’t simply hope students will pay attention—we have to design for it,” said Litman. “Something as simple as posting a clear written agenda at the start of class gives students an anchor. It reduces the cognitive noise of wondering what’s coming next and frees up more mental space for actual learning. These small, intentional moves add up, and it was nice to have some dedicated time to reiterate these best practices with faculty.” 

Overall, the professional development day offered the community an opportunity to reconnect, collaborate, and think deeply about the exciting work on the horizon in the second half of the academic year. Special thanks to Dean of Faculty Andrea Diaz for her work orchestrating the day’s agenda.