Middle School “Camping Queen”: Carolyn Donovan Makes Reading and Writing Fun!

After 10 years in private practice as a home-based special education therapist, Carolyn Donovan P ’31, ’34 first stepped onto the Sandy Spring Friends School campus as a substitute teacher. Getting to know the people and the experiential learning practices at the school motivated Carolyn to join the SSFS community in 2021 as both a parent of two elementary-aged children and as a 6th Grade Humanities Teacher. Read on for edited excerpts from our recent conversation with Carolyn and learn more about some of her favorite classroom projects that bring novels to life, how she reveals the real-world applications for academic skills, and the joy she finds in teaching middle school students—both in the classroom and in the great outdoors! 

Walk us through some highlights of your education and career before coming to SSFS.

I went to the University of Maryland (go Terps!), and I got a double degree in English and Special Ed; then I went on to get my masters in special education. I was a Department of Education Fellow in UMD’s graduate school researching this brand new law at the time called—and this is going to date me—”No Child Left Behind.” 

After grad school, I started teaching special education in Montgomery County, working in self-contained elementary and preschool classrooms. I also ran the ESY [Extended School Year] program as an administrator for a while, which reminded me that being a school administrator was not my calling in life; I preferred working directly with the students.

I got my board certification in Behavior Analysis, and when I was pregnant with my first child, I transitioned fully to private practice. I worked with children with developmental delays or who were on the autism spectrum in home-based therapy for 10 years. Then COVID hit. 

What attracted you to SSFS, and to the Middle School, specifically?

I brought my oldest child , who was only two or three years old at the time, to visit the school, just as something to do for the day. We visited with my friend Patti [Lemere, Director of Learning Support Services and Middle School Learning Specialist], and I sat in on a 1st-grade classroom, taught by [former longtime SSFS teacher] Salli Innes. She was teaching math to the students by using quilts. I remember thinking that this was the first school I had ever seen where the teacher was teaching neurotypical lessons in these incredible, hands-on ways that made real-world applications clear and the content accessible to a wide variety of learners. So, while we came to SSFS to visit Patti, I started to think about SSFS as a school for my child , and by the end of the day, I was convinced that I wanted to teach here!

I had always thought that at some point I would love to teach middle school English. When I became a long-term substitute teacher for [MS Humanities teacher] Lisa Penkowsky, I realized, ‘Absolutely; I could see myself doing this.’ I wasn’t quite ready to start teaching full-time then, but when my younger daughter was about to start Kindergarten, a position happened to open up. I applied both children to the School, and in the fall of 2021, my older child started 3rd Grade, my younger daughter started Kindergarten, and I started teaching at SSFS, all in the same year. 

What are some of your favorite units or projects you do with your students as part of your curriculum?

There are two that I really love, and they both happen during the winter. The first one is the literary magazine project I do with the 6th Grade. I’m always looking for ways to give kids a real purpose in their assignments other than ‘My teacher is making me do this for a grade.’ I look for real-world applications for the skills they’re learning, so that they know these things aren’t happening in a vacuum.  The literary magazine is, I think, a great opportunity to combine so many skills and tools in one project: students are learning to work collaboratively as a group; we’re writing for a shared purpose; we’re using our campus as our classroom. This year, I also had the students write an email to their parents to share our work with them, and that’s a great opportunity to teach them how to write informal emails in a professional way. I think it’s hard for students to transition between using technology to write in a professional manner and a personal, informal manner.  This gives them the opportunity to use technology to produce something that’s a professional product, share it with their families, and then actually hold that tangible, printed book in their hands.

I also love that every single year—this is the third year I’ve done this—there is a student in each class who becomes an absolute breakaway star; a kid who didn’t think they had leadership skills or wasn’t really comfortable with their writing and then realizes what they can do and how invested they are. Sure enough, it happened again this year, and kids learned that they had these skills they didn’t even know existed, much less that these skills were their own strengths.

The other project I especially love is the “Ceremony of 12.” This is something we do while we read [Lois Lowry’s] The Giver, a dystopian novel where, at 12 years old, all the kids in the community are assigned the jobs they’ll have permanently.  Lisa Penkowsky and I wanted to make this feel relevant and real for the students, so we gathered the students together in the collection space and assigned them jobs to do with an adult around campus for the afternoon. Then they journaled about what it felt like to have someone choose your job for you, and how they would feel if they got stuck doing work they maybe had an aptitude for, but didn’t necessarily like. It’s always interesting to read their thoughts about this; [laughing] no one has a stronger opinion than a middle schooler who feels that someone else is determining their future for them! 

When we first started doing the Ceremony of 12 project, we kept it pretty small and contained. Now, we involve faculty and staff from departments all over the campus to show students the different jobs that are carried out around the school. So it also shows our 6th Graders the different jobs that exist at SSFS and the things people do to make our school function every day. This connects with a recent advisory lesson from the OIEJB [Office of Institutional Equity, Justice, and Belonging] about the appreciation for the “invisible work” people in our community do.

How do you ensure that your Middle School students are ready for the challenges of Upper School English and History classes?

Obviously I work on skills and grammar, and the Upper School teachers and I communicate with each other, so I know what other skills they’ll need. But I also want to make sure my students know how to get help when they need it. Instead of just memorizing the six elements of dystopian fiction perfectly, I would much rather they know what to do when they can only remember five of them—where to find that information. How to read critically, form an opinion, and then support that opinion based on facts are probably the most important skills I teach students in 6th Grade. And I know that every one of my Middle and Upper School colleagues is focusing on that as well. 

I also think a lot about something I heard from a college professor, who said that writing is the most vulnerable thing we can ask our students to do. I want to make sure that my students feel that reading and writing can be fun, and that they shouldn’t have to feel overwhelmed. I tell my students all the time that if they are feeling stressed out by an assignment, they need to come to me, and we can figure out how to approach it differently. Reading and writing are foundational to everything we do… but they can also be fun!

What do you appreciate most about your students at SSFS?

I appreciate that these middle school students are JOYFUL. They are so fun, and I just like being around them. I like that they arrive in Middle School as these incredible, curious humans, and we get to help them as they figure out who they want to be and what they want to do.  I see that in my middle school students, and also as a parent: SSFS teachers are not looking for what a child is doing wrong; they are looking for what a child wants to do next, and how to build the bridge to get there. I love doing that, too. 

I also love getting to see my students who come back to visit [after they leave 6th Grade]. Two of them came back just on Tuesday and were giving me a hard time about how I rearranged the furniture in the classroom after they left… It’s also fun when they give one of my ‘Carolyn-isms’ back to me; I was giving an opinion about lunch or something, and an 8th Grader told me I needed not to just form an opinion, but to cite evidence to support it! It was great. I love the connections that students have here with their teachers and the longevity of the relationships. 

What about your colleagues? What do you appreciate most about them?

Oh wow, I’ll need another half hour to talk about that! I say this all the time, but I have been in a lot of different schools, and I have never worked with a kinder, more generous, talented, intelligent, fun group of people than my SSFS Middle School colleagues. There is not a single day that someone doesn’t make me laugh. And I have never felt more supported in difficult times, or more celebrated for successes than I do in this building.

Do you have a favorite memory from your time at SSFS?

The current 9th-grade class was my first class that I taught here at SSFS, and they will always hold a very special place in my heart. I’ve always done the 6th-grade camping trips, and because Jean Weiss [MS Global Languages teacher] and I love doing camping trips together—we have dubbed ourselves the “Camping Queens” of the Middle School—we also volunteered to chaperone the 8th-grade camping trip. Last year’s 8th-grade camping trip is probably one of my favorite memories; I went rafting with them, I laughed with them, they had a poncho fashion show in our bunk… It was so fun!

How do you see Quaker values in action in your day-to-day life at SSFS?

I think the Quaker value I often come back to is “simplicity.” I don’t think we need to “solve” every complicated situation or problem that we come across. Just asking a question is usually the best first step in any situation. It’s such a simple way to engage with a person, get to know them, and move forward. We’re looking for what is at our core, for what is most important for our community. 

I am learning every day, and trying to remember to slow down and listen more than I talk. [Laughing] Those are things that don’t necessarily come naturally to me! But I have learned so much more in silence than in speaking. And I’m so grateful to this community for reminding me that that’s how Way Opens.

Learn More Middle School     Literary Magazine Project 6th Grade

Stay tuned for more community spotlights throughout the year!