Summer Professional Development - Never Stop Learning!

Mr. Will Reese with a puppet telling the story of *Peter and the Wolf* from a character’s perspective.

Ms. Studdard and Dr. Ousley in Salt Lake City serving as AP Exam readers

Ms. Ramsey at the Nuts and Bolts Symposium in Mobile, held June 9-10.

Elementary music teacher, Mr. Will Reese, led the Alabama Institute for Education in the Arts Music Institute in June. This summer institute is held on the STJ campus each year.
High School English teacher Mrs. Brittnee Ward attended the inaugural “Teaching The Great Gatsby” conference at Huntingdon College on July 15th and 16th. Attendees from all over the U.S. learned about Fitzgerald’s novel and the history of the 1920s, including the people in Scott and Zelda’s lives.
High School AP teachers Dr. Amanda Ousley and Ms. Michelle Studdard served as AP Chemistry and AP Government readers in Salt Lake City, Utah. Grading AP exams allowed these faculty members to see the other side of the AP Exams process and were able to offer their expertise in their subject fields.
Kindergarten and first grade teachers, along with targeted instruction teachers, completed 30 hours of Orton-Gillingham training over the summer. Orton-Gillingham is an explicit multi-sensory approach to phonics and reading.
Mrs. Venna Everett, middle school history teacher, presented “Are There Any Humanities Growing Among the STEMs?” at the Making Schools Work Conference in Orlando, FL.
Shelly Taliaferro, new Anatomy and Physiology and AP Biology teacher, attended a four-day AP Summer Institute for Biology, held at Auburn University. At this training, participants learned about the College Board's Big Ideas, Enduring Understandings, and Learning Objectives for AP Biology, as well as instructional resources available to teachers. Participants discussed course content, format of and preparation strategies for the AP exam, and they engaged in many hands-on and lab activities.
Middle School English teacher, Ms. Annie Ramsey, attended the Alabama for the Nuts and Bolts–Never Boring Conference in Mobile. She attended a variety of panels on furthering engagement in a classroom and how best to approach middle school teaching.
Our own Head of School, Dr. Larry McLemore, presented “What Matters Most? Balancing Roles and Responsibilities in Leading Our Schools” at UMS-Wright Preparatory School’s Fifth Summer Leadership Conference in June.
#wearesaintjamesschool

Mrs. Brittnee Ward, HS English teacher, at the Fitzgerald museum during the inaugural F. Scott Fitzgerald conference in Montgomery.

“We learned how the AP exams are graded and how you can take that information back to your students. It also allows you time to talk to other AP teachers about what they are doing in their classes. It’s the best AP Chemistry professional development out there, I feel. ”

— Dr. Amanda Ousley, on the AP Reader experience in Salt Lake City, UT