Diane Gilbert-Diamond: George C. Lee Family Teaching Chair
Carol Smith Miller P ’03, ’05

Parents have probably noticed that the veteran teachers, their gray-haired contemporaries, have been joined in recent years by an increasing number of fresh young faces, many of whom are bringing outstanding academic backgrounds and rich professional experiences to teaching for the first time. As the holder of Milton Academy’s George C. Lee Family Teaching Chair, Diane Gilbert-Diamond of the science department has taken on the role of mentor and leader of the younger faculty members. The Lee family established the chair to create opportunities for professional development among the younger faculty members and to foster a sense of belonging. Diane shares the chair with Mathew Bingham, also of the science department. (Matt was appointed last year; the term is two years, but a recipient is named each year.)

This is Diane’s fourth year at Milton, teaching Biology, Genetics and Methods. She feels that the situation for younger teachers has improved in her time at Milton. There are now many more new, young teachers, forming a real community and supporting one another. In the past, such teachers, whose experience and everyday life issues can be quite different from those of veteran teachers, often felt isolated. As a result, retention of new teachers was an issue. The Lee Chair helps Diane to address this with programming aimed at faculty members who have been teaching or at Milton fewer than six years. The first event planned for this academic year is a new teacher retreat. A total of 25 Milton teachers, including some veterans will spend a weekend in New Hampshire sharing ideas about teaching and getting to know one another. Future plans include guest speakers, discussions and social events. The Lee Chair also makes it possible for newer teachers to attend conferences and funds the purchase of books and other materials to enhance professional development.

Diane was initially drawn to teaching in college when, she says, she began tutoring friends who had slept through their Biology classes. She found it "exciting" to communicate her understanding of biology. Born in Hawaii and raised in New Jersey (with a brief stay in Georgia), Diane attended Dartmouth. After college she worked as a researcher at the Whitehead Institute Genome Center on the Human Genome Project. Through a program in which science teachers come to the Institute for continuing education, she met the science department head at another independent school, who encouraged her pursuit of a teaching career. Diane is very happy with her Milton teaching experience. During the summers she does cognitive neuroscience research for a psychologist at the Martinos Center for Biolomedical Imaging, a center jointly run by MGH, MIT and Harvard. It’s unusual, she says to have the opportunity to do both secondary school teaching and research, and she is thrilled with the combination.

Science education at Milton is different from Diane’s own high school experience. She was taught a lot of information, facts. At Milton, the faculty emphasize thinking and doing, teaching skills so that when students no longer remember the details they can think through to solve problems. Diane recalls her own experience in college of studying intensely to learn material for exams and then finding that she had "amnesia" a few days later. In general, in Milton science classes the total volume of content is less, but it is taught at a deeper level. The hope is that students will internalize major concepts. Diane also likes to supplement the traditional classroom experience by bringing in outside speakers and having students visit labs, something with which parents can be helpful.

Diane says that the use of technology is the hot topic in science education today. The issue is how to incorporate it into the curriculum. Technology can very valuable as an aid but, she says, there is always the danger of using it as a shortcut. For example, "virtual" labs are much faster and cleaner, but should they replace real life experience? Her opinion is that tools such as the virtual lab can supplement, not replace the real thing.

In addition to her classroom responsibilities and her work as the Lee Chair, Diane coaches field hockey, is the new faculty sponsor of Amnesty International and is the faculty sponsor for HAPA, a cultural club for bi-racial students that explores the issues around fitting into two cultural identities (Hapa means "half" in Hawaiian.) Diane’s sister, Elizabeth Gilbert joins her at Milton this year in the English department. Diane makes her home with her husband and her dog in Hathaway, which she affectionately describes as "warm and cozy."

More information on the Lee Chair