Please help us welcome Putney’s newest employees. From left:

Jonathan Riseling is a professional dancer in New York City and internationally. He will be filling the dance class duties recently vacated by Kalya Yannatos, who has gone to Choate to oversee their arts program. Jonathan has taught at Adelphi University, in New York Public schools, with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center, and for the Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet.

Martha Black is our new residential nurse. She comes to us from Ithaca College’s health services, and holds a B.A. from Colby Sawyer College, and an R.N. from Hartford Hospital School of Nursing. She’ll be living in John Rogers dorm.

Maria Ogden P’07,’09, formerly of Summer Programs, is returning to work during the school year in the health center. Maria has an associate’s degree in nursing from Yavapai College.

Helen O’Donnell has worked here for some years as the evening printmaking teacher and girls’ soccer coach. Now she will be joining the academic art department, taking over Brian Cohen’s printmaking studio classes.

Amanda Nguyen is our new assistant dean of students. Amanda graduated with a biology major and education minor from Bowdoin College, where she was active in student government, the outing club, and student leadership training. She also brings an interest in ceramics, creative outdoor cooking, and mindful learning to Putney.

Tom Kardel has taken over as dean of students from Ben Freeman, who is now head of a new semester program at Burr and Burton Academy in Manchester, Vermont. Tom holds a master of arts in Spanish from Middlebury College, a B.A. in theater from Kalamazoo College, and has teaching and administrative experience from Walnut Hill and Kimball Union Academy.

Krzys Piekarski is here finishing his Ph.D. in English, but we have already put him to work. He’ll be coaching and leading a Long Fall trip.

Abelardo Almazan-Vazquez will teach Spanish and coach soccer. He has an M.A. in Spanish and Latin American studies from Cleveland State University and a B.A. in teaching Spanish as a second language from Universidad Internacional UNITER. Albelardo has experience teaching at Ohio’s Gilmour Academy and at the Middlebury Language Institute.

Mark Green (not shown) is joining Putney as Major Gifts Officer. Mark has had extensive development and fundraising experience at Dartmouth College, The Grammar School, The Greenwood School, and White Mountain School. In addition, he knows Putney well, having served here as Associate Director of Admissions in the mid-1990s. Mark has a B.A. from Hamilton College and an M.Ed. from Antioch College of New England.

Annie Petersen has a Ph.D. in media studies from the University of Texas and will teach English. She also holds an M.A. in English from the University of Oregon and a B.A. in rhetoric-film studies from Whitman. She has also taught at both of these colleges.

Penny Ridgdill, a math Ph.D. from UMASS Amherst, will fill an open slot in the math department. She also has earned a B.S. in math from the University of Georgia and has taught at the Universities of Arizona and Massachusetts.

Olivia Sanders is our new admission office manager. She holds a B.A. from Marlboro College, where she was assistant to the dean of students and to the director of academic advising.

Katie Ross is our new gardener and farm assistant. Katie has a B.A. in legal studies with a minor in art history from UMASS Amherst, and an M.S. in environmental studies and integrated learning from Antioch.

Alice Roby, who worked with Putney students on the Sustainability Squad as part of her master’s degree work at Antioch New England Graduate School in environmental studies, will also teach Spanish. Alice has a B.A. in Hispanic studies from Lewis and Clark and has taught at the Teton Science Schools.

If you missed the broadcast on Monday, August 15, 2011, catch the podcast here: http://thestory.org/archive/The_Story_81511.mp3/view

In addition to his photographic story, David had many good things to say about his time at The Putney School.

The July 2011 issue of Athletic Business features Fay, the bovine cover girl, posing in front of the Field House photovoltaic panel array by the Truck Road. The story about the Field House and how it came to be, written by Athletic Business editor, Andy Cohen ’79, is one of the best we’ve seen. Okay, it’s actually the best.

But we’ve also seen an intelligent take on smartplanet.com by environmental blogger, Heather Clancy, and another in the State and Local Energy Report by Rona Cohen (no relation to Andy). And this story by Candace Roulo in Contractor Magazine went online today.

The best news is people are learning that net-zero and LEED Platinum are attainable institutional construction goals right now, with existing technology, even at this wintery latitude. And they’re starting to understand that dollars spent today on insulation and efficiency are going to pay back faster and faster as the cost of producing kilowatt hours continues to climb.

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The Class of 2011 have transitioned from students to alumni. What now? What happens to students who graduate from a school that doesn’t show them their grades til late in their junior years, doesn’t let standardized tests determine the curriculum, and has students demonstrate the use of their knowledge at semester’s end rather than repeat it back to us? Most of them go to the college of their choice. Following is a list of college destinations for the Class of 2011. We wish them continued success and an opportunity to work hard at things that matter to them.

American University
American University of Paris
Bard College
Bates College
Bennington College
Berklee College of Music
California State University, Monterey Bay
Champlain College
Clark University
Colgate University
Culinary Institute of America
Drexel University
Elon University
Emerson College
Eugene Lang College (2)
Evergreen State College
Goucher College (3)
Gustavus Adolphus College
Hampshire College (2)
Lesley University
Lewis & Clark College
Loyola University New Orleans
Marlboro College
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
University of Massachusetts, Boston
McGill University
University of Miami
Mount Holyoke College
Pasadena City College/USC
University of Pennsylvania
Portland Community College
Sarah Lawrence College (2)
Savannah College of Art and Design (2)
School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Stony Brook University
SUNY College at Fredonia
Swarthmore College
Syracuse University
Trinity College
University of Vermont (3)
Vassar College
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Wagner College
Warren Wilson College (2)
Willamette University
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Yale University

Commencement address by Carma Hinton, Ph.D.

Due to unforeseen circumstances, these videos have been removed. A re-edited version may become available later.

Senior Speaker, Peter Schiepers

Senior Speaker, Ariel Robinson

Senior Song: “Wild Mountain Thyme”

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The design of the diplomas is kept a secret from each senior. Here’s what they look like upon seeing them for the first time:

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The Putney School, in collaboration with three other leading progressive schools, has been named one of four recipients of an educational leadership grant from the Edward E. Ford Foundation to create a visionary program that aims to change the landscape of how teachers prepare for their profession. The idea for such a program was born at a symposium on progressive education at Putney last summer, where leaders from these four schools brainstormed ways to foster teacher training that was, at its heart, truly progressive.

The $250,000 grant from the foundation, along with matching funds raised, will help Putney and the partnering schools launch the Progressive Education Lab (PEL), a two-year teaching fellowship that places aspiring teachers with students in schools from the get-go and provides a dynamic, experience-based training not typically found at traditional university-based education programs.

Leaders from the four schools—The Cambridge School of Weston; the Calhoun School in New York City; The Unquowa School in Fairfield, Connecticut; and Putney—will begin the planning of the program immediately. PEL is expected to begin accepting applications from candidates who will enter the program in September 2012.

Currently, a majority of traditional teacher training takes place at colleges and universities, away from the classrooms and the environments where teachers would actually teach. Oftentimes, school leaders have found a disconnect between theory and practice. They wanted to find ways for progressive schools to take the lead on teacher education that would not only train new teachers but strengthen teaching at each of their schools.

The Edward E. Ford Foundation aims to improve secondary education as provided by independent schools in the United States. The educational leadership grant is the largest grant that the foundation awards each year to schools that propose a program that’s generative, transformational, replicable, includes partnerships with other schools or organizations, and addresses the question: “What is the public purpose of private education?”