The ability of faculty to be responsive to student needs is one of our school’s strengths.
Beacon’s success has been built largely on a
homegrown, teacher-developed, standards-based curriculum. The ability of the faculty to be responsive
to student curricular needs has always been one of our school’s strengths.
With the introduction of the common core, we
saw new opportunities to strengthen our curriculum, infusing it equally with
increased rigor and support. We began
work in 2011-2012 revising our ELA and math curriculum to include common core
standards. Beginning in summer 2013, all
teachers received ongoing PD in Wiggins and McTighe’s Understanding by Design
Model. By January 2014, teachers in all
subject areas began developing curricular units for one of their courses. The faculty met in triads monthly to use a
protocol to review the unit templates and provide warm and cool feedback. The expectation is that all units for one
course per teacher will be complete by the end of this school year. All units for all courses will be completed
by August 2016.
What we found surprising about our involvement in Race to the
Top...
I
think the sheer amount of work came as a surprise, but was outweighed by the
extremely high quality of the feedback offered by teachers to one another. This initiative truly revealed that we are
all in this together.
Race to the Top impacted our district by...
For the first time as an institution, teachers have put a
significant amount of their academic work out for critique by their peers. There was some trepidation, to be sure, but
the feedback sessions have proven beneficial to teachers and provided them with
valuable information as they revise units discussed and prepare their next
unit. I believe this work has led to an
increased appreciation amongst the faculty for the work that they do each and
every day to engage our students and prepare them for what lies ahead.
In the future, we plan to keep this going through...
This
work will continue through the next two academic years as outlined above.
Questions?
Contact Michael Skeldon, Principal at Beacon
Charter High School for the Arts mskeldon@beaconart.org or
401-671-6261.