What happens when you combine passion, professional learning, and appreciation of beauty and excellence? You get a teacher who brings enthusiasm and energy to her classroom and students who learn while doing. Anne Smith loves mosaic making. She buys imported tile, cuts it, and creates beautiful designs. She also loves teaching Latin and the history behind the classical language and she has taught here at Shipley for 29 years.
In July of 2019, Anne used professional development funding from Shipley’s Denis Nicholson Asselin Award and visited the archaeological site of the Fishbourne Palace Roman Palace villa in Chichester, UK with all of its mosaic tiling. She also attended a weeklong Roman Byzantine mosaic course in Ravenna, Italy at The Mosaic School. Since then, she has incorporated mosaics into her eighth grade classes.
In December and January, students study Roman-Britain and the site of the villa that Anne visited. They then make their own mosaics using actual Roman geometric designs and high-gloss paper as they read about this site in Latin. They learn while doing. Students can develop stronger memory circuits because this learning is connected to multiple modalities.
Recently, Smith has combined the creative forces of her sixth to eighth grade Latin classes, her Classics Club, and the Horticulture Club to participate in the Longwood Gardens holiday ornament tree display. This year’s theme is “Nature’s Splendor” and as such, the students are free to be creative within that parameter as they design a mosaic-tiled flower ornament that will hang on the trees. Students planned out the design on paper, laid the pre-cut, shaped pieces of glass to form the design, then transferred and permanently affixed them to the pre-cut wood.
Anne’s love of learning and passion for Roman architecture has led her to develop one of her professional goals: incorporating more student-driven initiatives into her classes. If you were to glance in the back of her classroom, you might think you are looking at packing materials, but if you look closely, you will see that it is, in fact, the beginnings of a Roman villa made out of cardboard. When her students saw the leftover cardboard from their laptop packaging, they asked if they could use it to bring the Roman villas they are learning about to life.
Anne saw this as an opportunity to realize her goal. Students are incorporating several cross-curricular skills including measuring, proportion, design, architecture, and history, and it’s all happening as these students are also learning Latin. As the students are mentally and physically manipulating what they are learning using multiple modalities, they are creating more connections that will lead to deeper and long-term understanding.
Shipley's Upper School Boys' and Girls' Varsity Squash teams competed at the National Squash Championships in Philadelphia, finishing 34th and 64th in the country, respectively.
Since Dr. Roberta Brandao’s arrival to chair Shipley’s STEAM department in the fall of 2022, she has created a learning environment that fosters creativity, provides relevance, and pushes students to think critically. Learn more about Dr. Brandao's approach and how she makes students feel comfortable about taking creative risks.
This year’s Upper School Spring Musical is Mean Girls, a modern adaptation of the classic movie from 2004. Shipley theater star and Beacon writer Colin Harkins ’23 tells us why audiences should be excited to see the show March 2-4, 2023 in Riely Theatre.
Shipley’s theater program is excited to announce that it will partner with Broadway Green Alliance, a corporation that tries to bring more sustainable and environmentally friendly practices into theaters all around the country. Read more in this article originally published in the Beacon student newspaper.
View a performance of the Lunar New Year Overture by Shipley's Chamber Orchestra, in an arrangement by Richard Liu ’25 and Bambi Tang ’23, and conducted by Mr. Jhonnatan Mata. The performance was organized by the Asian Student Alliance and the Chamber Orchestra in celebration of Lantern Festival, or the end of Lunar New Year.
After an extensive international search, Head of School Michael G. Turner announced the appointment of Chantra Reinman as Shipley’s next Head of Middle School, effective July 1, 2023.
In the Lower School Student Council, fourth and fifth graders hone leadership skills like collaboration, public speaking, and planning as they help with divisional assemblies and other student-led initiatives, while serving as student representatives at admissions events and more. Though the group is diverse, they all have one thing in common: a desire to give back to Shipley.
Shipley's Middle School Boys' and Girls' Squash teams competed at the National Squash Championships in Philadelphia, finishing ninth and 20th, respectively.
Congratulations to Shipley senior Zion Alexis ’23 for receiving numerous awards in the 2023 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, presented by Philadelphia Writing Project, including a Gold Key for his poem, "black boy, PREP SCHOOL." Read the poem and learn more about Zion, his interest in creative expression, and how Shipley has pushed him to grow as a writer in this Q&A.
Head of School Michael Turner announced that Rebekah Adens will be Shipley’s next Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, effective July 1, 2023.
Middle School science teacher Ace Schwarz was one of 10 educators selected to participate in the 2023 NASA/IPAC Teacher Archive Research Program (NITARP), which partners small groups of educators with a research astronomer for original, year-long, authentic research projects.
On Saturday, December 3, Shipley’s Upper School Science Olympiad team participated in the 2nd Annual Dick Smith Memorial Invitational. Competing in the B Division, Shipley’s Upper School team finished 31 out of 74 teams. Several students also placed in individual events.
Chess team members Srijan Velamuri ’23 and Adithi Srinivasan ’25 earned first and second places, respectively, at the Interscholastic Chess Tournament, hosted by Shipley on December 9, 2022.
What happens when you combine passion, professional learning, and appreciation of beauty and excellence? You get a teacher who brings enthusiasm and energy to her classroom and students who learn while doing. Learn more about how Middle School Latin teacher Anne Smith shares her passion for mosaics, Roman history, and the Latin language with her students through multiple modalities.
Dr. Harley Givler asked his third grade students to imagine what a storybook's characters would sound like as a musical composition. The third graders performed the composition for their PreK Book Buddies, sharing lessons in emotions, tolerance, and being an upstander, as well as inspiring a love of music.
On Friday, December 2, Shipley hosted the Philadelphia Area Math League for Independent Schools 2022 Playoffs. As a result, the Gators finished fifth out of ten teams in the group category and Bambi Tang ‘23 finished first in the individual category.
The Shipley School is a private, coeducational day school for pre-kindergarten through 12th grade students, located in Bryn Mawr, PA. Through our commitment to educational excellence, we develop within each student a love of learning and a desire for compassionate participation in the world.