Rooted in Learning:

Professional Development at Newfields

Before our first day of school last month, our faculty and staff from all four campuses gathered at Newfields for a professional development day, a tradition that shapes the foundation of each school year at The Oaks Academy. Held three times each year, these all-faculty and staff gatherings are essential to aligning our team around our mission, vision, and philosophical theme for the year. They remind us that our teachers are not only deeply committed to The Oaks’ philosophy, but are also fully equipped to help students reach their highest potential.

For the 2025–26 school year, our theme is cultivating the habit of attention: fixing mind and body steadily on the matter at hand. This year’s guiding question — How does nurturing the habit of attention strengthen teaching, learning, and relationships at The Oaks? — set the tone for our day together.

Professional development at The Oaks is not simply a set of lectures or strategies. True to our educational philosophy, we engage teachers as learners, using narration and Socratic dialogue to make the material their own. Just as students experience the duty and delight of learning, so do our faculty, which strengthens both their practice and their joy in the classroom.

Newfields was a particularly meaningful setting for this gathering, since Oaks students visit the museum and gardens multiple times throughout their time at The Oaks. Faculty and staff participated in two of our curricular distinctives — nature study and picture study — to experience firsthand the practices they will guide students through during the school year.

During nature walks, teachers began by sitting in silence, noticing sounds from above or beyond their sight. Then, moving slowly, they engaged all their senses: the warmth of the sun, the scent of the earth, the subtle colors of late-summer blooms. At the end, each participant sketched a single plant or flower that stirred wonder. Together, they reflected: What did I notice when I slowed down? Where did I see beauty?

In picture study, small groups spread throughout the museum, each assigned a single artwork — such as Love by Robert Indiana, The Boat Builders by Winslow Thomas, or Jimson Weed by Georgia O’Keeffe. Following the time-tested method, teachers first learned about the artist, then studied the piece in silence before narrating their observations as a group and recording sketches in their notebooks.

These practices do more than strengthen teaching techniques. They cultivate attentiveness in the teachers themselves, enabling them to better notice and respond to their students. As Simone Weil observed, “Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.” By nurturing this habit, teachers not only grow in their own relationship with truth, goodness, and beauty, but also model the posture of generous attention for their students.

Professional development days like this also embody one of The Oaks’ core values: relationships first. As faculty and staff learn and reflect together, their bonds with each other deepen. Shared experiences create stronger connections, ensuring that the culture of learning and community we value flows from teacher to student, and throughout our entire Oaks community.