Torch - Fall 2012

FACULTY

Havergal College Summer Institutes for Teaching and Learning By Seonaid Davis H avergal’s Summer Institutes for Teaching and Learning have a long history of offering rich and diverse learning experiences to understand how to use assessment for, of and as learning to improve student success.

Peter Cobb, an experienced educator interested in the moral and ethical development of children, looked at how education is changing in the 21st century and why we need to change along with it. He helped educators consider how to change the story of learning to be one of co-learning and collaboration. Ralph Sneeden, from Philips Exeter Academy, along with David Sumner, Laura McRae, Paul McCulloch and Ruthanne Wrobel from Havergal co-hosted the Learning Through Dialogue seminar. Participants went back to school and experienced different models of learning including the Harkness method, the Socratic seminar and the tutorial. Jay McTighe, an educational consultant and author, and I led educators through a four-day workshop exploring the question: “What is important to understand and how do we teach for understanding?” Educators left the seminar with a well-designed curriculum unit, which focused on what was most important for students to know, do and understand. Havergal teachers Britney Coleman, Laura Logaridis, Leslie Siegrist and Katie Tranter led a large group of educators through a two-day seminar focused on examining the best practices in the early years. They highlighted the inquiry-based learning model being successfully implemented in our kindergarten classes. We are already planning for next year’s Summer Institutes. More details will be available in the spring of 2013 at www.havergal.on.ca/PD.

educators from around the world. In the summer of 2012, Havergal hosted seven seminars. Each seminar focused on a different aspect of the question “what is the story of learning in this place?” and explored a different aspect of current educational theory or practice. The Institutes, open to all educators, are intended to support our own curriculum initiatives and to meet the professional development needs of our teachers. In the Cultures of Thinking seminar, Mark Church, who is associated with Harvard’s Project Zero initiative, “Making Thinking Visible,” explored what it means to be focused on developing a culture of thinking in a school. Mark asked participants to consider what kinds of thinking students use when learning for understanding and what opportunities there are for students to develop and explain their ideas to each other. Valérie Lanctôt-Bédard and Jean-Phillipe Bouchard, experienced communication trainers, led the Authentic Dialogue: Developing Authenticity and Respect seminar. These presenters helped participants to understand their own communication patterns and to learn how to communicate in ways that create a successful learning and working environment. In the seminar Implementing Growing Success: Assessment in Ontario , Damian Cooper, a writer and consultant in the field of assessment practice, focused on the big ideas in assessment theory and practice and provided specific strategies to help teachers

Seonaid Davis, Director of Curriculum & Faculty Development

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