DLT Update Posted to Weekly Newsletter April 15, 2024

Monday, April 15

Curriculum Review: Our curriculum review process continued last week with extended meetings for SS English and Freshman Seminar. Our English department made significant progress in sharing and documenting approaches to vocabulary, grammar, reading, and writing. This work is essential for ensuring alignment across our programs. The content of Freshman Seminar is fundamental for supporting our students in their transition to high school. Our rising 9th graders will experience a revamped and refreshed course for the 2024-2025 school year. Please be sure to watch for the updated course description. 

On Wednesday the ES faculty made great strides in unit development for the 2024-2025 school year. Our aim is to provide our teachers with ample time to plan new units that target multiple disciplines and are inquiry-driven. We are ensuring that all teachers have thorough understanding of the standards and performance indicators and that learning engagements and assessments are clearly linked to the objectives. 

Professional Development: Central to our professional growth model is benefiting from observations by colleagues. Last week’s visits were a joy to experience, ranging from KG5 students understanding the importance of revision in writing, to grade 2 students being introduced to the term “inference,” to high school students learning about economies of scale and trade zones, to middle school students exploring with Tinkercad in Tech class. Feedback is provided immediately following these visits with a primary focus being student engagement and evidence of learning. 

Student Support Services: Our schoolwide Student Support Team is conducting a thorough review of our Student Services Handbook and met with Leadership this week to share recommended changes. This process will continue through April and May and we aim to have a newly-revised Student Support Services Hanbook ready to share prior to the end of the school year. 

Instructional Leadership Team: The Instructional Leadership Team met on Tuesday to reflect on two essential areas: 1) how we are doing with practicing “suspending our certainty” to ensure that we are open-minded listeners, and 2) how we are doing in relation to the team goals we established at the beginning of the school year. Each member has set one objective in relation to these two areas and has an accountability partner to check in with next week. 

NEASC: Our Foundations Report was submitted to NEASC and our two visitors who will be joining us on May 6, 7, and 8. Howard Thiery, Lead Visitor, joins us from Connecticut, where he is Superintendent of Schools for Region 10, and Susan McKinney,  joins us from the United States and is the former Head of School of Oslo International School. We are very much looking forward to hosting our visitors and partnering with NEASC as a means of supporting our continuous improvement. 

Mark your calendar! 

School-wide Parent Coffee: The ACS Math Continuum, Friday April 19, 8:15 in the Theater.