Academy Hosts Summer Development Conferences

High school teachers from all over the world assembled at the Academy from June 23-28 to participate in intellectually stimulating conferences on various subjects, ranging from mathematics to Shakespeare.The Exeter Humanities Institute (EHI) is a conference that "seeks to give humanities teachers the chance to learn and teach through student-centered discussion," according to EHI director and English instructor Becky Moore.Moore said that EHI was organized and well managed by its faculty, consisting of Exeter faculty and alumni. "With the team work of all leaders—Mr. Boadi, Ms. Cadwell, Ms. Foley , Mr. Sneeden and myself—as well as our assistant Abbi Ouelette '13 and the ever exceptionally organized Ms. Darby who oversees all the conferences, I think that EHI was well managed," she said. "The evaluations by participants at the end of EHI offered many positive comments about the program and the setting."The third annual Biology Institute at Exeter assembled 25 high school biology teachers from all over the nation and focused on the pedagogy of the Biology classroom.  “Our mission is to do a week of ‘biologizing’ with high school biology teachers,” Biology Institute Director and Science faculty Chris Matlack said.This year, participants went on two day-long field trips: one to the Isle of Shoals Marine Lab in Portsmouth, where they collected data to learn more about marine biology and to use for future laboratory purposes, and another to the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge on Plum Island in Newburyport, MA, where they focused on the beach’s flora and fauna. In addition, participants spent an afternoon at the Harvard Museum of Natural History in Cambridge, MA, learning about the museum’s recent research work.This summer was also the first year of the Exeter Diversity Institute (EDI), in which 18 humanities teachers from public and private schools around the nation focused on the roles that social diversity and identity play in a student-oriented classroom. Participants discussed how diversity can factor into the classroom.“I loved hearing what all the participants were observing and thinking,” English instructor Lark Hammond, who was one of the leaders at the Institute, said.  “I found it very rewarding to facilitate other teachers in a Harkness classroom as they eagerly explored how people’s identities and experiences create different lenses through which they see the world.”At the Rex A. McGuinn Conference on Shakespeare, fifteen teachers from all over the planet, focused on the various ways Shakespeare can be taught in the classroom.  “I would venture to say that the conference is about fellowship, where a group of teachers can gather together as Harkness explorers and experience the heart and mind altering genius of Shakespeare,” theater instructor Robert Richards, who was a leader of the conference, said.The featured play was Twelfth Night, and participants studied the featured play around the Harkness table, and produced scenes throughout the week.The Anja S. Greer Conference is by far the oldest of the summer professional development courses, having provided an opportunity for high school mathematics teachers to focus on the pedagogy of mathematics in the classroom since 1985.The conference offered classes on various subjects, including advanced geometry, calculus and the mathematics of stability.  From these classes, participants not only learned about advanced topics in mathematics but also brainstormed ideas on how to more effectively teach mathematics in the classroom.Debuted in 2010, The Writers’ Workshop provides high school teachers with the opportunity to fulfill their individual creative pursuits while learning to be better teachers of writing, according to its webpage.Led by PEA English instructors Matt Miller, Mercy Carbonell, and Erica Lazure, the conference helped participants become better personal narrative writers and better teachers of English in their high school classrooms.  The daily schedule consisted of Harkness discussions on readings, writing workshops during which participants wrote their own narratives according to prompts and read each other’s works to further improve their writing techniques, and teaching workshops during which participants discussed various techniques to teach writing in their classrooms.This program has been generally well received by many throughout the four years it has been in operation.  According to the workshop’s webpage, an anonymous past participant wrote, “I've been to a few [writing conferences]--this was by far the best--so much so as to be in an entirely different category... Hearing how other teachers respond to writing and seeing what excellent readers notice or deem important on the page helped me to find ways I can do that better in my classroom.”