在实践中学习

Arriving at Miss Hall’s this past summer, Robert Bolger was pleased to learn that the Leonhardt Academic Skills Center (ASC) operates on a 免年费Learn more at the bottom of the page! model and is open to all students for various levels of support.

这种开放, 罗伯特解释说, reduces stigma around learning differences, acknowledges that students learn differently, and encourages them to seek support when needed. 罗伯特是根据自己的经验讲的. The new Director of the ASC was once a struggling student himself.

“Being open about challenges helps a lot,他补充道. “I had no help with different learning styles. I did it with a lot of encouragement from people telling me that I could do it, and that’s what excites me the most — when students achieve things they didn’t think they could, you see the confidence that comes from that, 我也经历过他们的处境.”

在阿克伦郊外长大, 俄亥俄州, Robert figured he would follow his father’s footsteps into one of the city’s factories. 而不是, with a deep interest in philosophy, he fortuitously landed in community college, 他在哪里找到了支持, received an academic boost he hadn’t previously experienced, and met a professor who became one of his strongest advocates.

“It was that reinforcement that kept me going,” 罗伯特解释说. Ph值.D., 两个硕士学位, 三本之后, 第四个正在筹备中, he knows what can happen with a little encouragement.

The Miss Hall’s ASC provides academic support to all students, 神经典型和神经多样性, 在促进学术发展的同时, 认知, 个人成长. 在他的角色中, Robert oversees and supports the center’s Learning Specialists, while also providing academic support for students and collaborating with faculty, 家庭, and administrators to meet students’ needs.

“对于那些努力学习的学生, 我看到了很多我自己, but I never got the help I needed in high school,罗伯特注意到. “I didn’t thrive until I was encouraged. I still remember the feeling of getting that first ‘A’ in community college, and how that success built on itself.”

After community college, Robert earned a B.A. in Philosophy from the University of Washington, an M.A. in Religious Studies from Union Theological Seminary in New York City, and a Ph.D. in Philosophy and Religious Studies at Claremont Graduate University.

In 2008, while teaching at an all-girls independent school near Seattle, he discovered that some of his students had learning differences and others needed accommodations. He also realized that although he learned a lot in graduate school, he was not taught how students learned. 考虑到这一点, he headed to Seattle Pacific University for a master’s degree in teaching, focusing on differentiated instruction and special education.

A learning specialist now for twelve years, Robert was a special education teacher for nine years and served three years as Director of Academic Resources at a 大学预备 school near Seattle. It was an interest in directing a similar program — and a desire to live in the Berkshires — that led Robert to MHS. 他和他的妻子, 劳拉, 被任命的卫理公会牧师, arrived in July with their 16-year-old Lab-terrier rescue, 安妮.

一路走来, Robert has woven many of his own experiences into his teaching philosophy, 哪一个。, 不足为奇的是, 包括一些哲学. He cites the Ethics of Care and the idea that connection and caring are as important to education as content.

“Learning starts with caring for students, 建立联系, and building trust; then you can teach,他补充道. “It’s part and parcel of philosophical thinking. Caring for others is part of the meaning of life for me, 当学生得到照顾时, 他们更容易学习.”

One of the School’s signature programs, the ASC provides academic and related support to students while promoting lifelong learning. That support includes one-on-one, 集团, and grade-level work on everything from executive function skills to subject-specific course work, 学习技巧. The ASC also supports classroom teachers in their work with students.

直到2021年秋天, for anything beyond occasional drop-in help, 家庭为这项服务付费, based upon the needs of the student. The shift to a 免年费 model began during the spring of 2021, after conversations with Allison Isbell, who ran the academic support program at LREI — The Little Red School House & Elisabeth Irwin High School — and is now the high school’s co-Principal. The thinking was the LREI model could be used as a reference for MHS.

随着变化, comes dispelling the notion that the ASC is only for struggling students or those with learning differences, 比如阅读障碍. 而, the Center is promoted as a place that can benefit all students, because all students can benefit from thinking about who they are as learners, 他们如何学习, and what works best for them as learners.

最终, the ASC’s mission is about providing students with the skills to be successful no matter the setting — at MHS and beyond!