Founded 1933 • Grades Junior K-9 • 336.724.5811 • 2100 Reynolda Road • Winston-Salem NC 27106

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The leaves were still falling from the trees and a beautiful Indian summer was in progress when Summit Sixth Graders began an educational journey that would take them to the Arctic Circle.

Getting Inuit at North 70 Latitude was a chance for students and teachers to immerse themselves in Canadian culture for about a month, with the goal of developing a two- to four-minute presentation on some aspect of Canada. Summit has a long tradition of interdisciplinary studies beginning as early as JrK, said Danette Morton, head of Upper School. Sixth Grade is a point at which students often enter Summit and the Inuit unit is a fitting introduction to the school’s unique learning approach.

Although the students may not know it, their teachers often learn as much as they do, said those who worked on the project, including Teachers Millicent Foreman, Dane Perry, Jason McEnaney and Melissa Cleland.

Millicent Foreman, a science teacher, visited Kotzebue, Alaska, for a week in July and was able to gather firsthand information, as well as artifacts, to share with students. She watched Eskimo dancing and saw some of the elaborate beaded designs women made for use on clothing and in jewelry. She bought a parka made of wolverine and Arctic fox fur, that brought the harsh climate of the region to life for students.

Foreman went fishing for salmon and made folk remedies from plants in the tundra. One of the more unusual aspects of her trip was that it was daylight the entire time she was in the village. She used that experience to talk with students about the Earth’s tilt and rotation and how it affects different parts of the world.

Students and faculty read Ice Drift, an adventure story set in the 19th century that tells the story of two brothers who are cast adrift on an ice floe that takes them from their home down the Greenland Strait. They encounter ferocious polar bears and other challenges on their quest to return home. The book gave students and faculty a common reference point for many of the activities that followed.

Sixth Grade Faculty Collaborates to Create Inuit Study

E d u c a t o r sWho Engage the Whole ChildI S S U E I I I o f V I • W I N T E R 2 0 1 2

An igloo building project gave students a chance to work together using science, technology, engineering, art and math (STEAM). The Maintenance Department made blocks designed by students to construct igloos. The students had hoped to use a single shape of block in different sizes to build the igloos, but the project ultimately failed because wood blocks are not as forgiving a material as ice.

At first some of the students were surprised that they were assigned to write a paper in math class explaining the mathematical implications of building an igloo. Cleland told them that sometimes in life, you have to write narratives about math and yes, you will sometimes use math in English and social studies.

Educators Who Engage the Whole Child Summit News, ISSUE III of VI, Winter 2012 Summit School • 2100 Reynolda Road, Winston-Salem, NC 27106 • 336.724.5811 • www.summitschool.com • Editor: Mary Horan, Director of Communications

Photography: Martin Tucker • Design: One Hero Creative, Inc. • Summit School admits students of any race, religion, color, and national or ethnic origin.

Students also practiced constructing stone formations, known as inuksuks, which give information about travel routes, spiritual places and hunting grounds. They built tools, made jewelry and played Eskimo games, many of which were designed to combat boredom in a pre-television and pre-internet age.

Reading about the Inuit culture was a good way to show students that humans are more alike than they are different, Perry said. The study was also a lesson in how humans survive, and even thrive, in a place with fewer resources than Winston-Salem.

Reading English-language newspapers from the Arctic region for social studies class helped students link current events to history in the region. Students used those articles and other reading to make presentations on the Gold Rush in the Yukon, the influence of Canadian Mounties and famous Canadians.

“The project let students enjoy and learn from doing activities with their heads AND their hands,” Perry said, “and it didn’t hurt that they seemed to have fun.”

Chris Culp, director of Technology, said that success or failure is not the point of such problem-based learning projects. “It doesn’t always have to succeed,” he said. “What you want is for the children to face what they’re going to have to face in the real world. Sometimes you have to back up and punt.”

Subjects as varied as motocross racing, life in the country and a parent’s efforts to end hunger in India provided Eighth Graders with a chance to reflect on their lives so far.

Over the course of the Fall semester, Eighth Graders produced four- to five-minute documentaries that highlight people, places, events or interests that have influenced them. Students had a chance to complete a multi-media project as well as reflect on how even small things can influence people in big ways.

The project was a collaboration among Martin Tucker, Betsy McNeer and Josh Perry, who helped students come up with ideas, write introductions, edit the films and coordinate logistics.

“I’d like for the students to remember that every person has a story and quite often looking at that person’s story has an effect on how we make similar decisions in our own lives,” Tucker said. “Their future will be full of opportunities to use life lessons from the past as a foundation and then solve a multi-faceted problem, be it social, educational or professional.”

He tried to give students the tools they would need to complete their documentaries, but Tucker also gave them a lot of flexibility to complete their projects.

“Once you do that with this age group, they own it,” he said.

In McNeer’s class, students wrote their introductions to their films, developed questions and wrote an overview of the project. The students talked about how specific details would add to the story, but McNeer said she didn’t tell them what to film.

The teachers involved in the project said they gained some surprising insights into their students. One student wrote about her mother’s work with a group dedicated to ending poverty in India. Another student wrote about his uncle from Tanzania, who had overcome a number of obstacles to become a doctor.

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Eighth Graders Produce Documentaries

Students learned about being tenacious and solving problems creatively, Tucker said.

One student wanted to tell the story of Bethany Hamilton, the Hawaiian pro surfer who lost her arm in a shark attack, yet returned to surfing. The student wasn’t able to interview Hamilton, but she researched the surfer’s life through photographs, articles and YouTube footage.

Another student tried to photograph her gymnastics coach several times and the images kept coming out blurry. She

persevered, until she had enough good photos to use. When the student had trouble scheduling an interview with the coach, she designed a questionnaire he could fill out at his convenience. Some students started out feeling they didn’t have any influences. Sometimes other students helped them out by offering a perspective.

“Even those who were initially worried that their explanations might not be of interest to their audience ended up being pleased by how interesting and revealing their documentaries turned out,” McNeer said.

She said that she hopes that the documentaries will provide a snapshot of students at a particular age that they can look back on and show to family and friends.

“They’re becoming introspective and they love writing about themselves. They’re looking to adulthood,” she said. “They’re finding their voices in so many ways.”

Take a look at the documentaries by scanning with your handheld device.

Martin Tucker Betsy McNeer Josh Perry

Teaming and Collaborat ionThe middle school years are a time when students can easily fall through a school’s cracks. Precious learning opportunities can be lost in transition and translation when multiple teachers are directing each student’s education. By working collaboratively in teaching teams, Summit’s Upper School teachers are intentional about sealing the cracks in the middle school years. Upper School teachers meet regularly in teams by grade level and by subject area to strengthen the horizontal and vertical alignment of curriculum. We know that the stronger the collaboration among the adults, the higher the quality of the students’ learning experience.

When teachers collaborate for planning across subject areas, learning opportunities become more authentic, more real-world. Science, technology, engineering, art and math (STEAM) come together in the form of an Inuit igloo, for example. And, the likelihood that a student will understand and remember the application of specific skills is greatly enhanced. By working together closely, teachers are able to coordinate strategies to support and challenge

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students individually. They can harness the power of their collective eyes and ears to head off problems that may be brewing or to capitalize on opportunities to extend learning.

Teachers also plan and execute the Upper School advisory program in grade-level teams, using three themes for each grade level emphasizing qualities of good character, responsibility and leadership. With shared focus around key concepts like empathy and self-advocacy, teachers are able to deepen the opportunity to internalize these traits.

Another way that Upper School teachers collaborate is in subject area teams. For example, English teachers meet to coordinate the teaching

of grammar across grade levels. Social studies teachers meet to coordinate the teaching of research skills or to determine key concepts to be mastered. Such opportunities for rich discussion and creative thinking offer vital support in a profession that can be demanding and, at times, perplexing. At Summit we move beyond customary collegiality to harness the power and dynamism of collaborative teaching.

Danette MortonHead of Upper School

Using 21st century technology, Summit Fifth Graders were able to bring to life the 19th century Irish and Chinese immigrant experience.

Students started with a real person and analyzed facts about him or her, that were available in immigration records such as gender, age, hometown and other family members. Then students used their imaginations and Apple iPads to flesh out that character and create fictitious diary entries.

This was the first year that Summit used Apple iPads and Teachers Tom Shaver, Teresa Tsipis and Caitlin Folan found themselves learning about the technology along with their students. Kristin Bennett, an assistant professor with the Wake Forest University Education Department, served as a consultant.

“One of the things you want children to develop in Fifth Grade is empathy,” said Tom Shaver, who teaches math.

“You want them to put themselves in others’ places.” The use of iPads meant that students could not simply regurgitate facts. Instead they had to go in search of the information they wanted and use it to shape the immigrants’ stories.

They used Google Earth to read about the climates of Ireland and China. That information allowed them to think about their character’s experiences at home, as well as to provide insight about the weather they encountered while traveling to the ships that would take them to America. Using a camera and Sketch application, students dressed up, created photographs of their characters and made the photographs look like those of the 19th century.

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One of the nice things about the project is that it gave all learners an opportunity to show what they can do, said Folan, who teaches social studies to her homeroom.

For students who like technology, the iPads were a way to hook children on the project and open up a whole new world of research. Sometimes the students ended up teaching the teachers.

One child with a talent for dramatic performance used an Irish brogue to present a skit. Another child who is a good writer showed others how to incorporate details that they learned from their research into their diary entries.

During their research, students discovered that one of the ships some of the immigrants were on sank. Some immigrants drowned and others were rescued. They incorporated that incident into their writing.

The children may not remember every fact they learned years later, but they will remember the problem-solving and collaborative work skills they developed, teachers involved in the project said. Shaver said that students learned that with computer research, they often had to be patient and not just skim a document to find the information they needed.

If children wanted to imagine what their character’s journey to America might have been like, they could research the weight of the ships people travelled on and find out the speed of 19th century ships. They could research the distance of various village homelands to major ports and calculate how quickly their characters could get there on foot.

“The children need to feel a part of what they’re learning,” Shaver said. “With a project like this, they can do that.”

Fifth Grade Teachers use iPads to Explore Immigration

Children’s experiences in the elementary years are crucial to their overall success. It is during this time that children start to consolidate skills developed during their early childhood years and acquire key skills that are building blocks to success in the later grades. Elementary aged students are constantly learning about their spheres of influence as social, emotional and cognitively competitive beings within their classroom communities. They inherently desire to be valued, productive members of their community.

A Learning Env ironment

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With this understanding of child development, Summit’s elementary teachers seek to provide the best environment for children to develop to their full potential. Teachers know that a child who feels understood and safe in the classroom can and will throw himself or herself into learning to achieve optimal results. We use practices from well-researched programs like The Responsive Classroom Program to provide students with a classroom environment that encourages them to increase their independence, cooperation and productivity. When you walk into a Summit classroom, you will see displays that immediately engage children and bountiful resources that allow teachers to meet the learning needs of a wide range of children. Summit’s curriculum is based on the understanding that children do not always learn in a linear fashion and not always in the time frames common to most commercial programs. Our instruction is geared to student achievement rather than program requirements. While our units of study develop the traditional skills commonly tested for nationally, we also purposefully develop those skills that are not easily documented but that experts say are just as crucial to a child’s success - collaborative skills, problem solving, creativity, and the ability to persevere with challenging tasks. Our units of study integrate the sciences, arts and humanities so that when children study a topic, they create connections. And, our ultimate goal is to connect children to their world so they can make a difference.

Roanne OrnellesHead of Elementary Grades and Diversity Coordinator

Corrections

A Learning Environment

The following names were omitted from this Fall’s edition of Summit Support. We apologize for the error and extend our gratitude to all the generous donors whose gifts help Summit fulfill our Six Promises.

Hats Off to You Auction Patron - Mr. and Mrs. John W. Davis IV

Memorials - Neil J. Wilcox, Fifth Grade Teacher 1980-1997

Research shows that young children see, feel and understand more than many adults realize. Anyone who spends time with young children knows this to be true.

Now Summit’s new Center for Excellence and Innovation in Teaching and Learning (CEI) is giving teachers at the school, and beyond, a place to take advantage of the latest research, techniques and knowledge to prepare children for the world ahead.

“It’s a place for teachers to share ideas, test ideas, collaborate with each other and take advantage of the latest brain research to better reach children,” said Jodi Turner, a Junior Kindergarten teacher at Summit.

Professional development has always been part of the teaching profession, but the CEI gives teachers a place to direct their own development and to share what they learn with others. The CEI has also formed partnerships with other independent schools across the country, such as Salem Academy and Sidwell Friends School in Washington DC.

Turner was one of two teachers who attended a Project Zero conference in Atlanta, along with Early Childhood Division Head Julie Smith. Project Zero is an educational research group at the Graduate School of Education at Harvard University. Its mission is to enhance learning, thinking and creativity in the arts, sciences and humanities. Turner said that the conference has already changed the way she teaches.

“The facts matter,” Turner said. “but you can Google the facts. What kids need is to think critically and they need to know how to ask the right questions.”

In one exercise from Project Zero, children were shown a picture and asked to describe what they see. At first, the children gave very obvious answers. They said that children were playing in some leaves. But as they looked at the picture, students began to question whose house was in the background and to wonder about the relationships between the children in the scene.

“It was exciting to see them develop a thinking routine,” Turner said. “If you trust them to verbalize what they see, those connections stay with them. That’s how the brain exercises.” Jodi’s example highlights the importance of the early childhood years when the ability to think is forming.

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Early Childhood Teachers Bring New Ideas intothe Classroom

Cheryl Dickson, a Junior Kindergarten teacher who also attended the Atlanta conference, said that in a visually cluttered world, it’s easy for children to skim the surface, but digging deeper lets them connect new knowledge to what they already know.

“Nobody wants to sit there, take notes and spit it back for the test and forget it,” Turner said. “We want to move it to long-term storage and apply the knowledge to real life. That’s always been the goal of progressive education.”

Parents who grew up in a traditional classroom with desks in straight lines and a teacher up front telling the children what they should know are often startled by current classrooms, which are arranged quite differently, Turner said.

“When you see a great deal of activity in a classroom, there’s a lot of problem-solving going on,” she said. “That’s progressive education. It’s actually more rigorous than getting children to take notes and spit it back for a test and then forget it. It’s easy to learn facts, but it’s not easy to solve problems,” she said.

Cheryl Dickson Jodi Turner

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A frequently asked question about why we include Ninth Graders on our campus can be answered by current brain research. This work shows that the brains of early adolescents, ages 11-15, are still growing and the parts that control judgment have not fully developed. When students continue in a familiar environment where there is close interaction with adults, and when there are no older adolescents exerting pressure to conform, the chances for

sound judgments increase. Across the country, schools are addressing these needs by structuring ninth grade academies, separating these students from tenth through twelfth graders.

The power of the Ninth Grade experience at Summit results from not separating the Ninth Graders from other students, but from enhancing their position as leaders on our campus. Working across the school in the early mornings—in

classrooms, at carpool, in our libraries, or in our technology studios—gives them exposure to younger students who see them in leadership roles. Planning and carrying out service learning projects for the Upper School and presiding over Upper School assemblies give them additional experiences with leadership.

Capitalizing on these early explorations of leadership and with a vision not clouded by being a part of a larger—and older—student body, Ninth Graders embrace connections with our wider community. They understand the local, national and global organizations to which they contribute. They eagerly explore possible careers that may be available to them in the future as they spend a day shadowing a person who holds that position. They observe and appreciate people in our community who hold leadership positions as we go off campus to spend time in district courts or to tour the Arts Council complex.

The Ninth Grade year at Summit not only provides rich experiences in the moment, but also sows seeds in our students that continue to grow as they enter the wider world of high school, college and beyond.

The Power of theNinth Grade Experience

Pat CappsNinth Grade Deanand Curriculum Coordinator

Ninth Graders Connect Outside School

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Whether a Ninth Grader wants to be a musician, a lawyer, veterinarian, a world leader or even achieve world peace, the Summit Career and Leadership Exploration program can help them take those first steps--and teach them how to keep going on their own.

“We try to get students outside themselves,” said Pat Capps, Summit’s dean of Ninth Grade and curriculum coordinator. “We say, ‘When you apply for an internship or a summer job, 60 to 70 people may apply.’ We want our students to rise to the top.”

In the course of the year, students learn interview skills, write professional letters and thank-you notes and present their experiences to their peers. At school Leadership Luncheons students listen to community leaders reflect on their experiences.

Beginning in the Fall of Ninth Grade, students complete the Myers Briggs Type Indicator and meet with a counselor to discuss their interests. They continue studying various fields that interest them.

In January and February they are matched with local employers for half-day internships where they meet with someone at their business and interview the person about what he or she does. After the internship, students write a reflection about their experience and research paper about the career they observed.

For some students, the internship is a reality check, Capps said. For others, it’s an encouragement to pursue further opportunities in a chosen field. Either way, once having had the experience of developing professional contacts, writing letters and thank you notes and polishing interview skills, students have the confidence to go out into the world and continue to explore.

Service learning gives Ninth Graders a chance to develop and lead projects within the school that increase awareness of various social problems. Members of a student Executive Council meet with Julie Giljames, who teachers Ninth Grade English, to select a focus each year and to plan social events, student activities and one all-school assembly. This year’s focus is hunger, Giljames said, because of all the publicity about our area being ranked high for the number of children who are hungry.

Students often have very stereotypical ideas about a particular social problem at the beginning of a project, Giljames said.

In dealing with hunger, some students thought it was a problem mainly among homeless people or drug addicts. After watching a video about the hungry, students were shocked to see how many children are affected.

The projects also offer lessons in promotion and salesmanship, as students discuss how to make their projects stand out among others that are going on at the school. This kind of service learning--which is unique to Summit because everyone participates--can push adolescents out of their comfort zones, tuning them into the world outside of themselves.

“Every time we introduce an idea to them we further develop their empathy--and sometimes even create empathy that wasn’t there before,” Giljames said.

The culmination of the Ninth Grade program is the Life/SCALE breakfast held during Graduation Week, where parents are invited to listen to students talk about their experiences throughout the year in panel discussions. Students also develop a portfolio that contains material about their internship and service learning documentation.

“It can serve as a beginning high school resume and provide them with suggestions for moving forward into 10th, 11th and 12th grades,” Capps said.

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Early Childhood is widely considered to be the most crucial time of development in life. The brain is developing rapidly and the stage is being set for all future learning. The world children dwell in during these years has a lasting impact.

At Summit, we practice experiential learning, meaning that children learn best thorough direct experience. For example, rather than reading about plants and how they grow, we plant a garden and observe what happens over time. This way, learners draw meaning directly from the experience and we incorporate scientific principles along the way. Thinking about the experience is a very important final step in the learning process.

Experiential Learning

Julie SmithHead of Early Childhoodand Director of Parent Learning

Our Early Childhood program is created with intention. It led by highly trained, nurturing teachers who use carefully thought out activities that form a cohesive curriculum. Our teachers are the lifelong learners that our students will become. This Fall they have visited schools in Indianapolis, Durham, Atlanta and Greenville, South Carolina. Several teachers have also attended a Project Zero conference in Atlanta hosted by educators associated with Harvard University. Several schools have come to Summit to observe our program as well. This time spent interacting with colleagues and new ideas has immediate impact in the classroom.

Sophocles said, “One must learn by doing the thing: for though you think you know it, you have no certainty until you try.” His words exemplify one of Summit’s deepest beliefs about the way young children learn. The chance to learn new things and apply them in the real world is the route to the sturdy confidence that we want to help our children develop. Summit students do this with the support of teachers extraordinarily dedicated to their craft and talented beyond measure.

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was a student at High Point University, he changed his major several times, in search of a career that would allow him to combine his interests in math, history, art and other creative pursuits.

He settled on elementary education because friends in those classes seemed to be having such a good time. And Shaver counts himself lucky that he found a school that would allow him to combine math and art, history and math--in fact, math and about any other topic that suits his fancy. He has taught at Summit School since 1973.

Shaver, who currently teaches Fifth Grade, is the 2010-11 recipient of the Marian Millaway Douglas Award for Excellence in Teaching. The award is named for an alumna and enthusiastic supporter of Summit, and it recognizes teachers who inspire excellence and enthusiasm in their students.

A modest man, Shaver credits his success to the fact that he often “steals” ideas from other teachers. He said in turn, that he hopes a few of the teachers might find some of his ideas worth stealing.

He says that his students are an endless source of inspiration and energy.

“When you come into the classroom, the children with their questions and enthusiasm really inspire me,” he said. “My time spent with the children is the very best part of the day.”

He has taught math his entire career at Summit, Shaver said. He has been a Fourth and Fifth Grade teacher and spent seven years as coordinator of the math program for Kindergarten through Sixth Grade.

When Tom Shaver

On one recent Fall day, he had children make paper airplanes and then go outside and launch them ten times. That exercise turned into a lesson on measuring distance, as Shaver had the children measure the distance by the length of their own feet, and then convert the numbers into the conventional foot measure.

Teresa Tsipis, who teaches Fifth Grade, said that Shaver has a great understanding of child development and the learning process.

“He molds these two understandings together to meet the students’ academic and social needs, inside and outside of the classroom,” she said. “But most importantly, he is a sweet and gentle man who dedicates his whole life to helping students reach their potential.”

Shaver said he has found a supportive community at Summit, both personally and professionally. He enjoys designing workshops with other teachers and draws inspiration from everyone at the school.

When he first started working at Summit, he sometimes had lunch with the school’s founder, Louise Futrell. He found her supportive attitude and collaborative spirit inspiring.

“I admired her,” he said. “I think about how brave she was to leave a secure job in the middle of the Depression and to come to a city and start a school.”

Shaver said that he hopes children will remember him for his sense of humor and for his optimism about their skills.

“I hope they remember that everybody can be a success,” he said.

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Dane Perry, on the

second day of school, was helping a child rummage through his locker for a missing item when he was struck by a thought.

“Just two short years ago at this time, I was looking at the budget,” he said. “Now I’m looking for homework and it sure does feel good.”

Perry, who is known as Summit School’s Renaissance Man, has spent 35 years at the school doing everything from raising money to teaching to scheduling buses.

He grew up in Albemarle and majored in English as a Morehead Scholar at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He went on to Yale Divinity School and graduated in 1973. He and his wife, Virginia, who he met in college, began their careers at a boarding school in Connecticut. They moved South in 1977, when Doug Lewis, then head of school at Summit, offered Perry a job in development and publications.

Whatever position he has held, Perry said that establishing good relationships was a priority. A good manager keeps the people on the ground from feeling too stressed by demands from the top and he keeps people at the top insulated from the daily minutiae. A streak of playfulness helps in management, he said, but in education it’s almost a necessity.

“At this age, if you can get a kid to want to come to school, you’ve won the battle for a lifelong learner,” he said.As an administrator he became known for dressing up at Halloween as some female character in the public eye. He recharges with what he calls “crazy hobbies,” and what his co-workers see as the active mind of a Renaissance Man. He plays the ukulele, pans for gold and carves wooden nativities, bowls and other items.

Danette Morton, head of Upper School, said that Perry has an amazing breadth of knowledge about the world that he manages to translate into digestible portions for 11-year-olds.

During his career at Summit, Perry pioneered a catchall course called, Things Your Grandma Taught You that teaches children such practical skills as how to tie a square knot, how to change a tire and how to start a fire with flint.

“For a kid at this age, where everything feels like a test, to learn something you can do yourself feels good,” he said. “During these years, the forces to tear down confidence are rampant. A major job is to build up confidence.”

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must figure out how to dance with two props or figure out how to get a group of Oompa Loompas to the other side of the stage for their next entrance. Da Luz said that she could solve many of the problems herself, but it’s more rewarding to let students do it on their own.

“I see light bulbs go on all the time in this room,” she said. “I think that when they feel safe, they’re willing to take risks.”

Da Luz has been in her current role for a year and a half, and taught formerly for a number years at Summit. She earned a bachelor’s degree in business from the University of San Diego and a master of fine arts from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

She is a member of Actors’ Equity and Screen Actors Guild and has had parts in the TV series One Tree Hill and Main Street, a movie that starred Colin Firth and Orlando Bloom. She has performed frequently at Triad Stage, which was voted one of the most promising regional professional theaters in the country. Four years ago she founded The Paper Lantern Theater Company, which stages productions in Greensboro and Winston-Salem.

Her career at Summit has made her a better teacher and a better actor, da Luz said.

“I see children being carefree, being honest, making me laugh,” she said. “That’s a reminder to me to do the same.”

Amy da Luz’s career in theater began as a third grader in Minnesota, when she wrote, directed and cast her first production, Don’t Be Meany Mice, Be Nice.

These days, she has traded her childhood garage acting studio for the Black Box Theatre at Summit, but her mission is still the same: to expose children to the joys of using their imaginations, working together and receiving praise for their efforts.

“For me, acting is a chance to gain an understanding of the world, to walk in someone else’s shoes,” she said.Students develop confidence performing in front of their peers, as well as compassion, social skills, empathy and a sense of teamwork.

All children grow up pretending in their bedrooms, she said. Many of them leave that behind when they go to school. Her job is to help them continue to use their imaginations.

Each class in the Upper School begins with a relaxation exercise to help children quiet their minds and become aware of their bodies and emotions. Younger students enjoy performances tied to myths and legends, while older children have the maturity to put themselves into a character’s head.

Live performance, whether for an audience or in class, requires teamwork and creative problem-solving. Students

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Someone who met Martha Albertson for the first time might think from her warm, outgoing personality and colorful clothing, that she teaches art.

But Albertson has dedicated 23 years to teaching math at Summit School and helping her students feel confident around numbers. She will retire at the end of this school year.

“I don’t feel that I’m gifted in creativity or arts or music,” she said, “But I do have a feeling for them.”

She freely borrows from those areas to help students who don’t take naturally to numbers to feel comfortable around them. For a unit on geometry, she asked students to go around town and photograph different geometric shapes and then label them and compile notebooks. The idea of the exercise was to show that geometric shapes are everywhere.

One student went a step further and photographed a sock monkey in different locations, making up a story about the monkey’s travels. Albertson said that kind of creative thinking can be a bridge to students.

When Dane Perry recommended Albertson for the Marian Millaway Douglas Award for Faculty Excellence in 2009, he praised her inspired approach.

“Instead of simply grinding through math lessons and a textbook, you have developed wonderful opportunities for math poetry, math photographic albums,” he said.Sometimes her more creative approaches help a fearful student relax, she said.

Other times, she believes that by stimulating the right, or creative side, of the brain, that the left brain works better too.

“Every kid needs to feel successful in some regard,” she said.

Albertson received a bachelor’s degree in math from Mary Baldwin College and a master’s degree in math from Wake Forest University.

She said that former head of school Doug Lewis, who hired her, urged her to follow her own interests and that would make her an interesting teacher.

One of Albertson’s favorite projects was inspired by Beatrice Riese, a painter whose work is in the Museum of Modern Art.

Albertson adapted Riese’s colorful gridded geometric forms for use in a unit on geometry. Albertson sent Riese copies of the designs Summit students created. After Riese died in 2004, the executor of her estate contacted Albertson after he found her correspondence with Riese, as well as the projects the students at Summit had made.

She hopes that students not only learn how to solve math problems in her class, but that they take away a method for approaching any problem in life.

“Identifying the problem, and then thinking through the problem, whether it be math or anything else is crucial,” she said.

Martha Albertson

“We want to build a lifetime fitness mentality. We think staying physically active is very important so important that from Kindergarten through Fifth Grade, our students have physical

education every day,” he said.

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This past July, Summit welcomed an inspiring and talented new Athletic Director, Ken Shaw. Ken came to us from Forsyth Country Day School, where he was director of Summer Programs and Lower School PE.

Shaw discovered transformational coaching nine years ago when a friend recommended Season of Life by Jeffrey Marx and has become both a fan and an adherent. He is the father of three children--Nate-13, Gracie-11 and Mary Kathryne-7--and has seen how transformational coaching has helped shape his own children’s characters, as well as those of the children he teaches and coaches. Summit News talked to him this month about sports, physical activity and his philosophy.

How would you sum up Summit’s philosophy of physical activity?We want to build a lifetime fitness mentality. We think staying physically active is very important--so important that from Kindergarten through Fifth Grade, our students have physical education every day.

Students in the Upper School can continue physical education classes, play on a school team or take part in an outside sport such as swimming, karate or youth soccer. At this age, we want to balance competition with the development of motor skills.

In the Winter, we have about 50 students enrolled in a unique offering we call Lifetime Sports, which includes such activities as bowling, archery, hiking, roller skating and yoga. We want all of our students--both those who go on to be top athletes in high school and college and those who approach sports as a leisure activity--to see the importance, and the fun, of remaining physically active throughout their lives.

Can you explain the difference between transactional coaching and transformational coaching? Transactional coaching is what many of today’s parents grew up with. It’s ego-driven, concerned with winning and using each athlete to make a coach’s win/loss record better. If a child is not performing well at practice, a transactional coach might call the child to the sidelines, yell and dismiss the child from practice.

A Conversation with Athletic Director Ken Shaw

Transformational coaches put the child’s needs first. They understand that if you give children understanding, support and love, the results will take care of themselves. Transformational coaches follow the saying: “Yell encouragement. Whisper correction.”

Where did transformational coaching come from? Joe Ehrmann, a former Baltimore Colts football player who coached football at the Gilman School in Baltimore, developed many of the ideas through his years of working with young men at the school. You can read more about him in a wonderful book, Season of Life: A Football Star, A Boy, A Journey to Manhood by Jeffrey Marx. Marx was a ballboy for the Colts when he first met Ehrmann. Marx tracked Ehrmann down as an adult and chronicled a season of the Gilman Greyhounds in the book.

Ehrmann emphasized to his players the importance of having a cause bigger than yourself, of living a life of empathy, integrity and service. Earlier this year, Ehrmann published his own book, InSideOut Coaching: How Sports Can Transform Lives. Ehrmann believes that coaches are second only to parents in their ability to inspire young people and he talks about his experiences as a coach who wanted to help young people succeed on and off the field.

Ehrmann would start each practice by asking: “What is my job?” His students would answer, “To love us.”

He would then ask students: “What is your job?” The students would answer, “To love each other.”

Transformational coaching goes against many of our culture’s ideals of traditional masculinity, but Ehrmann was able to show results on the field. Gilman is producing young men who don’t conform to common stereotypes of masculinity.

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How has your introduction of transformational coaching been received at Summit? The first few times, kids sort of gave a funny look because it is non-traditional, but a month into the basketball season, our students seem to have more confidence on and off the field and are embracing a different method.

We’ve had instances where students missed a crucial shot or made a mistake during a game. When that happens, I talk to the students and try to give them a sense of perspective. I might remind them of their successes throughout the season. Sometimes it means taking time to let the student express his or her feelings. What you don’t want to do is shout: “You should have worked harder.”

With this approach, all Summit coaches aren’t only teaching students the basic fundamentals, but how to approach life. Ten years from now, the student who missed that important shot might blow a project at work. Having a healthy foundation of dealing with setbacks could make the difference in how quickly he or she bounces back and moves on.

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“These camps are a wonderful example of intellectual vigor--inspiring joy through challenge,” he said.

Jan Standerfer, who teaches Second Grade, has designed Moving and Grooving Math, a camp that combines math lessons with sports. For example, students go bowling but are not

allowed to use the computerized scoring machines at the lanes. They have to count their scores the old-fashioned way--thereby using mental math and refining numerical fluency. Standerfer has also combined her interests in chess and architecture with Pawns and Pillars.

The progressive school movement has tried to limit the top-down approach of teacher as lecturer and develop the idea of teacher as guide, Turner said. That idea applies to the camps as well.

“When you develop teacher as guide you give children more autonomy and choice,” Turner said. “They learn more--and more deeply. Perhaps most importantly, they’re able to be citizens in a more meaningful and active way.”

Summit Summer offerings will go live on our website February 1. Visit summitschool.com/summer for information and registration.

When you teach at Summit School, you don’t necessarily see Summer as a chance to kick back and lie on the beach. Instead summer is an opportunity to take that unique interest, hobby or passion of yours that doesn’t quite fit into the regular school year, and turn it into a camp at Summit Summer.

Jeff Turner, director of Auxiliary Programs, said that Summit Summer gives children a variety of enrichment opportunities. It offers parents whose children do not attend the school the chance to experience the school’s resources. It functions as a learning lab for the teachers, where ideas and programs are tested for later expansion or use during the school year. And it offers current Summit students the opportunity to further explore areas of special interest and passion--often with teachers they have come to enjoy and appreciate throughout the school year.

Programs have grown to include 55 one-week-long day camps that are offered over the course of six weeks in June, July and August. With teacher-student ratios about 1 to 10, every child has a chance to participate fully. Through the years, the camps have evolved from pure enrichment to camps that are fun, but also designed to boost academics, Turner said.

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The teachers we remember best are those who come alongside us at vital points in our lives. They help us to discover our passions and to expand our capacity to master challenging material.

At Summit, our children are surrounded by such memorable teachers. They are mentors and models—encouragers and friends—who engage students in the present and prepare them for the future.

When we work with a student to unravel a math problem, apply an iPad app to a research project, conduct a science experiment, organize a service project, rehearse a scene, or create a documentary, we are developing the tools of self-reliant learning, the habits of academic mastery and the vision for creative impact.

Remarks from Head of School Michael Ebeling

This issue of Summit News features stories about the inspiring work in which our teachers engage students—stories about educators delivering on our six promises: scholarship at its best, a fertile learning environment, a sturdy confidence, intellectual independence, state of the art facilities, and educators who engage the whole child.

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Where can we find you?We’d like to keep in touch with you. Please send us your email address and we’ll send you Summit news, happenings and accomplishments via email. Go to http://www.summitschool.com/update to send us your address.

You can also follow us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/summitschool Catch Head of School Michael Ebeling’s latest musings on his blog, Peak Experiences, at http://summitschool1.blogspot.com/

• Sixth Grade Teacher Dane Perry’s Renaissance Man approach to supporting students in becoming lifelong learners

• Drama Teacher Amy DaLuz’s ability to develop confidence and teamwork in students through the performing arts

• Math Teacher Martha Albertson’s brilliant use of creativity and the arts (through the work of painter Beatrice Riese) to help students feel comfortable around numbers

• Athletic Director Ken Shaw’s vision of transformational coaching

• Summit Photographer Martin Tucker, Technology Teacher Josh Perry and Eighth Grade English teacher Betsy McNeer’s documentary project in which students reflect on their lives and give voice to their unique stories

• Fifth Grade Teachers Tom Shaver, Teresa Tsipis and Caitlin Folan enabling their students to recreate the lives of 19th century immigrants using iPads as a research tool

• Sixth Grade teachers Millicent Foreman, Dane Perry, Melissa Cleland and Jason McEnaney engaging students in a STEAM (integrated science, technology, engineering, art and math) project entitled Getting Inuit at North 70 Latitude

• Ninth Grade Dean Pat Capps leading students in the Summit Career and Leadership Exploration Program with Teacher Julie Giljames guiding students in choosing and executing service learning opportunities

• Junior Kindergarten Teachers Cheryl Dickson and Jodi Turner applying in the classroom the principles and practices of learning, thinking and creativity they explored at the Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Project Zero Conference in Atlanta

• Director of Auxiliary Programs Jeff Turner’s development of a robust summer program featuring 55 week-long day camps that inspire joy and boost academics

Every student brings distinctive potential and a unique voice to Summit. We cherish that individuality, and our faculty is committed to discovering and enhancing each child’s gifts. Our teachers equip each student for a rich journey of lifelong learning. We celebrate our students and their teachers as they live into our mission: Inspiring Learning.

Michael Ebeling, Head of School

What do our promises kept look like in the lives of our students? The stories in this issue reveal these promises as embodied in

S i x P r o m i s e s o f S u m m i t

S c h o l a r s h i p

at Its BestA Fertile LearningE n v i r o n m e n t

A SturdyC o n f i d e n c e

Intellectuali n d e p e n d e n c e

S t a t e o f t h e A r t

FacilitiesE d u c a t o r s

Who Engage the Whole Child

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S i x P r o m i s e s o f S u m m i t

S c h o l a r s h i p

at Its BestWe are committed to seeing students move from mastery of the fundamentals to discovery, expertise and impact.

Intellectuali n d e p e n d e n c e

We give children the tools to meet challenges, take risks and be successful in a complex world.

A Fertile LearningE n v i r o n m e n t

Our curriculum develops fluency, creativity and competency in every area of a child’s life.

S t a t e o f t h e A r t

FacilitiesDesigned to inspire, illuminate and connect, our facilities provide spaces for memorable exchange and individual learning.

A SturdyC o n f i d e n c eThe best foundation for confidence is the development of real competence.

E d u c a t o r sWho Engage the Whole ChildWe equip each student for the rich journey of lifelong learning.