As summer drew to a close and the start of the school year approached, Gaynor faculty came together virtually to prepare.
All Gaynor faculty participated in a two-week professional development program, known as Summer Institute.
The first day of the program was dedicated to new faculty orientation. All faculty then logged onto Zoom on Tuesday, August 25, for a welcome back reunion hosted by Head of School Dr. Scott Gaynor.
After the meeting, faculty branched out by cluster for the remainder of the program, attending various training sessions.
These included lessons on best safety practices in the classroom, pod curriculum reviews, and Orton-Gillingham training.
Faculty were also given mo
re extensive training on different resources for distance learning, so that they could be prepared for all potential learning models.
All clusters attended a RULER workshop on social-emotional learning that was led by the Psychology Department and Occupational Therapy Co-Chair Ariela Weisenberg.
Faculty also participated in a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion workshop that presented a new racial literacy curriculum Gaynor will be incorporating this fall. This curriculum was created by Assistant Teacher Jenine Gaynor, Science Specialist Jacqueline Smith, Librarian Dionne De Lancy, and Head Teacher Audrey Schaefer.
After attending all of the meetings and workshops, Gaynor teachers were ready to welcome back their students and have a great start to the school year.