Faculty/Staff News & Milestones Barak Blackburn ’85, director of technology, recently wrote “Capes, Cowls, and Villains Foul” for Spectrum Games. It is a superheroic roleplaying game. With the publication of the book, Barak was brought on board Spectrum Games, and has written several supplements. Dean Fusto P’17, assistant head of school and upper school head published the article, Connecting Character, International Service-Learning, and Curriculum in the February 2013 issue of Middle Ground, a national publication of the Association for Middle level Education. His book, Circo: A Teachers Guide, was published by Carlex to accompany the feature film/ documentary - www.circomexico.com. Which Way Home - A Teachers Guide was also published by Carlex to accompany the feature film/documentary www. whichwayhome.net. Dean also conducted the webinar, Designing and Implementing an Effective Information Literacy Program for TABS3D Conference with Co-presenters, Bement faculty members, Nancy Ames and Marcia Bernard. “In our webinar, we helped identify the key features of an effective information literacy program. Our unique curriculum is based on a collaborative teaching model and encompasses four distinct disciplines: study skills, web/media literacy, library skills, and research skills. The goals of this informative webinar include sharing the design of the Bement program, identifying the key features of its success, and helping individual teachers and schools get a head start on designing a similar information literacy curriculum.” Amanda King, lower school teacher, earned her masters in education in reading and language this past May and is also now licensed as a reading specialist. Xiaomo Hong, Chinese teacher and boarding parent, and her husband, Jun Gao, welcomed their first child, Shawn Gao on April 1, 2013 at Cooley Dickinson Hospital in Northampton, MA. His Chinese nickname is "U-U" because
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of the similar sound of "humor" in Chinese (since he was born in April fool's day). He weighed 7 pounds, 14 ounces and was 21.12 inches (and is beyond adorable!) Shelley Jackson, head of school, wrote a chapter on junior boarding schools in Lucy Shih’s Lucy’s Guide to North American High Schools (Beijing, China; 2013) Shelley has also been re-elected for a second term to the Association of Independent Schools of New England (AISNE) Membership Committee which reviews the accreditation of all AISNE schools. Sarah Marcus, upper school drama teacher, was selected as one of the arts intensive teaching artists for the Girls Leadership Institute summer camp at Mount Holyoke for the summer of 2013. Katrina Spicer-Lindquist, upper school history department chair, is attending the People of Color Leadership Institute at Kingwood Oxford School, in West Hartford, CT. This training was paid for by a Clagett grant and will, among other things, explore the “each one teach one” philosophy. Two summers ago, Bement’s band director, Jim Snedeker, worked as an intern on the film Food for Change, a documentary about the co-op movement in the United States. The movie was recently selected as a winner of the United Nations International Year of Cooperatives (IYC) Short Film Festival held at the UN headquarters in New York City. Madeline Surgenor, dorm parent and upper school math teacher, is now the mathematics department chair for the upper school.
Blake Wilson, upper school math teacher, earned his second master's degree in education with a focus on school counseling. Blake will also assume the new role of co-dean of students for grades 8 and 9, along with Alice Gearhart, upper school Latin teacher, who will be co-dean for grades 6 & 7. For each summer for the past 13 years, Bement’s director of admission Kimberly Caldwell Loughlin, P’18, has been a lead faculty member at the Admission Academy through TABS, the Association of Boarding Schools. The professional development workshop is designed to support admission officers with less than two years experience learn about admission work. This past fall Kim also conducted a webinar entitled “What to Consider Before, During, and After the Recruitment of International Students” as part of TABS Fall Webinar Series.
Faculty & Staff Milestones We honor and thank faculty and staff for their devotion and service to The Bement School. This year marks the anniversary of the following faculty and staff:
5 Years Elyssa Davis Kimberly Loughlin Julia Flannery Doug Harder Katrina Spicer-Lindquist Leif Riddington
10 Years
15 Years
Will Paulding
Silvia Mugnani
25 Years Martha Smith
Retiring (2012-Present) Rich Winnick Ted Pina
Wendy Giard