At our February BEF board meeting, members of the Board were treated to a presentation by Julia Mangan about the grant she and Melissa Nixon, both educators at BHS, received and participated in over the summer. With 12 years of physics and chemistry teaching experience, 10 of which have been at BHS, Julia explained how she has seen AP physics change over her career. Over the last 20 years the way physics is taught has changed dramatically, as research has supported a more inquiry-based approach focused on deeper conceptual understanding. As accessibility has expanded, so has AP physics at BHS – from 3 sections just last year to 5 sections this year, with more students of color, more female-identifying students and more students with
learning challenges in the classroom.

She and Melissa applied for and received a BEF Teacher Grant for 35 hours of professional content development in St. Johnsbury, Vermont. The conference drew educators from all over the country for a wide selection of workshops. Julia described labs where they had the opportunity to conduct experiments from a student perspective, with minimal equipment – for example, one experiment used a slinky and a free magnetic field phone app – followed by discussion around the instructional value of the experiment. They got lots of unit planning time together, and were able to accomplish course planning for the whole year, with a new and diverse group of teachers to share ideas and feedback.

This experience gave Julia and Melissa loads of ideas for hands-on experiences to bring back to the classroom at BHS. They made connections with their fellow educators, who they continue to stay in touch with, and networked around resources – but the best part of this experience, Julia explained, was the rejuvenating and inspiring effect of being “immersed in a community of deeply caring educators.” This grant is a great example of why the BEF exists: because it is critical to the quality of public education in Brookline that educators like Julia and Melissa get to pursue enriching, fulfilling professional development opportunities. It also exemplifies the kind of talented, dedicated educators we are so lucky to have in our schools. These are teachers who care so deeply about their students and are so energized by their craft that they take time out of their personal lives to find these opportunities, to go through the grant process, to engage in the work and return to the classroom with new ideas and renewed passion. We are proud to be able to support them and contribute to excellence in our schools, and we thank all the parents, school staff, and community members of Brookline whose donations make that possible.