St. Margaret’s professional community took part in professional-development work during a busy in-service day on Monday, as Early School and Lower School teachers took part in important academic work on campus, while department heads in Upper School and Middle School led a productive day of work both at St. Margaret’s and on the road.  

 

Here's a look at some of the activities:

 

 

For Upper School and Middle School teachers, as well as Lower School special subject teachers, the in-service day was led by department chairs who planned creative and valuable professional-development days both at St. Margaret’s and on the road. 

 

Several departments traveled to Los Angeles for the day. The science department went to L.A. to meet with several Tartan alumni attending college at USC and UCLA to learn about their experiences, their transition to college-level STEAM courses, and what advice they’d give to St. Margaret’s teachers. 

 

The personal fitness and wellness department visited the athletic department of UCLA, meeting with officials and viewing their facilities for inspiration and information as the school prepares for the building of the Student Commons. 

 
The math department visited Marco Forster Middle School in San Juan Capistrano to collaborate with faculty and meet with grade 8 students who will be joining St. Margaret’s for Upper School. The teachers were accompanied by current SMES students who attended Marco Forster in Middle School.

Other departments stayed on campus. The English department welcomed renowned educator Carol Jago, past president of the National Council of Teachers of English, to St. Margaret’s, where she led professional development on student writing, including a focus on journaling across all grade levels. 

 

The history department conducted professional development around media literacy, starting a focused conversation on preparing students to be lifelong learners and consumers of information. 

 

The world languages department visited language classes at local schools and also spent time planning for this summer’s inaugural international Spanish III course, where St. Margaret’s students will study in Salamanca, Spain.

 

 

 

Lower School homeroom teachers met in grade-level teams to further develop math instruction. The Lower School has adopted a new edition of Everyday Math recently, and Monday’s in-service was spent learning about changes, reviewing assessment data and more. “All of this will help us to further refine and improve our program,” Lower School Principal Jennifer Blount said. 

 

 

The Early School had a constructivist-in-residence on campus this week. Jennifer Thompson joined the Early Childhood School professional community this week to work with teachers on constructivist practices and documentation. In addition to Monday’s professional development, Ms. Thompson spent the week observing classrooms, participating in division meetings and more.