Each morning begins with a facilitated cohort check-in over breakfast. Rather than a passive warm-up, this is an intentional relational practice where participants are seated in small cohort groups and invited into a brief, structured conversation. Wednesday’s prompt invites participants to share one hope and one worry for the day ahead. These morning check-ins serve a dual purpose: they build the habit of honest peer dialogue and give facilitators real-time insight into participant experience that can shape the day’s facilitation.
Independent school students bring a full range of developmental needs, learning profiles, and life experiences into the classroom. This session grounds new teachers in child and adolescent development, with attention to what “teaching the whole child” actually requires. Participants explore relationship-centered pedagogical approaches and strategies for building the classroom conditions in which all students feel seen and supported. The session draws on both research and practitioner experience to connect developmental science to the realities of the independent school classroom.
Strong teaching starts with intentional design. This session introduces new teachers to the planning frameworks that guide experienced independent school educators, including backward design, unit mapping, and scope and sequence thinking. Participants work through practical templates they can bring back to their classrooms and begin applying immediately. Attention is given to curriculum planning in the context of the full school year, including how to pace instruction, build in flexibility, and maintain alignment with school-wide learning goals. Time is provided for individual planning with facilitator support.
Assessment is one of the areas new teachers find most challenging and most consequential. This session moves beyond grades and rubrics to explore what it means to assess authentically: gathering meaningful evidence of student understanding, providing feedback that opens doors rather than closes them, and designing assessments that actually align with what was taught. Participants examine the difference between formative and summative assessment, practice giving growth-oriented feedback on student work samples, and discuss how to manage assessment workload sustainably. The session is grounded in the understanding that how teachers assess shapes how students learn and how teachers feel about their work.
The day closes with a two-part practice in reflection and recognition. First, participants take time for individual written reflection: what landed today, what shifted, what they want to carry forward. Then the group moves into a facilitated peer affirmation round, and each person hears from two or three colleagues who share something specific they noticed or appreciated. SAIS’s research found that recognition and feeling seen are among the strongest retention drivers for early career educators. Modeling this practice here gives new teachers both an experience of being affirmed and a tool for building affirmation into their own classrooms and teams.
