Faculty Members Selected to Present at International Coalition of Girls Schools Conference

On Monday, February 6, members of the Sacred Heart Greenwich faculty will present workshops for other educators at a conference for the International Coalition of Girls Schools (ICGS), hosted by The Nightingale-Bamford School in New York City. These workshops were selected from a competitive pool of proposals and reflect a few of the many innovative initiatives designed and implemented by our faculty. 

Linda Vasu, Upper School English and World Literature teacher, Matthew Blake, Upper School theology and English teacher and Sustainability Coordinator, and Margaret Vondermeden, Director of Mustard Seeds, will present, “It’s Easy Being Green,” a guide for schools in how to use their unique resources to benefit global and local ecologies by building environmental education programming. Their presentation draws upon practices in place at Sacred Heart Greenwich, including the Mustard Seeds program, cross-divisional farm-to-table efforts that bring food to communities in need, cafeteria composting, Earth Day events, and coursework, such as Ms. Vasu’s Upper School class, “Environmentalism in the Literature Classroom: Creation Stories, Fairy Tales, and Ecological Thinking.” 

Kristen Williams, Upper School World Language teacher and Chair of the World Language Department, was also selected to present her workshop, “The Whole World in Our Hands: Connecting the Classroom and Beyond.” Ms.Williams’ session focuses on activities that foster purposeful conversations between students. Her workshop is founded on the belief that meaning conversations within the classroom transform students into confident leaders and global citizens. Whether they are speaking a new language, debating a current events topic, or discussing a literary work, Ms. Williams’ practices encourage students to take healthy risks that bring them outside their comfort zones to better understand themselves, one another, and the world beyond. 

Sacred Heart Greenwich is proud of this thoughtful, dynamic work and thanks these faculty members for sharing their expertise and talent both here on King Street and beyond!