Faculty Forum: By Teachers, for Teachers

By NATASHA ROY ‘19

On Monday, March 25th, a day our classes resumed post-Spring Break, all Upper School faculty convened for “Faculty Forum,” a series of presentations led by faculty members for other faculty members. Faculty Forum is an annual initiative run by Ms. Singh, Dean of Teaching and Learning designed to give faculty a platform to share their teaching innovations with one another. All faculty are invited to share a presentation about a unique teaching perspective they hold.

“A lot of our other professional development days—days set aside for us teachers to reflect on our practice and grow—are led by external education leaders,” says Ms. Robbins. For example, a group from the Harvard Graduate School of Education recently visited to work with faculty. Faculty Forum, on the other hand, is run by Milton teachers, for Milton teachers. According to Ms. Robbins, “it’s a moment to share innovations you’ve been trying in your classroom, things you’ve learned from conferences, or a question you have about something you’ve been trying in class.”

This year’s eighteen presentations included “Trauma-Informed Classrooms” by Ms. Chapin and Mr. Deehan, “Evening the Playing Field: Cultivating Capacity and a Sense of Belonging in All of Our Students” by Mr. Skinner, and “White Supremacy Culture: Characteristics and Countermeasures” by Mr. Heath and AWARE, a group of white teachers working on understanding race in the classroom.

Ms. Foster finds Faculty Forum “one of the most meaningful professional days each year and every year because we’re building on each other’s practices together in an ongoing way.” It’s this very supportive spirit that has led Ms. Robbins to present at the forum every year she’s worked here. “I was a Penn Fellow for my first two years here,” she explains, “and Penn Fellows are basically required to present [since they’re] currently studying the most cutting edge innovations in education... [but] this year I still wanted to present because I had such a great experience the first two years.”

This year, Ms. Robbins co-presented with Ms. Locke about an Independent Study they co-teach about gender. Ms. Robbins, an English teacher, approaches the course from a literary and media studies perspective, and Ms. Locke, a Psychology teacher, approaches it from a psychology and development perspective. As such, their presentation focussed largely on the benefits of collaborative teaching and interdisciplinary learning.

Because, as Ms. Robbins explains, “our faculty, like our students, are very much critical thinkers,” they frequently reflect on the ways in which Milton needs to grow and change. “Those conversations are really important and productive, but they can also be pretty critical. [Faculty Forum] is a day where [I can] just feel like there’s already such amazing work happening. It feels very positive and celebratory...It’s like ‘Oh my gosh—my colleagues are amazing!’”