Mission in the Classroom
Revisiting, reviewing, and reimagining a school's foundational and aspirational assertions in the service of creating mission-aligned and deeply intentional learning experiences should be a continual process, not just a once-per-decade exercise in compliance.

Webinars

Academic Journaling for Deeper Learning - Academic journaling often turns out to be an exercise done more for the sake of doing it than for a clear academic purpose. In this webinar, humanities teachers from The Cambridge School of Weston (MA) talk how they build student buy-in by making journal-keeping a fully relevant tool and resource for paper-writing, maintaining portfolio content, and reflection. Presenters Louis Hutchins and Samantha Simpson also address how journaling, or “day-booking” in CSW parlance, might be used across the curriculum
Mission Smart Teacher Hiring - ​As the hiring season heats up, the author of NAIS’s An Admirable Faculty: Recruiting, Hiring, Training, and Retaining the Best Independent School Teachers offers advice and guidelines for making the most of hiring fairs and interviews off and on campus—spotting the right characteristics, asking the right questions (and avoiding the wrong ones), and landing the teachers your school wants and needs.
Choice and Excitement: Learning Journeys at Allen Academy - ​Do you use HyperDocs or playlists? Do you have a system where students can track their learning and make choices along the way? If not, are you interested in giving students more control over their learning? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you should learn more about Learning Journeys at Allen Academy (TX). They provide a student-friendly way for students to move through the learning process on their own terms and at their own pace. Presented by Mark Engstrom of Allen Academy.
Independent Schedules: Semester-in-a-Trimester at Beaver Country Day School - In 1998 Beaver Country Day School instituted an Upper School (9-12) schedule that offered longer teaching blocks, fewer transitions, and the opportunity for students to complete semester-long classes in a trimester. Learn how Beaver has leveraged and evolved this schedule to support multiple innovations in curriculum and pedagogy. Presented by Lisa Brown, English chair and the original Schedule Committee chair, and Peter Gow, past academic dean and current ICG executive director
Independent Schedules: Mods & Blocks at the Cambridge School of Weston - ​For forty years The Cambridge School of Weston (grades 9-12) has used a schedule that combines extended, immersive teaching times and an academic year marked by multiple short terms. Find out about how "mods & blocks" work and how CSW has used this schedule as the foundation for an innovative academic program that allows students to focus on deep interests, one at a time. With Chris Elsasser, Academic Dean, and Tad Lawrence, Learning & Teaching Leader.

Professional Development

Cohort Courses​
  • Faculty Observation & Feedback: It's Different This Year: This course will guide participants in developing practices that work in multiple modes (on-campus, hybrid, and online) and for complex situations, ultimately helping participants plan for a more mission- and values-aligned approach to observation.​
  • Leading the Goal Setting Process​​: This course, uses research, articles and videos, as well as Folio samples, to guide you through the essential process for growth and development. Participants begin with an understanding of the purpose/importance of goal setting then will explore research around creating a growth-minded culture. Participants will have an opportunity to design a goal-setting process for their own teams that aligns with the larger goals of the school community. ​
  • Assessing and Adjusting Your School's Hybrid Learning: When leaders make a change, they want to know “is it working?” and “How do we know?” Those are the questions this course is designed to tackle.  Participants  will learn how to build a framework to use to examine a program and determine if it is 1) appropriately mission-aligned and 2) working. Academic leaders  will learn how to identify mission-aligned markers of success and then select data to help determine what impact programmatic decisions are making on those markers. 

On-Demand Programs

Ebooks

  • What is a School? by Peter Gow, A Philosophical and Practical Guide for Independent School Leaders, Trustees, and Friends

Blogs