The Puzzle: Blog

As we head into Labor Day weekend, it's hard not to think that summer is “unofficially” over. Many of the schools and organizations we work with have already had their first few days of classes, and many others are putting final touches on opening day plans and gearing up for the 2017-18 school year.

For some in education, summer is a time to enjoy a more slower-paced way of life, catch up on reading, travel, or spend time with family. For others, it's a time to brush up on new skills and ways of thinking and teaching. There's really no right or wrong way to spend the summer. For CS&A, while most of our schools are out of session and job searches are winding down, we're busy visiting summer teaching programs, speaking at conferences and events, recruiting teaching candidates, and building relationships with schools across the country.

The summer kicked off with our first-ever Women's Institute, held in early June. “Lean On” welcomed women in education from across the country for a day of peer learning, mentorship, and dialogue through shared experiences that was meant to advance the development and empowerment of women in all stages of their professional journey. We were pleased to welcome Lisa Lyle (Head of School, Mary Institute and St. Louis Country Day School), Becky Sykes (President, Oprah Winfrey Charitable Foundation), and a group of inspiring Honorary Faculty who facilitated opportunities for women to support each other, learn, and grow.

We always spend time talking with educators across the country and expanding our network–and the summer was no exception! We hit the road to meet with and recruit college upperclassmen, graduate students, and current educators who are enrolled in or teach at top schools across the country including:

University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education (PA)
Choate Rosemary Hall (Wallingford, CT)
Union College (Schenectady, NY)
Phillips Exeter Academy (Exeter, NH)
Northfield Mount Hermon (Gilll, MA)
The Putney School (Putney, VT)
Peabody College of Education and Human Development at Vanderbilt University (Nashville, TN)
Taft School (Watertown, CT)
Middlebury Language Schools (Middlebury, VT)

Committed to diversity, both in terms of educating ourselves and in helping schools build diverse faculty and staff populations, CS&A was represented by Placement Counselor Seliat Dairo who presented at The Galloway School's BOLD Summit in Atlanta in July. The BOLD (Building Opportunities for Leadership Development) Summit is for educators of color pursuing leadership roles within independent schools. Seliat presented a breakout session about the initial path to leadership.

CS&A also attended a slew of conferences and events across the country to meet and network with school leaders and educators and recruit new teachers and administrators. Attending these events is extremely important to us, not only because we’re supporting the incredible organizations that hold them but because our attendance allows us to remain up-to-date in the educational space and stay aware of educational trends and topics. This summer, we attended or had a presence at the following events:

Traverse Conference at Watershed School (Boulder, CO)
North Carolina Association of Independent Schools (NCAIS) Women in Leadership Conference (Raleigh, NC)
Kingswood Oxford Leadership Institute for Educators of Color (West Hartford, CT)
World History Association’s (WHA) Annual Conference (Boston, MA)
American Library Association’s (ALA) Annual Conference and Exhibition (Chicago, IL)
International Boys’ School Coalition’s (IBSC) Annual Conference (Baltimore, MD)
National Coalition of Girls’ Schools’ (NCGS) Annual Conference (Washington, D.C.)
Center for STEM Education for Girls STEM Think Tank Conference (Nashville, TN)
Blackbaud User Conference (Boston, MA)
American Association of Physics Teachers Summer Meeting (Cincinnati, OH)
Consortium of Jewish Day Schools Summer Think Tank (Cedarhurst, NY)
American Alliance for Theatre and Education National Conference (New Orleans, LA)
American Chemical Society National Exposition (Washington, D.C.)

As you can see, the summer is still quite a busy time for us at CS&A! While we learned a lot, met some great teaching and administrative candidates, and continued to build relationships with schools and organizations, we are looking forward to diving into our upcoming college recruiting season in the fall and our hiring conferences and busy job-search season in the winter.

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