Contents
Letter from Head of School
Library -
New Directions
Letter from Admission Office
New Faculty and Staff Profiles
Summer Facilities Improvements
SFDS and Community Neighborhood Associations
Upcoming Events
SFDS Calendar
September Lunch Menu
Week Ahead,
Sept 10-16
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Library - New Directions
Program Changes
Jason Stone’s responsibilities as Director of Instructional Technology will be significantly revised. His major responsibility will be helping teachers and students use computer and information technology as a teaching and learning tool. Working with the library staff, Jason will assist students in exploring their world, learning how to use technology, broadly defined, to support personal inquiry and classroom research projects. Jason is very excited, as I am, about this opportunity for him to use his skills and relationships with faculty and students to pursue our common aspirations for students.
Jason will have no responsibility for maintaining the technology infrastructure. We have discussed with Shahab Rejali what the School will need in terms of additional staff in order to maintain the School’s technology system, and are prepared to hire the appropriate person(s).
Many schools recognize that the Internet and information technology present an intriguing new opportunity to enhance learning. If not done thoughtfully, however, this new technology can actually inhibit rigorous thinking and inquiry. In his revised role, Jason will be able to use his knowledge and instincts with students to help guide the development of these resources in an optimum direction. He will be located in the library and use that as his base of contact with faculty and students. Along with the library staff and faculty, we will develop a role for the library in inquiry-based learning with an emphasis on access to information through technology.
The initial discussion about a vision for the SFDS library was held during the First Work Week for faculty. We discussed how to make the library a welcoming and non-stop center for student inquiry and research. The faculty also advocated emphatically that the library environment and program should inspire a love of reading both fiction and non-fiction. All of us endorsed enthusiastically the benefits of collaboration among librarians and classroom teachers. When teachers and librarians become mutually informed about the topics of classroom research, the interests of students, and the resources – both text and on-line - available for different age groups then curriculum design, student engagement, and academic accomplishment can be significantly enhanced. I am confident that the positive energy generated by these discussions will yield positive results.
Personnel Changes
I am pleased to welcome a new librarian, Melissa Mendiola. Melissa has a BA in Liberal Studies from Mount St. Mary's College and an MA Multicultural Literature for Children and Adolescents from the University of San Francisco. She has worked as a librarian at Claire Lilienthal Elementary School and substitute teacher at San Francisco Friends School.
I regret to announce that Tracy Heffernan, the School’s head librarian, has submitted her resignation from employment at the Day School effective July 31, 2007, to pursue other career opportunities. She has served the School well during her time at SFDS. She will be missed and we wish her every success.
Prior to beginning the process of hiring a person for the position of head librarian, I will engage in a series of discussions with faculty and administrators to determine the needs of the School. We will formulate a set of library program goals, create a description of qualifications that match the needs of the school program, and then begin the hiring process next spring for the 2008-2009 school year.
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