DLT Update Posted to Weekly Newsletter April 8, 2024

April 8, 2024

Curriculum Review:

Earlier this year we established a school-wide Curriculum Review process that continues to forge ahead. The first stage involves the review of the content we teach in all courses and its documentation. Last week ES Social Studies,  SS Social Studies, and World Languages teachers met in their respective teams to continue the review of the written curriculum.

Social Studies: Using the AERO and C3 Social Studies frameworks, we are redeveloping Social Studies units of study in the ES, and course content and/or offerings in the SS for the 2024-2025 school year. The unit and/or course descriptions will be shared with the community prior to the beginning of the next  school year. 

World Languages (WL):  Using frameworks from the MOE, ACTFL, CCSS, and national standards from Colombia, the WL department is developing learning outcome expectations for our K-12 Spanish program. We will continue to use Santillana as a primary resource and have partnered with Ficción Express (an online platform), for use with our MS students. Data collected thus far regarding this resource indicates increased interest in Spanish reading and we will continue to monitor its use and impact. 

Professional Development

Several staff members recently attended off-site professional development (PD) events and several staff applied for and were granted professional development funds for specific learning objectives. Over the past month, these experiences include: 

• AMISA (regional international conference)

• Invigorating High School Math

• Developing AI Literacy Guidelines

• Science of Reading, and

• our University Counselor being invited to Spain to gain greater understanding of European University opportunities for our students.

Instructional Leadership Team (ILT)

The ILT meets every two weeks with our primary objective being to learn how to become, and how to lead others in becoming, high-functioning teams. During last week’s meeting, AMISA and Math conference  attendees shared key takeaways and the intended impact of these takeaways on our programs and/or instructional practices. Some highlights include: 

• Using phenomena in science to launch units of study

• Fostering engagement in mathematics by using relevant and relatable real-world content

• Dignity as the basis for improving all interactions on campus

• Creating succinct guiding documents for ACS that capture our mission and values and serve as our touchstone for continuous improvement 

• European universities as viable and noteworthy options for our graduates

Math Restructuring

The math restructuring team met on Tuesday to hear conference highlights and to continue developing understanding of how math pathways will evolve over the next several years. In addition, the math team explored a bank of resources aimed at increasing student engagement and critical thinking in mathematics. 

AI Literacy Committee

An AI Literacy Committee has been formed, whose members include high school students, secondary teachers, and elementary teachers. This committee’s work focuses on gathering usage data and establishing AI Literacy Guidelines for our school aimed at ensuring AI literate students and practitioners, supported through responsible use. We foresee recommendations from this committee that include providing professional development for our staff in this area.

Language Policy

The first draft of the ACS Language Policy has been created and is under review by our language and student support departments. We aim to have a final version prior to the end of the school year.