Every summer a handful of BFS faculty receive curriculum development grants from the school based on proposals they submit earlier in the year. These funds are meant to spur BFS teachers to explore new curricular ideas not just for their own classes but often for their entire divisions. The intended key beneficiaries of these grants are not just the faculty of course, but the students.
This past summer, Second Grade Head Teacher Margaret Trissel received a grant to begin creating a K-4 Quakerism curriculum for the Lower School. Her work focused on exploring similar lower school curricula at other Friends schools across the country, and studying Friends Council on Education resources. Her goal wasn't so much to create a rigorous rubric but to find engaging ways "to invite the children into silence" while also teaching Quaker beliefs and values in age-appropriate ways including through the use of books and songs.
Also in the Lower School, Science Specialist Megan Gottlieb worked to integrate the school's Woolly Pocket garden project into the science curriculum in a variety of ways to enhance students' hands-on experiences there. What, you may ask, is a Woolly Pocket garden? They're the feltlike bags hanging across the fence on the roof of 375 Pearl Street. The pockets are made from recycled materials and are meant to help urban schools create and manage a surprisingly large-scale nursery. This thriving fruit, vegetable and herb garden was created last spring thanks to funding from the BFS Green Committee.
Preschool and Lower School Technology Integrator Cordenia Paige, who also teaches Middle School Photography, received a grant to attend a Spanish immersion program in Playa Jaco, Costa Rica that was paired with digital photography courses. The courses were held at the School of the World, a popular institution offering "learning vacations" to international travelers. Cordenia's twofold goals were to write a photography guide for faculty, and to find ways to integrate the Spanish language into the school's technology curriculum.
Cordenia's Middle School colleagues Math Chair Fanny Sosenke and Math teacher John Hay spent the summer creating a series of "math challenge packets" for every math unit in the curriculum for grades 5 through 8. Fanny's frequent math challenges—think of them as extra credit brain teasers—have proven popular with students and have been a successful tool for engaging them in math beyond classroom requirements. These new challenge packets are an extension of that activity.
Jesse Klausz, who teaches Middle and Upper School History and also Health, didn't apply for a BFS curriculum grant but after a highly competitive process he was selected to participate in the National Endowment for the Humanities seminar The Sock Hop and the Loft: Jazz, Motown and the Transformation of American Culture From 1959-1975. This intensive three-and-a-half week course was held at Washington University in St. Louis and was attended by 25 history, English and music teachers from across the country.
"The seminar used both jazz and Motown as a lens through which to look at America in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, and payed particular attention to race in those decades," explained Jesse. "We studied individual musicians, genres, watched films, and read criticism from a variety of sources, comparing different perspectives on the music and thinking about what those perspectives meant about our country at the time--and what issues have continued to this day."
Jesse plans to incorporate his seminar notes into a new course he will be teaching this spring on the Korean and Vietnam wars. What's the connection between Motown, jazz and Asia? "I researched the Cold War, and in particular how the United States used jazz to project an image of freedom to the rest of the world," said Jesse. His presentation was among the handful chosen to be published on Washington University's website later this year.
Not to be outdone, Middle and Upper School science teacher Janet Villas and Middle School Humanities teacher Ticia Vreeland were also accepted into a highly competitive NEH program. The week-long course, "Ask Me About the Hudson," was held in July on the campus of Ramapo College in New Jersey, and focused on the art, literature and history of the 19th
century Hudson River region.
The week included lectures, field trips, writing workshops, art exhibits and, of course, boat trips up and down the storied river including a tour through the swampy Meadowlands. Other excursions included visits to the Hudson Museum in Yonkers, the Hudson Highlands around West Point and the home of author Washington Irving. Janet and Ticia's end result was a new set of lesson plans for BFS' 5th, 7th, 8th and 12th grade science and humanities students.