Who We Are and How We Present

The Galloway School – Upper Learning Perspective
By Mr. MM, Dr. GK, and Mr. HK

Defining who we are as a school and how we communicate that self-image to insider (Upper Learning teachers; the Board of Trustees; our students and their parents; Middle Learning students and their parents; Early Learning parents) and outsider (other schools; the broader community; applicants and their parents; colleges) audiences:

We are an institution that supports, promotes, celebrates, and reveres the primacy and worth of the individual, and this leads to child-centered approaches to teaching and learning.

Philosophy

· we hew to the philosophy of The Galloway School
· we adopt humanistic as opposed hierarchic philosophies; democratic as opposed to authoritarian approaches
· we teach the child as opposed to the subject or the class
· we understand and accept that it is imperative to take students from where they are (with respect to their diversity) to where they should be – to help them become who they are
· we put the child at the center
· we continuously strive to make Galloway a good and safe place for each student, not just some of them
· we stress cooperation over competition while acknowledging the uses of competition

Nature of the Child

· we accept and glory in the diversity of learners (development, background, neurology, differentiated abilities)
· we accept that the student may come to us either as a proven learner or as an inchoate learner

Relationship

· we are aware of how do we talk about children and youths; we avoid the zoo or laboratory specimen model; the student is always a human being, first and foremost, and as such, is always accorded due respect
· we do not gossip about the student, use sarcasm, or demean him or her in any way
· our conversations about the student are always solution oriented
· we explicitly acknowledge the teacher-student relationship – teaching and learning are social activities, and, as such, are personalized



Reflection & Best Practice

· we routinely reflect on what we do; indeed, reflection is organically enmeshed in all that we practice
· we, as continuous, life-long learners, study, reflect upon, and apply best teaching practice
· we strive to understand and apply the concept of mastery learning
· we design our teaching around essential questions that, in turn, drive both learning activities and demonstrations of mastery
· we reflect on cultural and technical ramifications of the mastery learning model
· we reflect on the difference between freedom in the classroom versus license; professionalism – this goes beyond paperwork professionalism
· we accept that one of the roles of the colleague is professional oversight; there are joys and burdens of collegiality (or freedoms and responsibilities)
· we seek out critical friends who accept responsibility for helping maintain a professional dyad; who are neither a rubber stamp nor solely part of a support group
· we act as a critical friend to colleagues
· we focus on the process of learning and on growth rather than on grades

Curriculum

· we teach reading in all subjects – critical literary and textual analysis; reading for pleasure and reading for information
· we teach writing not only in English, but in all disciplines
· we teach problem solving, a divergent or convergent process rather than a linear quest for putative correct answers
· we teach effective communication in a variety of languages including English, Spanish, French, and Latin
· we acknowledge that valuing and moral development are a part of all curricula
· we teach students how to think critically rather than what to think

We believe that if we accept and act on these things, that if we focus on our vision, then the externals – what we expect of all graduates of The Galloway School, college acceptances, public relations, admissions and retention, and communications with all constituencies of the school – will fall into place.