Q&A with Dr. Jennifer Willis

In addition to being an Academic Support teacher, my role as the Director of Teaching and Learning is to help ensure that all students learn successfully at Cushing Academy. This entails thinking about everything from content, to teaching practices, to how we organize our learning spaces. Cushing has been doing this for decades because we welcome students with a wide range of backgrounds and learning profiles. Having someone in my position brings even more intentionality to this work. Our focus is on excellent teaching practices that we know benefit everybody, including neurodiverse students and those who arrive to Cushing from a diverse range of educational backgrounds.

Highlighting each of these processes emphasizes that students and teachers are both active in the equation. Cushing encourages students to take ownership of their learning by bringing their own questions and energy to the classroom. Teachers play different roles—perhaps facilitator, coach, or guide—adjusting their approach based on the specific learning outcomes and student needs. This is how we create classrooms that really engage students and activate their authentic curiosity.

One topic we’ve discussed recently is the design of assessments: What learning are we assessing? How are we assessing it? And why? These questions can and should inform our instruction and classroom practices. Fundamentally, assessment provides an opportunity for students to demonstrate what they have learned and also provides teachers with the opportunity to celebrate their achievements, provide feedback, and guide them to the next step. The idea of an assessment frequently brings to mind a quiz or test, but our goal is much larger than preparing students for a test. Throughout their lives students will need a variety of skills and strategies for communicating their ideas to others, so evaluating student proficiency with multiple formats is as important as measuring their mastery of content. We also might assess learning through class discussions, presentations, labs, or writing an essay or news article. Discussing assessments and sharing ideas across classrooms deepens and sustains our impact.

Similarly, we’ve had faculty-wide training around executive functioning skills. We already are a school where faculty take a scaffolded approach to larger projects and incorporate hands-on learning. Some students need more concentrated support in how to organize themselves and their work, but ultimately

every student benefits from an increased emphasis on how to support executive functioning in adolescence.

Cushing prioritizes positive relationships and student engagement as critical to the learning process. So, our teaching strategies are constantly evolving, just like the world around us. When the pandemic began, for example, Cushing provided faculty with support and structures to be successful with online learning. Even since we returned to campus for in-person learning, however, students have been feeling new and different stressors during this time. As the priorities of society shift, we are constantly asking: What is the best way to connect with students? And we are refining our teaching strategies to help students continue to grow as their authentic selves.

I have a doctoral degree (Ed.D.) in counselor education from the University of Cincinnati and have worked in independent schools and taught as an adjunct professor. My graduate work was an opportunity to dive deep into understanding what makes effective relationships for teaching and learning. I love that my position at Cushing allows me to work directly with students and also with faculty to support student learning at the structural level throughout the school.

—Dr. Jennifer Willis