The Campaign for Ursuline supports programs and operations that impact every aspect of an Ursuline education.

Some highlights from the past month include:

Innovative teaching and professional development programs help teachers explore different assessment approaches and strategies for empowering students to succeed.

Becoming a Dallas Morning News Top 100 Places to Work recipient highlighted Ursuline’s faculty and staff and their desire to go above and beyond to master their craft. Read more in The Dallas Morning News article, "First-time Top 100 winner Ursuline Academy aces test of adaptability."

One special award received was for Valuable Training in Fierce Conversations, which teaches the art and importance of difficult dialogue.

In peer-led research groups, faculty members also share teaching strategies for authentic engagement.

Employees most recently led Educator Showcases. Discussions covered topics such as “Using Games to Foster Active Learning” by Theology teachers Kristina Caldwell and Kathy Sherman and “Everyday Collaboration Using OneNote and Teams” by Simon Aisthorpe.

“We explored the way(s) gaming can be used to introduce, reinforce, and assess student learning. Ultimately, you don’t need to be a gamer to understand the technology; anyone can 'play',” Kristina and Kathy said.

Mathematics teacher Simon covered OneNote and Teams and how they can be used to increase collaboration in “everyday workflow” practices.

“My presentation explored how Microsoft tools can be used for teacher to teacher collaboration, student to teacher collaboration, and student to student collaboration, addressing strategies for using OneNote/Teams, sharing files, using collaboration space, distributing content, assignments, and feedback, and using Forms,” he said.

Other topics:

• Dean of Students Elizabeth Smith, “My Journey with the MIEE Application”
• World Language teacher Amanda York, “Integrating Microsoft tools to facilitate project completion and daily classroom activities” 
• English teacher Kyle Lee, “Active Learning Practices”
• World Language teacher Roxana Casco, “Developing Your MIEE Application” 
• English teacher Megan Griffin, “Microsoft Lens in the Classroom”
• Computer Science teacher Eve Juarez, “Making Chats more Exciting and Creative”
• Math teacher Staci Kimbrough: “Using Microsoft Teams Insights and the Reflect App”
• Math teacher Andrea Pujol: “Using the Microsoft Word Format Painter”

Special programs support student involvement and learning.

An exciting program that 40 students had the opportunity to participate in was a Theater Workshop hosted by Lisa Finegold, Co-Dance Captain and Female Swing in the touring production of Hamilton.

Students learned the Hamilton dance combo, “The Room Where It Happens,” a technical number meant to challenge. Afterwards, Lisa shared her personal theater experiences and answered questions.

“I learned about some of the audition processes Ms. Finegold has gone through during her career,” said Amelia Mappus ‘24. “In the future I plan to pursue a career in acting, singing, and dancing so learning about the audition process and how it works for different shows was a great opportunity.” Read more about the experience.

Six students also recently attended the annual NAIS Student Diversity Leadership Conference (SDLC) in conjunction with the NAIS People of Color Conference (POCC). The theme was "Believing and Belonging in our schools: reckoning with injustice, reconciling with love." Several Ursuline employees attended a separate conference with the theme, "Reckoning with Impacts, Rolling with Just Intent." Both conferences were held virtually.

Learning environments play a big role in creating an engaging, innovative, and welcoming educational space.

English teacher Megan Griffin and History teacher Jeff Meyer were both highlighted in a People Newspaper article, “"Ursuline Debuts New Building" (page 32). They discussed how Capital Improvements supported by The Campaign for Ursuline have changed the way students learn.

“One of the great things about [East Campus] is the availability of extra space just beyond the classroom,” said Jeff in the article.

Megan agreed and additionally discussed light and how it also affects learning.

“When you have light, it just…changes your mood. It changes your spirit [and] it changes your energy,” she said.

 

 

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Professional development programs, special student activities to promote learning, and innovative learning environments would not be possible without your generous support for The Campaign for Ursuline: Act, Move, Believe.

To date, The Campaign for Ursuline has raised 86.8% of its $85,000,000 goal. 

Learn more.

As of December 7, 2021.