2016 Spring Magazine

Spring 2016

In third-grade science, students practice building switches and using buzzers as part of the “Morse Code Mania” project. The girls construct circuits — closed paths around which an electric current can flow — with a clothespin, wire, battery, battery holder and buzzer. Once their circuits are working, with the buzzer connected to a switch, the girls deploy Morse code to communicate simple messages to each other.

CIRCUITRY

Photo by Jim Roese Photography

30 Change in Course

New Modes of Teaching Are Transforming Education

The rise of innovation has brought “big shifts” to the educational landscape for independent schools, and Agnes Irwin educators are navigating the terrain with new ideas for source material, novel teaching methods and unexpected classroom practices.

BY WANDA ODOM

34

Where the Authors Are

Lower Schoolers Lean Into the Role of Writer

Creative writing involves reading as much as having an imagination, and our youngest students learn this lesson through crafting their own stories about loose teeth and imaginary creatures.

BY WANDA ODOM

36

Balancing the Books

Middle School Invests in Early Financial Education

Financial literacy is crucial for confidence in managing money, budgeting and eventually investing — which is one reason such topics are woven into multiple disciplines across the Middle School curriculum.

BY AMANDA MAHNKE

38

Flipped Classroom

Offering a New Approach to Teaching

Doing homework in class isn’t always a bad thing, as Dr. Tom Weissert and his AP Calculus students have come to appreciate through a teaching model that allows for greater opportunities to collaborate on problem solving.

BY WANDA ODOM

RECALCULATING

Lower School Math Club, where fourth graders can spend 30 minutes each week playing number games, creating string art and learning tricks with addition and subtraction, acquaints students like Marina Anderson (center) with the joy of math. Read more in Limelight, page 21.

Photo by Joyce Smith

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Wanda Motley Odom

Director of Marketing and Communications

ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Amanda Mahnke

Social Media & Media Relations Manager

CONTRIBUTORS

Alison Brant

CAG Program Coordinator

Corin Breña

Webmaster & Digital Communications Manager

Cindy Hooper Bell ’79

Development Liaison

STUDENT CONTRIBUTORS

Anna Kramer ’16

Sophie Gaddes ’16

LAYOUT

Sandra Parker Ulikowski

Brand & Creative Design Manager

PHOTOGRAPHY

Amanda Mahnke, Karen Mosimann

Lifestyle Photography, Jim Roese

Photography, Nadia Slocum ’16, Joyce Smith, Sandra Parker Ulikowski

THE AGNES IRWIN SCHOOL

Ithan Avenue and Conestoga Road

Rosemont, PA 19010-1042

Grades PreK–4

Tel: 610-525-7600

Grades 5–12

Tel: 610-525-8400

Fax: 610-525-8908

FRONT COVER

In Jodie Zielinski’s English III class, students collaborated on the word choices for their vocabulary quiz on Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. Brianna Harris ’17 helped illustrate the exercise, one example of major shifts happening in education. Read more in “Change in Course” on Page 30.

Photo by Amanda Mahnke

From the Head of School

Leading into the Future

Much has been written about the glass ceiling’s impact on female leadership, and with greater emphasis today on gender equity, one could argue that the dearth of women leaders in corporate America and other arenas is just a vestige of old biases. Isn’t it only a matter of time before as many CEOs answer to Joanne as to John? Surely, younger generations express less gender bias about leadership.

Alas, a recent report entitled Leaning Out: Teen Girls and Leadership Biases, conducted at Harvard University, shows that gender bias is commonplace among teenagers. It states that “teen girls both hold biases and suffer from biases that may corrode their relationships and sense of justice, sap their confidence in their leadership potential, and dampen their desire to seek leadership positions, especially in high-power fields.”

The report, based on surveys of nearly 20,000 teenage girls and boys, recommends that girls regularly interact with strong female role models, solidify their confidence, and participate in leadership programs.

Helping girls incorporate “I am a leader” into their identities has become an important focus at Agnes Irwin, largely through the work of our Center for the Advancement of Girls. Leadership identity development, in addition to leadership skills, is important for girls so they truly perceive themselves as leaders. Unlike a set of skills, leadership identity is more likely to carry into adulthood.

I am a witness to acts of leadership by our girls every day. They carry themselves with the pride and confidence that comes from truly owning their identity as a leader; and from knowing that at this school, they will be supported in their journey toward any leadership goals they set.

Lower School students have taken charge of monitoring the health of the campus stream, part of an important watershed in our area, as a result of their Living Leadership program. I was inspired by the passionate advocacy of our seventh grade girls as they organized a movie night under the stars to honor two classmates last fall. And in Upper School, the Council for the Advancement of Girls drew 150 peers to its third “for girls, by girls” conference to explore advocacy, self-awareness, and leadership skills.

I believe that experiences such as these ensure that Agnes Irwin girls, and the women they become, are poised to break through that glass ceiling. And with their leadership identities firmly in place, it will be no time before there are as many leaders answering to Joanne as to John.

Wendy L. Hill, Ph.D.

OPPOSITE: JOYCE SMITH / RIGHT: KAREN MOSIMANN LIFESTYLE PHOTOGRAPHY

About This Issue

The Big Shifts

More than ever,

Forward to New Practices

Centuries ago, the ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus established a name for himself with the proverb “No man ever steps in the same river twice.” His reading of the world, which popular culture has recast into the corollary notion that “the only thing that is constant is change,” was not simply an inescapable observation, but an undeniable opportunity for celebration.

The changes afoot in education today fall squarely into both categories, but the latter designation offers schools precisely what they need: the license to boldly innovate and continually evolve, keeping the currents of excellence flowing through academic program, teaching practice and co-curricular activities.

Agnes Irwin has much to celebrate in this vein, as we report in this Spring 2016 issue of Agnes Irwin magazine, with a growing embrace of project-based learning initiatives such as Seventh Grade Culture Week, in which students build sustainable communities, and the Kindergarten Invention Convention, which highlights the imaginative problem-solving of our youngest girls.

In addition, non-traditional approaches to teaching, such as the flipped classroom, and different ways of grading academic performance, such as rubrics, are freeing students to achieve deeper understanding and knowledge of subject matter, and a greater love of learning, in order to astutely analyze the world around them. Faculty are experiencing a liberation of sorts as well, to explore new trends in curriculum, pedagogy and professional enrichment, and to continually push at boundaries to unleash the very best in their students.

—Wanda Motley Odom, Editor-in-Chief

Take Two

Students in Jodie Zielinski’s English III class were excited to be chosen as the focus of our cover photo shoot for the Spring 2016 issue. Several girls volunteered to pose before the lens, including Olivia Carey ’17. For the actual cover, we overlaid handwritten text from the actual vocabulary list developed by the students.

schools must find ways to cultivate a habit of innovation in teaching, according to Patrick Bassett, former president of the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS). To do so, educational institutions will need to embrace changes that reflect the skills and values the 21st century will demand and reward, Bassett has said. The following are major shifts happening in education, as identified by the MacArthur Foundation.

#1

From Knowing to Doing: It’s not just content — skills are equally important.

#2

From Teacher-Centered to Student-Centered: Class discussion is student-led.

#3

From Individual to Team: Working in groups is the norm.

#4

From Consumption of Information to Construction of Meaning: Students focus on real-world problem-solving activities, rather than hypothetical ones.

#5

From Schools to Networks: Online courses are used to expand curricular offerings.

#6

From Single Sourcing to Crowd Sourcing: Educator chat groups share lesson plans.

#7

From High-Stakes Testing to High-Value Demonstrations: Out with the written exam; in with the design-thinking project.

Photo by Amanda Mahnke

What’s Online

We recently introduced Portraits of AIS, a new webpage featuring interviews with students of all ages, faculty and alumnae. New profiles are added periodically. Take a look at agnesirwin.org/portraitsofais.

VIDEO STORIES

Uniqueness of AIS: Community is at the heart of every student’s experience at AIS. Here, just as much importance is placed on creating a caring and nurturing environment as on supporting students’ academic achievement. See how AIS strikes the balance in all three divisions with a look at what makes Agnes Irwin unique.

Favorite Things at AIS: We asked students at each grade level to share some of their favorite things about AIS. Hear what current students had to say about their experience at Agnes Irwin, as well as alumnae reflections on how AIS prepared them for the world beyond.

Leading for Change: L4C is an annual “by girls, for girls” conference, which features panel discussions and workshops focused on leadership, activism and other topics affecting women. In this video, Agnes Irwin student organizers, participants and presenters speak about their experiences at this year’s conference, held at AIS on Saturday, Oct. 31.

BLOG

GIRLS IN THE WORLD: At the start of 2016, we asked Agnes Irwin teachers and staff to share some of their favorite reads from the previous year. What book made an impact, had a good message or was just a really great story? In this post on the school blog, 23 teachers and staff members shared their best recommendations. View it at blog.agnesirwin.org.

TOP SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS

FACEBOOK

She Had Us at “Hello” 232 likes, 86 shares, 21 comments

Fifth grader

Leila Rodriguez performed an amazing rendition of Adele’s “Hello” at the Middle School performance assembly in January. A video of the act set a new school record for most-ever Facebook shares!

TWITTER

Making Time to Give Back 2 retweets, 3 likes

Upper School students volunteered region-wide on Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service, including at the National Greyhound Adoption Program in Philadelphia.

INSTAGRAM

A Bird’s-Eye View 201 likes, 4 comments

We have Lexy Pierce ’06 — and her drone — to thank for this stunning photo of campus from above.

Big Picture

La Vida en Cuba

Nadia Slocum ’16 captured this colorful scene of shops in Old Havana’s downtown last spring during a two-week trip to Mexico City and Havana, Cuba, as part of Agnes Irwin’s Special Studies Program. “With my camera by my side, I set a goal for myself to capture all that I could,” said Slocum, now taking an independent study with photography teacher Sarah Rafferty. Slocum said she was inspired by the buildings’ vibrant colors and architectural character. “I love to capture leading lines whenever I can. Allowing the buildings to line up on an angle makes the street look like it is stretching infinitely. It was really cool to see the old Ford models as they drove by with their exotic colors and markings as people walked in and out of stores. Everything and everyone in Cuba is extremely busy, vocal and vibrant.” The image originally appeared in the Winter 2016 issue of Impulse, the Upper School’s arts and literary magazine.

Spring Speaker

DR. FRANCES E. JENSEN

Author of The Teenage Brain: A Neuroscientist’s Survival Guide to Raising Adolescents and Young Adults

Renowned neurologist Dr. Frances E. Jensen will explore what the scientific community has learned over the last decade about the vitally important brain development that occurs during the teenage years.

Drawing on research and her own clinical experience, this internationally respected neurologist — and mother of two boys — offers a revolutionary look at the science of the adolescent brain, providing remarkable insights that translate into practical advice for both parents and teenagers.

Tuesday, May 3 7:00 p.m.

The Agnes Irwin School

This free event is open to the AIS community, family and friends.

To reserve your seat, please RSVP at agnesirwin.org/SpringSpeaker2016

A Wellness Initiative of the Center for the Advancement of Girls

Spring 2016

Varsity Teams Battle to a Tie on AIS/EA Day

Agnes Irwin’s Upper School Varsity athletes fought to a draw during the games of the 11th annual AIS/ EA Day in early November, with victories in soccer and cross country earning them the right to share the banner with Episcopal Academy for this school year.

The AIS soccer and cross country teams won hard-fought competitions, while tennis and field hockey came up short after their own spirited matches. With the tie, EA kept the banner for half of the school year; Agnes Irwin will receive the banner in late spring.

“We’re tremendously proud of our athletes and the heart they put into this annual rivalry. Our girls showed ‘no fear’ and proved that they are talented and dedicated competitors,” said Athletic Director Sheila Pauley, referencing the AIS slogan for this year’s AIS/EA Day T-shirt.

The soccer team held a 2-0 lead at the end of the first half and dug in to hold off an EA surge during the second half. The Owls’ defeat of Episcopal’s soccer squad was significant, as EA won the lnter-Ac League championship in girls soccer earlier in fall.

Likewise, Varsity cross country took the second, third and fourth best times to build a team lead that EA could not overcome, even with having the fastest runner.

Agnes Irwin last won the banner in 2013.

— Wanda Odom

“We’re tremendously proud of our athletes and the heart they put into this annual rivalry. Our girls showed ‘no fear’ and proved that they are talented and dedicated competitors.”

READ ACROSS AMERICA

Art Museum Seeks Out PreK Teachers

In December, PreK teachers Kathy and Paul Seaton were invited to participate in a focus group for early childhood educators at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The group’s purpose was to assess the program “Museum Looks and Picture Books.” Each year, PreK visits the PMA after reading a specific picture book; girls explore works of art related to concepts in the book and make an art project to take home. Along with educators from various preschool settings, the focus group examined skills used during the visit and made suggestions for additions to the program.

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!

For Read Across America, a national celebration of Dr. Seuss’s birthday, Lower School welcomed several guest readers to class, including Lower School Director Donna Lindner. Other guest readers included Head of School Dr. Wendy Hill, children’s author Nikki Maloney and members of the Radnor Township Fire Department. Lindner read Red: A Crayon’s Story to Susie Hagin’s fourth grade class.

The number of minutes spent in yoga during weekly “Let’s Care” class.

GROWTH SPURT

AIS to Host Robotics Tournament

Last year, the fourth grade Robotics Club had 17 members. Now in its second year, the club’s ranks have grown to 37. Thanks in part to such interest and enthusiasm, the Lower School has opted to organize its own robotics competition, to be held after school on April 27. Students brainstormed designs during lunch and playtimes over the winter and are now working on models for the competition, which will be overseen by a panel of judges — including a few from outside of Agnes Irwin.

JUST DUCKY

MAKE WAY FOR A BIG BIRD

Second grade teacher Joe Flood often invites parents to school to read a few books to his class. Second- and third-grade dad Brendan Howard visited in fall to read about ducks — and he showed up dressed for the part! After his reading, Howard waddled his way to third grade teacher Kim Walker’s class... and gave an impromptu lesson on air pressure, batteries and the motor used to inflate his duck costume.

A ROCKIN’ GOOD TIME

Fourth graders enjoyed a visit Jan. 19 from geologist and Temple University professor Alix Davatzes, a former NASA scientist who studied the Martian surface and now travels the world examining rocks that are billions of years old. She brought some of these

rocks with her, and the girls had the opportunity to handle one of the world’s oldest-known types of fossils! Davatzes also brought in and explained her field gear and shared with students what life is like as a field geologist. Students were excited to learn about the exotic locales science can take them!

MAKIN’ MUSIC

Librarian Illustrates Book

Lower School

HANDS-ON SCIENCE

Fulcrums, Force and Axles

AIS second graders recently learned about simple machines in Julie Haines’ science class. They experimented with levers and fulcrums of different lengths and heights, testing their models to see which created the best trajectories for paper “snowballs,” and studied force with balloon jets. They also learned about how cars need axles to make their wheels spin. They built and decorated derby cars, which they then gifted to the PreK.

AUTHOR VISIT

True Tales and Other Stories

Local author and illustrator Monica Carnesi visited Lower School on Nov. 18. Carnesi wrote Sleepover with Beatrice and Bear and Little Dog Lost, which follows the true story of a brave dog named Baltic who wandered onto a frozen river and was found two nights and 75 miles later by a ship out in the Baltic Sea. In her presentations, Carnesi shared photos of the real Baltic, along with readings from her story about the dog. For third and fourth grades, she also discussed the writing process, emphasizing that revision is key. “When you write, you don’t just write once — you write over and over until you get it right,” she advised.

librarian Berrie Torgan-Randall recently illustrated Stop! Don’t Move Those Feet, a picture book based on a popular song by local children’s musician Sandi Eckberg. Stop! features colorful drawings of animals learning important lessons about crossing the street. Eckberg, a teacher and director at the music enrichment organization Makin’ Music, visited Lower School in January and hosted a sing-a-long for students during Friday assembly to celebrate the book’s launch.

All Work and No Play...

How can play enhance the Middle School classroom?

English teacher

Leslie Hahne explored this question over the summer with a professional growth grant on Play-Based Learning: Incorporating Games and Picture Books into Middle School Instruction and Assessment, and created a binder of educational games for use by Middle School faculty. She uses the games in fifth and sixth grades to enhance grammar retention and assess learning in nontraditional ways, but each game can be adapted for skill practice in a variety of disciplines.

A RECORD NUMBER

LEADERSHIP

Lessons from a Child’s Toy

The story of the accidental invention of this classic children’s toy is part of the first leadership lesson in the 30-page Student Council Handbook developed and written this summer by Middle School deans Cathy Lynch and Katie Cooper.

Middle School students collected a grand total of 1,701 cans during its annual two-week can drive in November, setting a new record. Sixth-grade students were responsible for the entire process, which ranged from making announcements at assemblies, creating posters and daily counting of the cans to packaging them all. They delivered the cans to the Upper Darby Food Bank on Nov. 18. The director said that this was the largest donation from a single school in the food pantry’s history.

The number of rounds to winnow 10 players to two finalists in the annual Middle School geography bee.

The number of rounds to produce a winner.

Eighth grader Cheney Williams prevailed with the correct response to: What is the official language of Libya, Yemen and Mauritania?

Answer: Arabic.

“Oh, the Places You’ll Go!”

In early January, more than 45 seventh and eighth graders began working hard to learn lines, songs and dances, create props and costumes, and explore the ins and outs of lights and sound for Seussical, Jr., performed March 4-5. Seussical, Jr. is a compilation of Dr. Seuss characters and stories that focus on Horton the Elephant, who tries to protect the speck-sized world of Whoville from naysayers and dangers, despite the fact that he is the only one who can hear them. The 31 talented cast members were led by four eighth-grade stage managers and were assisted by a creative and dedicated backstage crew.

WELLNESS TABLE TALKS

This past winter, eighth graders participated in conversations called “Table Talks,” a lunchtime forum for the class to come together in small group discussions and engage in deeper conversations about well-being, community and other topics of interest. Students have the opportunity to focus on stress, friendship, kindness and other concerns. The conversations are an extension of the Wellness curriculum and the work of Student Support Services, to ensure balance between their academic and emotional development.

SUSTAINABILITY

Solving Real-World Problems in Science Class

In late March, David Christiansen’s eighth grade Earth and Beyond science class divided into groups of five with one mission: design a ranch (including house and gardens) that sustainably provides water, food, building materials and energy — and manages waste — in a particular climate. The students, having spent the four weeks leading up to spring break learning about clean water, organic farming, renewable energy and waste management, spend the remainder of their spring term researching, designing and building their ranches. At the unit’s culminating event, a science symposium on May 13, each group will present its model to visitors. In lieu of a final exam, each student and team is assessed on design, model, presentation and story. The goal is to have the girls synthesize and use information they have been learning all year to solve a real-world problem.

CHRIS HERREN

Former NBA Star Shares Story of Recovery

More than 800 community members gathered at Agnes Irwin on Jan. 12 to hear the riveting personal testimony of former NBA guard Chris Herren, whose battle with drug and alcohol addiction derailed his professional basketball career and twice brought him to the brink of suicide. Herren is now one of the nation’s most sought-after speakers on the perils of substance abuse. “If I can help just one student, that’s worth it to me,” Herren, sober since 2008, told the audience. He spoke to Agnes Irwin and Haverford School students on Jan. 13 at Haverford; afterward, Agnes Irwin students met in small groups to discuss his message.

THEATER Curiouser and Curiouser!

The Agnes Irwin Repertory Company tried something a little different for its winter play: an improvised production. In Wonderland — and Alice’s Adventures in It, students wrote the loose script by running through scenes together and bouncing ideas off one another in the style of “storybook theater.” Said student Sophie Gaddes, who played the White Rabbit, “I underestimated the talent, comedic timing and quick wit of my peers. There’s something about watching your friends act out hilarious scenes that’s made even better by the knowledge that they created them themselves. Since we were given the license to make up our own script, it feels raw, unprepared and oftentimes side-splitting.”

STUDENTS CELEBRATE ENGINEERING

Upper School recognized National Engineers Week Feb. 22–26 and celebrated through hands-on workshops — building bridges, constructing balloon-powered cars — and lunch conversations with female engineers, who visited campus to share their experiences.

3,500

The pounds of force sustained by a wooden beam built from 2x4s by AIS engineering students. The beam was tested at the Villanova Material Testing Lab during a class trip in January, and was an extension of work the students completed as part of the Agnes Irwin engineering course, but on a much larger scale.

HONOR BOARD

Having “The Talk”

How would you respond if a classmate planned a party and invited everyone except for you? Members of the Upper School Honor Board had lunch with third and fourth graders on Feb. 9 to help them problem-solve scenarios like that one. The Honor Board works to promote honor and integrity throughout the school as a whole, and part of the Honor Board students’ work is to talk with Lower Schoolers about the importance of honor, both within and outside of the school community, through skits, games and meetings. During the lunch chats, Upper School students helped the younger girls think through how to speak up in a respectful way when someone upsets them.

World Record-Breaker Promotes Clean Water Projects

In 2010, 22-year-old rower Katie Spotz entered the record books by completing a 3,038-mile solo trip across the Atlantic Ocean — and in the process, raised more than $150,000 for safe drinking water projects. Spotz has partnered with H2O for Life, a nonprofit service-learning organization, to inspire students to help partner schools from the developing world gain access to clean water, improved sanitation and hygiene education. Spotz shared her inspirational adventures with Upper Schoolers in an assembly on Feb. 26, reminding students that everyone can tackle bigger problems than their own and make a difference in the lives of others, while becoming energized global citizens and activists for change.

STUDENTS ATTEND DIVERSITY LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE

PROJECT PURPLE Students Continue Herren’s Work

Following Chris Herren’s powerful Jan. 13 presentation to students on the perils of substance abuse, student leaders launched Project Purple Week, an initiative of The Herren Project, which aims to empower youth and encourage positive decision-making to navigate life’s challenges. Various initiatives throughout the week of Feb. 1 helped raise awareness of issues associated with drug and alcohol use, and the week wrapped up with a Project Purple shootout at the JV basketball game on Friday night.

Six Upper School students headed to Florida in December to attend the National Association of Independent Schools’ Student Diversity Leadership Conference. SDLC is a multiracial, multicultural gathering of Upper School student leaders from across the United States, and focuses on self-reflecting, forming allies and building community. After returning, students shared several ways they plan to incorporate their training into life at AIS, and facilitated faculty and staff discussions around diversity and inclusion at Agnes Irwin.

Inquiry | Faculty Focus

Questions with Melanie Slezak

Kindergarten teacher Melanie Slezak has spent nearly 30 years as an early childhood educator, and has been one of the first friendly faces that legions of Agnes Irwin students came to know when they ventured into formal education. In that time, she says, much has changed with the advance of technology, but the core of what she does has remained the same: teaching girls to love learning.

— Wanda Odom

Q: What do you enjoy most about being a kindergarten teacher?

Slezak: I truly enjoy everything! I am constantly energized by the excitement, curiosity and wonder that kindergarteners have for learning. Year after year, the girls enjoy coming to school and consistently give their best effort to learning. In kindergarten, every day is different, which keeps me thinking and active.

Q: How has teaching kindergarten changed over your career?

Slezak: Surprisingly, many aspects of teaching kindergarten have stayed the same. Every year, I strive to teach the girls strong foundational skills and advance them forward from where they began. This remains an important piece of the girls’ educational journey. It is important to me that the girls know I care about them and believe in them. The part that has changed the most is the importance of differentiating my instruction to meet the needs of the wide variety of learners in my class, and the advances and role of technology in my classroom. My students are already navigating advanced technological devices: five- and six-year-olds today have access to the world in a way that children of two decades ago didn’t.

Q: What is your greatest challenge each day?

Slezak: My greatest challenge is managing time so that I can get to every subject without causing the girls to feel rushed. Our curriculum includes a rich variety of activities and lessons, along with special classes such as art, music, library, physical education and Spanish.

Q: What is your favorite activity with students?

Slezak: One that I especially love is teaching writing. Watching the girls develop their skills, and seeing their ideas unfold, is gratifying and exciting. They truly grow to believe they are authors!

Q: What makes kindergarten at Agnes Irwin special?

Slezak: I have to say that the relationships are what make Agnes Irwin kindergarten special. Watching the girls develop and nurture their friendships, the friendships I have with my colleagues and the partnerships I have with parents are extraordinary. To me, this goes beyond the kindergarten and is the unique foundation of an Agnes Irwin education.

Q: Through a Professional Growth Grant, you spent

last summer developing curriculum for the Lower School’s Leadership Toolkit. What was the result?

Slezak: I worked to create activities for each of the nine traits in the Leadership Toolkit. The toolkit, and the symbols inside, are the foundation for our leadership lessons. The activities I compiled are ways to enhance and deepen the girls’ understanding. They are hands-on, fun and can be used with individuals or small groups. We know our girls are leaders, but these activities give them intentional opportunities to practice and demonstrate their growing leadership identities. I also worked with Dr. Lisa Dissinger, our Lower School psychologist, to align the 4Cs of the “Let’s Care” curriculum with the Leadership Toolkit. It has been a wonderful collaboration and the girls are learning important vocabulary and skills that connect friendship and social skills with leadership.

Q: How has technology affected your classroom practices?

OTHER ROLES:

Participatory Action Research Committee (Development of the Leadership Toolkit and L3 curriculum)

Member of the Admission Committee

Member of the Teaching and Learning Committee

Slezak: Technological advances have had a definite impact on my classroom. Most are very positive. I use iPads and computers for small group lessons, which the girls enjoy because they get immediate feedback and are active participants in their learning. The Internet provides me with access to unlimited information, lessons, activities, projects and research. I’ve learned to incorporate technology into my classroom while also teaching lessons in a traditional classroom environment. I am very excited about incorporating more design thinking and project-based learning in the coming months. I believe it is our responsibility to engage our students in a way that teaches them to be global citizens. Technological advances increase students’ accessibility to the world every day and create active learners.

Member of the iWonder Lab development group

Member of the Science Teachers Committee

Member of the Math Teachers Committee

Member of ADVIS Technology Group

Summer at AIS teacher

Tutor

Q: What fun fact about you would surprise people?

Slezak: I was an exchange student in Honduras in 1976. I took several years of French in high school and didn’t know one word of Spanish when I was assigned to Central America. I truly learned Spanish by immersion. While there, I went to an all-girls school, learned to care for coffee bean and mango plants and got used to seeing tarantulas on a regular basis.

“Watching the girls develop their skills, and seeing their ideas unfold, is gratifying and exciting. They truly grow to believe they are authors!”

Limelight | Student Profiles

Clara Laveran LOWER SCHOOL

The first year at a new school can be a little intimidating. Some students might hesitate to plunge into school life, but not fourth grader Clara Laveran: as a new student this year, she jumped right in.

Clara was the brains behind this year’s inaugural Fourth Grade Talent Show, which took place in January.

“One day I asked a bunch of people when the talent show was going to be, and they said we didn’t have one,” Clara explained. Surprised by this fact, she set about making it happen, drafting a letter to Lower School Director Donna Lindner to request permission to organize a talent show. After a few attempts to deliver the letter (“Mrs. Lindner has a lot of meetings!”), she approached Carol Hillman, Lindner’s assistant, to schedule a time to meet.

Clara and classmate Ananda Leahy presented their case to Lindner, who scheduled the show for one of the Lower School’s regular Friday assemblies. Clara went home, created signup sheets and began spreading the word.

When the date rolled around, fourth graders astounded their schoolmates with magic tricks, dance, gymnastics and music — including a parody of British pop star Adele’s “Hello” by girls masquerading as Star Wars characters, and Clara’s duet, with classmate Ella Springer, of “Not Pretty Enough.”

Clara says the talent show is her favorite memory from this school year so far — although portraying Pocahontas for her Notable Women in Wax project is a close second.

It’s not too much of a surprise that this energetic 10-year-old’s favorite memories involve performance: she hopes to someday be an actress and singer.

In the meantime, Clara is a bright and determined student with a great sense of humor, said fourth grade teacher Susie Hagin.

Clara described her studies as “challenging, but fun.” She especially enjoys math, which, she said, is made more interesting by hands-on projects. “Instead of always working in our math book, we do crafts and have math journals and activities to find the factors and prime and composite numbers. Mrs. Hagin teaches it in a really fun way.”

— Amanda Mahnke

JOYCE SMITH

Shreya Mathawan MIDDLE SCHOOL

The inner workings of machines have fascinated Shreya Mathawan since she was a little girl. “I like knowing how things tick,” explained the eighth grader, who, after three years in the Middle School Robotics Club, joined the Upper School robotics team this year.

Shreya is the sole Middle School girl on the Upper School team. She joined on the advice of a Middle School club advisor, who thought she was ready for a bigger challenge. “It’s definitely more intense,” Shreya said.

Each year, the team has six weeks to design, build, program and test their robots to meet the FIRST® competition’s engineering challenge. During that finite window, the team meets every day after school for two hours, as well as all day on Saturdays, and sometimes on Sundays and holidays.

The huge time commitment makes determination and a passion for robotics essential, Shreya said. A high level of patience is also a must, she noted, recalling a time she had to disassemble a pulley system five times in two days.

Shreya’s desire to understand the mechanics of systems has also made her a curious and devoted student — who says the teachers at Agnes Irwin are part of what makes it such a great school. There are times, however, that she may be hesitant if she doesn’t immediately comprehend the lesson at hand, she admits.

Last year during the annual seventh grade Culture Week, Shreya’s assignment as her biome’s scientist was to create a biomass: a mixture of cow manure and water that functions as a renewable source of energy for farmers.

“It was disgusting,” she attested. And yet, the project is one of Shreya’s favorite memories. It took her a while to come around to appreciating the experience, she said, but added, “I really liked figuring out how this renewable source of energy, that I never knew about, worked.”

Environmental issues are an area of interest for this aspiring entrepreneur, who says she wants to create her own company. “I want to take things that are unwanted and turn them into a new source of energy. I want to program things — I want to build things that will help people.”

— Amanda Mahnke

JOYCE SMITH

Sabina Smith

UPPER SCHOOL

The opportunity to learn in an allgirls environment is what Sabina Smith ’17 appreciates most about Agnes Irwin. “It allows me to pursue anything I want to do and not be afraid,” said the junior class president, who served as class representative her freshman and sophomore years.

Now in her sixth year at Agnes Irwin, Sabina says the community has provided her with the support she needed to find herself and the flexibility to explore and realize her passions. She spent last summer in Costa Rica with a program called Duke TIP, taking classes in tropical diseases and Costa Rica’s public health system. Robotics and STEM are major interests, and she is co-head of the school’s World Affairs Club.

“It’s important to look at problems differently, and where you find intersections in topics, you find new possibilities,” she said. “Here, it’s easy to be interested in many different subjects — and within school clubs, you are exposed to different opinions and varying perspectives.” Contemplating how global events affect people in her community has inspired an ambition in her to achieve positive change.

What especially excites her is exploring the intersection of her two favorite topics, science and world affairs. In college, she plans to pursue a major in public health, anthropology or epidemiology. After that, she hopes to go to medical school to continue her education in the area of public health, and is interested in nonprofit work and research as potential career opportunities.

Sabina said Agnes Irwin has helped shape and expand her idea of leadership. When she first delved into student government, she thought leadership meant organizing events. Now, she said, “I think effective leadership is about considering how others are feeling, truly understanding their needs and then addressing them.

“When you look outside of our community, you often see men in leadership positions,” Sabina added. “Here, you see girls in leadership positions. AIS makes it clear that everyone has the potential to lead and impact others.”

— Corin Breña

JOYCE SMITH

Math Club LOWER SCHOOL

The hammering in Pedie Hill’s fourth grade classroom is deafening. More than a dozen girls are sprawled on the floor, leaning over cloth-covered wooden boards as they drive flathead nails just so far into the arc of a large circle pattern. They are careful to place each nail at exact intervals, 10, 15 or 30 degrees apart.

Welcome to Math Club in Lower School! Here, fourth graders can spend their lunch recess each Wednesday practicing mathematics in cool ways that seem more like playing than learning — which is actually what’s occurring.

“You figure out how many different ways that math is in your life, and how you can make math fun,” said Eliana Aaron when asked what she enjoys about participating in Math Club. “You can make it into a game.”

Olivia Stephan likes that club activities involve art projects like string art, which required her to use a compass, a

protractor and to divide some numbers to determine how far apart each nail needed to be for her pattern.

“It’s a really fun way to learn, and it’s not in a book,” said Olivia, who has also learned how to play cribbage, which she feels is “a very unusual game. It’s hard.”

Games are a mainstay of Math Club, said Hill, who has hosted the weekly activity for several years. In the fall, the girls start off learning simple concentration games like “24.” Using a limited number of cards in a deck, players must select two cards that, when added or multiplied, equal 24. If that happens, the player wins the round. If not, the cards go back on the table. The best of three adds up to a win.

“These are games they can take home and do on their own that practice minimal number facts,” said Hill, adding that the number of participants this school year is the largest she has seen in recent years. Prizes boost attendance, she said, as

does inclement weather. Her standard prize is an eraser.

After spring break, the girls learn math “tricks,” such as asking a person to think of a card in a playing deck and then correctly guessing it, that they will take on the road when they visit a local nursing home as part of community service.

Ava Anderson sees the appeal of Math Club very simply: “It teaches you the different tools (needed) to measure, and you count stuff.” Ava concurred, but with a caveat related to the string art project: “Sometimes you nail your fingers, but it’s still fun.”

— Wanda Odom

Some of the 20-plus club members include (left to right) Maya Messick, Sarah Ernst, Dakota Puriefoy, Henriette Schminke, Ella Springer, Olivia Stephan, Sydney Puriefoy, Eliana Aaron and Grace Ivancich.

Visual & Performing Arts

Computing the Art in Mathematics

Kalantari showed polynomiographic images alongside great works by Klee, Picasso, Klimt and Sol LeWitt, and the resemblances were striking.

His presentation was a centerpiece of Arts Week in the Upper School, and this year’s theme explored the intersection of mathematics, science and visual arts. For more than a dozen years, the Visual and Performing Arts faculty and the student-led Arts Board have organized a week of events and activities for all Upper School students to celebrate written, visual and performing arts.

In the study of science and math, there is no more fundamental skill than the ability to solve polynomial equations.

For Dr. Bahman Kalantari, a professor of Computer Science at Rutgers University, an equally important fact is that students can use such mathematical expressions to create visually arresting images as wondrous as the works of famous artists. He believes that knowledge can capture the imaginations of students and inspire wider study of mathematics.

Kalantari is the creator of polynomiography, algorithmic visualizations of the solution to a polynomial equation “using the mathematical convergence properties of iteration functions.

“Polynomiography connects art, mathematics, science and technology,” Kalantari told a morning assembly of Upper School students in January. “It’s a game of hide-and-seek with a bunch of dots on a painting canvas.”

Through computer software called Poly-Z-Vision, Kalantari can input a polynomial equation, run the program and produce simple to complex designs, symmetrical or asymmetrical, two-dimensional or 3D, on a computer screen (shown at right).

“You can make images that you can’t really tell how they were generated,” he said, “creating wonderful pictures by design or by accident.”

Other planned speakers were Dr. Iman Martin ’99, an epidemiologist and an officer in the elite Epidemic Intelligence Service of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), who used pictography to bridge language barriers in her efforts to combat Ebola outbreaks in Africa; and Virginia-based sculptor Rebecca Kamen, who tries through her multimedia works to capture and re-imagine what scientists see through their research.

Senior Laura Pansini, who is studying calculus this year, said she was definitely impressed by what Kalantari could do with an equation.

“I got to see a whole different side of math. It was really interesting how he combined art, science and math to create something so interactive and fun,” said Pansini. “As a student, I think it was really cool to see that math can be more than just numbers.”

At the Upper School assembly, Math Department Chair Cindy Brown introduced Kalantari with the preface that “one of our special events for Arts Week also includes math,” urging students to give a cheer. Brown said that the value of Kalantari’s work lies in its ability to inspire students.

“It shows that beyond the skill-building that we sometimes concentrate on in school, there’s a whole bigger world out there where math can interact with other subjects and, in this case, create beautiful art,” said Brown. “It’s something that just sparks the girls’ imaginations.”

Kalantari’s goal in promoting polynomiography is to better engage students in learning math and potentially spur higher levels of achievement in math among American students, who at the high school level ranked 27th out of 34 industrialized nations in Western Europe and North America in

math proficiency in 2012.

“It beautifies mathematics, it connects students to the subject, and it inspires students … on their own to ask questions that are deep. It’s a way of teaching. An equation that is abstract and maybe meaningless becomes something lively,” Kalantari said. “It makes a profound impact.”

“I think eventually… such a medium could enter K-12 education,” said Kalantari. “There might not be a course called polynomiography. But why not do a little bit of this in math class?”

— Wanda Odom

First All-School Art Show

If there’s one thing that inspires nostalgia in “Lifers” — i.e., seniors who, like myself, have spent the entirety of their academic career at Agnes Irwin — it’s the art classes. “The puppets!” one girl squeals when I mention Lower School artwork. “And remember we made those papier maché birds? And the self-portraits?” She flops back in her seat and shakes her head. “Wow. Those were the days, man.”

Those were, indeed, the days. But I’d argue that, for many, those days have continued well into their Upper School careers. The proof was in Agnes Irwin’s firstever All-School Art Showcase, which had its opening reception on Feb. 2. From Jan. 27 to March 4, artwork from every Lower and Middle School student, as well as work from every Upper School student who takes an art class, was on exhibit throughout the Middle and Upper School buildings. From the first grade’s self-portraits outside the Student Life Center, to the Middle School’s “Junk Rethunk” project in the Arts & Science wing, to the Upper School’s photography, ceramics, wire sculpture and large watercolor displays, our halls were overflowing with vibrancy, creativity and beauty.

The show not only gave students the opportunity to demonstrate their talent, but it also exemplified the success of the artistic journey here at Agnes Irwin. First, we’re taught to explore, to make mistakes, to discover. Then we begin to harness our abilities, honing the skills necessary to achieve the desired product. And finally, the support and wisdom of our teachers, coupled with the multitude of innovative projects we are challenged with, lift us to the artistic heights we never gave up on reaching for.

— Sophie Gaddes ’16

Exquisite Corpses

Studio Art III students have dabbled in cadavre exquis, a technique that emerged during Surrealism in 1925. Emulating a parlor game, each artist draws a human or animal body part — head, torso, legs — before passing the folded paper onto a classmate. The result? Ink drawings of odd figures.

She’s ArtStanding!

Our Arts Facebook page has a new feature: ArtStanding Student of the Month. Among them are: Caroline Richardson ’17, for her apprenticeship at Philadelphia’s Fabric Workshop, and Rachel Huang ’18, a violinist with the youth orchestra Philadelphia Sinfonia.

Scotland Bound?

RepCo has been invited to submit a proposal to perform at the American High School Theatre Festival, an international showcase of the best in high school theater, held each summer at the Edinburgh Festival, the world’s premiere arts fest.

Right: Self-portrait by Emma Harmelin ’27

Athletics

Working and Playing Hard Wins Top Rankings

early start in the sport likely helped her to excel. “Having someone show me at a young age what an amazing sport squash is… is something I’ll have with me forever.”

Developing a good foundation and a love for the game is part of what Stait aims to do for all his Middle School players — and it’s working.

Agnes Irwin’s Middle School Varsity squash program is currently ranked third in the country. A week after nationals in January, the team won the Mid-Atlantic Squash Association tournament, besting national champion Baldwin and No. 2-ranked Episcopal Academy. This season, Agnes Irwin’s Middle School JV team is undefeated.

“Our middle school program,” Stait said, “has risen in the past three years to become one of the best in the country.”

In January, two AIS squash players had a unique opportunity: Katherine Glaser ’20 and Margaux Comai ’21, ranked among the four top players in their age groups nationally, traveled to England to compete in the British Junior Open championships against the world’s best.

Glaser, who placed 17th at the Open — losing only once, to the world’s top U15 player — started learning squash at age nine. She joined Agnes Irwin’s Middle School team in sixth grade, a year of firsts for the school: the squash courts opened, Alex Stait joined as Director of Squash and the Middle School team went to nationals.

Now in her second year playing “up” on the Upper School Varsity team, the eighth grader says her

With that success has come increasing popularity for the sport at AIS and newfound competition for a place on the team: More than 40 girls tried out this year.

An hour of training every day — court sprints, ghosting drills that teach fast footwork, practice games — is part of the key to success, along with the physical training girls undertake individually.

The game is mental, too. Remaining calm and unflustered is vital, explained Comai. “When you lose a match, you can’t dwell on it — you have to move onto the next one.”

There is very little difference between the top teams in terms of physical skill, Stait contends. Much more of the game is psychological, and as coach, he works hard to support each girl. “Everyone is different. I know what individually makes each of them tick, so I do my best to help them feel they have someone behind them who cares.”

Along with that support comes some tough love. Stait says he is stricter with Middle School players than Upper School

SQUASH

“Everyone is different. I know what individually makes each of them tick, so I do my best to help them feel they have someone behind them who cares.”

girls, in part to help them develop good habits they will carry on as they play squash at a higher level. “There is no allowance for bad behavior or bad timekeeping. We’re really trying to create a culture in the way they train, play and behave.”

At the same time, Stait recognizes the need for fun in a busy training schedule and works levity into Middle School practices weekly. One of Comai’s favorite team activities is “Fun Fridays,” during which girls play silly games, compete in left-handed tournaments and win prizes.

“Most of the time they’re playing squash, they’re working hard to improve — but it’s important to remember they’re still kids,” Stait said.

— Amanda Mahnke

COLLEGE SIGNINGS

Athletes Take Sports to Next Level

This year, 10 senior athletes committed to continuing their athletic careers at the collegiate level, representing 15 percent of the Class of 2016.

For these athletes and their families — including eight who will play in Division I — the commitments represent the culmination of years of dedication: hundreds of hours spent in training, practice and games, at camps, on club teams, all while keeping up with their academic studies and other pursuits.

“We are extremely proud of this group of student-athletes and all they have accomplished,” said Athletic Director Sheila Pauley. “To have 15 percent of the senior class recruited speaks volumes about their work ethic and commitment to their sport.”

For student-athletes who want to be recruited, the school’s College Counseling staff members “are available to be integral intermediaries from the beginning,” said Associate Director of College Counseling Meg Scott.

“Every sport is different,” Scott said, “but being recruited means getting on a college coach’s radar.” Players can either put themselves in places where they can be scouted — like a sports showcase or camp — or contact a coach directly to express their interest. “It’s a two-way street,” Scott said.

Before commitments are made, Athletics and College Counseling staff help students evaluate potential schools through a variety of resources: program rankings, tips on juggling conversations with several schools and worksheets on which students can compare the various requirements for

BRIEFS

Alex Blomstrom ’18

college athletes at each of the schools they’re considering. “We really want them to be thoughtful about this,” Scott said.

The work isn’t over once students commit: College Counseling staff connects with coaches and admissions officers, helps students with course selection and more. “We talk extensively with (Athletic Director) Sheila Pauley about how best to support each each student-athlete,” Scott said.”

— Amanda Mahnke

CLASS OF 2016 RECRUITS

Emily Fryer (Brown University, lacrosse)

Camille Smukler (Amherst College, tennis)

Ginny Ulichney (Tufts University, volleyball)

Sarah Platt (University of Virginia, lacrosse)

Laura Pansini (Princeton University, lacrosse)

Rosie Kalis (Miami University, field hockey)

Kristin Burnetta (Harvard University, lacrosse)

Hannah Keating (Harvard University, lacrosse)

Kate White (Dartmouth College, lacrosse)

Claire Micheletti (Colgate University, soccer)

Talented underclassmen have contributed to the successes of this season’s Varsity basketball team, which include a win at the Westtown Tournament on Dec. 19. Guard Alex Blomstrom ’18 notched her 100th three-pointer in a Feb. 2 win against Baldwin, and the same week she was featured in a Delaware County Times article about her leadership on and off the court. The sophomore is one of the top shooters in Delaware County.

At Easterns in February, the Varsity swim team broke eight school records — almost unheard of for one meet. All of the new record-setting swims were impressive, but the 400-yard Freestyle relay team of Myka Thomas ’18, Ana Mashek ’18, Maddie Aguirre ’19 and Riley Flick ’17 trimmed the most time — swimming six seconds faster than the previous record.

Record Swims at Easterns

In Recognition of Women

On March 7, The Agnes Irwin School recognized International Women’s Day with a speech by alumna and State Department official Mimi Wang ’05. When speaking to the Upper School, Wang introduced students to the challenges and rewards of her life as a woman officer in the United States Foreign Service.

Recognition of International Women’s Day began in Eastern Europe in the early 20th century, in honor of the first all-female union, the International Ladies Garment Workers Union. In the western hemisphere, International Women’s Day was recognized as an official United Nations’ holiday by its General Assembly in 1966. Typically, celebrations are held on March 8 each year and are marked with a themed day at U.N. headquarters, speeches and gifts of purple flowers to women and girls around the world.

Wang, who also spoke to fourth graders and in a Middle School assembly, attended Yale University and graduated in 2009 with with a major in history and secondary major in International Studies.

Shortly after her college graduation, Wang joined the U.S. State Department, serving overseas in postings in the Philippines and Afghanistan. In the two years since returning from Afghanistan, Wang has served as a watch officer in the State Department Operations Center (the U.S. government’s international crisis center) and currently serves in the communications office under State Department spokesman Jack Kirby.

When asked by Agnes Irwin Upper School students about her experience as a woman in the Foreign Service, Wang emphasized a nuanced outlook. She noted that “the thing about sexism today… is that it’s a little bit inadvertent sometimes. Afghans treated me differently because I was a woman. Whether or not that was sexism, I couldn’t say. I was just unusual.”

While posted in Afghanistan, Wang was involved in the creation of an organization for Afghan women journalists. Wang discovered that the women educated in Afghan schools after the fall of the Taliban in 2001 “were really inspiring. They were like Irwin’s girls. They weren’t shy.” She formed a special bond with the young journalists, finding that education “makes a huge difference.”

“One of the things you learn to do at Irwin’s is you learn to learn,” Wang said, crediting the school for the writing and speaking skills she used to further her success as a working professional in the international and political sphere.

Sophie Gaddes, a senior and editor of the school newspaper, The Wick, found connections to her own interests in Wang’s story. “[Wang’s] dedication to legitimizing journalism for women as a career in Afghanistan really inspired me,” she said. “It showed a commitment to spreading freedom of thought and opinion around the globe.”

To senior Ellie Damstra, “Learning about the story behind how [Wang] got involved with the State Department…sparked a potential future interest in a similar career.” Wang’s exceptional career path befitted a speech in honor of International Women’s Day, as it granted Agnes Irwin students a rare opportunity to connect with an exceptional woman experienced in geopolitical affairs. Her visit was organized by Agnes Irwin’s Center for the Advancement of Girls, which distributed purple carnations to students, faculty and staff in recognition of the day.

— Anna Kramer ’16

Workshop Series Aims to Shape Leaders

How would you move a marble across a classroom, roughly 20 feet, with a plastic straw, some string, a paper clip and a balloon — without touching it?

In February, more than 60 fifth-grade and sixth-grade girls from Agnes Irwin and other area schools faced that very challenge in a morning dedicated to collaborative leadership as part of the Center for the Advancement of Girl’s leadership development program for middle schoolers.

Catherine Steiner-Adair, a clinical psychologist and author, speaks to us about leadership development through an anecdote we in CAG refer to as the “pizza story.” She recounts that when you ask a 10-year-old girl what she wants on her pizza, she will proudly assert her preferences: pepperoni, mushrooms, olives; when you ask a 13-year-old girl the same question, she says she’s not sure; and when you ask a 15-year-old girl, she defers: “I’ll have whatever you’re having.”

It is precisely that sort of progression to indifference and insecurity that CAG hopes to combat through the three-part workshop series Real Girls. Real Voices. Real Impact.

At the February workshop, What Do You Want on Your Pizza?, girls eagerly launched into the “Marble Mover” activity in teams of five and six. Gradually, the girls found their voices, shared ideas and worked together to accomplish the goal. After the activity, the groups collectively named the actions, characteristics and skills that advanced the goal and allowed them to succeed: determination, openness, careful listening, creativity, positivity and teamwork.

Using Steiner-Adair’s observations as a foundation, CAG set out to create a program that would require girls ages 10-12 to not only actively identify and practice their own strengths as leaders, but also discover their own “leadership identity”: to pinpoint what they think makes a leader and to consider how they themselves fit that perception.

The goal is threefold: First, we want girls to hold onto their voice as they

grow. Second, we hope that they will use their voice to advance their values and interests. Third, we believe that in doing so, the girls will develop a strong, unique leadership identity that they will confidently assert in and beyond their communities.

Held in October, the first workshop, How Do You See Your Selfie?, addressed the importance of owning the values that inherently influence a leader’s voice and shape who girls are as leaders. The second workshop focused on how girls work with others to tackle challenges, solve problems and accomplish a group goal.

CAG will host a third and final workshop this spring that will focus on girls’ leadership in STEM. We are looking forward to collaborating with Head of School Wendy L. Hill, who will share her passion for all things related to leadership and STEM. —

Alison Brant

BRIEFS White Paper Published

The Center recently published a white paper summarizing its first STEM think tank and conference, hosted in March 2015. The document outlines the key topics discussed, such as barriers to girls’ success in STEM education and fields. It can be found at agnesirwin.org/CAG under the Research section.

CAG Presents at Forum

CAG staff members Alison Brant, Sarah Anne Eckert and Mariandl Hufford presented at the National Coalition of Girls’ Schools Global Forum on Girls Education in New York City on Feb. 8. While Brant and Eckert shared their work in ‘INSPIRE!’ roundtable sessions, Hufford was a panelist for a discussion on the ways research can inform practice in girls’ schools.

Students Talk Courage

The Council for the Advancement of Girls jumped at the chance to lead an Agnes Irwin Daisy Troop meeting in March. The girls talked to the Daisies about what it means to be courageous and strong by reading a story, creating their own superhero masks and superhero poses and acting out skits to demonstrate courageous and not-socourageous actions.

Timeline

Solving Problems of a Pint-Sized World

One morning every school year, more than 20 inventors stand patiently at tables in the Laura Thomas Buck ’49 Pavilion, explaining intricate contraptions to Lower School students and families. Their creations are built to solve pintsized problems: a “goose guard” that prevents geese from getting too close at the park; a tunic zipper-upper; a “sunscreener,” comprised of a yardstick and attached sponge, so the user can apply sunscreen to her own back. The devices “help solve quintessentially kindergarten problems,” says kindergarten teacher Melanie Slezak, because — well — the inventors are kindergartners.

Over six weeks, the students learn what inventions are and what they do, then design and build their own. The project culminates in a grand reveal at the Kindergarten Invention Convention, held this year on March 22.

— Amanda Mahnke

EARLY FEBRUARY

Students prepare for the project by reading I Am Inventing an Invention and What Do You Do with an Idea? in class, among other books that librarian Michelle Burns has collected. The stories help introduce students to the idea of inventing and what it means to create something that has never been created before.

FEB. 16

So, what exactly is an invention? And what makes a good one? Students learn that an invention is brand new, makes life easier and better, and can help solve a problem. Sometimes an object might address one of these areas, but not all of them — for example, vegetables are not an invention, as some of Molly Bergh’s students were initially surprised to learn.

FEB. 17

Teachers provide an example of a simple household object and ask students: How does this invention make life easier or better? Students jump at the chance to explain how a slotted spoon makes life easier by helping drain the water out of a can of peas. “Did the invention make life easier?” Slezak asks, prompting a chorus of enthusiastic yesses.

FEB. 8–MAR. 4

Students are tasked with looking around their homes and finding a simple invention that makes life easier, to help them begin thinking about the inventing process. For two weeks, a different student brings in a household item to show to the class. Grace Ryan shares that someone invented headphones to help block out noise, and also so someone can listen to music quietly.

FEB. 22

FEB. 22–MAR. 4

At home, girls brainstorm ideas for their invention, decide what materials they’ll need and create a plan to build it. Parents are encouraged to help their daughters develop an idea, but allow her to take ownership of it. “An important goal for the girls is to learn the process of creating an invention. We also want them to be aware that if their invention solves a problem for them, it most likely solves a problem for others, too,” Slezak said. By March 4, students must bring written plans to school, sometimes with an accompanying illustration. Teachers can help adapt proposals if necessary.

MAR. 4–17

Girls spend two weeks building their prototypes at home. Some simpler projects, such as doll organizers, the girls can build themselves. Others require some help from mom or dad: a “toy picker-upper” with netting attached to a scooter, or the EZ Shelf, which works on a pulley system so its user can grab hard-to-reach items. The girls also name their inventions, such as “The Toothbrush Helper” or “Sarah’s Handy Dandy Lamp.”

Teachers introduce the mission: students must create an invention that solves a problem they have. Slezak and Bergh display photos of previous kindergarten inventions to help girls develop their ideas. Last year, Emanuela Cacciavillani invented slipper compass flashlights, which the girls decided would be useful for those afraid of the dark.

MAR. 22

Six weeks later, the inventors’ hard work pays off, as they display and describe their inventions to fellow Lower School students and their families. “The girls are so proud of their inventions,” Slezak said. “This is something they really do remember.”

CHANGE IN COURSE

New Modes of Teaching Are Transforming Education

by Wanda Odom

Students spend a lot of time laughing and talking to each other in Dr. Sarah Anne Eckert’s 11th grade United States History course. They also huddle together in small groups on the floor, instead of sitting at desks, and no one has cracked a textbook all semester.

Such behavior is normal in Eckert’s class, which involves a decidedly different teaching approach than the stand-and-deliver lectures that have been standard practice for high school history instruction for many decades.

Eckert’s approach — using primary source documents, student-driven discussions and project-based learning — represents one of the “big shifts” that the have been taking place in education in recent years, changes that the MacArthur Foundation, one of the nation’s largest philanthropic foundations, has said represent “schools of the future.”

The Big Shifts

The MacArthur Foundation, in recent work on the future of education, has identified major changes in the field of education that it says schools will need to consider to keep up with the innovation required of 21st century institutions. (See page 4 for a summary of these major shifts in education.)

These “paradigm-shifting revolutions,” as the National Association of Independent Schools calls them, are transforming education. Chief among these shifts is project-based learning, a teaching method in which students gain knowledge and skills by working for an extended period of time to research or investigate a complex question or problem, and then develop an answer or solution.

The others include shifts from a teacher-centered to student-centered classroom, reliance on teamwork instead of individual work, the construction of meaning instead of the consumption of information, the use of networks and partnerships to augment expertise, and the use of crowd sourcing in lieu of single-source textbooks.

A seventh shift identified by the MacArthur Foundation complements the others: increasing use of assessments and measures of progress that require students to demonstrate what they have learned through means other than the regurgitation of information for written tests.

An Incubator for Innovation

At first, her U.S. history students were hesitant about her approach, but they have become more at ease working together in small group discussions of the original source material she provides, instead of relying on her to lecture.

Eckert noted that for decades, the traditional classroom practice has been for students to sit and listen to the teacher — so for many of them “this is still new.”

Middle School science teacher Jennifer White is among those helping to lead the revolution at Agnes Irwin, which earlier this school year established a cross-divisional committee to research and evaluate trends in education, curriculum and pedagogy and develop recommendations regarding changes in teaching methods and practice.

“We are still in the very early stages,” said White, one of six faculty members, along with three division heads, eight department chairs and two senior administrators, who serve on the Teaching and Learning Committee (TLC). Its charge, from Head of School Dr. Wendy L. Hill, is to serve as an incubator for innovation.

One of the committee’s first actions was to form three working groups with three particular topics to explore: the integration of project-based learning into the curriculum, the balance between teaching skills versus content, and “who are the girls we are teaching today,” said White. Central to understanding how best to shift teaching practice, she explained, is to intimately know the audience — how today’s students are informed and socialized, with whom and what they process information.

Assistant Head of School Mariandl Hufford, who chairs the committee and is also Director of the Center for the Advancement of Girls (CAG), said that in addition to an increasing use of project-based learning across several disciplines, the school has shifted its approach to discussions about academic program: evaluating the trends in teaching a specific subject such as mathematics or science in a vertical fashion, PreK to 12th grade, and engaging all teachers of a particular subject in the dialogue.

“In this process, teachers have become the drivers of the vision for their disciplines,” said Hufford, noting that program discussions started last spring with the Mathematics Department and

“We are learning how important it is for students to engage in cooperative learning, and I think that students are also learning that,” said Eckert.

continued in November for the Science Department and in February for the Visual and Performing Arts Department. The gatherings involved a three-hour kickoff retreat to look at the most recent trends in educational research and professional development and in the ways girls learn a particular subject best.

The teachers have continued to meet regularly, by department, to explore themes such as how to cultivate a growth mindset in students and ways to generate stronger threads across divisions.

tal ones, to quash popular notions that math is more for boys than for girls.

“No parent ever says, ‘I wasn’t good at reading, so you don’t have to learn how to read,’” said Brown. Her team has developed a vision statement for the mathematics program at Agnes Irwin that involves getting every student to understand that “mastering mathematics concepts means working hard and managing frustration and confusion,” and that “math stamina” will lead to success.

New Tools & New Methods

The most common ways in which the big shifts in education are being incorporated in teaching practice at Agnes Irwin are through project-based learning initiatives, student-driven classroom discussions, alternative academic assessments and non-traditional source materials.

“I often start class with a discussion question or questions and allow students an opportunity to write about the question for a few minutes,” said Upper School English teacher Hillary O’Connor. “Sometimes they share among themselves, sometimes not, but they then lead the discussion with their answers.”

One of the persistent issues in mathematics instruction is overcoming the lack of confidence with which many girls approach the study of math. “Girls kind of get the idea that they are either math people or they’re not math people. We wanted to try to dispel those errors in thinking,” said Brown, who has led four follow-up discussions among math teachers. The talks have led to Lower School teachers incorporating animated ClassDoJo videos into their classroom work to promote “a growth mindset” and to reinforce the idea that girls can be strong math students. But Brown said it will also take a shift in societal attitudes, and to some extent paren-

O’Connor, whose practice is one example of the shift from teacher-centered to student-centered approaches, said that at the start of the year, she models the type of discussion she wants, identifying major plot points, important characters and key themes or quotes. “As the year progresses, I allow them to lead the routine on their own.”

In Jodie Zielinski’s English III class, juniors recently created the vocabulary list for a quiz on Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, each combing through the book to find 20 words they felt that they did not immediately know.

They were to define four, and in class the following day, each student listed her words (without definitions) on the board. “We then had more words than needed for the quiz,” Zielinski said. To shorten the list, the class crossed out duplicates. Then, “students argued for what words could be crossed off the list.”

Essentially, Zielinski said, “this allowed students to define, and in a sense own, some words, and to tell their classmates, ‘Look, you know this word, too.’” In the end, the students made the final list, and the process allowed them to consider word context, prior knowledge, and sentence examples, all before defining the list and studying it. “Students learned, or were reminded they already knew, more words than those selected. An active — versus passive — engagement with vocabulary took place.”

Like some other teachers, Dolores Verdeur decided to give students in her 11th grade English class a collaborative project to com-

In Jennifer White’s fifth grade science class, students engage in project-based learning activities like this one. Rosa Huffman’s cardboard prototype is comprised of a wheel and axle cart and a double pulley. As she explains in the project, the cart starts on the ground, and as the worker pulls down on the double pulley, the cart moves forward to the counter. “As the cart reaches the counter, the load is slowly lifted out of the cart.”

“The purpose of the retreats is to take a look at what we’re doing, take a look at where we might improve so that we are helping girls to learn as much as they can and to do it as well as they can,” said Mathematics Department Chair Cindy Brown.

plete, instead of a traditional test or essay, at the conclusion of their unit on Transcendentalism.

Working in groups of two or three, they were asked to propose changes to an aspect of their own educational experience, as inspired by their reading of essays by Henry David Thoreau and the two-act play The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail, and their viewing of the Academy Award-winning film Dead Poet’s Society

Students were required to conduct independent research to define effective education, to research sources that would be useful in implementing a proposal, and to identify the steps necessary to make that change, Verdeur said. “They needed to write up their proposals, including how a character in the play and the film would regard their ideas. Finally, they presented their project to the class.” Verdeur added that she might forward their final projects to the Teaching and Learning Committee.

to class totally enlightened by what they learned.” An unexpected byproduct of the exercise, said Davis, was that the students came away with an understanding that other countries put a premium on healthy eating habits.

Eckert, the Upper School history teacher, agrees that the changes in classroom practice mean more enjoyable practices for students and educators alike. She has been able to design her U.S. history curriculum based on primary source documents gathered from a Stanford University group of history educators. Using some of their lesson plans as anchors, Eckert has constructed a unique course that fits her goals.

“I always knew I wanted to teach in a question-based format because U.S. history keeps getting longer and the time period in which to teach it remains the same. I have to make cuts; I have to drop things. I found using a standard curriculum too difficult,” she said. “Now I have a great model.”

WHAT THEY’RE READING

In their work, members of the Teaching and Learning Committee have been reading a variety of books, articles and blogs and listening to podcasts to better understand the changing landscape for schools today. Below is a sampling of the resources that have informed their conversations.

• Creating Cultures of Thinking: The 8 Forces We Must Master to Truly Transform Our Schools, by Ron Ritchhart

• Creative Schools: The Grassroots Revolution That’s Transforming Education, by Ken Robinson and Lou Aronica

• “Goodbye Jobs, Hello ‘Gigs’: How One Word Sums Up a New Economic Reality,” Podcast by Geoff Nunberg, National Public Radio, Jan. 11, 2016

Modern Language Department Chair Rita Davis said current tools such as the Internet “have infused the curriculum with an abundance of resources that are made available” through increased connectivity with other educators around the world.

Davis uses an online map with links to school cafeteria websites in different parts of the Francophone world to give her eighth grade students an overview of the range of school lunch offerings abroad. The interactive map shows cafeterias in Morocco, Senegal, Tahiti, France, French Polynesia, Switzerland and Martinique.

“Isn’t it incredible? In a split second, the students are halfway around the world, and cultural comparisons are right at their fingertips,” said Davis, referring to the meal options, descriptions and images that the girls can view online. She found the map through an online resource for French teachers, where educators share information, noting that crowd sourcing of curriculum and lesson plans is increasingly the norm.

As a homework assignment, one of the girls’ first tasks, using their selected cafeteria abroad, was to identify a food with which they were unfamiliar; then they had to compare their chosen cafeteria’s offerings with those at Agnes Irwin, listing similarities and differences.

“They really seemed invested in this process,” said Davis. “I know they say a picture is worth a thousand words, but they came back

• “How Not to Talk to Your Kids: The Inverse Power of Praise,” New York Magazine, Aug. 3, 2007

• Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, by Carol Dweck

• Most Likely to Succeed: Preparing Our Kids for the Innovation Era, by Tony Wagner and Ted Dintersmith

• “Move Over, Millennials, Here Comes Generation Z,” by Alex Williams, The New York Times, Sept. 18, 2015

• Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative, by Ken Robinson

• PBL in the Elementary Grades: Step-by-Step Guidance, Tools and Tips for Standards-Focused K-5 Projects, by Sara Hallermann, John Larmer and John R. Mergendoller

• “Schools of the Future: The Big Shifts,” TedX Talk by Patrick F. Bassett, past president of National Association of Independent Schools

• The Smartest Kids in the World: And How They Got That Way, by Amanda Ripley

• The Teenage Brain: A Neuroscientist’s Survival Guide to Raising Adolescents and Young Adults, by Frances E. Jensen

• What’s Math Got to Do with It?, by Jo Boaler

Overall, Verdeur said, the project gave students experience in collaboration, research, critical thinking and writing, and oral presentation skills — as well as a chance to feel that they’re engaged in an academic endeavor with the potential to affect their own real-life experience.

Lower Schoolers Lean Into the Role of Writer

by Wanda Odom

olly Bergh’s kindergartners are prone to telling stories — not the type that would prompt a “tsk tsk” from the teacher, but the sort that often cause their classmates to erupt in raucous laughter, gleeful applause or high-pitched squeals of “that’s so sweet.” So are Shailla Bari’s first graders and Joe Flood’s second graders.

At a young age, these students are learning that one of the first steps toward becoming an author is having an imagination, and that being a good writer also involves learning to read well. It’s a lesson that starts on the first day of kindergarten and relies on research and practice developed over the course of 30 years by educator Lucy Calkins through the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project at Columbia University.

“Girls are natural storytellers. It might take a little while to shape their thoughts into publishable stories, but they they have great ideas and wonderful imaginations at this age,” said Flood, who, along with Bergh, has participated in the intensive summer workshop for teachers held by the Reading and Writing Project.

On Day One of Bergh’s class, the girls are asked to talk about a moment in their lives that they would like to share, and then draw a picture. Before they do, Bergh tells and writes her own story to model what she wants the girls to do. Their moments are simple: going to the grocery store with Mom or reading a book to their brother. The girls then try to write down letter sounds associated with their stories.

“When they come into kindergarten, we are hoping that most of girls know what an alphabet letter looks like and the sound associated with it. They have to know that an L looks two ways — the capital L and the lowercase l — but there is one sound associated with that,” said Bergh.

She guides the girls as they work through the process with prompts such as, “What letter sounds do you hear when you say, ‘My mommy read me a book’?” Bergh directs the girls to review the alphabet chart in their writing folders if they don’t know the letter associated with a particular sound. The chart has pictures attached to each letter that represent its sound.

The girls end up with phonetically spelled sentences like “mY faml liks to go ot to et” (My family like to go out to eat.), which was written by Natalie Burman in All About My Family. Burman also wrote that her mom likes to bake cakes, her brother likes to play soccer, her dad likes to work on his food truck, and she was having a play date.

One winter day, Emilia deForest Keys and Katie Hoehl had their classmates in stitches with their stories All About Mincies, imaginary beings, and All About My Loose Tooth

“Mincies like lollipops. Mincies live in oval houses. Mincies look like crayons when they are little,” read deForest Keys, perched on a stool next to Bergh, who helped her decode as she read. Classmates, seated before them on the floor, listened eagerly.

“My tooth wears underwear (uproarious laughter). My tooth is

terrified of toothpaste (even louder laughter). My tooth is not happy (doubled-over laughter). My tooth is afraid of everything,” Hoehl read, amusing herself as she showed the accompanying drawings. The suspect tooth had fallen out the previous weekend.

As with first and second graders, the kindergartners write daily and build their repertoire through personal narrative, or “I Did” stories; informational writing, “All About, or How To” stories; and “In My Opinion” stories. “Every week, they share one piece of work they have done,” said Bergh. “They get to stand in front of the class. They are so proud of themselves.”

In November, the girls start learning sight words, which they will see frequently in children’s books and whose structures do not fit into the phonetics rules for sounding out words. The girls learn 60 of them by the time they finish kindergarten. Bari calls them snap words in first grade, and the list grows; by second grade, the girls know them by the weightier moniker of no-excuse words.

Mastering such words and having phonemic awareness — the ability to hear, identify and manipulate the sounds of vowels, consonants and spelling patterns such as wh, ee or ur — help the girls develop reading and writing fluency.

“What’s wonderful about our writing program is that the writing is not given as a prompt,” said Bari. “It comes from within. They may write about whatever they are interested in — and because it’s authentic, they are so motivated to write.”

Every day, first graders practice one of the Daily Five: writing, reading to self, reading to someone, listening to reading or word work, which includes learning phonics rules, consonant and vowel sounds, spelling patterns and other cues. The aim is comprehension, accuracy, fluency and building vocabulary, an emphasis that continues in second, third and fourth grades.

“Mentor text” also plays a crucial role in helping students develop fluent reading and writing, said Bari, explaining that students study authors and their styles for examples of how to write well.

“The girls learn that reading and writing are connected. They learn that you learn to write beautiful literature by reading beautiful literature,” Bari said.

In second grade, where control of sentence structure is fairly solid, the girls focus on Daily Edit, learning various mechanics of writing such as spelling, punctuation and capitalization. They also work on time sequence, coherent passages, topic sentences and concluding text.

“What I like about this writing process is that it is by nature differentiated — each girl is working at her own level,” said Bari, noting that students can demonstrate skills as they master them. “But what I am really pleased with is the imagination and the excitement that is going on in the class. I realized very early on that the girls weren’t just jabbering away. They were sharing ideas and there was a lot of learning going on without me directing it.”

The girls learn that reading and writing are connected. They learn that you learn to write beautiful literature by reading beautiful literature.

SHAILLA BARI

Balancing the Books

Middle School Invests in Early Financial Education

investments l evaluating loans l building confidence l financial skills l financial literacy activities l check registers l banking l paychecks l withdrawals l deposits l financial transactions l balance l projections l bills insurance plans l conversations l taxes l calculating simple interest l sales tax l restaurant tips l interest positives and negatives l problem solving l return on investment l microfinance l start-up funds l women entrepreneurs l financial specialist l currency exchange rate l funding education l business l expenditures l turning a profit l business plans l calculating material and production costs l advertising expenses l logistics l budgeting l stock market l down payments l loans and investments l learning and reinforcing real-world skills l Girls Grantmaking l NextGenVest l building on strong foundations l developing knowledge about finance l inspiring behavior l strong personal financial habits l establishing positive attitudes toward personal finance l stocks l bonds l micro-loans l deductibles l mortgages l co-pays l managing money l investing l stock investments l evaluating loans l building confidence l financial skills l financial literacy activities l check registers l banking l paychecks l withdrawals l deposits l financial transactions l balance l projections l bills l insurance plans l conversations l taxes l calculating simple interest l sales tax l restaurant tips interest l positives and negatives l problem solving l return on investment l microfinance l start-up funds l women entrepreneurs l financial specialist l currency exchange rate l funding education l business l expenditures l turning a profit l business plans l calculating material and production costs l advertising expenses l logistics l budgeting l stock market l down payments l loans and investments l learning and reinforcing real-world skills l Girls Grantmaking l NextGenVest l building on strong foundations l developing knowledge about finance l inspiring behavior l strong personal financial habits l establishing positive attitudes toward personal finance l stocks l bonds l micro-loans l deductibles l mortgages l co-pays l managing money l investing l stock investments l evaluating loans l building confidence l financial skills l financial literacy activities l check registers l banking l paychecks l withdrawals l deposits l financial transactions l balance projections l bills l insurance plans l conversations l taxes l calculating simple interest l sales tax l restaurant tips l interest l positives and negatives l problem solving l return on investment l microfinance l start-up funds l women entrepreneurs l financial specialist l currency exchange rate l funding education l business l expenditures l turning a profit l business plans l calculating material and production costs l advertising expenses l logistics l budgeting l stock market l down payments l loans and investments l learning and reinforcing real-world skills l Girls Grantmaking l NextGenVest l building on strong foundations l developing knowledge about finance l inspiring behavior l strong personal financial habits l establishing positive attitudes loans

by AMANDA MAHNKE

Stocks, bonds, micro-loans, deductibles, mortgages, copays: How many of these terms did you understand as a 10-year-old?

Financial literacy, or the understanding of how a person makes, manages and invests money, is critical for lifelong success — and the sooner students learn it, the better, says Middle School math teacher Ellena Vaganos.

“To me, a girl should be able to go out and buy her own car, be comfortable investing in stock or evaluating a loan,” Vaganos said.

Introducing these concepts early — giving students an opportunity to explore, succeed and fail in a safe space — is vital to building confidence in financial skills. So once during each eight-day class rotation cycle, fifth graders take about 15 minutes out of their math studies to engage in conversations around managing money.

In November, fifth grade math classes begin a financial literacy activity — created together by Vaganos and fellow Middle School math teacher Dawn Anthony — in which each student is given a copy of a check register and $2,000 in a fictitious bank. Throughout the year, students earn a “paycheck” and make withdrawals and deposits after selecting cards, “Game of Life”-style.

“So, who wants to write out our paycheck for today?” Vaganos asks her fifth graders at the start of one February class. After a rustling of papers and a flurry of raised hands, Leslie Forman is chosen to go the whiteboard.

She writes out the date (2/24/15), a description of the transaction (Pay Check), the deposit amount ($700), and the account’s new balance ($2,945) on the board, where a check register is projected.

Next, Lilly Press is selected to choose an orange card from a pile. She reads it and groans. “You go to the emergency room to get stitches and the bill is $175.”

“What?” exclaims another student. “That’s a lot.”

“So, let’s talk about that,” Vaganos interjects. As Lilly walks to the board to record the bill and the account’s new balance, Vaganos asks: “Is there any other way we could pay for this besides writing

a check?”

“Insurance?” guesses Gigi Spragg.

Vaganos nods, then launches into a discussion of insurance plans and co-pays. As Vaganos gestures to another student to draw a card, she continues: “As you see, small stuff like this can happen — so it’s important to have some extra money saved always.”

This activity is often the first introduction students have to some of these concepts, said Vaganos. The goal “is really to start conversations around these topics. Like, what exactly is a co-pay? How do taxes work?”

These practical topics continue into sixth-grade math, where the ideas they were given a taste of the previous year are incorporated into the curriculum. They learn how banks work, how to calculate simple interest, sales tax and restaurant tips, and how interest can be good or bad. “The lessons run the gamut,” Anthony explained.

The concepts reappear in the problem solving they do as they approach pre-algebra and algebra, as well as in Seventh Grade Culture Week, in which micro-loans and return on investment are a main focus. Seventh graders begin the week with a presentation by Anthony on microfinance and the way KIVA helps provide start-up funds to women entrepreneurs in developing countries.

Each of the seven biome groups examines the KIVA website and identifies two women to whom they would like to make a $25 loan. Anthony then meets with the financial specialist for each group to talk through its selections and consider factors such as how the currency exchange rate might lead to a slight loss on investment. Moreover, though, “a main goal is to make loans that help the entire community,” Anthony explained. Students think through how funding education for a child or helping a woman purchase a cow might have different, but equally positive effects.

In Vaganos’ eighth grade algebra class, students use the recurring example of a T-shirt business and its expenditures to problem-solve. This year, students asked if they could actually create that business and try to turn a profit. So, with a small loan from Middle School Director Lynne Myavec, the girls are working to develop a business plan, calculate material and production costs, advertising expenses and other logistics, then produce and sell 30 T-shirts in the spring.

While financial literacy-related topics are highlighted most frequently in math class, topics like budgeting, the stock market, down payments, loans and investments are also discussed in history, science, English and theater.

Throughout all of these classes, girls are learning and reinforcing real-world skills, which they continue to explore in Upper School through classes like Wellness, as well as clubs like Girls Grantmaking and NextGenVest, led by Associate Director of Finance Carole Melvin. There, they build on the foundation laid in Middle School.

Developing knowledge about finance is important, Melvin said, but there’s more to financial literacy than that. “It is also about inspiring behavior, strong personal financial habits, and establishing positive attitudes toward personal finance.”

Kirsten Regan adds “TV Repair” to the class checkbook projected on the whiteboard, subtracting $80 from the account balance. Fifth grade math classes takes part in this collaborative financial literacy activity once every eight-day class rotation.

“As you see ... stuff like this can happen — so it’s important to have some extra money saved always.”

OFFERS A NEW APPROACH TO TEACHING

BY WANDA ODOM

STUDENTS IN DR. TOM WEISSERT’S AP CALCULUS COURSE ALWAYS DO THEIR HOMEWORK IN CLASS.

BUT, THAT’S NOT A PROBLEM.

LISTEN TO HIS RECORDED LECTURES OUTSIDE OF SCHOOL

or “homework,” that is usually done at kitchen tables or in bedrooms or family rooms.

“The traditional structure in math is that you have material that you need to lecture the students on to show them what it is, explain how it works, and do some example problems so that they can themselves dive into problems to understand how it works,” said Weissert, who said he found himself giving essentially the same lectures at the board year after year.

“In math especially, the material doesn’t change very much. It’s pretty much the same every year — unlike in an English class, where you can teach different books to get the same idea across. These are the same ideas all the time.

“So I thought, why don’t I record those, let the students watch those at home and then in the classroom do the homework problems together,” Weissert said, adding that the students work in twos or threes as well as with him. “That’s when the real questions come up, like, ‘How do I get through this problem?’”

Weissert has recorded 48 lectures to cover the content in AP Calculus and prepare the students for Advanced Topics in Math, if they choose to take that course during senior year. Producing the lectures was labor-intensive, requiring two-and-a-half times the preparation time of a lesson given at the blackboard.

First, Weissert had to research methods and learn about the technology best-suited to producing his lectures in the format that he wanted; he watched the lectures of other teachers, some of whom filmed themselves in lecture halls, and experimented with the transitions and animations of text that can be applied in Microsoft PowerPoint, but the students disliked that approach.

He settled on software for the iPad called Doceri, a professional interactive whiteboard and screencast recorder with sophisticated tools for hand-drawn graphics. Doceri allowed Weissert to create videos in which his handwriting comes into view as his voice explains what the students are watching.

“They see it appearing on the screen as if I were writing at that point. I found that to be a key and important element for students,” said Weissert. “Over the years, they have been trained to watch the teacher’s hand writing on the board.” With the videos created through the software, students can hear Weissert as his writing appears on the screen, which reinforces comprehension and understanding.

His lectures live on his YouTube channel, where he uploaded them directly from his iPad as soon as he finished them. Each lecture required him to write down his content, review what he wrote for clarity and then read it aloud as an overdub of the written material. The software allows him to use a pointer on the screen for

emphasis, and he can insert graphs and other diagrams as well as change the color of his writing to highlight a particular point. (He is partial to blue and purple.)

Weissert has links to all of the lectures, organized in units, on his AIS teacher webpage, along with his syllabus for the course and the solutions to all the problems students will be required to work through. Students appreciate that they can listen to the lectures multiple times on their own, he said. They have in-class tests every three to four units, with the goal of being prepared to take the College Board’s AP Calculus exam.

During class, the girls generally work together in pairs to solve problems associated with the lecture material they viewed the previous night. One pair might ask another how they handled a tough question. “Sometimes, if it’s a particularly pernicious problem, one student will go to the board and the whole class will talk through it. She becomes the instrument to write on the board,” Weissert added.

What Weissert appreciates most about the flipped classroom method is that he has the opportunity, as do the students, to focus on collaborative teaching and learning instead of delivery. “Students can be more responsible for their own learning,” he said, adding that he believes the approach can positively affect student engagement with higher levels of math.

But the flipped classroom also requires maturity on the part of students, and the self-discipline to not only watch all of the videos, but also to refrain from copying the available answers in lieu of working through problems.

“I am relying heavily on students’ personal responsibility,” Weissert said.

FOR THE LAST THREE YEARS, WEISSERT HAS FOLLOWED A TEACHING PRACTICE KNOWN AS “FLIPPED CLASSROOM,” WHERE STUDENTS

AND COME TO CLASS THE NEXT DAY PREPARED TO DO THE EXERCISES,

“That’s when the real questions come up, like, ‘How do I get through this problem?’”

Alumnae Spring 2016

CLASS NOTES | MILESTONES | ARCHIVES

Lindsay McCown DuBarry ’66

An Owl for Life

One of the earliest memories that Lindsay McCown DuBarry ’66 has of Agnes Irwin is when, upon enrolling in seventh grade, she was surprised to be placed in a remedial writing class — of one. She also recalls singular faculty and staff: science teacher John Bennett bringing chemistry alive, department head Joanne Neel insisting upon excellence in history and, of course, Assistant Head of School Elsa Hartman measuring the length of everyone’s tunic. She laughs about the memories now. “It was certainly a different time.”

DuBarry has truly been an “Irwin’s girl” for life. After receiving her biology degree from Rosemont College and marrying her husband, Joe, she worked at the Wistar Institute as a tissue culture technician. After starting her family, DuBarry knew Agnes Irwin was the only choice for her daughters.

“I just loved Agnes Irwin so much,” DuBarry said. “It launched me so well-prepared to go into the world. I knew it was where my daughters should go.”

While daughters Meredith DuBarry Huston ’93 and Sandra DuBarry Laflamme ’95 were enrolled, DuBarry was a stay-at-home mom who was a familiar face on campus, volunteering for and chairing practically every school event and working, for a brief stint, in the Alumnae Office. Twenty years later, she still makes frequent visits to the school — now to see granddaughters Shaw Huston ’24 and Gardner Huston ’25, current Lower School students and third-generation Owls.

DuBarry’s life is a testament to the fact that sometimes you don’t discover your talents right away. In 2003, she took a drawing class on a whim, and to her surprise, it came quite naturally to her. Her last art class had been in seventh grade with Louise Murtagh. Now she is an accomplished oil painter who has participated in many shows, won several prizes and sold some of her work.

“Who knew?” DuBarry said. “Before then, there just wasn’t a lot of time to stop and think that I wanted to pick up a paintbrush. … My family jokes that something must have happened to me.”

Two of her favorite pieces are a painting of a three-story dairy barn owned by daughter Sandra Laflamme and “Cow Communion,” which won a prize at a Wayne Art Center show in 2012. She is entering her third year as co-chair of the center’s Plein Air Festival.

DuBarry also has played tennis for more than 40 years. As her daughters approached their graduation, she began working for the Arthur Ashe Youth Tennis Center, where she served for seven years as a jack of all trades: bookkeeper, fundraiser, database manager, party planner and more — all skills she had honed volunteering at AIS. Now she and her husband enjoy playing golf; she has a handicap of 14.

To round out her activities, she has been singing with The Counterparts, an a cappella group, for more than 25 years. “I know that started at Irwin’s. I think it all started when Lisa Griffin Drake and I sang in four-part harmony with Mr. (Richard) Ross and Mr. Bennett for an assembly.”

She considers herself lucky to have had AIS as her launching pad for her many pursuits and to have an ongoing connection with the school. Fifty years after graduating, “I am still roaming the halls there as a grandparent,” DuBarry said. “I don’t know that I will ever leave!”

— Amanda Mahnke

“I just loved Agnes Irwin so much. It launched me so well-prepared to go into the world. I knew it was where my daughters should go.”

1940-49

Ella Russell Torrey ’43, who worked at the United Nations for many years, including as an aide to former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, is still speaking at United Nations education conferences on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

1950-59

Jerry Parke Kinkead ’52 writes, “After 44 years in the same comfortable house, I have moved to ‘The Home’ — known more familiarly as Dunwoody Village Retirement Community in Newtown Square, PA. I am hanging pictures and rearranging furniture, as this is the ‘last resort’ — my home for the foreseeable future (that is, for forever). It was difficult to leave my house in Wayne, PA. A house, after all, is not just doors and windows and floorboards. Moving away meant leaving behind the imprint of the days, of the voices, of footsteps on the stairs and conversations in the kitchen.

I will continue to nurture the nostalgia, as I believe it is good for the soul — even as I enthusiastically tackle this new adventure. My first challenge is a watercolor class. I will never catch up with my talented sister, Renny Parke Wood ’57, but I am enjoying the process.”

Margaret Tryon Bennett ’54 writes, “Nancy Lamason and Margo Bennett hosted a luncheon for local mem-

1. Devy Rose Bruch Eyler ’55 and Capt. Armand Tise Eyler, USN Ret. on their wedding day 2. Kristine Quammen Bartholomew ’59 in her garden terrace in Morroco 3. Joan Colgan Haas ‘59 and family celebrating the 80th birthday of her husband, Jim, at the Barrington Yacht Club

1.

2. 3.

Erin Murphy Barzilay ’96

In the Service of Women’s Health

As defining experiences go, one could say that Dr. Erin Murphy Barzilay ’96 found the inspiration to become who she is today during her years at Agnes Irwin.

Barzilay is co-director of the Women’s Life Center at UCLA, where she provides psychiatric care to pregnant and postpartum women. She is also a staff member of the UCLA Dual Diagnosis Intensive Outpatient Program and in that role delivers both psychiatric care and addiction treatment to patients.

What she enjoys most about her position is working with the resident physicians who are training to become psychiatrists and observing their evolution as young physicians.

“The thing I’m most proud of is my appreciation for the critical role of women’s health in our society,” said Barzilay, who graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a B.A. in Sociology of Medicine in 2000 and earned her medical degree from Jefferson Medical College in 2005.

“Agnes Irwin’s emphasis on the well-being and education of women was instrumental in my commitment to serving women’s mental health needs across the life cycle,” she said.

Barzilay had the honor of delivering the student

address at the Commencement exercises for the Class of 1996. “I have always treasured that opportunity, which allowed me to share in the collective goals and aspirations of my fellow classmates,” she said.

One of her fondest memories of AIS is the hot chocolate and cookies served up on snowy days in the former Middle and Upper School lobby, now the Alumnae Lobby. “It was such a nice way to make something very ordinary feel special.” Barzilay also praised Bud Dengler of the Music Department, adding that through him she “learned that the most important voice in any song is everyone’s voice.”

Barzilay said she loves to travel, cook and hike with her husband, and savors any experience that combines those three. “Living in southern California has been a great introduction to all of the natural beauty in the western United States,” she said. “I’m trying to visit as many national parks as possible, with Zion National Park in Utah being a favorite. We also just returned from an incredible trip to Japan that included many culinary adventures!”

Dina B. Stevens ’86 writes, “I honestly can’t believe how quickly 30 years has gone by! I’m looking forward to connecting with everyone again at Reunion. All is well with Baily and life is good. In November 2014, we moved from my townhouse in Chesterbrook, PA, after 17 years to a single-family home in Bryn Mawr, in the Old Oaks neighborhood. We have settled in nicely and love the neighborhood, as Baily was the 13th boy in his neighborhood who is around three years old, and more young families continue to move in. He is making lifelong friends. He is attending preschool at The Haverford Center and is really loving it. He continues to be the light of my life. I’m still with SAP, and hard to believe, it’s been 15 years. Baily and I continue to spend our summers in Beach Haven so he is able to spend time with my mom, Sydney Davis Stevens ’53, and dad. My sister, Dawn Stevens Brennan ’82, and her husband, Dan, are happy in Rocky Mount, NC and spend their weekends in Nags Head. Sanna Marshall Henderer and I still try to get dinner once a month!”

1990-99

Courtney W. Allison-Horowitz ’91 writes, “I’ve been keeping busy this year by continuing to promote my cookbook, The Soup Club Cookbook. It’s been a wild ride and I’ve

— Wanda Odom

“It was such a nice way to make something very ordinary feel special.”

learned a ton! Recently we were on public radio in Roxbury, NY and we’re still cooking and posting on Instagram and Twitter. Find me @thesoupclub in either spot and share what you’re cooking (and eating) these days. In my nine-to-five life, I’ve started a new job as the deputy executive director of Math for America. It’s a nonprofit that gives fellowships and funding to expert NYC public and charter school teachers of math and science. It’s great work and has let me have a better balance with work and family life, too. Now I work just blocks away from my kids’ elementary school (Eleanor, 9 and Edwin, 7). I stay up-to-date with classmates on Facebook mostly and recently ran into Alicia D. Lombardini ’92 at a restaurant in the Lower East Side of Manhattan where we both live. I’ll miss everyone at Reunion but I’ll be sending warm thoughts from the sunny beaches of Puerto Rico.”

Lynne Stine Hanna ’91 writes, “I’m a full-time mom/wife, and parttime veterinarian/ teacher; I recently started my own veterinary acupuncture business called Peaceful

CLASS NOTES | Alumnae

Pet, LLC. I make local house calls for dogs and cats. I love treating pets in their home and getting to know their devoted and loving owners. It allows me the flexibility to be home with our three active boys, Tommy, 10, Bo, 9, and Sam, 6, after school, while still practicing what I’m passionate about — veterinary acupuncture. I also teach Animal Science at Centreville Layton School, where our middle son, Bo, attends. We recently acquired a seven-year-old Thoroughbred horse, so I’m enjoying spending time at the family farm of my husband, Thomas, and reliving my youth!”

Katharine Berry Swartz ’91 writes, “For

1. Alison Dillihay-James ’00 and her daughter

2. Daughters of Susan Hirtle McEvoy ’00: Eva and new baby sister, Georgia Elizabeth 3. Children of Mike and Corina Sylvia English ’00: Cori and her big brother, Nolan John 4. Allison Ianovale Kent ‘07 celebrates on her wedding day with AIS classmates and a friend

5. Kaitlyn Klagholz Zitzer ’01 wedding party

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Shona Bhattacharyya ’01

Witness to the World’s Affairs

what I studied,” she said, “but I’m grateful things turned out the way they did.”

In France, news anchors write everything they say on air, which Bhattacharyya says is a fun part of her job. However, what she enjoys most is learning about various communities, and the adrenaline rush of reporting on breaking news. In her eight years at the station, her favorite reporting experience was a short series of reports on international communities in Paris. “I got to dive deep into the African district in northern Paris, meet children of North African immigrants learning their parents’ language, attend celebrations on Chile’s Independence Day, and more. It was an amazing experience, and lots of work! The best part is always meeting people and having the excuse to go out and discover more about the world we live in.”

the last five years, I’ve been living in England with my husband and five children. The oldest is heading to university in a year! My husband and I are currently working as houseparents at a boarding school near Oxford, and I am also writing commercial fiction (katharineswartz.com). I would love to connect with AIS ex-pats!”

You never know where life may take you — and for Shona Bhattacharyya ’01, the old adage rings especially true. A journalist at France 24, an international news station in Paris, her work ranges from editing, writing and voicing stories using footage from around the world to live reporting in the studio and the field. “Mostly, though, I anchor the news,” the 32-year-old said.

A 2006 graduate of Brown University, where she majored in Development Studies, Bhattacharyya studied abroad in Niger and Egypt, and went on to earn her M.S. in Social Policy and Development from the London School of Economics the following year.

While working at an international development agency, she heard about an internship at France 24 — no journalism experience necessary — and thought, “well, why not?” She interviewed for and got the job. Little by little, she worked her way up to becoming a full-time news anchor. “With hindsight, I’m glad I studied

Bhattacharyya recalls many fond memories of AIS, and says she is indebted “to many teachers, including Mr. (Murray) Savar, Mr. (Andrew) Connally, Mrs. (Cathy) Lynch, Mr. (Wigs) Frank, Dr. Bruce (McGrath), Ms. (Linda) Solomon and Mrs. (Lynn) Lewis. They all taught me very well, and were incredibly open-minded, tolerant and understanding.”

Now more than ever, Bhattacharyya says, she appreciates attending an all-girls school.

“Growing up at Irwin’s taught me so much. It gave me the confidence to follow my dreams and trust myself, which isn’t always easy in our maledominated societies. Everything I’m proud of — becoming a full-time anchor at 30, becoming a homeowner at 27 — were all made possible because I believed in myself. And I have AIS to thank.”

She credits Agnes Irwin singing groups for her ability to be at ease in front of a crowd. “It was singing in the Bel Cantos and in the Glee Club that helped me most, long-term,” Bhattacharyya said. “When that red light goes on in the studio and I’m live on air, it feels no different from being in front of an audience and singing my heart out.”

Margaret R. Capers ’93 and her sisters, Betsy Capers Exley ’95 and Lauren Capers Ryan ’98 (who left AIS after Lower School), celebrated the 70th birthday of mom Ann B. Capers, with a surprise family reunion in February. Fun was had by all, especially Lauren’s children Brooklyn, 2, and Jake, 3, and Betsy’s children Leah, 9, and Emma, 11. Meggin writes, “A highlight of the weekend was watching DanDan (John Capers, Haverford ’61) go down the water slides with the grandkids! As Mom always says, ‘Age is a state of mind. Play on!’” Meggin’s job as a professional event coordinator helped in planning a wonderfully successful, surprise weekend.

Laura Bright Babka ’94 writes, “I have taken a career break to move to Norway with my family for three years because my spouse had a great job opportunity and we wanted to travel through Europe. We are having a fantastic experience and taking full

— Amanda Mahnke

“The best part is always meeting people and having the excuse to go out and discover more about the world we live in.”

Rebecca Harper ‘06

The Power of the Big Picture

After Agnes Irwin, Rebecca Harper ’06 attended Princeton University, where she majored in astrophysics and earned a Certificate in Medieval Studies, graduating in 2010.

“After going from an all-girls school straight into the male-dominated Physics Department, I’ve had lots of practice dealing with gender imbalances. To this day, they rarely bother me,” said Harper, who lives in Kigali, Rwanda, which has given her a fantastic vantage point from which to explore the region. “This is a stunning and culturally rich part of the world. I try to get in as much travel as I can.”

Harper currently works as projects coordinator for Symbion Power, an American electricity company that specializes in helping African countries replace expensive, imported fuel sources with locally available resources. She has been with the company for a year and a half.

Harper began working for Symbion shortly after it won a tender to build, own and operate a 50-megawatt power plant that uses the unique methane gas resource in Lake Kivu, one of the African Great Lakes, to provide base-load power to Rwanda’s national grid and help power its rapid development.

As one of Symbion’s first employees in the country, Harper has been a core part of the project from the beginning. She is a member of the “owner’s team,” involved in every component of the fascinating and complex project. From how to arrange financing to overseeing the details of the engineering design to

liaising with different government entities, she loves being able to see the whole picture. Once up and running, the plant will increase the generating capacity of the East African country by almost 30 percent compared to current grid production, Harper said.

Before joining Symbion, Harper worked on the core launch teams for two start-up companies, each with a vision to make the world a better place.

“Seeing a new business or initiative through from conception to execution and launch is both grueling and extremely rewarding,” Harper said. “Irwin’s allowed its students to try new things. Coordinating educational and fundraising events at AIS to address the refugee crisis in northern Uganda at the time gave me a taste of what it was like to create something new.”

What Harper remembers most about AIS is how accessible and engaged teachers were. “Some of my fondest memories were wandering into classrooms during free periods and talking with faculty about just about anything. From Dr. (David) Kuyat’s infectious love of Cicero, to hearing Ms. Carm (Sara Carmichael) geek out about physics to Mrs. (Marge) Stallard reminiscing about n-dimensional geometry, it was always clear that my teachers genuinely loved their subjects. That fueled an intellectual curiosity that has opened doors and ultimately made life a whole lot more interesting.”

— Corin

Breña

“Seeing a new business or initiative through from conception to execution and launch is both grueling and extremely rewarding.”

From the Archives

A CenturyOld Keepsake

Yearbooks, by design, are intended to portray the life of a school and the personality of a graduating class. Contents often involve tributes, witticisms and poignant farewells. So it was with the Class of 1915 yearbook.

The plain navy suede cover, with “AIS” embossed in gold, belies a playful sketch of the academic, athletic and artistic exploits of 44 students, as well their friendships, hobbies, humor, desires, ambitions and planned occupations — which many listed as “coming-out,” meaning a debut into society as a debutante.

For nicknames, some went by Centipede, Pearl Button, Parkie and Wriggles. Some listed pastimes as books, automobiling, horses, and “being late.” Others listed destinies: school teacher, co-ed at Penn, old maid’s home and picture in a “Rogues’ Gallery.” Amid such lightheartedness, scholarship clearly shines through — in their scholastic reports, academic prizes, poems, homages and valedictory.

— Wanda Odom

Class Record

1632 Latimer St., Philadelphia

Born February 7, 1897

Entered class in 1909, College Preparatory 1914–15

Member Athletic Association 1912–13, 1913–14, 1914–15

“I have no secret to success but hard work. We are wiser than we know.”

(excerpts from 1915 yearbook, Class of 1915)

Hobby. Greatest Ambition. Your Occupation Next Year.

Coming out. Selling shoelaces! College.

Débutanting. Finding a place to live.

To trip (over) a light fantastic toe. Playing the piccolo. Gadding.

Wearing a pompadour. Being late. Dancing. Cruising.

Doing all I can for everybody.

Billy Sunday arguing. Horses. Automobiling.

Wants.

To have an auto. Common sense. Hairpins. A Ford. Bulldog.

To get a composition in the Red Book

A pair of red silk stockings.

To be a “movie actress.”

To acquire tact.

To drive a car.

Dean of “Bryn Mawr.”

To vote.

To be a chauffeur.

To be a jockey. I’ll never tell.

Jane Hamlin Everett

Ithan Avenue & Conestoga Road

Rosemont, PA 19010

agnesirwin.org

FSC Logo FPO

ROMPER ROOM

First graders delight in frolicking under the billows of a brightly colored 45-foot-wide parachute. Through a cooperative game, the students exercise their girl power in gym class by flapping the parachute, then lifting it overhead for the air to create a huge canopy to romp under. “The parachute is a great way of involving a large group in an activity. It is fun, and cooperative rather than competitive. It also can create an atmosphere with a positive spirit and reinforce togetherness,” said P.E. teacher Suzanne McInnes.

Photo by Jim Roese Photography