JBSA Conference for New Faculty at Eaglebrook

Each year, the Junior Boarding School Association, JBSA, holds a conference open to new faculty at each of the member schools. For the past two years, the conference has been hosted by Eaglebrook. This year’s conference was held on August 23. The goal of the conference was to provide a forum where the collective wisdom of the JBSA schools could be shared with new faculty members, provide opportunities for networking to continue support throughout the transitional first years of working in a boarding school environment, and to set a foundation for ongoing collaborations that strengthen our work with middle school students. 

 

Those completely new to teaching or those working at a junior boarding school for the first time attended sessions throughout the day with various topics. Some examples: Advising 101, The Value of Values, Balancing Technology Tools & Teaching Time in the Classroom, Specialization & the Three-Sport Model, Lesson & Curriculum Planning 101, and The Faraway Journey from Here to China.

 

Dr. Judy Willis, a neurologist based in California, was the keynote speaker. Dr. Willis became a middle-school classroom teacher after practicing neurology. After leaving the middle-school classroom, Dr. Willis began teaching teachers, with an adjunct faculty position in the University of California, Santa Barbara’s graduate school of education. Dr. Willis focuses on brain development in children as it relates to classroom strategies. Her keynote was titled: “The Neuroscience of Adolescent Development”. Watch a clip of Dr. Willis speaking about what the digital world is like for children born after the year 2000.

 

Dr. Paul Cyr-Mutty, Dean of Faculty and Director of the Eaglebrook Center for Middle School Teaching & Learning, was one of the organizers of the conference, had this to say about the conference, “The enthusiasm and interest of all who attended the JBSA New Faculty Conference was palpable, as over 80 new and experienced faculty from nine JBSA schools came together to foster everyone's learning about the different roles that all the participants are asked to excel in their respective schools. We hope that the collegiality and camaraderie present at the conference will provide a starting point for ongoing collaboration between the schools.” See photos from the day here.