The biennial Tower School auction is a community event supported by parents, faculty, students, families and the businesses within the communities in which we live, work, and play. The proceeds generated by the auction support two important programs that enhance and enlighten the experience provided by the school—the Cultural Arts program for students and the Professional Development program for faculty. 

Cultural Arts strives to offer programming that enhances students’ breadth of experience. Did your child want to be meteorologist after meeting Dave Epstein or a fitness expert after attending the Zumbatonics workshop? Maybe they were inspired by Molly Sliney’s story of challenge, achievement and goal-setting or touched by the personal accounts of Holocaust survivors, Leland Faulkner and Marty Kelley. Was any flat surface an instrument after a concert by the Taiko Drummers and any bedsheet a curtain to showcase a reenactment of a Tanglewood Marionettes performance? The experiences from the past year, and ones planned in the future, are made possible by funds of the auction.

Professional Development encourages faculty members to explore opportunities and expand their knowledge and passion. They, in turn, enrich the classroom experience they are able to offer to the students. Below are some examples of what Tower faculty did over the summer, thanks to the professional development program:

• Fred Shepard, Director of the Arts, attended a choral workshop entitled, “A{n} holistic approach to choral Music Education: Rehearsal and conducting techniques that develop the whole musician” presented by Dr. Anton E. Armstrong
• Spanish teacher, Sra. Walcutt, traveled to Bilbao, Spain to take a Spanish class. She was able to work on her fluency through formal classes, cultural afternoon trips, and simply by experiencing day-to-day life.
• Learning Skills specialist, Nina Miller, created a leveled book room to be used as a resource for Tower’s guided reading program. Using three leveling systems, she leveled over 1,100 titles and created a database that will allow teachers to sort and find books by level, title, or genre so that they can plan small group instruction.  
• Science teacher, Russ Wells, spent the summer exploring blended learning, an area of education where students learn in-part through digital content and online media. He thought about the question; how can Tower best use the iPads to accelerate learning at school and home? He spent some time with the websites edmodo.com, versal.com and thinglink.com designing some content and playing around with how to best use these tools to deliver curriculum content in a fun and interactive way.
• Technology teacher, Christine Henderson, began her professional development with a trip to San Diego for the Computer Science Teachers Association conference. While there, she learned about many different platforms and methods that Computer Science teachers use in their classrooms. She spent the latter part of summer putting together new elements of Tower’s coding curriculum for the Upper School.
• Science teacher, Deb Eames, spent two days at the PEM’s summer teacher workshop focusing on revisiting and revising as seen through the works and inspirations of Auguste Rodin and painter Childe Hassam.  
• Woodworking teacher, Adam Zois, spent three days working with furniture designer and builder Libby Schrum in her Camden, ME studio on some custom furniture builds of hers. He then took a two-week course in CNC (computer numeric control) design and machining at the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship in Rockland.
• 1^st grade teacher, Sarah Clark, attended the NAIS School Leadership Institute, held at the Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Virginia. The main goal of the week long institute is to help participants identify and reflect upon their strengths and weaknesses as leaders, largely based upon feedback from colleagues’ observations. Each attendee came up with a “Leadership Action Plan” to bring back to their schools, while they had the benefit of each others’ experience and expertise. Her plan centered around her work as chair of the Project-Based Learning committee at Tower.