FACULTY FOCUS

Tower Hill Faculty Present At Wellness Summit

BY AMY SCHREI, DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS AND MARKETING

The challenge for schools, educators and parents is to work together to create an environment where wellness is foundational to the structure of school life, from the design of the schedule, discipline policies and integrating social emotional learning and mindfulness skill development into the fabric of school life.

Educators must support students’ capacity to identify and regulate their emotions, to facilitate and manage their social relationships, and to withstand stress and develop positive coping mechanisms. Research that explores the correlates of later “success” in life— regardless of how it is measured (financially, career attainment, etc.)—consistently finds that emotional intelligence and the soft skills emphasized via wellness are the strongest predictors of life success.

On Dec. 7, 2022, not one, not two, but five of our very own Tower Hill School educators shared their expertise at the Association of Delaware Valley Independent Schools (ADVIS) and Pennsylvania Association of Independent Schools (PAIS) Wellness Summit, a professional conference that linked educators with authorities on various topics related to health and wellness.

The Wellness Summit was attended by almost 150 educators from 56 schools. There were 27 presenters including two keynote speakers and five students from Archmere Academy. There were three tracks of sessions: Student Wellness, Educator and Staff Wellness, and Cultivating a Culture of Wellness.

Each of the sessions led by Tower Hill educators were top rated by the attendees. In addition, Andie Sarko, our Director of Mindfulness and of Service Learning, offered a mid-day Mindfulness Meditation session that was a highlight of the day.

Self-Care Plans for Educators was co-led by Andie Sarko, who joined forces with Leslee Frye, a school psychologist from Springside Chestnut Hill Academy to offer a seminar on self-care for educators. To address the many flavors of pandemic fatigue, Andie and her colleague developed a program to shift the paradigm regarding self-care, helping others to reconcile with the fact that self-care is anything but selfish. Like parenting, the energy demands of teaching actually require self-care.

One participant commented, “AMAZING. Loved the concrete ideas and worksheets. Loved the presenters, left inspired with lots of ideas and so many resources.”

Andie Sarko said, “Professional development around student and teacher wellness is essential to fulfilling the mission of our school in a way that allows students to thrive.”

“No.” is a Full Sentence: Teaching Students

Affirmative Consent was led by Tower Hill’s Middle/ Upper School Psychologist Dr. Lauren Lineback and Director of Physical Health Lexy Herbein. The session aimed to help educators understand the developmentally appropriate ways they introduce the concept of affirmative consent to students. Students have the right to define their own personal boundaries and have a moral obligation to respect others’ limits. Making a strong case for avoiding ambiguity, Dr. Lineback and Nurse Lexy highlighted the communication skills that prioritize everyone’s safety.

“Self-care is no longer something that we can think about as optional. Rather, if we don’t take care of ourselves, and teach our students to take care of themselves, it makes learning much more difficult. It was a pleasure to come together and learn from fellow educators.” -Dr.

Lauren Lineback

Reading and Engaging Social Energy within the School Walls was the program delivered by Dr. Amy Cuddy Lower School Psychologist and Jessica Douglass Humanities and Wellness Teacher and Class Dean. The session examined the importance of reading students’ social energy in the classroom. As school environments are generally designed to cater to extroverts, educators have a moral imperative to effectively understand and reach the introverts and ambiverts as well. Dr. Cuddy shared that their program highlighted “a diversity qualifier that is often overlooked but essential to the way in which our students experience school.”

The organizer commented, this session was “great with a lot of conversation and practical application/ ideas for the classroom.” And an attendee said, “Amy and Jessica were a good team and I liked how they included the introvert/extrovert questionnaire. They left plenty of room to ask questions about things that we were experiencing in our schools like selective mutism and Zoom fatigue. I left their workshop feeling reflective.”

“Self-care is no longer something that we can think about as optional. Rather, if we don’t take care of ourselves, and teach our students to take care of themselves, it makes learning much more difficult. It was a pleasure to come together and learn from fellow educators.” -Dr.

Lauren Lineback

Dr. Amy Cuddy said, “I was honored to represent Tower Hill and present at such an essential forum with so many of my valued colleagues, as it speaks to our collective commitment to whole child education. While we are still learning and are forever open to improving our process, our presence in large numbers speaks to our desire to make Tower Hill a thought leader in the area of student wellness.”

In addition, Jessica Douglass shared: “Professional development allows for us as educators to connect with other communities to refresh our own thinking and to build networks for continued collaboration. Presenting at conferences is a practice that deepens my abilities as an educator, because it forces me to pause and take stock of the work I am doing and evaluate it with data and a critical eye.”

The pandemic was a terse reminder to educators that fundamental needs for health, safety and belonging must be prioritized over academic challenges. Wellness indeed has a role in our “many things done well” motto. Deliberately teaching and fostering wellbeing puts us in lockstep with our mission.