2015 INDEPENDENT SCHOOLS GUIDE SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT 2 THEDAILYRECORD.COM INDEPENDENT SCHOOLS GUIDE 2015 January 2015 Design thinking catches STEM makes a mark Same-sex schools on in Md. schools on schools’ curricula offer benefits 3 5 6 Cyber days replace snow days in more schools Page 4 Listing of independent schools Page 7 ABOUT OUR SCHOOLS GUIDE 11 East Saratoga Street Baltimore, Maryland 21202 The following pages list independent primary and secondary schools Main Number: 443.524.8100 in the state of Maryland, including both secular and religious schools Main Fax: 410-752-7789 that are not part of the state’s public school systems. The list is based on information provided by the website of the Maryland State Depart- ment of Education and by the schools themselves. In many cases, we talked to school representatives; in some cases, we relied on school Suzanne E. Fischer-Huettner, Publisher websites. Thomas Baden Jr., Editor Our list does not include independent schools that offer only nurs- ery school or kindergarten classes. However, those schools are listed Erin Cunningham, Special Products Editor by county on the MSDE’s website, www.marylandpublicschools.org; phone 410-767-0100. Maria Kelly, Comptroller Tuition figures are the latest available. Tracy Bumba, Audience Development Director Many schools had not set fees for 2015-16 when we gathered this in- Rickie Roberts, Advertising Director formation, and schools often charge extra fees that are not considered Darice Dixon, Account Manager part of tuition. We recommend that readers contact schools directly to check on tuition and to ask about additional fees, enrollment poli- Natasha Foster, Account Manager cies and waiting lists. Tarsha Miller, Account Manager Readers also should be aware that just because the state licenses a school to teach certain grades, that does not mean all of those grades Maximilian Franz, Senior Photographer are offered. It is important to us (and to our readers) to keep the information in To order additional copies of the semi-annual guide as accurate as possible. this publication, please contact Please bring any discrepancies to our attention by emailing Clare Sheehan at 443.524.8101 or [email protected]. [email protected] January 2015 INDEPENDENT SCHOOLS GUIDE 2015 THEDAILYRECORD.COM 3 MAXIMILIAN FRANZ Students at St. James Academy in Monkton learn in a state-of-the-art makerspace. Design thinking catches on in Md. schools director of technology, said one of the Method focuses advantages of makerspaces is that they have a low barrier of entry. Students on problem-solving, might be intimidated by the idea of collaboration programming but think it’s the only way to get into computer science. The By Jeanette Der Bedrosian gadgets in the school’s makerspace Special to The Daily Record act as a gateway to STEM, showing students what’s possible. Armed with sugar cubes and icing, “I feel like it gives those skills a more groups of second-graders recently concrete or real-world application,” tackled a complex engineering problem agreed Emily Letras, Bryn Mawr’s upper — how to create a mini igloo that was school computer science department structurally sound. chair and technology integrator. “They The 15 St. James Academy can actually see the result of what students were getting a lesson in they’re building.” design thinking — a term given to Some of Letras’ students are working creatively approaching and solving on projects that involve design thinking multidimensional problems. More and to tackle the typical problems a high more schools across the country are schooler might face — creating a caddy dedicating staff, classes and space to MAXIMILIAN FRANZ to store earring backs that too often high-tech exploration that might one St. James Academy students get a lesson in design thinking, an instructional approach that go missing or creating a cover that day help solve the world’s biggest helps them take creative approaches to problem-solving. slips over a laptop’s webcam to ensure challenges. privacy. The students will brainstorm, In this case, St. James Academy students progress through the grades, telling you exactly what to do. You have design, create, brand and package their students were in the Monkton they work with LEGO robotics, LED to learn to figure it out.” products. independent school’s state-of-the-art light sets, electronic resistors and 3-D Increasingly, as school administrators “They’re even thinking about selling makerspace. Working on tables covered printers. seek to graduate tech-savvy students it to their classmates, so it makes it a in white board paint and surrounded by Joe Edel, the school’s tech who will go on to excel in science, much less abstract thing,” she says, gadgets and tools you wouldn’t find in coordinator, describes the makerspace technology, engineering and math, “whereas with programming, you’re your ordinary shop class, students feel as an activity in and of itself. they are installing makerspaces (also not always doing things that feel inspired to brainstorm, collaborate and “When you walk into the space, there known as hackerspaces, hackspaces, so concrete. It helps ground it, and “fail forward,” educators say. are plenty of things all around. … We and fablabs) to give students a creative students can see the payoff really “It’s teaching students to fail well, to can draw on the tables. Things move, space to think and work. quickly.” know that they don’t have to give up. fly, glide. And we’ve got this big area for At Bryn Mawr School, a K-12 college But even at the level of second- They can go back and try again,” said all of our robots and things we build to preparatory school in Baltimore, graders with sugar cubes, design Alison Glace, a second grade teacher move around.” administrators want to share success thinking has value in terms of at the Episcopal parish day school. He tries to teach students that design stories from their design thinking exposing students to problem-solving, “I knew they would run into a lot of thinking isn’t about following a set of projects with the community. At a collaboration and possible STEM problems, so it was about them trying instructions, but rather trying, failing March event, they will discuss what it career paths. to figure out why their roof was falling and adjusting your own ideas of what takes to set up a makerspace and let “Since we’re introducing it at a very down. There’s a reverse engineering might work as a solution to a problem. attendees experiment with tools like young age now, I’m excited to see aspect to it.” “When you buy things off the shelf Arduino (a microcontroller board), what these elementary school students For Glace’s students, design thinking of the store, they don’t just magically MaKey MaKey (which lets the user turn are going to do as they progress up,” takes the form of “design time,” low-key appear there,” he said he tells the kids. anything — even a banana — into a Curtis said. “It’s just very exciting and exposure to the frame of mind required “There is so much that goes on before controller) and a 3-D printer. inspiring to think what could come out to identify and solve challenges. As that, where there aren’t directions Justin Curtis, the all-girls school’s of this as they grow.” 4 THEDAILYRECORD.COM INDEPENDENT SCHOOLS GUIDE 2015 January 2015 Cyber days replace snow days in more schools days, educators are looking for a E-learning gets mixed reviews from students balance between keeping learning By Meg Tully of time. Any students who lose power going during snow and providing in- Special to The Daily Record may have their parents write a note to person instruction. excuse them from the assignment, and At Gilman School in Baltimore, Snow days bring to mind sledding they make it up later. some teachers put assignments online, and snowballs, but for students at “The goal is to have students We’re certainly getting but there are no official cyber days Maryland’s schools it could one day participating in activities that they can to the point over the next that replace a day in the classroom. mean logging into virtual classrooms do from a distance but that they would Headmaster Henry Smyth said they online from home. have done in a classroom setting,” he five years where school may one day offer cyber days during The John Carroll School in Harford said. systems will be ready to closures, but he’s most interested in County already holds “cyber days” after The school, which enrolls fewer e-learning if students are out for a four built-in snow days have been used. provide remote learning than 700 students, has a one-to-one “ longer period of time or frequently “The weather was pretty bad last across the board. computer policy, requiring all incoming enough that their learning is being year in the winter, and we had lost freshmen to purchase a laptop. disrupted. a lot of academic time, and we were Powell believes cyber days are Rebecca Amani-Dove, “If there’s a prolonged absence or scrambling for ways to recoup some of a growing trend, after having read Howard County Public Schools frequent disruptions we do want the that lost class time,” said Brian Powell, articles about it happening all over the director of communications boys to continue their learning, and vice president of student affairs and country. we need to do that,” said headmaster technology at the school. It may take longer for public schools Henry Smyth. “If it’s one day, I’m not A big impetus for the change was to start offering cyber days.