The student-teacher relationship is a defining aspect of the Friends experience—and one which is best strengthened by the School’s focused support of its faculty. A vital community of teachers will naturally lead to deeper learning for students.
Friends envisions teachers as lifelong learners who are supported in and celebrated for their commitment to providing students with the very best of educational experiences. Ideally, professional development will result in insight, invigoration, sustenance, and personal and professional challenge. In such an environment, faculty are given the capacities to discover and implement new strategies for fostering students’ passions, understanding, and purpose. We want to support dialog and broad sharing among educators about best practices for teaching and learning that are mindful of the century ahead. The School will encourage its faculty to collaborate and strengthen their teaching practice through exposure to the latest educational research, opportunities for exchange of ideas, and continual reflection on their pedagogy.
In considering strategic goals that relate to reimagining our teaching practice, we have been guided by these essential queries:
- How do teachers come to understand their work, their discipline, and their students more clearly and deeply?
- How do they use those understandings to help their students learn more clearly and deeply?
- How do we cultivate curiosity and develop skills in our students so they can become the problem solvers and change makers for the future?
