Teaching with Grace: A Year of Reflection and Growth

The commitment to excellent teaching has always been central to a Grace education. 

This year, that commitment took on a more formal shape with the launch of the Teaching with Grace framework: a school-wide effort to articulate and strengthen the elements of teaching excellence that make Grace’s program so distinctive.

The framework is anchored by four core commitments: designing courses with clear, purposeful goals; teaching lessons that foster effortful thinking and deep belonging; building relationships that treat every student as a unique individual rather than an “imagined average learner”; and modeling the virtues—like kindness, curiosity, humility, and courage—that we hope to cultivate in our students.

This year’s work invited every faculty member into the process through year-long engagement with the framework. Each teacher identified a specific goal through the lens of a favorite lesson or a unit they had been hoping to improve, asking themselves how that goal could help them build better relationships, incorporate evidence-based practices, and reflect and reflect on the virtues that amplify teaching in their discipline. This cycle of reflection culminated in June with an end-of-year “Goals Café,” where faculty gathered to share successes and the innovative strategies they’ve developed throughout the year.

Although our faculty engage regularly in personal reflections and goal setting, professional growth at Grace is never a solitary endeavor. Faculty met in cohort groups beginning last August, diving into foundational texts on course design, differentiated teaching, and fostering belonging. Each session opened with the same community-building circle practices teachers use with their students, modeling and practicing these skills in cross-divisional groups. In March, Head of School Robbie Pennoyer led sessions across departments and divisions focused specifically on modeling virtues, ensuring that Grace’s commitment to dignity and respect remains at the heart of every child’s experience within and beyond the classroom.

The introduction of the Teaching with Grace framework was an important step in an ongoing, school-wide conversation about what it means to teach—and to learn—in ways that reflect the high aspirations of our mission. We look forward to continuing to build on this work and to seeing the ways our values are made real to our students in each classroom, every day.