Sanford Teachers and Administrators Participate in PAIS Conference

Head of School Mark Anderson sits on the board of PAIS, and Sanford faculty played an integral part of the event, sharing their professional expertise as presenters and facilitators.

Over 1500 people attended the sold-out conference, which was the first gathering of its size for independent school educators from Delaware and Pennsylvania. Six Sanford faculty and staff members gave presentations on a variety of topics. English and Computer Science teacher John Fritz delivered a talk on “Developing a ‘Stream Team’ in your School,” based on his experiences developing a live video streaming program as part of the Sanford News Network multimedia journalism project. Meanwhile, Lower School Reading Instructor Barbara Cantor led a collaborative discussion for early childhood educators about how to “Teach More Kids that Reading is Fun.” Teachers shared “questions, ideas, and resources” for motivating students to find the “connection and joy” provided by written texts. During the lunchtime affinity sessions, Director of Communications & Marketing Cheryl Fleming served as a facilitator for the marketing and communications session, sharing some of Sanford’s best practices in developing internal and external communication and marketing programs.

Later in the day, Upper School Spanish teacher Elizabeth Capone, who earlier this year won a prestigious fellowship for early career teachers from Columbia’s Teachers College, spoke about alternatives to chapter tests in language instruction. Finally, during the afternoon sessions, Health teacher Staci Krape and Upper School librarian Sandy Sutty teamed up to discuss how educators in all venues can adjust their curricula to create engaging student activities, particularly using digital resources.