By Lauren Henry '99 - The Taft School

S P O T L I G H TAlicia Brandes, SpanishAlicia had a very good summer visitingfamily and working here atthe Summer School with PennyTownsend. “I loved it. I had one Spanishclass, which went very well. I alsohad five advisees from my country, theDominican Republic. Finally, we wentto Florida for a week with family.”Spanish teacher Alicia Brandes, thirdfrom left, with summer school adviseesfrom her native country, the DominicanRepublic.Mark Traina, HistoryMark taught at the Taft Summer School, traveled to the Carolinas to play golf, and went home to the Cape to visit his parentsthis summer. “I also moved myself into USBD, discovered how much I enjoy sushi, and visited the Bisselles on Lake Champlain.I went to Pittsburgh, were I played golf at Oakmont, host of seven U.S. Opens, and Laurel Valley, the prettiest golf course you’llever see. I also read the book The Majors and was very disappointed by Star Wars: Episode 1.”Kelley RobertsKelley completed her third of five summersworking toward a master’s degreein English through Middlebury’s BreadLoaf School of English. After two summerson the Vermont campus, Kelleyopted to attend the school’s program inRowe, New Mexico. “I was able to studyat The Native American PreparatorySchool, about 40 minutes northeast ofSanta Fe, where I studied British-Irishmodernism and South African fiction. Iwas able to learn from two of the bestinstructors with whom I have ever hadcontact, both of whom teach at the Universityof Tulsa. Their courses werethought provoking. The reading list waschallenging and interesting. Theworkload was difficult, but never have Ibeen more proud of the effort I put intoa program as well as the final productthan I was this summer.” Next summerKelley plans to study with Bread Loaf’sprogram at Lincoln College, OxfordUniversity, England.Karen May, Learning CenterKaren spent part of July at the Harvard Graduate School of Education fora week-long seminar led by Howard Gardner, author of Multiple Intelligences,and David Perkins, author of Smart Schools. The focus of the seminarwas “teaching for understanding.” Participants came from 39 states and 19countries. “We worked on defining a course of instruction that focused onlearning, and on how we could improve learning for our students; specifically,how we could teach students to think as the discipline required.”David Hostage, ChemistryDavid enjoyed a new professional challenge when he acted as table leader at theAdvanced Placement Chemistry reading in Clemson, SC. “Under my direction,12 readers and I graded almost 50,000 papers, reading each student’s responseto a single question. The grading itself is very hard work, probing the limits ofone’s powers of concentration, but the sharing of ideas and other professionaldevelopment make for an experience that cannot be duplicated.”At the Taft Educational Center, which David directs, the school hosted teachersfrom 33 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, and from 29 countriesfrom Australia to Uruguay. Registration totaled 811. “We offered workshops toTaft faculty and staff, including Jessica Clark ’94, Sally Dickinson, Jack Kenerson’82, and Ted Heavenrich. Taft faculty who offered workshops for TEC includeLaura Erickson, Jim Mooney, Alex Nagy, Al Reiff ’80, emeriti faculty Bill Nicholsonand Robin Osborn, and former faculty member Bill Zuehlke.”Taft Bulletin 19