Strength to Strength Report 2016-2018

STRENGTH TO STRENGTH 2016-2018

Strength to Strength 2016-2018

Strength to Strength 2016-2018 Dear Wooster Families, As we turn the corner and head down the home stretch for the 2016-17 school year, it is a good time to take a look at our most current Strength to Strength Report, which is designed to provide you with an overview perspective on efforts that we’ve made over the last twelve months to strengthen Wooster School, as well as plans that are in the works to be implemented in the 2017-18 school year.

At Wooster School, supported by our long-standing tradition of building relationships and a strong community, we have been focusing these last four years on improving students’ core skills and dispositions while also expanding their opportunities to apply them in the pursuit of deeper knowledge. Our teachers continue to be driven by a “persistent disquiet with the status quo” that has been fueled and wonderfully shaped by the experience of working together every Wednesday morning in collaborative groups. These groups also seed and nurture the constant adaptations in teaching and learning that are the hallmark of the Wooster learning environment.

While teachers and students are at the heart of the learning environment, the physical spaces that frame the learning and tie our community together, and the programs which bring learning to life and enrich its meaning, are also invaluable. You’ll be pleased to note that our strength in these areas is growing as well.

I hope that this overview helps you to better understand the Wooster of today and to share in our vision for the future. As always, it is important to note that the Strength to Strength Report is not designed to be a comprehensive overview of all programs and initiatives, but rather an annual report on particular initiatives and programs on which we are focusing our time and resources. Thank you all for your belief in Wooster School and for your generous support of our efforts to continuously improve.

Go Generals!

Matt Byrnes Head of School

Strength to Strength 2016-2018

New Initiatives and Programs for 2017 -18 Fully Charged School Based upon the success of our faculty’s experience with the book Eat Move Sleep, and our growing commitment to provide a learning environment which empowers community members to make informed, healthy lifestyle choices, Wooster School is excited to be partnering in 2017-18 with the Fully Charged Institute created by Eat Move Sleep author Tom Rath.

To begin our journey toward more “fully charged” lifestyles, we will be asking all Upper School students and their parents to read Eat Move Sleep over the summer and then hosting some community forums in the fall. At the beginning of the 2017-18 school year we will also watch the documentary Fully Charged as a community and then embark upon our efforts to imbue our community with its core message of focusing on energy, interaction, and meaning in our lives. Finally, so as to ensure that we all are starting the day with the right fuel for learning, Wooster will be offering an optional full breakfast program for all students in 2017-18.

Prospect and Bridge Programs Self-Evaluation In the spring of 2017 our Prospect and Bridge learning communities are engaging in a process of self-reflection designed to help us take stock of our progress and identify areas of growth and future success. Through interviews and focus groups with teachers and parents, a comprehensive review of data, and renewed research on best practice, we aim to take these very successful programs to new heights!

The Mastery Transcript Consortium Wooster School recently joined the Mastery Transcript Consortium (MTC), a group of nearly 100 independent schools from around the country, who have come together to explore the promise of assessment systems and transcripts which are based upon the idea that “students should demonstrate a mastery of skills, knowledge and habits of mind by presenting evidence that is then assessed against an institutionally specific standard of mastery.” As you know, we have been moving forward on efforts to expand the feedback that we provide on our assessment reports and through our Parent-TeacherStudent conferences, so we are excited about the opportunities that membership in the MTC will provide. You can learn more about the MTC at http://www.mastery.org.

Student Learning Support Starting in 2017-18 new Director of Student Support, Anne Moran, will be collaborating across divisions to help us review and strengthen our efforts to support all students in their learning.

Strength to Strength 2016-2018

Hockey After partnering with South Kent for the last two years to provide the opportunity to play hockey for our students, Wooster will be establishing its own independent team in 2017-18. This is a return to hockey for Wooster, which has a strong tradition based upon a program which ran for decades before being dropped in the late 1970’s.

Blackbaud On System For the 2017-18 school year we are excited to move into a Learning Management System that will streamline communication between teachers and learners, and that can include parents far more easily than our current system. Wooster will be moving its databases fully onto Blackbaud’s “On” products. Blackbaud provides cloud software systems for a number of our current databases. This new face of Blackbaud will allow students, teachers, and parents easy access to their classes, schedules, assignments, practices, games, and more in one place. On the more technical side, this system will also unify our Admissions, Registrar, Business Office, and Development databases.

Strength to Strength 2016-2018

Ongoing Initiatives and Programs The building of skills, dispositions, and knowledge are the core of our learning program at Wooster School. Each year we look to strengthen the continuum of skills, dispositions, and knowledge between grade levels and divisions, incorporate new knowledge about learning and the brain, and improve our best teaching practices within our learning environments.

Teacher Professional Learning Collaborative learning and exploration of brain science and best practice continue to frame our teacher learning groups, which are integral to our student-centered approach to “doing school.� While the daily benefits of working with colleagues who are excited about sharing and hearing all the best thinking about learning are immeasurable, our learning community has also produced some tangible programs and initiatives which are ongoing: The Deep Learning Initiative, project-based collaborations like the Catapult Project in 9th grade, the reading and writing continuum, mindfulness workshops for teachers, Lower School Enrichment Academies, development of a growth mindset program for grades 6th through 8th in 2017-18, reflection protocols for Parent-Student-Teacher conferences, and student course surveys for new faculty, just to name a few.

Deep Learning Initiative As we have deepened our understanding of learning and the brain over the last several years, our need to create learning opportunities for Upper School students that put them in position to apply current skills, dispositions, and knowledge in the pursuit of deeper meaning in disciplinary areas of interest, has become clear. To that end, we launched our Deep Learning Initiative (DLI) in 201617. After successfully launching DLI courses in Humanities, Writing, European History, Thermal Physics, Biology, and Statistics this year, we will be further expanding in 2017-18 to include Chemistry, Calculus, British Literature, and more Physics!

Strength to Strength 2016-2018

All of our DLI courses utilize some version of the tutorial methodology developed at Oxford College. Courses are structured so that students can engage with a core body of knowledge and information in a particular discipline, develop areas of inquiry derived from this “deep dive� into the core, and produce original thinking and analysis based upon their questions, independent research, and engagement with their teacher and fellow students. While delving deeper in pursuit of more nuanced meaning, students will also be building on skills that are essential to learners in college and the workplace -- reading/observing/listening for understanding, research, questioning, reflection, writing, speaking, and collaboration, to name a few.

Deep Learning Initiative courses are designed to require that students work harder, think more intentionally and deeply, and produce more sophisticated thinking, writing, and speaking than they have before. They are also designed to provide an opportunity to pursue questions and problems identified by students, guided by teachers, within the particular area of interest upon which the course is focused. Problem identification, curiosity, and perseverance are key components of a successful experience in any DLI course.

Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math We are excited to announce that starting in 2017-18, in addition to continuing in his role as Physics teacher, Dr. Brian Sullivan will be taking on a new role as STEM Coordinator.

In 2016-17, Math teachers in Lower and Middle School worked with world-renowned Singapore Math expert Dr. Yeap Ban Har. Working in small group settings of 10 teachers they were able to have valuable interactions and personalized training with Dr. Yeap. The lessons learned have carried over into Lower School professional learning during faculty meetings and through teacher observations and collaboration. In 2017-18, look for the Middle School Math program to continue its evolution as a more interactive, concept-based learning environment for students.

Our Makerspace continues to be the hub of our making and technology learning on campus, with an overarching goal of supporting the incorporation of technology and making into the learning curriculum across all disciplines. At the Lower School level, we’ve incorporated animation and programming into the fourth and fifth grade continuum. 7th graders are working on programming while 8th graders go deeper into the world of microcontrollers and robotics. As a result, we are much closer to our goal of having all students who graduate from our Middle School leave with confidence in using a wide variety of tools, knowledge of the basics of electronic circuitry, and a base of programming skill that can impact the physical world--we are not just writing apps, but driving motors and sensors.

Strength to Strength 2016-2018

Into the second year of our involvement in the FIRST Lego League our team made it to the state level of play. Wooster had the top score for the Model portion of the competition. This year also saw the creation of an Upper School robotics activity in the winter, which was a great learning experience for the students and teachers alike. They all came to grips with the fact that robotics is as much about programming as it is about building.

The Reading and Writing Continuum As we think about how best to prepare students for our information and knowledge-rich world, the ability to build knowledge and meaning from reading, and to hone and express that understanding through writing, emerge as skills that are ever more crucial to success.

In 2016-17 we entered into our third year of building a skills-based continuum for reading and writing from Kindergarten through 12th grade at Wooster School.

In the Lower School, work with our LitLife consultants focused on teachers developing a sequence of writing units to mirror the continuum of reading units which were previously implemented.

Teachers have also been learning about and implementing the mini-lesson structure, which has proven an effective means of fostering deeper learning in literacy.

In the Middle School, LitLife consultants have been working with English teachers to extend the Reader’s and Writer’s Workshop model into grades 6th through 8th. Our broad goal for the program is to be more intentional about building our students’ reading and writing skills, and to be able to connect more intentionally to the Upper School Humanities program. To that end, two Upper School Humanities teachers taught 8th grade English this year as well.

We’ll also be working on building Middle School classroom libraries, expanding the opportunities for student choice in reading, and developing more skillsbased writing instruction. We’ll also be working across the disciplines to embed writing more fully in the daily work of our students.

In the Upper School, we spent the spring trimester of 2016 working with our 9th and 10th grade

Humanities teachers and students on the Writer’s Workshop. This enabled us to begin integrating the Writer’s Workshop model into the 2-year Humanities experience this year for all of our students. The skills and processes learned through this model are also being built upon through tutorial experiences, Deep Learning Initiative courses, and writing instruction during the 11th and 12th grades. Our Middle School/Upper School Humanities teachers will meet again during the week after graduation to further deepen and solidify our reading and writing curriculum and continuum.

Digital Media Program

In 2016-17, in order to build students’ digital literacy and production skills, Wooster launched its Digital Media Program. Starting in the 4th grade, Wooster students are being taught how to problem-solve, create, and tell stories through digital media. Lower School students focus on animation while 6th through 8th grade students take one trimester a year of Digital Video Production. Upper School students have access to more advanced electives and hands-on opportunities to produce meaningful content for WiNK, our new online magazine, the Yearbook, student activities, and our Admission Office.

In 2017-18 we will be looking to add digital media production opportunities as a part of our Activities Program after school.

Strength to Strength 2016-2018

Spanish Beginning in 2016, the Lower School Spanish program was redesigned to promote more active learning and pursue higher levels of language acquisition for our students. Lower School teachers have also begun incorporating instruction focused on various Latin American cultures to help students build greater global understandings and perspective. We’ve also brought a similarly active learning approach to the Middle School Spanish program. In 2016-17, our 8th grade Spanish students also had the opportunity to put their Spanish speaking skills to work on a trip to Cuba with teacher Mike Evans, who will be conducting another trip for Upper School students in June.

Unfortunately, our efforts to incorporate more online learning opportunities in Spanish through Middlebury Online Systems ran up against a platform with too many bugs. We’ll be retrenching in 2017-18 to try and better leverage the opportunities that other online platforms can create for language learners.

Lower School Enrichment After a pilot program in 2015, enrichment academies are now being offered in two sessions annually.

This student directed learning opportunity is based on a gifted instructional model which calls for students to select the academy they wish to participate in and ends in a product, service, or performance. These programs also bring a lot of fun to learning. Some of the offerings have included: Rocketry, Making Breaking and Tinkering, Let’s Paint, Spalicious, Tastes and Travel, Young Journalists, Chemistry, and American Sign Language.

Strength to Strength 2016-2018

Center for Social Impact (CSI) The efforts of the CSI continue to bear fruit as a group of students and faculty made a second trip to the Rashmi School in Nepal in 2016, helping build a Lower School playground and computer lab.

Wooster also hosted two administrators from the school for two weeks in 2017 so that they could learn more about student-centered approaches to learning. Next up is a micro-loan through the CSI to help the school expand into a new building. The CSI also sent an advance team to Jamaica this year to look at another school partnership, and we are sending a team of faculty and students to those schools this spring to follow up and get started. The CSI also organized a read-along with Mill Ridge Primary school in Danbury, sending our eighth grade to read with their second grade. This will be the beginning of a larger partnership. Finally, our Catwalk for a Cure was a big success for the third year in support of the Norma F. Pfriem Breast Care Center.

Parent – Student – Teacher Conferences Continuing our emphasis on student-centered pedagogy, metacognition and feedback for learning, Wooster expanded our parent-teacher conferences to include students in 2016-17, and will continue to improve upon this format in the years ahead. We have additionally streamlined our process by developing an online signup system that facilitates logistical aspects of this complicated process.

Through the addition of students, conferences are increasingly tied to our goal-setting and reflective work, which starts at the beginning of the year and continues through our days of reflection and in our learning environment as part of the preparation process.

Strength to Strength 2016-2018

Data for Learning in the Lower School and Middle School Our improved data collection in the Lower School program has enabled our learning specialist to employ a more intentional and targeted support and enrichment model. Based on regular assessments, students are monitored for short-term remediation and extension, ensuring that they are given academic support as needed. Pre-assessments are also being employed more regularly to allow students to accelerate their math learning when appropriate. Going into the 2017-18 school year, we are looking to employ similar strategies in the Middle School as we build out our Student Support Program.

College Guidance and Student Advancement Due to the growth of the Upper School and our continued emphasis on creating a personalized college search process for each of our seniors, we will be adding a part-time College Admissions Associate to the team of Dr. Black and Ms. Reed in 2017-18. Enrollment for the annual College Bus Tour in the summer has doubled in the last two years (now over 25 students) and our College Fair continues to draw over 85 colleges and universities annually. We will again be hosting a series of talks on various aspects of the college admissions process by college admissions administrators in 2017-18. Over 50% of our graduating seniors applied for early decision this year, with over 75% being accepted to their college of first choice.

Strength to Strength 2016-2018

Facilities Improvements Summer 2016 Reception Center Thanks to a generous donation from the Elfont family, we refurbished our Reception Center in the summer of 2016. The newly refreshed space has become a great new venue for parent meetings, workshops and other special events, like speakers and concerts, while also becoming a fully-equipped, flexible learning space for use during school hours.

Music Building In the summer of 2016, we redesigned the interior of the Music Building and purchased portable staging for use inside the building and around campus. By creating a larger, more flexible space for music and the performing arts inside the Music Building we’ve expanded its possible uses, including having the Middle School ensembles rehearse in there as well.

Digital Media Studio

Sidewalk and Landscaping Ever thought that having students and adults walking in the street every day was a bad idea? We did too.

Thankfully, through a generous donation from the Parents’ Association, we built a new sidewalk which extends from the Library to the Middle School, complete with new trees and landscaping, and lighting.

Upgrades to cameras and other technology helped to launch the Digital Media Program in the former computer lab adjacent to the pottery classroom. Planning is ongoing about expanding the space for additional programming in 2017-18.

Strength to Strength 2016-2018

Clean Makerspace We converted the conference room adjacent to the existing Makerspace into a “clean� Makerspace to house computers, 3D printers, robotics, and other technology-specific activities. The existing Makerspace continues to be the workshop for cutting, sawing, painting, and making a mess while problem-solving. This shift also allowed our Theater Tech program to move more fully into the existing Makerspace.

Strength to Strength 2016-2018

Summer 2017 Entrance Driveway We will be widening the entrance road to accommodate angled, head-in parking starting in 201718. This will nearly double the number of available spots on the road, and help to eliminate the degradation of the roadside when cars are parked on the grass. We’ll also be painting some arrows on the road so everyone knows which way to go (and not to go!).

McAlister Cottage Facade and Entrance Thanks to a gift from the Great Class of 1967, we will be able to fix the drainage problem in front of the Admission Office and build a patio area that will provide an additional area for learning and socializing during the day. We also plan on replacing the windows and siding on the front of the building.

Middle School Access Road We will widen the road so that parents can pull over during dropoff and pickup while still allowing space for others to pass. This will help improve the experience for all and eliminate the degradation of the lawn that results from the current system.

Verdery Library Learning Commons Expanding upon the transition from traditional library space to learning commons, we will upgrade the front doors and drainage system, while replacing flooring and carpeting throughout the facility. We may also hope to replace furniture, depending upon the success of our fundraising efforts.

Tennis Courts We will be resurfacing, and repairing posts and fencing, on the two courts closest to the Art Building which are most in need of repair.

Tiedemann Scoreboard Thanks in part to funds raised by the Wooster Athletic Spirit Club, we will be installing an electronic scoreboard on Tiedemann Field.