All year long, faculty, administrators, and staff are able to take advantage of stimulating professional development activities — sometimes right on campus.
Those opportunities include returning to school to earn a secondary degree. Over 30 members of the faculty and staff are working toward their master’s or doctoral degrees in a variety of fields, ranging from genomatics and sequence analysis to elementary education.
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One of those individuals was Dr. Anthony Panella, Lower School Assistant Head on the Boca Raton campus, who recently graduated with his doctoral degree in education with a specialization in educational leadership.
“I was ready for a challenge,” said Mr. Panella. “I always want to be learning and growing, and I want to be the best at what I do. I had been contemplating pursuing a doctoral degree at the same time as my colleague Laura Schlicter, Pine Crest School Kindergarten Teacher, together we embarked on a scholarly journey.”
In fact, Anthony, Laura and Meghan (Quinn) Sawyer ’08, Fifth Grade Teacher, went back to school together to earn their doctoral degrees in the same field.
“I thrive in an academic environment, where I am challenged to learn the most current teaching methodologies that will enhance the program at Pine Crest School, said Anthony. “I find it reassuring to be a part of a professional community of educators who value education and strive to be on the cutting-edge of instruction. I am grateful for the support that Pine Crest offers to faculty who are pursuing advanced degrees. The School places a strong emphasis on the importance and value of developing their teachers.”
“I worked with Meghan on our dissertation, which focused on developing students as digital citizens using social and emotional practices. We conducted research to look for ways to help parents and teachers, and ultimately students, infuse social and emotional skills into their physical and digital life.”
“We are found that children have difficulty managing their digital lives. We believe that Pine Crest School’s Social and Emotional Education (SEE) initiative has been pioneering a trajectory that should be a model for other Institutions. The goal of our dissertation was to build upon this foundation and to ultimately infuse the SEE skills into students' digital lives so they can have successful experiences online. We look forward to be implementing our research and findings be with the Pine Crest community.”