Pathways: School Chaplains

As artificial intelligence rapidly reshapes how students learn and live, school leaders face both opportunity and urgency. This session will share the latest research on how middle and high school students use AI, outline key principles for ethical and responsible use, and highlight best practices for AI policy-making in independent schools. We’ll also explore what’s next, including emerging tools such as agentic AI and their implications for teaching, learning, and school planning. Participants will leave with strategies, frameworks, and forward-looking insights to guide their school’s summer planning and beyond.

Board governance is a powerful opportunity to align institutional leadership with the Gospel’s call to equity and justice. Yet for many trustees of color, board service can feel like tokenism or come with a silent burden. This webinar introduces Culturally Affirming Independent School Board Governance (CAISBG), a framework developed through a national study of trustees of color. Participants will explore insights from trustees, reflect on the theological dimensions of leadership, and apply the CAISBG framework to board recruitment and culture. This webinar is for school leaders who want their boards to reflect Episcopal values of inclusion, justice, and belonging.

This webinar shares the process of collaboratively creating a school framework to guide improvement in P–12 teaching at Breck School in Golden Valley, MN. The framework includes three domains—cultural awareness, inclusive learning environments, and deeper learning experiences—and each domain comprises five to seven indicators that describe observable phenomena teachers and students now use to guide documentation and reflection. Each domain and indicator is connected to research in the Learning Sciences, such as cultural relevance, motivation, cognitive load, and authentic tasks. The session presents the Framework, outlines its development, describes its integration into broader curricular review and improvement processes, and highlights how teachers and instructional leaders might adopt or adapt it to the needs of their own schools.

Civic engagement as individuals and institutions plays a foundational role in our society and common life together. Watch this program to explore two fundamental dynamics that can help us lean into our responsibilities for civic engagement and navigate this topic during this moment in our country.

As a faculty or staff member, you likely find yourself at the forefront of supporting adolescents with increasingly complex, challenging psychosocial needs. Moreover, students are more likely to seek out a trusted teacher, advisor, or coach for support than to confide directly in a parent or even a school counselor. Drawing from her recent book, Deborah Offner, an adolescent psychologist, will provide a backdrop to Generation Z’s concerns and challenges, a quick primer on “normal” adolescent development, and—most importantly—tips and strategies that teachers, deans, coaches, nurses, counselors, and other professionals can put into immediate use with students in distress. We will also consider how you can understand today’s parents—and talk to them in a way they can hear—and how you can collaborate with colleagues to best support students and families.

The chaplaincy plays a vital role in Episcopal schools, and a clear understanding of this role is essential for chaplains to thrive. Drawing on insights from the 2024 NAES Chaplaincy Survey Report, this webinar will explore key aspects of chaplaincy and the impactful work of chaplains. Designed for heads of school, administrators, rectors, bishops, and chaplains, this session will provide valuable perspectives to support and strengthen chaplaincy in Episcopal schools.