Summer Professional Development at US

5/31/2023

Summer is just around the corner, and as we conclude a school year full of incredible accomplishments, many of our teachers are preparing to use the upcoming months to create even more opportunities for our students to learn, grow, and thrive.

As you know, professional development is one way your Annual Fund gift supports outstanding teachers at University School. Through your gift, our teachers are able to create new experiences for our students, enhance their own teaching practices, and further elevate even our strongest programs. This summer, more than twenty faculty members will be engaged in projects ranging from the development of language arts instruction techniques for working with our Lower School students to the design of project-based science electives for our Upper School students.

One particularly exciting example of the impact of summer professional development is the work of Mr. Jeff Pierce and Mr. Matt McCarter to design and implement a multi-disciplinary project to provide our Eighth Graders with a capstone experience as they conclude their time on our Shaker Campus.

Many alumni will recall our long Middle School tradition of engaging students in Greater Cleveland neighborhoods and institutions. This summer, Mr. Pierce and Mr. McCarter are enhancing this tradition by designing an even more meaningful immersion experience for our eighth graders. These eighth-grade experiences will also heighten their preparation for the Upper School civic engagement program that runs throughout their time at US.

The aim of our teachers is to develop a capstone project that, according to Mr. McCarter, “fosters stronger civic connections and builds relationships with our diverse community as they experience a multi-disciplinary culminating project during their final weeks on our Shaker Campus.”

This summer, Mr. Pierce and Mr. McCarter will be developing a set of real-life problems for teachers to present to students and creating the best frameworks for teachers to encourage collaborative efforts among students to understand the relevant challenges and opportunities as they work together to propose solutions. Mr. McCarter is excited to “envision students meeting with local, regional, and national leaders, developing and sharing their own ideas, and receiving feedback and critique from stakeholders.” According to Mr. McCarter, “Young men on our Shaker Campus will have the opportunity to recognize the power of their voices.”

Annual Fund support for professional development is a crucial component of achieving the goals outlined in our strategic plan. Specifically, this work by our Middle School teachers is an example of our efforts to define excellence in boys education by “creating signature experiences that encapsulate and hallmark the US experience.”

Thank you for making this possible.

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