Faculty to Present at ADVIS Innovation Summit on November 1

On November 1, ADVIS will be hosting an Innovation Summit for local educators, and Baldwin has a number of faculty presenting.

 

Director of the Middle School Dr. Shauna Carter and Middle School Counselor Liz Koster will present “Self-Care at School: For Faculty, Students and Staff.” Having a school culture that prioritizes mental health is essential, and self-care strategies should be promoted and encouraged. As responsibilities and obligations increase at school for faculty, staff and students, their mental well-being is often impacted, compromised and ignored. Faculty and staff worry when more and more students demonstrate mental health struggles and do not know what they can do during the school day to help their students. Students look to the faculty and staff for model behavior and are noticing more faculty burnout due to work-related stressors. Since we often cannot control schedules and responsibilities outside of the school day, this workshop will share self-care strategies for faculty, staff and students to use during the school day.

 

The workshop will also discuss Baldwin's Middle School Bear Den, a student wellness center that focuses on students' self-regulating strategies and activities for better mental health. The Middle School division established the Bear Den after they saw a trend of increasing stress and anxiety among their student population. Having the Bear Den allows students to independently go to the wellness center and choose a strategy or activity to help them regulate their feelings. It is also located next door to the Middle School counselor's office if further assistance is needed. Student use is tracked by the counselor in order to identify frequent users, times and activities. This data further helps administration and the counselor to follow up with students and their families for further intervention and support. 

 

Coordinator of Civic Engagement Ida Malloy will present “Service and Engagement: Helping Students to Imagine Service Beyond Food Drives and Bake Sales.” Most service coordinators are challenged each year with creating service projects for their students that will inspire engagement. In most cases it is an uphill battle, and most students lack the time or commitment to find ways to connect in a meaningful manner. Place-based community engagement might be the way forward. Many colleges and universities are moving in this direction, and students are finding ways to connect with passion projects that tackle root causes and help to build sustainable partnerships. Research has shown that those who participate in projects over a longer period of time, and in areas where their passions are rooted, tend to gain a greater return. At the Middle and High School levels, these types of projects are possible if students are encouraged to pursue a different mindset, and if administrations are willing to make stronger commitments to service and civic engagement. This concept can even start in Lower School.  

 

Computer Science and Engineering faculty Addison Lilholt and Dr. Thomas Heverin will present “Experiential Learning in Ethical Hacking: Hacking Student Engagement.”  This informative and interactive workshop will focus on how a new course at Baldwin is using real-world ethical hacking techniques. Attendees will learn how to use real-world cybersecurity tools and techniques in the classroom to support experiential learning. They will experience example activities that students complete in an experiential-learning focused cybersecurity class, and they will learn earn about promoting class discussions and individual student contributions in an experiential-learning based class.