Kirsch to Visit Cuba on Hannah Joss Fellowship

Sixth-grade teacher Brad Kirsch has always wanted to time travel, like Marty McFly in the 1985 movie "Back to the Future".  This next summer he'll get a chance to visit a country that's stuck in the 1950s -- Cuba -- thanks to the Hannah Joss Fellowship.  The annual award, named for an early SGS history teacher, pays for a teacher to travel anywhere in the world and bring their discoveries back to their classroom.

"The goal of my 6th grade World Cultures class is to expose students to cultures outside of their own," says Brad, "breaking through the walls of this school, this city, and this country to the lifestyles and cultural
norms of other groups of people.  Ninety miles from Florida is a country vastly different than our own, stuck in time and thriving none-the-less."  This trip will allow him to give his students a first-hand account of a culture different than our own, then tracking the changes that happen in the coming years when the U.S. embargo comes down. 

Other faculty and staff awards announced at the Nov. 19 assembly included Upper School Assistant Paige Halliburton for the Jim Stetcher Staff Excellence Award, Middle School English teacher Sarah Berentson for the Harvey W. Clarke Award for Excellence in Teaching, and Upper School math teacher Rachel Hildie for the Fred Gilbert Distinguished Teaching Award.  See a Photo Gallery of all the honorees!