Cathedral School for Boys’ families often describe the School as a magical place. What makes it so magical? At a fundamental level, boys feel understood by the teachers. The connection the boys feel to their teachers and the other boys in the class shapes how they approach learning. Cathedral boys see school as a joyful experience. They are confident, open, and are ready to take creative risks. Since Cathedral was established, we have thrived as a small school where each boy is known, loved, and challenged. In our never-ending quest to provide the best education for boys, a few years ago we asked ourselves how Cathedral’s emphasis on relational teaching could and should influence the future of the Lower School experience.
Second grade gives Ms. O'Brien and Ms. Rieger the thumbs up.
At Cathedral School for Boys, we are in the third year of our official Co-Lead Teaching program in the kindergarten, first, second, and third-grade classrooms. The students in those classrooms have two lead classroom teachers who, together, plan curriculum, instruct, assess students, and are able to subdivide the class into smaller groups. As a consequence, the boys are the recipients of more frequent and more meaningful interactions with their teachers who better understand their individual learning and development. With our already small class size of 24 students, having two lead teachers not only provides opportunities to reduce the student-to-teacher ratio to 12:1, it also capitalizes on the teachers’ experience and ability to collaborate and create. While many institutions are replacing the human relationship with screens and data collection, Cathedral is providing students with what we know they need most: a closer and deeper relationship between the student and teacher. As Cathedral has long understood, this is how boys learn best. This is true educational innovation. The introduction of the Co-Lead Teaching program reflects Cathedral’s commitment to providing the best education possible for our Lower School students. After a careful exami- nation of our teaching practices, extensive research, and a willingness to think beyond familiar models of teaching, Cathedral determined that Co-Lead Teaching is the answer for today’s boys. The Co-Lead model that Cathedral has adopted allows two teachers to inspire and lift one another to do their best work through collaboration. Teachers teach better and, consequently, students learn more deeply. The development of Cathedral’s Co-Lead Teaching model has also been driven by two of Cathedral’s strategic goals outlined in our 2017–2022 Strategic Plan, organized by the three P’s— “Program, People, and Place.” As part of our Program goals, Co-Lead Teaching will allow us to “capitalize on the educational advantage of Cathedral’s size by reducing class size… to help teachers better know each boy and help him become his very best self”; and “develop an excellent curriculum.” As part of our
People goals, it will also allow us to “attract and retain inspiring teachers” and “strengthen our professional growth program.” Cathedral’s first Co-Lead Teaching partnership began as a consequence of circumstance in 2013. In the third-grade classroom, two master teachers, Mr. Rob Kerman and Ms. Brenda Hayden, nearing the end of their careers, joined forces. Mr. Kerman and Ms. Hayden taught the third-grade class together for two years, with Ms. Hayden teaching Math and Science and Mr. Kerman teaching Reading and Writing. When Ms. Hayden retired in 2015, former Kindergarten Assistant Teacher, Mr. Dana Marini, stepped in as a Co-Lead and taught Math and Science. Two years later, in 2017, Director of Lower School, Ms. Kate Juergens, expanded the program. Following Mr. Kerman’s retirement, Ms. Anjali Henderson joined Mr. Marini in the third-grade classroom and Ms. Kelli Rieger joined Ms. Margaret O’Brien in second grade. Now, in the fall of 2019, the School has debuted four consecutive classes in the Lower School: In Kindergarten, Ms. Liz Johnson and Ms. Emy Gelb; in first grade, Ms. Tracy Murray and Ms. Jen Drake; in second grade Ms. O’Brien and Ms. Rieger; in third grade (following Mr. Marini’s move back to Chicago), Ms. Anjali Henderson has been joined by Mr. Paul Bertrand, who we are thrilled to announce has returned to the classroom after 14 years as Director of the Lower School and Director of Curriculum. In order to best serve students, Ms. Juergens wanted to see both teachers work together on all facets of planning, reflecting, and assessing students. Through collaboration, teachers could produce a stronger curriculum, and by teaching all students all subjects, obtain a fuller understanding of each boy. Teachers themselves are professionally renewed by this model as the different experiences each teacher brings allows for a diversity of instructional approach and perspective. Conversations would extend from what each teacher is doing, to why she is doing something. Too often in schools, teachers
LEADING THE WAY HOW CO-LEAD TEACHING IS CHANGING CATHEDRAL’S CLASSROOMS ONE BOY AT A TIME BY TARA BOLAND, Director of Admission
16 | CATHEDRAL SCHOOL FOR BOYS
FALL 2019 • RED & GOLD | 17
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