Faculty Mentorship

A Shore education is the direct result of a team of extraordinary professional educators who see teaching at Shore as an art rather than a job. Shore faculty members are recognized by parents year after year for their ability to care for each student individually, and to engage every learner in adventurous education. Supported by robust investment in professional development, our teachers are proud to see themselves as guides and coaches challenging students of every age to become advocates of their own learning.

 

In the Lower School, Shore faculty members are experts at deeply knowing each child in their care, skillfully balancing challenge and support that are differentiated for every individual student. Through the Responsive Classroom methodology, homeroom teachers nurture children’s social-emotional growth, and they model the academic behaviors that will lead to success in the classroom. Students learn and practice a set of social and emotional competencies—cooperation, assertiveness, responsibility, empathy, and self-control—alongside academic skills; the combination allows them to do their best work, and be their best selves.

 

When children “graduate” from the Lower School’s homeroom model to the Upper School’s model of moving between multiple teachers, students are welcomed into the advisory program. They meet numerous times each week with an assigned advisor, who in many ways serves the same role as a homeroom teacher. The advisor is a guide, coach, and counselor, mentoring a small group of advisees through the year. Students look to their advisor for help with everything from mastering study skills to negotiating changes in friendships; the conversations may be free-form and one-on-one, or they may be group discussions connected to specific issues relevant to an entire grade, such as elements of the Community Code or the use of social media.