19 Faculty Notes
Miss Fine’s Center Update The Miss Fine’s Center at Princeton Day School provides ongoing financial support for professional development, travel, and research for PDS faculty in order to promote the collaborative study of topics and themes that demand and benefit from an interdisciplinary approach. Tara Quigley, the Director of the Miss Fine’s Center, reported on faculty professional development opportunities this year through the Center. In the winter, Mrs. Quigley joined two groups of faculty who visited two schools to connect with peers and share ideas on design thinking, project based learning, and interdisciplinary studies: the Berkeley-Carroll School in Brooklyn (Eamon Downey, Karen Latham, Beth Yakoby, Carrie Norrin, Jack Madani, Sonia Flores-Khan, Irina Covington, and Jenny Mischner) and Trevor Day School in Manhattan (Jessica Clingman, Drew Lloyd, Sheila Goeke, Ron Banas, and Liz Cutler). In January during the faculty in-service days, “Most Likely to Succeed,” the highly regarded film about education in America, was screened for the faculty. In addition, Mrs. Quigley, and MS teachers Tarshia Griffin-Ley and Alec Militano are taking a course entitled Teaching for Understanding through the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Looking ahead to the summer, a group of faculty will attend workshop at the Buck Institute for Education in California (Jessica Clingman, Carmen Santa-Cruz, and Tara Quigley) on project based learning.
MS English Teacher Paul Epply-Schmidt Wins Silver in Fencing Congratulations to Paul Epply-Schmidt, Middle School English teacher, former PDS fencing coach, and lifelong fencer, who won a silver medal in the 50-59 age bracket for Men’s Foil as well as 7th place in the open Vet Men’s Foil (over 40) in the North American Cup in Baltimore in December. Mr. Epply-Schmidt commented, “This puts me ranked #2 in the US at the moment.” US English Teacher Reuben Loewy Named Educator of the Month Reuben Loewy, English teacher in the Upper School, was named Educator of the Month by Kids Discover Magazine in December for his PDS course “Living Online,” an interdisciplinary course combining history, technology, economy, sociology, and language which serves to study the Internet and how it shapes our lives. Design Teacher Chris Maher Wins Award for Furniture Design US Design teacher Chris Maher won an award for best furniture in the “Works in Wood” exhibit at the New Hope Arts Center for his piece, “The Buckeye,” a chair crafted of walnut and buckeye burl. PDS faculty visit the Berkeley-Carroll School in Brooklyn. From left to right: Jack Madani, Carrie Norin, Eamon Downey, Jenny Mischner, Beth Yakoby, Tara Quigley, and Karen Latham
SPRING 2016