Learn from the Best: SSA's Staff Go to the Most Elite Schools
Teachers share some of the most interesting things they learned about our strategies after just two days at staff training.
Our Curriculum Director, Garrett Barnes, shares what was different in 2019 from past years.
Teachers talk about what they’re most looking forward to when the students arrive.
Read more about our strategies, and what makes SSA different, on our blog.
Come to SSA to Learn From Elite College Students
Learn from the best - our staff at SSA are college students or recent college grads from the best colleges in the United States and abroad. In 2019 alone, our staff came from Princeton, UCLA, Duke, Boston College, and Brown, among others. Learn more about our curriculum, straight from our teachers themselves!
In 2019, we filmed this video to give people some insight into our teaching strategies and methods, and so you can meet some of our teachers.
Teachers share the most interesting thing they learned after just two days of staff training:
Some of the most interesting things they learned:
You can answer many questions on the reading section of the SAT without even reading the passage — and get them right!
There are often patterns in the answer choices. If you recognize the pattern, you may not even need all the information from the question; you can eliminate answers based solely on the pattern.
How to break down questions that initially seem subjective, and break down questions to decipher what the SAT is actually asking.
Tips to be more efficient with your time on the SAT.
Once you identify the type of question using our question types, that makes it so much easier because you know what to do and how to approach the problem.
A number of teachers also stressed how much they wished they had our strategies when they were in high school taking the SAT — something we often hear!
Our Curriculum Director speaks about the most exciting thing we’re doing differently:
In 2019, we began to focus more on content and pedagogy simultaneously — teaching our staff to think about not only how to answer the question but also how to teach the question to students.
We want to create learning environments that don’t feel like SAT classes, or like classes at all. One of our biggest goals is to make the SAT feel fun.
Our staff is our biggest asset!
Teachers need a minimum of 680 verbal/680 math in order to teach at SSA, and often their average score is even higher than that. Beyond just test scores, though, the people we hire are flexible, enthusiastic, and engaging. We are excited each year by the caliber of the staff we are able to hire and by how deeply they care for our students.
What our teachers look forward to:
Some of the things our teachers were most excited about:
Seeing students have epiphanies in class, and helping them understand what they were previously struggling with.
Being a positive role model and mentor for students.
Giving back.
Helping shape the future, and inspire a younger generation.
Giving students agency — helping them figure it out for themselves.
Watching a group of strangers become friends, and even more like family.
Even though camp may look very different this year than in the past, our commitment to our staff and students looks the same, no matter what.
