All right uh I’d like to welcome everybody to the January 8th 2024 uh curriculum uh instruction technology meeting and uh with that I will turn it right over to Mr Ard thank you Miss Anderson uh we have a number of items on the agenda today unfortunately
We have a lot of uh guest presenters here to make for what’s certainly to be a a great meeting uh so batting lead off to start off I’m going to invite up uh FAL Paris and air mark to speak to the Gap German exchange program so it is all
Yours so thank you for having us uh again yeah I’m Mr Ryan Mark and this is joined by Barbara Paris um we just wanted to give you guys some updates on our trip um talk about things like the new costs for this year any sort of itinerary changes um what sort of
Benefits we should expect to see for our students during this trip so it’s called the the Gap trip the German American uh partnership program um and it’s our exchange that we’ve run here that we ran last year that we’ve been running since 2012 um and we wanted to present about the 24
Version with our partner school autan gymnasium gu next slide please okay so this time around we’re switching the sequence um that is to say so in October of 24 um we would be hosting our German exchange students um so it’s a bit of a quick turnaround we
Switched the sequence from last year um to avoid having a really large gap in the trip um margin between last time and this time so um we would be hosting around 20 to 24 students um from utan gymnasium in gingan um this time around um and they would be here in
Univille for about two weeks um and we would match them just like we did last time based on their profiles or interests their Hobbies their preferences to get a good match between the students um and we’re looking at October 10th to the 25th they would be here in univille and we have some
Updated slides this time with some current pictures from our last exchange here so that month of October um when they visit us so roughly the 7th to the 25th as I had mentioned um they do a three stay um in New York City before they come here and then when they do um
Their home stay with our UHS students here it starts the 10th um as I mentioned earlier and we go on field trips to Washington DC with our students um including a select number of our students whose Partners they have um we’ll go to Philadelphia last time we omitted that
But depending on certain factors whether there’s interest whether it fits into the schedule the budgets for the German uh for our German counterparts we might include that again and then this last time we went to Westchester University to show them a university here and uh we
They go to the hers Factory on their own um while they’re here we do some social events like a welcome breakfast um joined by some of our administrative team we do a a bowling event for just the students and some of the parents um and we’ll also do a farewell party on
Their way out say goodbye and um this time around what’s unique about the fact that we would be traveling there um the following summer of 25 is that there’s that they have that connection when they say farewell and then they know they’re going to see their Partners again um and
They have a comfort of knowing that they’re going to see their Partners again in 25 um it’s not going to be as sort of unknown known so um they get to experience what it’s like to live in our community to be a member of uh Unionville chadsford school district and
To live as an American sort of does so to speak so our itinerary I think that was the next slide yes than you so our itinerary by dream travel is the same company we used um last year so there’s no change there on Sunday and this is for our trip over
There the following year of by the way um so on Sunday uh June 8th we would depart from Philadelphia to Munich this time around um not to Frankfurt um the following Monday June 9th uh to Friday July 13th we would do our same Munich excursions from last year we would go to
Daa nberg Saltsburg and we would take either trains or coach buses just like we did last time and then Saturday June 14th we would take our train to gting which is our again our partner city um which is again just the reverse sort of itinerary from last time um and we would
Stay there in Guan until Monday June 23rd um this is where they do their home stay which is like the the main meat and potatoes of this trip they stay with the German family so they get a little bit of travel now they get a little bit of
Immersion in culture um and they we do some trips together as a bigger group while we’re there we go to Berlin we go to goslar which is like a smaller medieval type Town um and then Tuesday the 24th we would take a train to heidleberg which is again it’s where we
Started last time and we’ do some guided tours of the city uh Castle have a dinner and an overnight stay and then on the 25th we’ transfer to Frankfurt and we would depart so the exact opposite of how we did last time and this time again we have some
Updated photos from last time so some sites we’ll see that I had mentioned to give some context we have some pictures from Munich on the left side inside the palace outside of the Old City Hall and we have some pictures from nberg there which we saw last time which we’d see again this
Time okay and then there’s some more pictures from heidleberg which last time was our first night um and Day in Germany um so this time this will be at the end of the trip um you can see them in the old city the other pictures are
Um one of their favorites was ass salt mines in zburg so when they were all there wearing their suits to go into the mine um and then there’s the Southboro Castle on the right um and then the Brandon BG gate um down in Berlin um so
That was a field trip where the German students accompanied them and they really had a a great time there as well um so this is an overview of our trip um the cost is actually we were very happy um our travel agency is dream travel that that we’ve used previously
And so the the cost is fairly um similar to last time it’s just slightly higher um it’s based on 20 Travelers and two chaperon um it includes like all the transportation while we’re there um the roundtrip airfare so we take um coach buses or train um transportation um around Germany um
Usually within Munich when we’re in Munich we added a night um additionally to to Munich because the students gave us feedback last time and they felt like a little bit rushed and not having time to really explore the city on their own um because on top of the we were really
Busy like with all the tours um so it was just non stop and they wanted just to have some a little bit more time to explore and do their shopping so we added a night in Munich um and so everything’s included uh is also when we’re in the hotels like breakfast and
Dinner dinners are included um and the same for the night in heidleberg um all our guided tourist entrances um there’s a 24-hour emergency contact if we needed help um within Germany that we can always call um and then most of our students elected to have the travel protection plan the CFR
So they can cancel for any reason that went up slightly but it is a good um Peace of Mind to have um that this policy so we’ve been promoting that with the parents and and they’ve usually taken our advice on getting that plan in addition I
Think um oh so this is gingan gingan will’ll be staying in for 10 days this is the Homestay portion of the exchange and um it’s a really nice old city in Lowa Saxon in Germany the location is is really great because it’s Central Germany so we can uh get to
Hamburg and Berlin within 3 hours or so um and have the opportunity to visit um Berlin um and then gsav was beautiful that was the Medieval town that Ryan mentioned earlier um that we visited and just sketching in itself is really nice it has a huge um pedestrian shopping
Area and um the the kids really explored the and and and loved going to school from day to day and then finally those are some images from the school itself to otan gymnasium um the they really made connections with the students and and really became part of the community it
Was great to see them interact at school and kind of get a sense what is School Lake in Germany good thing in um the otan gymnasium has a lot of partner schools so not only in the US but also France um we had the England exchange
Was going on at the same time as we were there uh so that was interesting to see too Poland Argentina Spain India Mongolia um so they they’ve been Reviving all these exchanges since Co kind of shut them down a little bit and then finally these are some of
The benefits of our exchange um that the it’s just you can’t really compare it with just a a trip to Germany it’s really experiencing the German Way of Life getting to know the culture firsthand um making lifelong friendships um with their partners and and just becoming independent and and learning
Important interpersonal skills um getting around Munich we use public transportation reading the train schedules and and figuring out how to get to places so I think they get a whole lot of different different experiences out of this that they wouldn’t get um without this kind of
Program I think that was it for the most part uh sounds wonderful um I think I want to add to the benefits that uh the benefit to our whole Community here when the students come to visit um being here and uh and the Goodwill when we go there um do my colleagues
Have any comments questions I feel like I should chime in since my son was in most of those pictures and um really enjoyed the program last year I you guys touched on I think the highlights U I would compare contrast with the international Club um trips that we have um because they’re
Actually very different he did that trip the prior year which is really more being a sightseer this was being a German kid uh when they say when you guys say that they hung out in gingan and ran around the city they did um the German kids are very independent uh they
Take public transportation everywhere and they get around so um it was just a wonderful wonderful experience and then to have the kind of give and take um so if I’m doing it if I’m doing the math right they’ll it’ll be at the fall and then we’ll go through the whole way
Through the school year so it will be a bigger Gap um which I I guess there’s pluses and minuses and it is what it is and what it’s always been but I feel like it was one of the benefits was to be there in the summer and then so soon
That fall they kind of came back and it was really nice because the relationship ship you know built quickly yeah and so um this has been the traditional method before this past one this has been the traditional way where there is this Gap in between I guess what I when I should
Have made more clear is like the gap between the start of the next program um because our partners I believe it was they it works better they the way their funding Works they need to do an exchange like an official exchange within the same year so that’s why we
Had flip that’s another reason why we had to flip your yeah it’s sponsored by um the German government so they actually have it set up that there has to be an exchange every calendar year so that’s why we kind of have it set up the way we
Do okay that makes sense thank you for that but yeah just it’s it’s a wonderful program and thank you for you guys and also the entire Unionville Community is as Alise said a host it impacts teachers and activities that are you know kids are going off to track with there um and
So it is a it’s all it’s all whole Community impact doing this and I know it’s a lot of work for you and I just can’t say enough about how much I love this program just to add on I’m completely supportive I’m I’m glad that this has
Been able to get up and going because I know there were a couple years of stalls so I do think we all benefit from this program so thank you for coming today and thank you for putting the effort into to to host the students and to go with our students to Germany thank
You thank you all right thank you very much uh for our next agenda item I’m going to invite up uh Mr Glenn Lewis uh Mr Lewis is one of our seventh grade math teachers at Patton Middle School and he’s going to speak to two proposed uh course
Revisions uh to two of our math courses at the middle school um and the revision center around the names of the courses so Mr Lewis I’m going to turn it over to you thank you um so for a little background when we adopted the math and focus curriculum which I believe was
Nine years ago if I’m not mistaken uh we looked through out the um all of the content and the materials that we had and we chose course names that we felt best match what we had and we’ve never changed the uh names of the courses um
And we found in the years since that the names are a bit confusing at times and and also misleading so uh the proposal that I fill out is simply to change the names of two courses not to change any of the content but just what we call
Them um so there are two proposals uh centered and all of it is centered around um the idea that we had three courses named pre-algebra uh but only one of those courses was actually pre-algebra uh so uh the real confusion was that we had some students who were
Recommended to take a course with the same name for three consecutive years uh but they were different courses uh we have students who are who are often um it’s um um recommended to have them take a pre-algebra course two years in a row but it’s not the same course uh and it’s
Very confusing um outside of that it was just wrong so uh We’ve uh we worked for a while to think of names I worked with Mike and um Mrs Ward at the middle school our as a principal to come up with some names that we felt best um met
What was happening with the courses uh we thought this was a good time because we have uh a new core resource this year with the Desmos curriculum so the first was to change the sixth grade pre-algebra to um accelerated math Six uh the idea there after talking to the
Sixth grade math teachers is that they felt like it wasn’t really pre-algebra they felt like they were teaching a sixth grade math course and supplementing some pre-algebra items into it and we felt like calling it accelerated math um kind of hinted at that that it was a regular math course
But accelerated to fit additional content into the course um the seventh grade pre-algebra course we’re hoping to keep um the same name we feel like that is the only course that was actually pre-algebra to begin with um and 8th grade we had a pre-algebra course that was really deeper than pre-algebra
Um so we chose introduction to algebra 8 as a name um it is still quote pre-algebra because students will take an algebra 1 course afterwards but um it gets much deeper into algebra than a typical free algebra course um the students who take that course in eth
Grade um have more algebra than the students who were taking pre-algebra in sixth or seventh grade um so we feel like introduction to alge albra um kind of shows that they are doing parts of it but not all of it it’s a little more than pre-algebra and even more so it
Just helps to distinguish between the different courses at the different levels um as a teacher of Algebra I can’t tell you how often I talk to parents who are concerned about their kid having to move down to retake pre-algebra and it’s almost like a script I have that explains that it’s
Not a retake it’s a different course different content different standards it just happens to have the same name and we’re hoping this will take care of some of those issues for us that’s all I have would love any questions that seems like a good idea to change the course names so what is
Typically what’s happening a student in seventh grade is taking prealgebra and then in eth grade they would take what was pre-algebra now would be introduction to algebra correct so we have students kind of at all levels doing what you just described we’ll have students who took what was pre-algebra
In sixth grade and algebra one honors in seventh grade is a big step for a lot of kids but some families felt like they didn’t want their child to retake a course but it wasn’t retaking a course but it sounded like retaking a course the same thing happened six or um
Seventh e8th grade like you just described as well and if I remember correctly when I was this because we made the transition when I was when I was there as the principal the math and focus book for element for middle school was three books uh and they all had uh
Pre-algebra components to them and so my understanding of that at the time it was decided that sixth grade pre-algebra was called sixth grade pre-algebra because it was pre-algebra content and typically those students took algebra the next year as a seventh grader so that may would make sense to call it pre-algebra
Right for those kids and then from there MO majority of our kids were taking pre-algebra in seventh grade because they took algebra in eighth grade so that would made sense to call that pre-algebra and if you weren’t taking algebra in e8th grade then it made sense to call the eighth grade course
Prealgebra right so so the idea then there was this the all three of the books were pre-algebra right uh and the idea that you take pre-algebra before you take algebra is kind of where the idea is it was pre-algebra six seven and eight but Mr Lewis and the teachers do
Are 100% correct that people struggle with the name and understanding that they’re different courses as opposed to retaking a course uh it really was about when you take algebra and what was the course called before you take it which typically is called pre-algebra right so
Um so that’s I think the Genesis and the history of why it was called that as as it went through but it is 100% true that that is confusing to our our parents and our students so I think it’s a good change sounds like it makes all the
Sense in the world um and and particularly for the parents but also for the students they must have felt that same confusion so they can feel their own growth and Mastery as they move through and feel like the name of the course matches what they’re doing
Which is as it should yeah um to Echo what Mr Hoffman said there’s also a uh a component of um like because students were expected to take algebra they had to take pre-algebra and if students didn’t qualify for algebra which was fine it was age appropriate there was
That feeling of well I guess I’m not doing what I’m supposed to to be doing and now there’s no expectation of taking algebra after you’ve taken one of many pre-algebra courses um I objectively this makes a lot of sense also personally it resonates having had three different children do three different tracks and
While I fully support this and think it’s an excellent change I also think it makes a lot of sense at least from my personal experience to have the teacher be able to explain which you’re probably still going to have to do um because particularly middle school and particularly math it’s it’s yes
Complicated so yeah so I appreciate that and I just have to add that um Mr Lewis and his team have done a nice job of creating visual flowcharts of one course that potentially leads into the others and the options there just trying to make it as user friendly for our kids
And for our parents going through a system that can be confusing and in the end we just want to make sure every kids in the just right course course for them that’s going to push and challenge them without being too much too fast and we think this will help with
That all right thank you Mr Lewis and I uh I’d be remiss if I didn’t say I forgot to mention before but um that is that item is up for uh approval as a voting item at next week’s regular board meeting as is the German exchange
Program so um both are voting items at next week’s regular board meeting um next up sticking with the idea of Middle School course revisions we’re going to shift over to our English Department and I’m going to invite up two of our wonderful um 8th grade English Department teachers Miss Kristen light
And Miss honey Beth crop and they’re going to speak to some proposals um of course revisions and a new course actually coming in our uh proposed for our English students in eth grade so uh Mrs light and Mrs CP there are all yours speaking hi all right so um the Genesis
Of this really came from the idea that um in eth grade students can take um traditional English honors or core and then there is an honors creative writing option and that historically has been the case for over 10 years um we have found through conversation through observation that a lot of students who
Once sign up for honors creative writing do so because they have a real passion for writing but don’t necessarily feel confident in that honors course or to they are not signing up for creative writing despite their passion for writing because there is no core option
So we just feel like for balance and to better uh meet the needs of all students we felt like it was important to introduce a core option for creative writing in eth grade um and then that allows the opportunity for all students regardless of level to choose either a
More creative path or a more traditional path and all of the courses teach the same standards they’re all the English standards it’s just that creative writing teaches a little bit more to caters a little more to the creative side of things we do one essay formal essay and then everything else is very
Much poetry and the creative side so we wanted kids who would love that but are terrified of the grammar side of things at an honors level to be able to have that core option I would say we have more than one sa say right because we have the whole T
Analysis but but in terms of the traditional um I think that the structure of the course is what’s really different right so creative writing is structured our modules are the um traits of writing while traditional English has essential questions that have been designed through the curriculum writing
Process um and they are how we structure our courses so I think that’ll be a great opportunity we had surveyed students um about the idea and um I think was about 75% of students said that they really felt strongly that there should be a core creative writing
Option and a lot of the reasons it was interesting one it was either uh I would have taken that if I could have or I um am a little overwhelmed in an honors course so I wish there had been a core option and then there were some kids who
Just kind of acknowledged their mental health needs and said honestly I balance a lot outside of school and when I think about what I want to what I have to do to manage my time I wish there was a core option so we could move at a little bit of a slower
Pace and then hand inand with that are potential course revisions in regards to names just like math um so we have dealt for a long time with confusion so if you are familiar with the trajectory of um English language arts in the Middle School in sixth grade students take
English and literacy so there’s two Ela courses in seventh grade students take English and non-fiction writing so there’s two Ela writing uh courses in e8th grade there’s only one Ela course it’s been called either English or creative writing so there has been a confusion among students that by taking
Creative writing they are getting to avoid a lot of the stuff in English that they don’t like um and I feel like even though we try to advertise it’s in the course handbook that we cover the same standards regardless I think even some parents like well my child is really
Kind of weak in grammar so I don’t want them taking creative writing um and as teachers who teach both we can say there’s definitely consistency yes in regards to what we’re doing regardless of the course so we toyed around with a lot of different options um and took
Surveys yes and talked to curriculum Council and consulted chat and then we kind of looked at each other and we’re like are we just overthinking this and should it just be like English colon traditional English colon of writing and that’s where we kind of are right now to clearly
Identify both as English classes and you’re either taking like the traditional sort of English or the creative writing sort of English and then there’ be the core and honors option on top yeah it makes a lot of sense and again having been through three different three not three different
Paths but different paths it it makes a lot of sense I’m really appreciative always when you invite the children to provide their thoughts especially at this age I was there at the curriculum Council when you presented it and there was just so much support for it like sort of an overwhelming amount of
Support from the students that were there but also the parents that were there and and the staff so um to me this sounds like a good uh change an additional offering how does that work in terms of like Staffing and um like scheduling so that would all be staff
Neutral it’s just going to depend on same certification to teach it it’s just a matter of you know how many kids sign up for it how many sections would you run um it could slightly impact class sizes um depending on you know how many sections we decide to run depending on
How many kids sign up so it may cause some you know one of the English classes to be a little when I say a little like one or two kids more or one or two kids less than than they might be in either of the classes but it’s staff neutral um
From a standpoint of teaching and just to um kind of expand on that to give an idea in terms of the enrollment in each of the eth grade English courses this year um core English has six sections with 119 students honors English has three sections with 62 students and
Honors creative writing has six sections with 131 students in there so we would anticipate that kind of balancing out a little bit and just providing a little bit more options and choice for our kids to go through their English English course in eth grade in an area that
They’re interested in and at the right level for them we have a lot of students who opt to take creative writing who have IEPs and really struggle and they don’t have nearly as many supports they they get support but they just don’t quite have as many supports in that honors class as
They would in a core class with more kids like them so it may be one or two and they have to go to the testing center and they look around and no one else is going to the testing center and it feels awkward to them where in a core
Class you might have half of the class leaving to go to the testing centers that was kind of the impetus for it originally we were feeling like those kids were feeling singled out so it really could be very helpful to their mental state as well as giving them an
Option I’m glad you’re taking some time to think about the the naming and maybe simpler is better are there any other courses with traditional afterwards at the M middle school and I I ask because it has its own connotation and it means something um and it is a different class
Than the creative writing does traditional really capture it or is there I I don’t I don’t know because I don’t want to create another problem by using traditional there’s um there is a traditional algebra and traditional geometry class both offered to eighth graders as well I believe there’s also
In some of our um um I believe there’s a traditional FCS and maybe even a traditional art course as well so that is some language that currently exists in the selection guide that’s helpful so it’s kind of classic or yeah um but we’re already using traditional so yeah
Stick with whatever people know that to be um thank you my last comment is just appreciating calling out how some of the kids acknowledged you know from a you Wellness mental health standpoint that you know I’m going to choose this and I think that’s fantastic that the kids are
Self aware enough to to to make that choice and that you’re giving them choices so thank you and I’d like to just acknowledge our English teachers U because it’s um it’s one thing to um kind of propose something but this is going to take require a lot of work on
Their part and they’re doing it in the best interest of the students so basically in essence creating another prep for themselves um and uh putting more work on their plate because they feel like it’s the right thing to do for kids so I just want to point that out
There’s there’s a significant workload to that it’s it’s not insignificant to them uh to create a new course and to add that to their teaching load so thank you thank you all right Mrs crapp and Mrs L thank you so much um that is also a voting
Item scheduled for next week’s uh board meeting and both of the last proposals the uh name changes to the middle school math course and the revisions to the English courses as well as the new course coming forward now um ahead of course selection at the middle school
Which is scheduled for a couple months so these if approved should be up and running for the 2425 school year now as we shift away from Patton we’re going to head over to the high school for some more I just I would love to hear back about
Maybe what if could signed up for it and what just you know just as a followup that would be really helpful no rush on that but but when you have the information absolutely I appreciate that Dr BR we can definitely report back out especially once we get an idea of how
Many kids have selected each definitely I’ll make a note of that uh so sticking with the theme of course revisions and proposals we’re going to shift over to the high school but stick within the English Department and I’m going to invite up Mrs key Lannon and Mrs Amy ahart and they’re
Going to speak to to a proposed revision to our 12th grade English first level course uh it it is all yours hello it’s different to be here to talk about curriculum stuff instead of international Club although we were just talking shop about that in the back too
Um so Amy and I are here today to just share what we’ve been working on in terms of a reenvisioning of the 12 first level course so not a new course but um because it already exists as a space in our schedule but we just realized through a lot of conversations that this
Particular group of St students needed to be serviced in a different way um I’ve been teaching first level for 17 years and since that day and this year the type of student in that classroom is incredibly different um we’ve had lots of shifts in who they are and we needed
To shift a little bit in how we’re approaching their education um are we able to open that at all to see the just so I can make sure I’m speaking to the things that we wrote down so um I met with two other English Department colleagues and we did talk a lot about
The name but um that seems to be a theme for the English courses so that is what we have up there BEC um right now because that’s what it’s currently listed as and since it’s not a new course we stayed with that and we um feel like there’s there’s something
Important there too in addressing the students needs that will be served in this particular level um so it might be a secondary conversation later to talk about that name right now we’re sticking with it because we know what the vision is for this particular group um but we
Really just noticed that the kids in this um subset of students just had a career path or maybe even a college path but they had other needs that went along with their education so we started to think about what that could look like to really be sure everyone was taken care
Of with those very different needs and objectives and goals and likes and dislikes um and we began to think about the port of The Graduate concept and we thought that this particular group of students is also not one who’s running home doing homework getting this stuff
Situated on their own so we thought it might be a really nice place to kind of give them uh a chance to shape this project with some support so the P the the prongs the points of the star we didn’t really know what to call them uh
Points of the star is that what we’re doing okay um they allow for us to kind of keep the content p and meet our standards as an English Department but also mix in the elements of real world skill sets that are necessary as well um for many who are just heading there
Directly out of high school and don’t understand why they need to take English in the first place so um we thought it was a way to incorporate the content but also talk more about the skills that go with accessing that content and then translate that into some real world
Experience um so we thought that these these points points allowed us to do that as sort of our our Northstar of the curriculum um so I think those are all the ABC on the way down we tried to create a little bit of an objective that
Each unit if you will might look at um of course these are things that we would work on in much more specificity as we start to write but this was sort of the vision we had moving forward I think that’s it I had a chance to talk to Mr alard about
This last week and I think this is a fantastic Direction absolutely fantastic in fact it makes sense to me across the board oh that is I guess what I wanted to add too um we’ve talked a lot about first level and how just in a very
General sense we want to do better for this group across all uh grade levels uh it’s kind of nice that we’re starting from the top down approach I think right now with 12th grade um we had met with some other little groups along the way and identified that 9th and 10th grade
Are probably a little bit more skill Centric only because there is still testing involved we’re trying to figure out who belongs in what level because there is some misplacement coming over from the middle school and then you know when they finally get the hang of it and
Figure out what it means to be a high school student they can learn maybe I’m not first level and so there’s a lot of moving Parts in ninth and 10th grade so we see that as a little more traditional to use come back to that word um and
Then 11th and 12th sort of had a different host of things we needed to focus on because these are kids who’ve now kind of settled into maybe some of their Tech schools and um you know kind of toyed with maybe I will go to college
But what does that look like for me and so those differences are very specific to the 11th and 12th grade route and the ninth and 10th grade route and we thought that in general we’re going to have to take a look at everything but this was sort of our starting point um
For that revamping if I could just jump in ke is doing an amazing job um we originally were slated to revise 11th and 12th grade and once we open into 12th grade we said let’s put the breaks on a little bit let’s see how this works with 12th
Grade and then see next year what do we need to do in 11th grade to prepare these kids for 12th grade um and I just really commend the teachers that worked on this um they all H teach or have taught the first level classes and lots of times that curriculum seems more like
A watered down approach to the academic level which sometimes maybe feels like they’re getting not the leftovers but maybe they’re not you know the focus wasn’t on them it was on the academic students and then we kind of gave them something a little bit watered down so I
Love that the focus on this class is for these students and the kids that are uh in in that classroom so we’re we’re excited um and I I think that I was so surprised when they sent the proposal over and we saw the the points of the
Star how that lined up it just and how it matches the literature and applying the skills to real life it really kind of all came together so I think the topics look fantastic can I ask a clarifying question um and I’m just I think I’m just not getting it so
This is kind of the way you’re going to go through the year through the different pieces of the portrait of a graduate are they still indeed completing their kind of Capstone paper project presentation as all seniors are working on that year throughout the year or is this their learning Concepts and
Then they’ll work on it like how does the the the the project um the graduation project relate to the course content I haven’t been directly involved with any graduation project creation from my perch um I can speak to that a little bit in all honesty they’re kind
Of existing in separate Lanes right now but where this is going to emerge for the kids is going through the course and having an opportunity within their English course to talk about and really dive into what does contribute to society mean and how does that affect me and then simultaneously they’ll be
Working on their senior C Capstone final project that centers around the portrait of a graduate so I would anticipate for these students that they’re going to have an opportunity for these Lanes to merge this is probably with in terms of within a course the most direct tie into
The portrait of a graduate that we’ve seen quite yet and um I think it’s really exciting for our 12th grade students who are about to go off into the world to have a course that’s going to center around that work and also be doing that senior project that is
Centered around portrait or graduate I think there’s going to be lots of tie-ins but I think we’re also just scratching the surface of what those tie-ins are going to be and I would imagine in the next steps as the English teachers start writing out the specific
Sequence of the course that ties to the overall senior project will show themselves and they’ll be able to be linked a little bit more directly right now they’re not directly in line with one another but I think they will be when we get a little further along in the planning process
All makes sense I think it could be also confusing for them unless it they’re they’re clear like I’m doing this in this class and I’m also getting all these emails about these very same things that I need to be working on this so I I thought when you started talking
That it was like the class was going to help them get the most out of the senior project throughout the course of the year um because it is kind of like an additional um enrichment kind of thing that would be more meaningful for this group of kids if they were kind of being
Like help helping help navigating so I see your point it’ll come together but I also see a potential kind of confusion for them that’s great feedback M tber to keep in mind as we’re communicating with kids about the course and the nature of the course and what the syllabus looks
Like um that while they are Standalone they work with one another but it’s not taking this course in Li of the senior project or anything like that so thank you great great feedback I appreciate that I also want to compliment the uh English Department here at the high
School it is excellent uh backward design here uh excellent curriculum writing um taking that working backwards from your from your goals and uh I really appreciated that when I looked at the uh the document it’s excellent work that you guys are putting together we learned that from someone close excellent thank you very
Much all right and that course revision proposal will also be up as a voting item at next week’s board meeting so miss zah har and Mrs Lannon thank you so much for sharing today uh sticking with the theme of course proposals I’m going to invite up Mrs Megan kky one of our
High school science teachers who is going to share on a proposed new course uh for a um science research course at the high school all right thank you for having me this evening so I think there’s a couple slides um just a little bit about myself
So Megan KY I teach of the high school I teach biology and AP environmental science um I’m also involved with the science fair so I’m the science fair coordinator um a little background we had 10 students that went to science fair and competed and did very well last
Year um but some feedback that they gave me is uh the students that moved on to let’s say isap the international science and engineering Fair um had the opportunity to complete research in school somehow whether that be independent or whether that be a science research course so that got me I kind of
Filed that away um and last year I I spent time in the Blended cohort and wrote a blended um environmental science course so with those two I married together the idea of a blended science research course um that I’m proposing this evening and just some two sidebars
Um two clubs I’m involved with is science in the bag club and I have four 40 students that come every Wednesday during their lunch and they design stem experiments for our fourth and fifth grade students because they want to ignite their passion for science in our elementary school students which is
Incredible and so I say that because we have students that are very passionate about science at the high school um I also have a biology Society club that I sponsor where there’s probably 80 members that are interested in just various aspects of and how they can get
Involved and how they can be involved with research uh we just had 40 students that were involved with a dissection in my class during lunch so all these things they’re taking time you know out of their schedule it was interesting I told them to eat lunch prior to
Coming or after not during but uh we got to see what the bull frow gave for lunch and it was very very interesting but um again so so all of these kids are very interested in science and very passionate about science and so this course I think will just really ignite
Again and continue to help them be passionate about science if you don’t mind going to the next slide so the the core principles of it are really just digging deeper into scientific research and that’s not something that they um are necessarily exposed to or have the opportunity to do
In other courses that we currently have so in this Blended setting it would allow them to conduct research on or off- campus which some students are already involved with um different like University of Penn um and different professors and they leave school and they go to um different campuses so this
Affords them that opportunity or they can also Zoom with cooperating professors and knowly have to leave every single day and then in class when they’re with me they would we would be going through the research methods um participating in cratic seminars peer reviews going through what is it that
You’re researching what are your ideas how can we help you formulate um the those ideas and come up with a good research um opportunity and then we’ll go to the library and identify different scientific journals um and then just to help them with like different reference management tools to kind of bring
Together all those journals that they’re collecting to help them with their research all right so how will I start this how can I um you know help them learn this experience so I also just want to and thank you for this the um National biology teacher conference in
Um Baltimore and it was there that I learned about the wakia project which really is just walking through the whole science research concept and so with this it’s bringing about biodiversity we’re going to go out and we’re going to collect arthopods um and in arthopods there is this bacteria that’s the wakia
Bacteria and we can um take a look at those arthropods and through biotechnology so we’ll extract that DNA um we’ll run the gel we’ll be able to see if the arthopods in our area have that wakia um and then they’ll analyze their data and then they can actually publish
Their research within wakia and um that really will be our first quarter of curriculum and I think it’s really exciting and it’s not something again that we’re necessarily doing in any of other our other classes and then there’s the just a course description to give you um an
Idea as to what else we’ll be doing in this blenda learning setting Megan I know this has been something that uh the science Department’s talked about for a long time trying to find a place for that there were students that were doing independent study how do we incorporate
More real science science fair and it really and Blended learning and it all just came it’s really great idea like you really just brought a bunch of different um pieces together here that makes sense to connect a lot of Dots here that connect and it makes a lot of
Sense that they connect I think it’s going to it’s it’s a real Niche that I think a lot of our kids will access I think we’ve seen the need for that but it took somebody like you to be able to pull it all together so um this is this
Is a wonderful proposal and thanks for bringing it forward you shared this also at the curriculum Council and it was I mean first of all the students that were there they were like well I leave every day to go to pen and do research I mean
I was just like what but um they were really excited about it and as was the rest of curriculum Council so and I think you know some of some of the students who take this class are going to go on to be researchers and some of
Them all of them probably are just going to be consumers of research and so I think to really walk through um the research methods and how you do it in high school is going to benefit them greatly in college and then and Beyond so I think this is a great idea thank
You I wanted to say that my daughter was one of the ones who deected the fraud and that was a fun evening that thank you I asked the question at curriculum Council and I still have it’s not a concern I’m all on board with this class it’s about the students that are taking
This um and what is our expectation of an honors level course and is this a standard level course or is this an honors level course and I know you were thinking it’s not going to be I think it just I’m I just think it’s you guys know better it’s just something to consider
For what we expect um and what the what the time and their schedule and what they’re competing for what the other options are and wanting those kids to take this course and is it in some way potentially a disincentive even though they’re passionate about their research
It just I I know how high school kids schedule um and I I’ve thought about that and because I’ve taught AP to level one I feel very comfortable differentiating that for all the kids that take it so I feel comfortable with it being an honors but also with it being academic and
Having those kids in the same class at the same time so I think that there’s just different scaffolds in which I would present the material at an academic level as opposed to an honors level so I think we can have all of those kids together um so perhaps we
Have as and honors and have it as an academic and present it that way and it actually it mirrors that like when you look at World Language at times sometimes the numbers aren’t always you know there may be like a level five Spanish and an AP Spanish and it you
Know you can’t run them together because the numbers maybe there was four kids in in five and 14 and AP so you combine them and you differentiate within the class but the kids are still taking five or they’re taking AP or whatever it may be so y yep it’s because I thought about
Your question I appreciated that and I think that that’s the best probably answer and solution for it almost like an honors option or something um that as we would do in a yeah I it’s it’s a detail but I think it I think it will kind of come into the scheduling process
Um and and your your solution makes sense I believe you can teach to the because it’s so Independent by by definition what they’re doing um and you’re going to be working with each kid’s individual interest so that makes sense it’s just the level at which they’re they’re performing and what
They’re doing does it kind of match the the GPA piece at the end of it I guess if we’re honest yeah yeah well and I think that’s something which you that could be differentiated in the final output of the of the research project that there’s different expectations you
Know in terms of what the what that final project looks like based on whether they honors versus versus an economic track yeah could this also be maybe a summer thing you know a lot of times kids are thinking about doing something interesting in summer like my daughter
Was trying to think about a research um piece at upen so if this is a program that could be taken over summer uh and they if it’s self-guided I don’t know how much of it is self-guided um just another thought it could be a summer thing where they can dedicate some time
On it I think that the research if they’re uh working with a professor that could certainly be then what they’re carrying into the course I don’t know if it’s a course that would necessarily run on its own asally the whole time during the summer excellent thank you very much appreciate
It thank you so much Mrs kky appreciate that and uh this will also be up for uh a board vote at next week’s regular board meeting so the fin final course revision proposal up here I’m going to share out uh this is a um course proposal from our
High school music department so we currently have a full year thre day per cycle concert choir course that runs at our high school and uh we have a number of students who participate in that but the although it’s three days of cycle it being a f year option um does take a
Significant chunk of flexibility from our students as they’re scheduling their courses throughout the school year so the proposal here is within our music department to add a one semester course option to go along with the full year concert choir so the con the content covered in the course um having to do
With uh music theory and participa and vocal skills and participating in the Contra choir uh would remain the same but for students to allow for a little bit more of scheduling flexibility students would have the option to take the course for um three days of cycle
For one semester or if they chose to do the full year option they could do so uh but the really the nature of this uh proposal is to create some more flexibility for kids so that they can still participate in our music department which does such a wonderful
Job while also taking other courses that fit well into their schedule and it would be both a fall and a spring option yes so essentially for concert choir there would be a fall concert choir option a spring concert choir option and then a full year concert choir
Option and with the caveat that there were kids that enough kids that sign up for it right I mean it could be that one section’s worth of kids it may only run in the spring or something like that but yeah thank you Mr Alin great point also just to point out that
There’s been a very successful transition similar to this in our um in our electives at the high school when we transitioned the full year personal finance to the semester personal finance uh because so many kids wanted to take it but the full year Lane was really
Difficult uh to to squeeze in and then when it went to a semester it fit really well and complemented other courses so I think this will do do something similar for kids give them an opportunity but uh make it more attractive very good uh there any more
Questions back to you well I think that brings us actually to the end of our agenda Miss Anderson the next items are the uh curriculum instruction report and Technology report that Mr webin I will give at the um work session later this evening but other than that I know it’s
A number of uh voting items for this month but I turn it back to you Miss Anderson I always appreciate when the teachers come in and it reminds me what I excellent teachers we have um and how they’re always um putting the kids first and thinking forward into the mission
And the kids reality in the kids future and I always appreciate hearing from them so thank you for coordinating that and does anybody else have any comments questions before we wrap up just one final compliment for me uh tonight to Mr Ard when you have that many presentations and that many different
Folks presenting uh something they’re passionate about to do it all in an hour and a half as many present ations as we had and to do it well and concisely doesn’t happen on its own so um when I looked at the agenda it’s like good luck so um well done he accepted the
Challenge and did an awesome job thank you Mr Hoffman and I promise the only reason that we were finishing early is my own anxiety of going way over time with that many agenda items so we we got there thank you sir all right I think we’re done with h the meeting thanks