“The true teacher is the learner.” – Elbert Hubbard

As we all experience, time is a precious commodity during the crush of a busy school year — time to focus on a project, time to enjoy a meal with your family, time to just quietly reflect. The same is true for our dedicated teachers at Burke’s.

Professional development is front and center in Burke’s four-year Strategic Plan put forth in 2014. Thanks to our community’s past generosity, we have been able to grow and enrich professional-development opportunities over the past two years. This year, behind our passionate commitment to invest in our faculty’s professional development, we ask our community to raise the paddle to grant teachers the chance to continue making the most out of those opportunities by affording them that most valuable gift: time.

Burke’s introduced the concept of the Idea Lab in 2015 to augment our professional-development program at Burke’s. What’s an Idea Lab? Funded by Auction 2015’s Raise the Paddle, the Idea Lab is a professional-development program that provides funding and resources to allow our faculty members to advance their own learning one step further. It gives our teachers the space, the freedom, and — most importantly — the time to process and absorb new knowledge and training. With this investment in time, teachers will not have to go right back into the classroom while they are still brimming with ideas; they can now contemplate and discuss, unpack and synthesize, distill and decide. Many major professional-development opportunities at Burke’s are now followed by Idea Lab sessions where Upper and Lower School teachers gather to workshop ideas as a group. Expanding on the concept of an Idea Lab, teachers have been granted Curriculum Idea Grants to implement changes they picked up in their individual learning experiences. Rather than our teachers trying to cram in as much analysis and brainstorming as possible on the ride home, the Idea Lab builds that step right into the schedule — and as a result, we’re seeing more impact in the classroom, as well as a more satisfied faculty that has the time to put its professional development to immediate use.

This June, Burke’s will hold its third annual Professional Development Institute, again guided by the Understanding by Design framework, but also with an increased emphasis on giving back to the community. Half of the weeklong institute will be spent steeped in service learning, which will include an off-campus service opportunity — as well as an Idea Lab after returning to Burke’s in which faculty members can address practical ways to apply this mindset into the classroom. Funds raised at Auction 2016 will make this strategic goal a reality, as well as support the Idea Lab throughout the 2016-17 school year.

In a sense, the Idea Lab is to our teachers as the Makery is to our students — it’s a dedicated time to turn abstract lessons into real impact in the classroom. And there’s nothing more powerful than demonstrating the power of lifelong learning to our girls than by showing how it manifests in our teachers.

Please remember that donations to this effort are 100% tax-deductible.

HOW DOES BIDDING WORK?

Bidding is cumulative—it starts at $20,000 and progresses downward. For example: If you raise your paddle at the $5,000 bid, and wish to leave it in the air at the $2,500 bid, your total donation will then be $7,500 ($5,000 + $2,500).

The increments (and bid amounts) are as follows: $20,000/$10,000/$5,000/$2,500/$1,000/$500/$250/$100, but are subject to change. Happy bidding!

For information on proxy (anonymous) bidding, please contact Selena Shadle at 415-666-3204 or

selena@kdbs.org. A gift to the initiative can also be made online at www.kdbs.org/give.