HIGHLAND

Highland’s Faculty Fellowship Program
Supports a Range of Initiatives for Faculty, Staff
“Matt Ormiston and I met during the summer to
refine these lists and put them into a more tangible
format for our teachers and students. We will meet
with the teachers this Fall to begin implementing
these habits in our academic classes as well.”
Middle School Teachers Engage
Students Using “Flipped Classroom”
Teachers today are asking, “How can I create
a class that encourages meaningful learning?”
The ‘flipped classroom’ concept, in which teachers
make lectures available by video to be viewed at home,
creates the opportunity for class time to be focused
around more active learning – things like project-based
learning, inquiry activities, group discussion,
peer-teaching scenarios, and video teaching.
In addition to participating in a four-part webinar
series discussing the flipped classroom concept
and ways to incorporate it into one’s practice,
Middle School Instructional Technology Coordinator
Bryanne Peterson, Social Science Department
Chair Scott Pragoff, and Math teacher Lindsay
Ward took an online course offered by Capella
University to earn a Flipped Class Certificate.
In addition to this training, the group will collaborate
to create video lessons for math and social studies
that will launch our flipped classroom experience in
the fall and prepare them to mentor other colleagues
around the Highland campus in the upcoming years.
“In order to make meaningful connections between our
content material and our students, we seek to engage
students in learner-based instruction, said Scott Pragoff.
“We want to promote a genuine curiosity within each
of our students and give him/her the kind of classroom
environment where they feel free to explore topics and
ask questions rather than solely being fed information.”
Flipping the classroom has two intended results;
first, it gives the student ownership of his/her learning,
and second, it allows teachers to concentrate on
higher-order thinking skills during class. Middle School
students are just learning to take notes and filter out
information in a lecture-style classroom, so having a
library of video lessons where the student can pause,
rewind, and re-watch lectures, allows these students
to maximize their understanding of the lecture.
Students in Middle School are learning how to hold
themselves accountable for taking care of their
responsibilities, and giving them the power on the
video lessons does just this. Piloting the program in
math, social studies, and technology departments
will demonstrate the relevance and accessibility for
all grade levels and content areas to fellow faculty.
Identifying New Math Curriculum
for Highland’s Lower School
This summer, Miriam Solms’ faculty fellowship
hours were spent researching current best practice
approaches in teaching mathematics in the
elementary grades in order to gather information
to aid in the selection of a new math curriculum
for the Lower School.
Mrs. Solms researched the contents of the Common
Core Standards, Virginia’s Standards of Learning, and
the Standards of Learning outlined by the National
Council of Teachers of Mathematics. Four different
math curriculums were reviewed and analyzed to
see how closely they align with these standards.
This information will be used to aid in the selection
of the new math curriculum that will be chosen
and purchased for the 2015-2016 school year.
Upper School Faculty, Staff Test ePortfolios
Each year, Upper School students create porfolios that
reflect the work they have completed over the course
of their time at Highland School. Last summer, a group
of Upper School faculty and staff came together to
study the possibility of moving these portfolios online.
The team assembled for this faculty fellowship, which
was led by Megan Catalfamo and Robert Hampton,
looked at potential tools, design and content ideas,
and tested the program with a select group of Upper
School students. Based on the results of this study,
the group, which also includes faculty members Cathy
Campbell, Elaine Patry, Ronnie Ross, and staff member
David Henrickson, will be rolling out a pilot ePortfolio
program for a small group of ninth grade students for
the 2014/2015 academic year.
20 Highland Magazine highlandschool.org