The Winter Independent 2022

The Independent

WINTER 2022

Cardinal Chatter

While the Pandemic has changed the way the SPS community celebrates many of our most beloved traditions, students still cherish these events and share which are most meaningful and memorable for them!

“ I like Color Day and this year my mom got to hand me my garnet shirt!”

BLAKE, FIRST GRADE

“ My favorite tradition is May Day. I was so excited to do the May pole, and it was amazing once I finally got to do it last spring!”

“ Field Day is our favorite tradition, because we love to play sports!

AINSLEY, FIRST GRADE

“ Harvest Festival, it’s great to spend time with friends, take pictures and eat good food!”

LARA, SEVENTH GRADE

DAVID & BIJAN, FOURTH GRADE

“ I remember attending May Day when my brother went to SPS before I even started. I always enjoy rehearsing and performing the dances.”

“ I love performing the songs and hearing the other classes sing too during Celebration of Light.”

LOLA, SEVENTH GRADE

LEILEI, THIRD GRADE

“ Our favorite tradition is calling of the colors, because we love getting to watch all the First Graders and other new students find out what team they are on.”

SOPHIA & ANNISA, FOURTH GRADE

“ My favorite tradition is the Halloween costume parade! I was happy we got to do it again this year.”

THEO, SECOND GRADE

What is your favorite SPS Tradition?

“ The Celebration of Light event always has a really special atmosphere that captures the magic and spirit of the season.”

WILLIAM, EIGHTH GRADE

“ I like seeing all of the holiday artwork and decorations, like the snowflakes, hung around the school before the winter break.”

ELLIE, THIRD GRADE

“ I love the tugof-war during Field Day.” RYAN, SECOND GRADE

Independent School Teaching Fellows

Get to Know Alexis Cuffy and Learn Why the ISTF Program is So Important St. Peter’s School has been fortunate enough to collaborate with Independent School Teaching Fellows (ISTF) of Greater Philadelphia, a program designed to recruit, train, and retain talented graduates of color to become effective and creative teachers.

Through this program, our Fourth Grade classroom warmly greeted the addition of teaching fellow, Alexis Cuffy, who is working beside Riann Tice for the 2021-2022 school year. In order to gain a better understanding of the program, Alexis graciously provided us with an inside look of the program and her role in the classroom.

Could you tell us a little about the program?

“Fellows are paired with mentor teachers to help develop skills to become better teachers. This includes helping with lesson planning, teaching lessons in class, and working with children to help them grasp the skills covered in class. The goal is to increase teachers of color in schools.”

Can you speak to the importance of the program’s goal of adding and retaining more teachers of color in Independent Schools?

“Not a large population of teachers are people of color. When students of color see teachers of color, it helps increase their sense of belonging and makes them feel that the community they are in is more inclusive and diverse. Students will think to themselves, This is a good place for me because I see other people who represent me.”

ABOUT ALEXIS CUFFY

Alexis has always had a love for working with children, so being a teacher, a job that allowed her to explore her interests in childhood development, has always seemed to be a natural progression to her.

When asked what has inspired her to teach, Alexis stated, “My own children have a large influence on why I want to teach. Personally, I hope my children have teachers who are loving and help them strive to succeed. I would love to be that person to another child. I want them to know that I believe that they can do anything if they put their mind to it.”

Alexis earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Child Psychology at the University of Virginia. Before moving to Philadelphia, she taught preschool and kindergarten students in Massachusetts and Virginia for eight years. Alexis is also a proud mother to three children, Jade, Levi, and Asher. After completing the fellows program, Alexis hopes to take all she has learned from the program and SPS to teach her own classroom.

Cannie Shafer

Interim Educational Program Director Cannie Shafer brings a great deal of experience to this interim role. Over her career, she has served as the Head of Lower School and Assistant Head of School at The Episcopal Academy, the Head of Lower School at Germantown Academy and eight years as the Elementary/Middle School Academic Dean and two years as the Director of Accreditation and Assessment at Girard College here in the city. Mrs. Shafer has also served as a middle school teacher, coach, and advisor throughout her time in independent schools. She was also the Site Director for Camp Susquehannock for 38 years. We have been so fortunate to have Cannie on our Board and we are eager to begin work with her in this new capacity.

In addition to her responsibilities of Program Director, Mrs. Shafer’s role this year will be to oversee the development of the curriculum from Preschool through the Eighth Grade. Working closely with Ms. Grossman, our Curriculum Coordinator, and utilizing her experience and understanding of pedagogy, the School will chart a path forward to a more integrated and inclusive curriculum.

Additionally, the School has begun preparing for our Interim Self Evaluation in the 2022-2023 school year. Our preparation for this important milestone is underway and guided by Mrs. Shafer’s leadership, we are in good hands!

The Center for Learning

Our Main Hub for Learning Support and Teaching Resources If you peek into the Center for Learning, located on the west side of the second floor, between the two First Grade classrooms, you might find a small group of students working with Marsha Grossman on reading skills. Or, you may overhear teachers discussing a recent professional development workshop they attended, and how they plan to implement the latest strategies on cultivating a Responsive Classroom. You could also run into Beth Andaloro on her way to present a lesson on Executive Functioning to an Upper School class during their Advisory period.

The Center for Learning serves our community of students and teachers, by providing physical space, valuable resources, and curricular guidance, along with combined decades of expertise.

Teachers enjoy access to an ever expanding library of books for all ages and reading levels and on a widely inclusive range of topics, “decodable” reading books, our Racial Literacy Curriculum support material, as well as math games and manipulatives.

Additionally, a school-wide “Learning Walks” initiative is organized through the Center for Learning. During these brief classroom visits, the visiting teacher(s) utilize a researched-based tool to reflect on learning strategies, student interaction with the content, and overall student engagement.

“It is very exciting to have so many elements of our educational program come together in an intentional and meaningful way within one space, both literally and figuratively,” remarks Beth, the Director of Teaching & Learning. “The Center for Learning is the think tank where we ideate curriculum and instructional practices to implement in the classroom.” To learn more about how the Center for Learning can support you, your child, or your classroom, reach out to Marhsa Grossman or Beth Andaloro.

Professional Development A Commitment to Lifelong Learning

St. Peter’s School is and always will be a place of learning and academic growth, but students are not the only ones expanding their knowledge. SPS faculty are committed to lifelong learning and continuous personal and professional development. Each year, all of our faculty and administration participate in conferences, workshops and other opportunities to further hone their teaching expertise, discover new and creative ways to connect with students, master best practices in teaching, and stay relevant on the latest strategies and resources to best support students This past fall, several SPS educators participated in a virtual professional development workshop, Introduction to Responsive Classroom. Through their participation, faculty members were able to learn about practices to help foster a positive community and how to create conditions for positive student behavior. When asked about her experience in the workshop, attendee Kate Childs, Director of Wellness & Equity, stated, “One of the main takeaways was the importance of establishing classroom rules and norms.

Equipping ourselves with a common language while striving to accommodate all types of learners will help build up the SPS community even further and create an even stronger sense of unity.” Kate also emphasized the importance of engaging in these types of professional development opportunities as a way to push oneself to have difficult conversations and remain open to the perspectives of others.

Ultimately, all faculty members will attend the Introduction to Responsive Classroom workshop and receive training for their specialized areas as part of an ongoing effort to cultivate engaging classrooms and school communities for both students and teachers.

In the Lab with Ms. Soriano

See What our Student Scientists Have Been up to This Fall and Winter The Fifth Grade designed and built ecosystems using Lego blocks to display the different organisms living in the area, in connection with their Biodiversity unit.

To explore an owl’s diet and its place in the food web, the 5th graders dissected owl pellets to identify the tiny bones from that owl’s meal. They shared their observations through creative story writing describing a day in the life of an owl and read to their PK friends.

The Sixth Graders explored the concept of buoyancy, and how properties of matter affect the strength of materials by designing boats of different types. They started with paper boats, aluminum foil boats, clay boats, Lego boats, and craft stick boats. They will add a motor to their craft stick boats when they get back from the holiday break and test out their designs by racing their boats at FDR park.

The Seventh Graders created a red blood cell comic book to describe the voyage of a red blood cell through the circulatory system and shared their work with their PK friends. To extend their learning about the different body systems, the Seventh Graders also completed a Human Body Tape Sculpture. They will complete this project by installing LED circuits to represent the flow of blood in the body when they get back from the holiday break.

The Eighth Graders designed a Marble Maze board game to demonstrate how energy is transferred from one form to another. The board game materials were restricted to 30 plastic straws, double sided tape and a cardboard base. After completing this project, Eighth Graders went around the campus to have their Marble Maze board game tested by other students and staff. To extend their learning about forces, energy transfer, and simple machines, the Eighth Graders constructed various designs of 8-step Rube Goldberg machines.

Innovator Speaker Series

Real Life Scientists Sharing Their Real World Experiences On Friday, November 5 our Upper School and Second Grade students had an exciting opportunity to learn about Microbial Ecology from Rebecca J Stevick, PhD, who is currently a postdoctoral research associate at the Institut Pasteur, France, in the Genetics of Biofilms Unit within the Microbiology Department. During a visit back to the states this fall, Rebecca graciously made time to visit St. Peter’s School and spoke with students about her work and research studies on ecological processes in aquatic environments, specifically the pathogen-probiotic interactions in baby zebrafish.

On Friday, December 17, Blair Porterfield, an Observation Analyst at Space Telescope Science Institute, spent some time sharing with Upper School students about the scientific and technological achievements in human spaceflight, aeronautics, space science, and space applications that have had widespread impacts on our nation and the world. Blair’s visit was especially timely, given the December 24 launch of the James Webb Space Telescope on an Ariane 5 rocket from French Guiana. Webb will be the premier observatory of the next decade, serving thousands of astronomers worldwide. It will study every phase in the history of our Universe, ranging from the first luminous glows after the Big Bang, to the formation of solar systems capable of supporting life on planets like Earth, to the evolution of our own Solar System.

Thank you to Ms. Soriano for coordinating these exciting and inspiring opportunities for our students to hear from young innovators and scientists in the field!

City Curriculum

How our Students Enjoy Philadelphia Amidst a Pandemic The City Curriculum has become such an integral part of the learning process at St. Peter’s School, as we are able to engage with an expansive and diverse set of organizations and entities that help connect our students to the world around them. After a year of virtual participation, we are absolutely thrilled to be exploring our great city of Philadelphia in person once again!

First Grade took a field trip to the Polish American Cultural Center in honor of Polish American Heritage Month to experience Polish culture, history, and pride.

FIRST GRADE

SECOND GRADE

Second Grade participated in a walking field trip to the Legacy Mural, which measures almost 10,000 feet and explores the work of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass to end slavery.

Third Grade visited Mother Bethel African Methodist Church after completing a Racial Literacy lesson that educated students on slavery in America and the historical heroes that fought for freedom.

THIRD GRADE

FOURTH GRADE

Fourth Grade studied the American Revolution in social studies class and then saw history come to life by visiting historical buildings such as Carpenter’s Hall, Independence Hall, and the Powell House!

Seventh Grade went to Washington Square Park to learn about urban planning and the benefits of green spaces in cities as part of their Humanities studies.

SEVENTH GRADE

Design Thinking

Fifth and Sixth Graders Expand Their Approach to Problem Solving

New REACH Director and Team

New for the winter and spring terms, the Fifth and Sixth Grades embarked on a Design Thinking class with Mr. Evans. After an introduction to the concept of the design thinking process (Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, and Test), Mr. Evans presented the classes with challenges and an opportunity to practice creative problem solving.

Throughout the class, Fifth Graders work both individually and as a team on challenges like the one pictured below, in which students were tasked with building a bridge using the materials to achieve the greatest possible distance between the ground supports. “It makes you think outside the box and ask yourself questions that you normally never would,” explains Seraphine (Grade 5), when asked about her introduction to the Design Thinking Process.

L to R: Sara Delisi, Summer Adams, Troy Fluks, Mikhi Woods, Dexter Wadsworth, Christiane Martineau.

Not pictured: Nalo Russell.

At the beginning of this school year, we excitedly welcomed Mikhi Woods into the SPS community as the new REACH Director. Mikhi comes to us with almost ten years of experience in the empowerment/after school care profession and brings his collaborative and passionate spirit to SPS. As REACH Director, Mikhi, along with his team, plans engaging after care experiences for students from dismissal until 5:00 pm.

Mikhi jumped right in at the beginning of September to create a safe, fun and enriching after school programming for students staying beyond the school day, and is excited to add even more activities as we approach the warmer months of spring (and beyond!) that will provide more opportunities for our REACH students to develop their socioemotional and leadership skills.

The Sixth Grade are applying the Design Thinking Process to various challenges surrounding urban planning to design a “future city.” Through this project, students will address basic urban design considerations while addressing the typical problems confronting a city. Ellie (Grade 6) offered that, “design thinking opens you up to a new perspective – it can make you become more creative and solve problems through the process.”

Mr. Evans’ ultimate goal for the Fifth and Sixth Graders in the Design Thinking Class is to be able to transfer this skill and experience to other subjects and increase their awareness of creative solutions to everyday challenges.

When asked about his experience in this new position, Mikhi said, “Being brought into the SPS community this year has been great, from the engaged and bright-eyed students to the dedicated staff and leadership, I feel I would not have been as confident coming into this new position without the positive atmosphere and interactions that I see at the school on a daily basis.” We are looking forward to seeing REACH thrive under Mikhi’s leadership!

Cooking with Ms. Karpman, one of our most popular REACH Enrichment Clubs!

Don’t Forget to Give!

The SPS Fund st-peters-school.org/donate

Preschool (Age 3) through Eighth Grade 319 Lombard Street, Philadelphia, PA 19147 | 215.925.3963 | st-peters-school.org