Our Wildwood, Volume 52

As Wildwood’s inaugural Outreach Center fellow, 5th grade teacher Melanie Boonstra is helping to fulfill the Outreach Center’s mission by sharing her research and knowledge on metacognition with independent and public school educators across the country. “Metacognition, or ‘thinking about thinking,’ plays a crucial role in how students develop new skills,” Melanie explained. “Everyone has the capacity to learn—it all comes down to their ability to recognize and weave new knowledge into their existing cognitive framework.” Having shared her fellowship work earlier this year with her Wildwood colleagues, Melanie is now leading a series of Outreach Center workshops for K-8 public school educators that explore the underlying principles of metacognitive practices and will provide them with new strategies to support student learning. Established in the 2023-2024 school year by a generous donation from the Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation, the Wildwood Outreach Center Fellowship Fund aims to advance professional development and Wildwood’s First Outreach Center Fellow Brings Metacognition Strategies to Educators

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Exploring the Power of AI

In a world where technology evolves faster than ever, Wildwood is taking bold steps to prepare for the future. Last year, the school launched a Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) Task Force—a diverse team of educators, administrators, and parents—to explore how artificial intelligence can transform the teaching, learning, and daily operations of our school. Their mission? To craft a thoughtful road map of Guiding AI Principles for integrating this technology in ways that align with Wildwood’s values of innovation and ethical responsibility. By thoughtfully engaging with the dangers and affordances of emerging technologies, the task force is ensuring that Wildwood remains a leader in progressive education for the 21st century and beyond. “” The most successful students will be those who use AI to help make conceptual connections for developing ideas. Students who learn to use AI ethically and productively may learn not only at an exponentially higher rate than others but also in a way that allows them to remain competitive throughout their careers. They will have a deeper understanding of the given subject matter, because they will know how to get their questions answered. Rather than atrophying, their curiosity muscle will be strengthened. —SALMAN KHAN, BRAVE NEW WORDS: HOW AI WILL REVOLUTIONIZE EDUCATION

leadership in education. Wildwood fellows spend two years immersed in professional development, research, and learning—all with the goal of developing programming that can then be shared with other educators, at Wildwood and beyond.

“This fellowship has been incredibly rewarding— not just for my own professional growth, but because I get to share the experience with the entire Wildwood community,” Melanie said. “It enhances what we can achieve as educators, and I’m excited to see how it shapes learning in Wildwood’s classrooms and beyond.”

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