Caravel academy Reviews

Excellent place to work. Good teachers. Fun classes. Tons of nice people. YA CAM!!!!

Good school. Excellent music & sports programs. Very expensive but worth it. Had son in DE public school which was 10+ miles from home even though public schools were across our street.

Great private school. Expensive but worth every dollar.

Great private school. Expensive but worth the money.

A private school in Delaware, from elementary school to high school.

I did not have a comfortable experience as a new Art teacher here at Caravel. I was very excited at first- it would have been my first teaching job without a license & they were aware of this. I was hired at the beginning of September with no training or formal orientation. I had a meeting with my mentor but she was dealing with her own workload and grad school so I never got the chance to evaluate her class as I requested or been evaluated myself. She gave me a substantial amount of art materials but I ultimately was left to develop my own curriculum/lesson plans since there are none for Art here, which I wasn't bothered by. I studied Fine Arts for 7 years so I had the talent, the passion and a BA degree under my belt.
Because of COVID we were operating in a flip-floppy hybrid instruction (both in person and virtual students) which I also never received training for. At the follow up meeting that *I* requested the Asst. Principal saw me looking overwhelmed & asked if this job was "the right fit for me", which made me feel very insecure about my employment even after I reassured her and promised that can keep it together.
A lot of the staff, including my mentor, appeared to be judgmental and remained within their "cliques", none of which I felt welcome in. Not a month went by, I had a panic attack in front of the class and once she heard she emailed to check in, then set up to meet with her & the headmaster during our in service day. During that time they went over what happened in the class and what the students said. They deemed that I was not acting professionally and told me to turn in my keys and clear out my things that day. I showed them the projects & grading rubric I was working on with the students to which Dr. Lamey responded "We appreciate you trying, we really do... But teaching is hard & it's not for everyone ". This response hit me hard as someone with no formal classroom management training.
Two weeks later I stopped by Caravel to turn in a docuviewer I forgotten to return. My then-mentor and other art teacher were chatting in the parking lot but after they had seen me pull in they immediately got in their cars and left. No one had greeted me inside or out as I turned in the equipment. It was all very uncomfortable and spoke volumes to me about their professionalism at that time-- not mine.

I will certainly miss those students whom I helped make that first step into the Fundamentals of Art and 3D Design. Keep creating.