Special Features 2 From the Board Chair 3 Learning How to Distance Learn 4 Making the Transition to Distance Learning Virtual Student Center: Creating Community From a Distance 5 Happy 50th Birthday Audrey Bruce Currier Library 6 Dedication of the Audrey Bruce Currier Library 7 Envisioning the Library’s Future
In Every Issue 1 From the Head of School 8 Out & About 10 Gone Away 16 Milestones
We appologize for the following inaccuracies in the previous issue: Page 3 - Alison Harrison Goodyear ’29 Page 21 - Khaki is a Fox Page 38 - Laura Rhodes Fortsch ’87 Page 57 - captions re-ordered to correspond with the pictures
Foxcroft’s mission is to help every girl explore her unique voice and develop the skills, confidence, and courage to share it with the world. This magazine is printed on FSC-certified 10% post-consumer waste recycled paper.
LEARNING HOW TO DISTANCE LEARN By Courtney Ulmer, Assistant Head of School for Academics What we know about Miss Charlotte and the School she founded is that she wanted her girls to rise and meet any challenge and that opportunities for learning and teaching would continue no matter the circumstances. While she might not have predicted Google Docs and Zoom meetings (or maybe she could have), what she could have anticipated is how well current Foxcroft students and teachers would adapt to distance learning and to “keeping up with the times.” It’s remarkable how much we have adjusted our program over the past several months due to the coronavirus
Catherine S. McGehee Head of School
Published twice a year by Foxcroft School
Marion L. Couzens Director of Institutional Advancement
Please address queries to:
Ken LaBate Director of Admission and Enrollment Christine McCrehin Advancement/ Communications Coordinator
The Office of Institutional Advancement advancement@foxcroft.org, 540.687.4510, or Foxcroft School 22407 Foxhound Lane Middleburg, VA 20117
Table of Contents
MAGAZINE SPRING/SUMMER 2020
Design by Raison
ON THE COVER: Clockwise: Junior Moni Corona Perera, Director of STEM Education Kristine Varney, senior Brianna Ma, senior Bridgette Elliot, and sophomore Victoria Thompson. Library photo by Bob Updegrove. Screenshots by Ginny Riley. Foxcroft School is accredited by the Virginia Association of Independent Schools. Foxcroft School admits students of any race, color, religion, national, and ethnic origin. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, national, or ethnic origin in the administration of its educational, admission, or financial aid policies, or in any school-sponsored programs.
pandemic, and we have done so with our students and our Foxcroft community at the center of each decision. We extended Spring Break for students to give faculty time to prepare to teach distance learning classes. Matt Norko, our Director of Technology, and Alex Northrup, our Director of The Innovation Lab, used that time to run workshops for online tools and virtual learning resources. Faculty also consulted with peers as they learned to navigate this new paradigm. And just as we have for our students, we have emphasized the importance of balancing work, self-care, and family for our teachers, too. We created an asynchronous distance learning schedule, which allows for weekly student and teacher contact time, synchronous community time, and time for faculty to meet and discuss what's working. Our teachers have adapted their curriculum to the new schedule, always keeping in mind the external stressors that students
and families are experiencing. Our Learning Center team has completely reorganized how they work with students, creating time for one-onone student meetings and scheduled periods for students to check into the Learning Center to work and get help during the school day as they would if they were on campus. As always, we are guided by our understanding hearts while we work with our students and make decisions about how best to support them during this period of distance learning.
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Spring/Summer 2020 3
