Pro D on Campus

Last Friday, during our mid- term break, 115 teachers converged on our campus from ISA schools across the Island and the Lower Mainland. Brentwood hosted a series of workshops facilitated by teachers for their colleagues on a variety of topics.

Brentwood teachers who presented included Mrs. Andrea Felix who gave a talk on “Leadership through Service” highlighting the work done by the Student Peer Counseling group and other volunteer initiatives. Andrea’s talk highlighted the challenges and rewards of a school role that involves leading initiatives where students are willing to reach out to each other and the wider community.
Mr. Ron Neufeld, science teacher and Houseparent of Privett, held a session that shared his experience of teaching critical thinking through his popular Science and Ethics course where biomedical issues become a starting point to ponder life’s bigger questions.

Creative Technology teacher, Mr. David Hladik, had an informative session on how to construct and assess video based school projects. Mr. Rob Maclean, veteran Art History and social studies teacher conducted a “walk about” around campus where he guided teachers through the process of taking students on field trips to art galleries and museums.

Mr. Paul Collis, Head of English, invited fellow AP Language and Composition teachers to his unique classroom, “the Coliseum”, where he enthused about  activities t he had found to be successful exercises for the honors Grade 11 students. These and other sessions on topics, such as the use of technology applications like Google Apps and other “cloud based” programs, were very well received and teachers enjoyed the collaborative nature of the small group settings in which they could share their experiences and teaching practices.
Given the success of this event and the corresponding conference on the mainland at Mulgrave School, we are likely to see the ISA Professional Development day as a fixture in our calendar from now on.

Mr. Dave McCarthy, Director of Academics