11 minute read
Faculty Focus
Mission Driven:
Deborah Brissenden Leads by Example
What does it take to inspire learners and leaders? To deliver on our mission, Belmont Day relies on faculty who exemplify learning and leading themselves—people who view teaching as a craft—and who continuously engage in new ideas with the goal of educating students. For nearly three decades, Deborah Brissenden has been just such a person at Belmont Day. She began her work here in 1994 as a kindergarten teacher, and then became a division head and an admissions director before taking on her current roles of assistant head of school and director of curriculum and instruction. In all of these roles, Deborah has been an ongoing force for promoting a growth mindset. “My approach is to honor the things that we do incredibly well,” Deborah says, “while also keeping an eye out for opportunities to improve—and then creating systems within which that growth can happen.”
Launching a career
Growing up in Australia, Deborah came from a family of teachers. “I’ve always been surrounded by that commitment and those conversations about possibilities in children’s learning,” she recalls. Deborah appreciated her own education, particularly teachers who made learning feel creative and engaging, and who built strong connections with students. “I didn’t always know that I wanted to be a teacher,” she says. “But as I grew older, I understood more deeply how you could make a difference in a child’s life by creating that space to discover and be curious.”
Deborah graduated from the University of Canberra with a degree in education and art and began teaching students in pre-kindergarten through second grade. The first school where she taught took a progressive, open-plan approach to education, focusing on project-based learning and collaboration in a floorplan that makes use of large, open spaces. In this environment, Deborah found strong mentors and encouragement to develop as a young teacher. “I’ve always taken the path of finding the community and challenges that would help me grow,” she says.
In 1991, however, Deborah encountered a temporary roadblock when she moved to the United States because of her former husband’s job. At that time in Massachusetts, only US citizens could teach in public schools—a law that has since been changed. Undaunted, Deborah began taking graduate-level classes, which introduced her to educators working in independent schools. Thanks to that professional network, she soon was back in the classroom.
Cultivating a broad outlook
Moving into the realm of independent schools was a smooth transition because Deborah found significant overlap between the educational philosophies of these institutions and the public schools where she had taught in Australia. “Independent schools complement the beliefs I had already built about being a teacher,” she says. “Those ideas are that curriculum should be dynamic, that teachers in schools are professionals who are serious about their day-to-day practice, and that parents are a critical part of the process of education.”
In comparing the United States and Australian educational systems, Deborah observes that early childhood is honored in a different way here. “Play and discovery are respected for longer in an American child’s education,” she says. “There is also more emphasis here on choice, responsibility, and the child as a partner in learning.” Deborah points out that in many other educational systems around the world, students reach their secondary or college years before presenting in classrooms and undertaking as much individual initiative as students do here. “Particularly in independent schools,” Deborah says, “we encourage students to be comfortable speaking and to be an active part of directing their own learning process.”
Deborah continues to track educational trends and developments around the world, cultivating a deeper understanding of what strategies are available and where various decisions can lead. “I’m a firm believer that we shouldn’t think we are the only people doing a great job or who are struggling with a question,” she says. “Being open to different ideas and systems allows us to incorporate the best ideas that are happening elsewhere in the world.”
Deborah also reads widely for new perspectives on engaging students and adults. Recent bestsellers that made an impression on her include Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action, by Simon Sinek; Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking, by Susan Cain; and Improv Wisdom: Don’t Prepare, Just Show Up, by Patricia Ryan Madson. To process ideas, Deborah is a fan of journaling and sketchnoting, which is a style of notetaking that combines text and simple illustrations. “When I’m thinking about systems and
how things connect, being able to put that in a visual form is helpful,” she says. “The notes help me to organize information, and there are important benefits from regularly pausing to reflect.”
The Art of Leadership
Deborah’s current role at Belmont Day relies on this ability to balance big-picture thinking with attention to daily details. Facilitating ongoing curriculum development is a major area of focus, as is organizing daily schedules. Deborah also attends to the strategic priorities of each school year and plays an important role in communicating with parents. During the pandemic, for example, she helped to coordinate the organization-wide effort to keep our campus open for in-person learning. She also played a key role in maintaining morale and consistency as faculty adjusted to rapidly shifting constraints. “There’s an emotional toll that comes with enforcing new safety measures with such high stakes,” she explains. “It was important to reinforce that we were doing the right things. Providing the support to maintain a system is as important as designing it.”
Despite the challenges of this time, Deborah has been impressed with how
the situation both benefited from and reinforced the role of having a growth mindset among Belmont Day faculty. “This situation was so disruptive that we didn’t have a choice in making some changes,” Deborah says. “That brought us to a few positive discoveries that may otherwise have taken a long time to see.” As an example, Deborah points to the faculty’s increased use of virtual space to build relationships with parents.
Outside school, Deborah continues to be artistically inclined and enjoys drawing, painting, sewing, and knitting. She also is an aficionado of walking and forest bathing, which means using all of one’s senses to soak up a woodland’s atmosphere. She is especially proud of her son, James, who graduated from Belmont Day in 2011 before attending Belmont Hill School for high school, followed by Bates College. James recently got married, and he and his wife moved to San Francisco, where James works in operations for a firm that offers online life coaching and wellness services. “It’s so wonderful to see their journey starting,” Deborah says.
Back at Belmont Day, Deborah remains uniquely situated to understand how all the dominoes fit together. “An important part of my role,” Deborah says, “is having the ability to listen, to learn from people around me, and to iterate. I’m so fortunate to work with a lot of incredible experts within our school. I’m a person who can help people problem-solve and do their work efficiently and in the best way that they can.”
2021 Bellwethers
Faculty Milestones
Traditionally, a bellwether was a sheep with a bell around its neck that led the rest of the flock. In a more modern context, bellwethers are celebrated as people of influence and insight who are at the forefront of trends. At Belmont Day, we mark tenure milestones by celebrating the dedication and expertise of our colleagues, each of whom is a bellwether when it comes to making a difference in the lives of our students.
Ten Years
Blair Fross
For 10 years, Blair Fross has led the Belmont Day auxiliary program—after school, enrichment classes, and vacation week camps—with a clear-eyed dedication to the excellence of the programming offered and the students and families who benefit from it. Dedicated to Belmont Day School families and those who take advantage of our community programs, Blair ensures that with each decision she considers, and, indeed, any decision issued by the school, that families are at the center. The upshot: a phenomenal array of after-school and enrichment offerings that have helped distinguish the program and further advance the mission to inspire and challenge students.
Blair has advocated thoughtfully for students and her team for 10 years, and Belmont Day is a better place for her efforts. Blair Fross is a true school leader, and we are ever grateful for her 10 years of service to Belmont Day.
Fifteen Years
Sandra Trentowsky
Ask just about any Belmont Day alum how their high school years are going, and they will lead with this: “I’m crushing science. Ms. Trentowsky prepared me so well.” Dig deeper, and you will discover the source of their confidence, pride, and enthusiasm: It is the relationship that Sandra forged with each of them, with student-centered care, passion for the subject matter, and a belief that every child is a scientist at heart.
A beloved teacher and advisor, Sandra has, throughout her 15 years at Belmont Day, served the school in myriad capacities: as science department chair, a grade-level coordinator, a collaborator with the arts faculty for the school’s first art installation in the Barn, and as one of the rock-steady voices of the middle school throughout its earliest years.
Sandra’s commitment to the sciences, hands-on education, and the precision required for a worthy lab report is matched only by her respect and admiration for her students.
Congratulations, Sandra, on 15 years of service to Belmont Day.
Twenty Years
Lino Medeiros
Lino Medeiros arrived at Belmont Day under heartrending circumstances. He joined the buildings and grounds team to assist the school when Director of Buildings and Grounds Lenny Corso’s health began to fail. Lino dove right in and started what he continues to do now— commit himself every day to making Belmont Day a more beautiful place. For 20 years, Lino has arrived each day with a smile on his face and has set to work maintaining our buildings and campus for students and families alike.
A proud man deeply devoted to his own family and his roots in the Azores in Portugal, Lino is an important member of our school family, kindly welcoming and caring for each of us and always seeking ways to make Belmont Day a better place.
Lino, for your 20 years of service, we are ever grateful.
Susan Dempsey
Deeply devoted to her students and her craft, Susan Dempsey knows what it means to sing the song in her heart. After twenty years of directing plays, musicals, and choral ensembles, Susan leads by example with a passion and conviction matched only by her beautiful singing voice and fearless willingness to perform. A scholar of her craft, Susan has used each of her 20 years to challenge herself, study, nurture her talent, and tease out the best in students. To witness the power of her impact, one must look only at the long line of Belmont Day graduates who have gone on to act and sing in high school, college, and beyond.
Poet and philosopher Kahlil Gibran once noted that “Music is the language of the spirit. It opens the secret of life bringing peace, abolishing strife.” If music is the language of the spirit, then Susan is the teacher who has given voice to that language for more than 20 years, bringing peace and abolishing strife for countless students along the way.
Twenty-five Years
Heather Smith
For 25 years, at the start of the early childhood hallway and the very heart of our school, Heather Smith has brought calm, steady care, kindness, and love to her work at Belmont Day. Heather has served as the reading specialist for kindergarten, first grade, and second grade students—greeting them with a welcoming smile and a gracious heart and guiding them with steadfast patience and determination. Students come to cherish their time with Heather, as she deftly and carefully provides them with the necessary skills to embrace or discover the reader within—a reader that Heather knows is simply waiting to be discovered.
Faculty see Heather as a true expert in her field and turn to her regularly as a resource to help access a particular learner or to guide them in their literacy instruction. Parents trust and respect her guidance, experience, and expertise and see her work as a wondrous mix of scholar and magician. Heather can synthesize and utilize data and compassionately challenge and inspire a child even as she unlocks the mystery of their learning profile with apparent ease.
For 25 years, our school has been fortunate to have the wisdom, care, and kindness of Heather at the start of each student’s journey.
Congratulations, and thank you, Heather, for 25 wonderful years.
ILLUSTRATION ©SHUTTERSTOCK.COM/BABICH ALEXANDER
