Upon walking through the doors to Hathaway Brown, a PreK-12 all girls private school located just off Fairmount Circle, I entered a building teeming with over one hundred years of rich history. While the current location has only been set since 1925, her reputation for academic excellence and top tier education has been around for ages longer. Luckily I was able to sit in on a few of the classes that occur during a typical HB school day. Amidst classes full of attentive girls, seemingly challenging content, and extraordinarily effective teachers I made observations in a single-subject seventy page notebook. While I was able to record the sights and sounds and feel of each classroom, I was unable to accurately capture the pride that each student, teacher, and administrator expressed in knowing they were an integral member of this high achieving community.
After meeting my mentor teacher, Mr. Carl Hoffman, I was quickly handed off to another History teacher, Mrs. Ali Day. Mrs. Day is the instructor for a Freshmen/Sophomore Ancient Cultures class. On this day, the class was at the tail end of a section on the history and relation of different religious traditions, specifically the three monotheistic religions (Christianity, Judaism, and Islam). Students were asked to take out their laptops, and download a PowerPoint from HaikuLearning (similar to our Canvas). Next, the girls were asked to move in to groups of 3-4, all of which were pre-picked. The assignment went as follows: Students were to observe, along with the rest of the group, images depicting art or architecture from the three major monotheistic faith traditions. In the “Notes” section below the slide, students would record which of the three faiths (many times more than one was possible) was represented in the picture. What proved to be most shocking to me was the genuine respect and desire for involvement that each student expressed in the activity. Mrs. Day has quite obviously created an atmosphere in which students feel as though connecting with the content, and the teacher are essential to successful education. Furthermore, Mrs. Day made a point of connecting students learning to prior knowledge about the subject matter, and tied the lesson into a global context. Both of these actions have been attributed to effective teachers in Dr. Shutkin’s class, and many others.
The next class I observed, AP US History with Mr. Kevin Purpura, was a blast from the past (as I am a previous APUSH student). The students were beginning a new unit on Jacksonian America. One thing that particularly stuck me as interesting the very college-like feel the course took. The information was presented in what felt like a lecture, with an overlapping, all-encompassing visual aid. Furthermore, the attentiveness and curiosity of the students was amazing! Mr. Purpura commands a classroom in which his students feel free to ask deep and meaningful question that pertain to the information being discussed. The almost dialogue-like nature of the course made even me, single day observer, feel like part of the conversation. One thing that Mr. Purpura did that made the course seem relevant was connecting the information to everyday life. For example, he talked about the radical political ideology of Andrew Jackson and asked who a modern day example would be. The students very humorously responded with “Donald Trump.”
My third and final class of the day was Art History with Mr. Jamie Morse. The girls in this class were busy reviewing for a test the next day on Baroque artists. I felt ready to take a test on these artists after the conclusion of class! It was amazing to me how Mr. Morse could capture and keep the attention of a class, and make the review for a test so riveting. What I noticed right out of the gate was the enthusiasm that both the teacher and students shared. Next, the genuine appreciation and respect that all students showed towards the subject, and the content of the review. What absolutely stunned me was how much information each student knew, and or retained for the review. Mr. Morse would pull up a picture, and students would comment on the use of light, or the types of people being painted; things that I never could have thought.
The last thing that really stood out to me about my first visit to Hathaway Brown was the arrangement of the classrooms. First, the distinguishing characteristic of an HB room is the large, wooden table in the center of the room, with accompanying wooden chairs. Interestingly enough, each classroom felt as though the subject being taught there belonged in that room. For example, Mrs. Day’s maps on her wall gave the feeling as though the religions being learned about had global implications. The furniture and lighting in Mr. Purpura’s room made it seem as though it was an executive office where important conversations take place. Finally, Mr. Morse’s room felt as though it were a small room in an art museum. I am positive Bill Ayers would approve.
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