As we approach the end of year three in CSG’s 5-year Strategic Plan, Inspiring Girls. Cultivating Leaders. we are excited to announce our progress in CREATING A ROBUST, EMPOWERED TEACHING COMMUNITY OF EXCELLENCE.
The Deepen Committee was tasked with implementing a hiring process that is consistent across the school and demonstrates our commitment to CSG’s core values, including diversity and inclusion. As part of those efforts, in March, CSG was excited to host the inaugural Central Ohio Diversity Recruitment Fair. Independent School administrators from Cincinnati, Cleveland, Dayton, and Columbus joined CSG colleagues to share the benefits of teaching at an independent school. Candidates from diverse backgrounds attended the job fair and panel discussion on the unique attributes of independent schools where participants highlighted the following: a strong sense of community, mission-driven curriculum, teacher autonomy, and student-focused instruction.
The end of year two in CSG’s 5-year Strategic Plan, Inspiring Girls. Cultivating Leaders.
comes with the set of characteristics that comprise the Core Competencies of a
CSG student.
This winter, the Deepen Committee, charged with expanding upon CSG’s hallmark
academic excellence explored how CSG will “define and develop a comprehensive global studies program to ensure each student’s readiness for a globally connected world.” With that and other directives in mind, the committee delivered the final draft of the Core Competencies to fellow faculty and staff. After months of working in small groups to review and compile data collected from the full faculty, benchmarking with competitive schools, and reviewing previous work done in this area, the committee has identified six core competencies of CSG students.
The goal is that consistent consideration of these Core Competencies will enhance CSG’s strong academic program and encourage the continued creation of a robust, empowered teaching community of excellence.
The Core Competencies of each CSG Student
Communicate Effectively
Students express ideas confidently and clearly in oral, visual, and written forms.
Think Analytically
Students gather and use evidence to analyze, draw conclusions, and support ideas.
Seek Balance & Wellness
Students engage in healthy social, emotional, and physical behaviors.
Lead Confidently
Students exhibit integrity, honesty, fairness, and respect with the well-being of themselves and the larger community in mind.
Think Globally
Students employ informed and diverse perspectives to shape their interactions with ideas, individuals, and situations.
Solve Problems Creatively
Students draw from many disciplines to define problems and design innovative responses and solutions.
This fall marks the second year of the implementation of CSG’s 5-year strategic plan “Inspiring Girls, Cultivating Leaders.” With a year of planning behind us, faculty, staff, and administrative team members are busy solidifying CSG’s position as the premier school for educating central Ohio’s brightest girls. Weekly meetings are spurring new ideas and pushing faculty and staff to think big and bold when it comes to CSG’s curriculum and other programs that will move the school forward.
One idea went from thought to being just in time for the new school year. Considering the needs of the 21st-century learner, CSG’s Lower School curriculum shifted from a singularly focused technology class replaced with The Innovation Lab. The Innovation Lab provides Lower School students with a multi-dimensional project-based learning approach that infuses computer science, engineering, design thinking, technology, and the maker movement. This space will allow students to exercise creativity, curiosity, communication skills, initiation, and collaboration through their authentic experiences.
The curriculum is guided by, but not limited to the International Standards of Technology Education and Common Sense Media’s Digital Literacy curriculum. In true innovative fashion, under the direction of science teachers Karen Scranton and Jessica Fries-Gaither, things are always evolving in The Innovation Lab. We encourage you to check out the hands-on learning or learn more about the projects the next time you are on campus.
Think. Design. Create. Iterate.
Form V students are currently working to identify a solution to a real-life problem for 4-year-old Sam. Sam is in preschool, loves riding swings and trikes, playing in the pool, and laughing with his little sister, but he also deals with developmental delays, because the white matter in his brain did not develop fully before he was born. The condition impacts Sam’s ability to walk and communicate as his brain can’t always tell the rest of his body what to do. Applications using Alternative and Augmentative Communication (AAC) technology are available to help people speak when they can’t use words, but using touch devices can be difficult for Sam as he doesn’t have the fine motor control to hold up his hand and aim his fingers to one area of the screen devices. Instead, Sam often rests his whole hand on the screen which confuses the iPad and makes the app ineffective.
For help, Sam’s mom turned to Facebook, and Form V found its Innovation Lab challenge. Since the beginning of the school year, the girls have used Google Hangout to chat with Sam and his mother, and are currently researching topics such as developmental disabilities, AAC, and People First language. Throughout the remainder of the year, the class will think, design, create and iterate solutions for Sam, possibly including key guard designs for the iPad. We look forward to sharing more about this ongoing project and how it goes from lab to life in the coming months.
Co-chairs: Betsy Gugle & Kimberly Ditty Faculty/Staff Liaison: Patricia Miranda
The LEAD committee met with the full faculty/staff to share a new framework on how to think of leadership— relational vs. authoritative and also shared what other schools are currently doing in regards to leadership. Afterwards, the faculty and staff gathered in small groups to begin crafting our school definition of leadership. The committee’s next step is to pull a small group of faculty from each division to analyze the definitions and begin refining the definition of leadership at CSG using the feedback.
Deepen>
Co-chairs: Nola-rae Cronan Jessica Fries-Gaither Faculty/Staff Liaison: Serena Lett
On January 4th, during the Faculty Professional Development day, the Deepen committee brainstormed and processed the differences between skills and core competencies. Following the brainstorming session, a small group of faculty from all divisions was convened to take the work from the full faculty and distill it to 5-7 core competencies. A sub-committee is also beginning to think about the process of defining what excellence in teaching means at CSG.
Flourish>
Co-chairs: Kevin Sweeney & Dana Booth Faculty/Staff Liaison: Jenni Biehn
The Flourish committee will led a Faculty Professional Development day on March 27th to discuss and gather data from faculty to determine "profile" or qualities of a successful CSG student. In may, Dana Booth, Chief Development Officer, and Julie Eikenberry, Chief Financial Officer, delivered a presentation to faculty/staff about how the school is funded.
The Thrive committee is in full data-gathering mode as they identify security implementation projects that we can move forward and explore school spaces that can easily be rented out to provide additional revenue to the school. They have begun collecting data on CSG's athletic, artistic, extracurricular, and co-curricular programs to complete a comprehensive audit of our programs in order to create a scope and sequence of student activities outside the traditional classroom.
