What our teachers’ did this summer

ARCHBISHOP CARROLL TEACHERS’SUMMER EXPERIENCES

BRING NEW DIMENSIONS TO THE CLASSROOM

When teachers returned to Archbishop Carroll High School in late August, Mary Beth Blaufuss, Vice Principal for Academic Affairs, posed the same question to them that they invariably ask their students: What did you do over summer vacation? For many faculty members, it was an opportunity to become more deeply involved in their content area; for others, it was a chance to collaborate with other educators. And for all, summer was a time to regroup and refresh to bring new dimensions to both teaching and learning.

Teachers collaborated and explored their areas of expertise:

• One English teacher facilitated the Center for Inspired Teaching’s Summer Institute while four other faculty members participated in it
• A religion teacher shadowed a Kairos retreat team in Philadelphia in preparation for Carroll’s adoption of this retreat format
• An English teacher and poet completed his service as Interim Director of Poetry Readings at the Folger Shakespeare Library and planned the Mariposa Poetry Retreat for this fall
• A computer science teacher presented at the Tapestry Workshop at the University of Delaware, an NSF-sponsored event to promote women and minority participation in science, technology, engineering and math
• An art teacher prepared works for three art exhibits

Teachers became students:

• A government and social justice teacher completed coursework in Educational Assessment and Reading Across the Curriculum
• A math teacher began an alternative certification program for Catholic school teachers
• A science teacher studied Reading in the Content Area at the College of Notre Dame in MD
• A science teacher attended the Kagan Cooperative Learning Summer Academy
• A math teacher completed the Master’s Degree in Leadership at Catholic University

Teachers worked as educators:

• A math teacher taught calculus at Howard University’s summer program
• A P.E. teacher engaged in a mission trip to an elementary school in the Dominican Republic
• A history and Spanish teacher conducted outdoor adventure trips for high school students in Wyoming

Teachers had new and exciting experiences:

• Three teachers encountered bears over the summer!