If you were given six months away from work or school to pursue anything you desired, what would you do? Dana Hall School offers a rare program for classroom teachers: the opportunity to go on sabbatical for six months with full pay, or an entire year with half pay.
According to the Dana Hall Employee Handbook, The Congdon Sabbatical Program gives faculty members the opportunity for “professional growth, personal refreshment, and recognition and enhancement of their contributions to teaching and to the life of the School.” During their sabbatical, teachers are free from any major teaching duties and encouraged to refine an area of interest. From international travel to screenwriting, each teacher’s sabbatical is unique to their goals.
Dr. Julia Bucci, an English teacher who has taught at Dana Hall for 20 years, went on sabbatical for a full 2023-2024 academic year. During her leave, she honed in on her interests: making digital stories and screenwriting. Dr. Bucci finished a screenplay that she had worked on for nearly 10 years. Her sabbatical gave her “the gift of uninterrupted time” to finish her script and submit it to a major international contest. Now, her script has become a finalist, one step closer to becoming produced.
Looking ahead, Ms. Linda Derezinski, the head of Dana Hall’s English department, is going on sabbatical for the second half of this academic year. During her leave, Ms. Derezinski hopes to strengthen her poetry skills, with the specific goal of submitting to a publication. Poetry is a relatively new area of focus for Ms. Derezinski, which made a sabbatical particularly appealing as her interest in exploring poetry grows.
During sabbatical, many teachers focus on furthering Dana Hall curricula. Dana Hall’s history teacher and Global Scholars coordinator Ms. Heather Panahi returned to campus since her half-year sabbatical at the end of last school year. Given Dana Hall’s mission of providing students with “a unique opportunity to prepare themselves for the challenges and choices they will face as women and citizens of the world,” Ms. Panahi reworked the Global Scholars program to best suit Dana students’ needs and “revisit how Dana Hall supports global education”.
Dr. Bucci’s sabbatical, on the other hand, allowed her to reimagine Mirage, Dana Hall’s literary arts magazine. She developed a systematic training for literary editors to increase students’ skills and confidence and improve Mirage as a whole.
Not only will Ms. Derezinski use this poetry-focused sabbatical to enhance her personal writing, but she will also devote time and energy to creating more poetry curriculum to bring back for Dana’s English department.
The sabbatical is also a wonderful opportunity for teachers to return to the role of the student. Along with writing personal poetry, Ms. Derezinski plans to complete both online and in-person coursework and workshops. Although an in-person class setting can feel “risky … being a student is always a great opportunity for a teacher,” allowing them to sit on the other end of the desk and return with a new sense of understanding.
Similarly, Dr. Bucci applied for and was accepted to a workshop for teachers at the Kenyon Review. Dr. Bucci engaged with other teachers, moving “seamlessly between sharing our own writing and sharing assignments and activities from our classroom.”
Sabbaticals give teachers time to travel off season. Dr. Bucci took advantage of this opportunity, spending nine days shadowing an art historian around museums throughout Paris.
Likewise, Ms. Panahi traveled, going on a Civil War road trip and following a freedom bus trail map from Washington, D.C. to Montgomery, Alabama. It served as “one of the most amazing experiences” of her life, as she visited historic sites, talked with locals, and immersed herself in the history. This trip was incredibly eye-opening to her, helping her understand how, when facing difficult historical events, there are different ways to process.
Ms. Derezinski plans to go on a retreat towards the end of her sabbatical, after finishing her poetry work.
With around one to two Dana Hall teachers going on sabbatical each year, many teachers are grateful for the Congdon Program. Ms Panahi, for instance, notes that “the sabbatical is such a gift because it gives [teachers] the gift of time to explore things” that they would not have otherwise been able to do. The sabbatical program allowed her to prioritize herself and her interests. “A lot of times in our jobs,” Ms. Panahi expresses, “we do not make time for taking care of ourselves.”
Reflecting on her sabbatical, Ms. Panahi notes that “Today I’m a better teacher and colleague because I took the time to take care of myself”. The sabbatical is not just a break, but it gives teachers like herself the space to pursue interests and return to the community.
Ms. Derezinski notes that throughout her teaching career at Dana Hall, there were many “forces pulling [her] away” from taking a sabbatical. Now that her children are older and other factors in her life are more flexible, Ms. Derezinski is excited to seize the opportunity and delve into poetry writing.
As Dr. Bucci describes, Dana Hall teachers are “an incredibly competent, high-powered group, always seeking ways to improve”. Their constant devotion to uplifting and enlightening students can often go unrecognized, however. While many corporate jobs promote hard workers with benefits and advanced titles, the rewards for teaching are more intangible. The sabbatical program at Dana Hall is a well-loved and unique opportunity that acknowledges the dedication of our unique educators and invests in their growth.
Photo source: Dr. Bucci’s travels in Paris during her sabbatical.