Three Weeks Before Liftoff
It’s late August, and 2024 Staff Training is wrapping up as the first day of Induction Week approaches. Unlike most schools, the staff at French Broad River Academy spend three full weeks preparing for the upcoming school year. This commitment to staff development up front pays innumerable dividends when school starts.
What Happens During the Three Weeks?
Sure, there’s time to work on long term lesson plans and classroom setup. As an independent school, our teachers have a lot of freedom to get creative with lesson and unit design. Academic work sessions, led by our Academic Directors Alex Allison and Jeff Edmonds, provide an invaluable opportunity to collaborate with subject and grade level colleagues to design plans that meet students where they are and maximize their learning window.
Our staff also work to get ready for the outdoor leadership piece of their jobs. You’ll find them doing any number of prep tasks from wilderness medicine recertification, to swift water rescue training, to an all-staff overnight camping trip, to canoe instruction refinement, even practicing backing up a van with a fully loaded canoe trailer attached (This is harder than you might think!).
Finally, our Deans of Student Alex Black and Stiles Rockey lead sessions that help our staff get to know the incoming students, reflect and refine behavior management techniques, and prepare for the advisory program for the upcoming year.
The weeks are rounded out with some social moments such as the alumni cookout and the back-to-school float and potluck. Suffice it to say, after 2024 Staff Training, we are more than ready for liftoff when Induction begins!
