Announcement from the Search Committee 4/19/19
Message from the Search Committee
Dear Wesley Community,
Our search process remains on track to have a new Head of School announced in May. As previously communicated, the Search Committee has reviewed the tremendous pool of highly experienced and diverse candidates who were interested in Wesley, and we have chosen four exceptional candidates as finalists.
Our commitment to transparency and parent and community involvement in this process remains our top priority and, accordingly, the fourth parent meeting with a finalist for Head of School will be held this coming Tuesday, April 23 from 5:30 – 6:45pm in the Social Hall.
Please make plans to attend and participate in this important stage of the search process, and to give us your feedback about each of the candidates. There will be an electronic survey for you to fill out after each candidate meeting has been completed. You are welcome to submit your comments and observations at any time to us at headsearch@wesleyschool.org.
If you are unable to attend in person, you may submit your comments or questions for the candidate to the Search Committee at headsearch@wesleyschool.org, and if time allows, we will ask the question on your behalf.
Please review the most recent communication from the Search Committee by clicking HERE.
Candidate #4: Roslyn E. Benjamin ("Roz")
Roz Benjamin is a teacher and administrator with 20 years of experience in independent schools. Since 2011, she has been Assistant Head of School at Live Oak School in San Francisco, CA, a K-4 school with 250 students. Prior to that, from 2005-2011 she was Assistant Head of School at Katherine Delmar Burke School in San Francisco, a K-8 girls school with 400 students. She began her term at that school in 2004 as Director of Multicultural Programs.
She served as Director of Summer Programs (2002-2004), Assistant to the Dean of Students (2003-2004) and Assistant Director of Admissions (2004) at All Saints Episcopal Day School in Phoenix, Arizona. At Crystal Springs Uplands School in Hillsborough, CA, she was Diversity Coordinator (1996-2002), Assistant Director of Admissions (1997-2000), and Director of Middle School Admissions (2000-2002).
Her teaching experience includes Middle School and High School History at Crystal Springs Uplands School from 1992-2001. She was also a Middle School Advisor and Tennis Coach at Crystal Springs Uplands School during that time.
She was a member of the Board of Trustees and served on the Financial Aid Committee at The Carey School in San Mateo, CA from 1997-1999. Since 2015, Roz has served in a variety of roles on the Board of Trustees at St. Matthew's Episcopal Day School in San Mateo, CA.
She earned her BA in International Relations from The University of Pennsylvania. She has a Preliminary Teaching Credential in Social Studies from San Francisco State University, and an MA in Secondary Education from San Francisco State University.
Statement of Educational Philosophy
Roslyn E. Benjamin
Every child deserves a champion: an adult who will never give up on them, who understands the power of connection and insist they become the best they can be. Rita Pierson.
Within every school environment, every student regardless of their race, academic ability, or socioeconomic status must have a champion—someone who knows them well and provides them with support, when necessary. As a Black woman who attended independent schools since I was two-years-old, I have benefited and learned from my various experiences, but for many years there was no champion for me. I was one of a few Black students in two predominantly white school environments, well before administrators were using the terms, "diversity," "equity," "inclusion" or "whole child" or considering the importance of creating a welcoming and safe learning environment. During my middle school years, I was called the N-word by a classmate and remembered how alone and isolated I felt because there was no adult at the school who really understood what I was thinking and feeling. I remember being "a singleton" in the class and in the larger community, with no one around who looked like me. I remember only learning numerous facts about people of color, focused primarily on slavery and the Civil Rights Movement, not learning about the thriving kingdoms of ancient Africa or the positive contributions of Blacks in the United States. To combat all of this, I joined a local public school's Black Student Union so that I could feel connected to other Blacks. In all, these experiences had a significant impact on me, leading me to return to my middle and high school, and eventually move into kindergarten through eighth grade schools to teach and mentor the next generation, so that their childhood and adolescent years would be different from mine. I vowed to be their champion within the school community.
With my varied experiences in independent schools as a student and educator, I have learned the power that educators hold in the lives of their students and their parents; we have the responsibility for establishing classrooms where every student can learn and be successful. We know from research that when students feel emotionally settled, they can be available for learning. When they are not feeling safe, their minds wander and their thoughts can be scrambled; therefore, every educator needs to be someone's champion. As an administrator, I often remind teachers that this does not mean that they must be counselors, therapists, or social workers. Rather, they only need to make sure that they take the time to know their students, individually and collectively, well. I encourage them to learn their individual student's likes and dislikes, know their academic strengths and challenges, as well as know and understand their seen and "unseen" selves, whether that is their race, culture, religion, gender identity, abilities, and/or family structure. Since this only happens when teachers create opportunities for students to share and for others to listen, such as during class meetings, where students greet one another, reflect on their community, and tackle difficult and sometimes uncomfortable subjects, I make sure that teachers have time to plan these activities thoughtfully and intentionally. Currently, I'm working with teachers to set inclusive community grade-level goals and to be "warm demanders," a phrase coined by Zaretta Hammond, in which they hold their students who need additional support to high academic and behavior expectations, while setting achievable learning goals that stretch them slightly; this allows their students to see themselves as learners and achievers, who can surmount any challenge, particularly when they are disconnected from the learning environment. Finally, I work the teachers to think strategically about where their students sit, ask all of their students challenging questions regardless of academic ability, while providing them with adequate wait time to answer these questions.
As a teacher, I made it clear to my middle schoolers that history was more than just a series of facts for them to regurgitate to me in order to demonstrate their knowledge. Rather, I strived to make history real, creating relevant experiences in the classroom, tapping into their natural curiosity. I wanted them to see learning as an opportunity to make meaning of our collective past in order to connect it to the events of the present; therefore, we as a class learned through projects, simulations, and research. I steered them away from just memorizing facts, as this simply demonstrated that they knew the material for the moment, but it didn't convince me that they understood it and could apply it to a novel situation. By having them relate to and reconfigure the content within projects and other various activities, I forced them to demonstrate their ability to think critically. We often summarized and reflected on a text, compared and contrasted events or historical periods, and made connections, looking for common themes. Twenty years later, I still believe that project-based learning, particularly projects that involve multiple subject areas, is best for students of all ages, as it creates authentic opportunities for learning.
It is also important to have learning opportunities that push students to take risks, moving them away from their comfort zone. Since most of us are naturally risk averse, I have become a firm believer in helping students and their parents realize that "mistakes are magic" and "a guess is truly a gift." Although many parents believe it is important for their children to get the answer right to show they know the content, mistakes are vital to the learning process. In short, it is important for kids to struggle in order for real learning to occur. On her website "youcubed.com," Dr. Jo Boaler cites the work of psychologist Jason Moser who studied the neural mechanisms that operate in people's brains when they make mistakes. He concluded that when we make a mistake: synapses fire, which means that an electrical signal moves between parts of our brains where learning occurs. The amazing thing, I learned and now repeat to parents, is that when we make a mistake, we don't have to be aware that we made it in order for learning to happen. Dr. Boaler insists that the brain sparks and grows regardless of our awareness because it is a time of struggle, in which the brain is challenged and it is that challenge that results in growth. While I recognize that this can be hard for students, particularly those whose affirmation comes from being perfect or nearly so, I continuously reinforce that they should be okay with making mistakes. An important caveat, however, is that I want them to make different mistakes each time in order to show that they are learning and reflecting on it. I also recognize that some mistakes can have a significant impact on others, but it is our responsibility as educators to guide them through this learning process.
Over the years, I have come to appreciate the importance of partnering with parents, so that they are familiar with their child's learning and the school's mission. As a teacher, when I made the decision to shift from a standard history textbook to one with a multicultural focus, I nervously presented the change at Back to School Night. Despite my fears of their feedback on my decision, I knew it would still fit within the school's mission for academic excellence and rigor. To my surprise, the parents welcomed this because they understood our changing racial population and the need for their children to be equipped with background knowledge to operate appropriately in this world. That year, I realized how important parents are to the fulfilling of the school's mission and vision. When they know and understand the school's values, they will champion it with their children. While it doesn't mean that they won't offer a differing perspective or ask questions, they can serve as an advocate to the school when they are included in the process. Now, I create ways to educate them about the topics, where they may be less familiar: progressive education, brain-based research, talking to their children about race, and understanding gender diversity. I have found this to be beneficial and an important part of my leadership, so that together we can be their child's champions.
