Technology in the Classroom at St. Margaret’s

Academic Leadership // November 17, 2014

In the last edition of Private School News, we featured St. Margaret’s Episcopal School and its work using massive open online courses (MOOCs) to bring its mission to students around the world. As it turns out, St. Margaret’s took advantage of advancements in learning tools long before edX reached out to secure their expertise for their high school courses. Lynn Ozonian, the school’s Director of Innovation and Technology, spared a moment to talk with us about some of the clever ways St. Margaret’s uses technology in their classrooms.

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4 Winter Holiday Fundraisers

Advancement // November 7, 2014

Generosity and community are central tenets of the winter holiday season—both can translate nicely to your school’s fundraising efforts. Capitalize on the sentiment of the season by incorporating some of these ideas into your fundraising lineup.

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Faculty as Donors

Advancement // November 7, 2014

“100% faculty participation.” That phrase has a nice ring to it, especially when you’re trying to encourage donations from parents, alumni, and other philanthropic folks. It shows that your school’s employees feel so strongly in the school’s mission and what it’s accomplishing for its students that they’re willing to give back part of their own paycheck to support the institution. Achieving full participation can be difficult. Sometimes life costs more than people anticipate, making spare funds scarce. Perhaps your teachers already feel like they give enough of their time and resources to their school, and so you encounter some friction when asking again. These obstacles can be overcome with hard work, however. Here are some ideas for encouraging all of your faculty to give to the annual fund or capital campaign this year.

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4 Reasons Why You’re Chasing Re-enrollments

Advancement // November 5, 2014

You’ve begged. You’ve pleaded. You’ve called and emailed and sent letters. You’ve done everything but hire a plane to write messages in the sky. But you can’t get your current parents to re-enroll on time! Knowing many of you struggle with this issue, we asked one of our ISM Consultants to provide some insight into the annoying—and costly—problem of perpetually late re-enrollment.

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Bring a Friend to School Day—Is It Right for Your School?

Advancement // November 5, 2014

Many schools consider hosting a “Bring a Friend/Sibling to School Day” around this time of year. After all, friends and family have already been told about all of the wonderful opportunities your program and faculty provide. It makes sense to let prospective families get a taste of life at your school to encourage those who would otherwise not apply to do so. However, events that sound good on paper can have unforeseen land mines—if not adequately anticipated. This month, let’s take a look at some of the advantages and obstacles that a “bring a friend to school” program might encounter.

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School Spotlight: St. Margaret's Lives its Mission Through edX MOOCs

Private School News // October 31, 2014

The mission of St. Margaret’s Episcopal School in San Juan Capistrano, California, is to “educate the hearts and minds of young people for lives of learning, leadership, and service.” This spring, select St. Margaret’s faculty will have an opportunity to demonstrate all three qualities for their students as they team up with massive open online course (MOOC) provider edX. Their new online courses will provide students around the world of all ages and backgrounds access to truly world-class education.

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Private School Administrator Shadows Students, Is Shocked

Private School News // October 31, 2014

Once upon a time, all teachers were students. As the years go on, teachers are further removed from personal experience, forgetting what it’s like to be on the receiving end of a lecture—the fifth lecture that day. With that in mind, Alexis Wiggins, the newly minted “Learning Coach” at an international private school, decided to shadow two students and relearn what the current learning experience was like so she could mentor teachers and administrators on matters like curriculum and scheduling. The results from Wiggins’s shadowing experience as posted on education leader Grant Wiggins’s personal blog demonstrate how teaching in a vacuum—without feedback or understanding of the students’ experience—can lead to an oppressive, rather than conducive, learning environment.

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National Novel Writing Month in the Classroom

Private School News // October 31, 2014

Instilling a passion for reading at a young age is important, especially when you’re competing with television and video games. But, the love of storytelling lives on! Over 89,000 young writers in 2,000 classrooms wrote their stories and novels during last year’s National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) in November— and your students could join in the fun.

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Ask ISM’s Risk Manager

Business and Operations // October 29, 2014

Q: I’m new to the position of Business Manager, and very new to education. I’ve been doing a good amount of reading to prepare for my role, but some of it escapes me. Can you tell me what an “Employment Practices” claim is in terms of education?

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Schools Reacting to Ebola in the U.S.

Business and Operations // October 29, 2014

Ebola in the U.S. has many on guarded alert. The devastation in Africa has Americans worried that it’s only a matter of time until we start to see rising death tolls here in the states. Numerous schools over the past weeks have suspended classes and closed campuses in response to scares that some of their students or parents came into contact with one of the few confirmed Ebola patients in the U.S. This panic is prompting people to take extra precautionary measures to keep their families safe.

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