Inside ACS

  Monday, May 27, 2024 Professional and Program Development Our curriculum review process has yielded positive results and it is a pleasure to share some of the highlights of curricular and program changes taking place for the 2024-2025 school year: Secondary School Inaugural year of AP Capstone (a two-year diploma program): AP Seminar - open to rising 10th and 11th graders Partnering with the University of Delaware: LeadX Course incorporated into GIN: newly renamed and restructured to Global Citizenship in Action; open to rising 12th graders with an option for students to earn university credit Addition of AP courses: AP Micro/Macro Economics combined; AP Pre-Calculus Adoption of Second Step for Middle School in grades 6-8 and for High School in grade 9 as a part of Freshman Seminar Early release for Professional Development on Wednesdays Elementary School Adoption of CCSS Technology Standards K-G5 New Social Studies and Science Units New Second Step Social-Emotional Learning prog...

  Monday, May 20, 2024 Professional Development The ES Heads of Department (HoD) have been participating in a book study of, Why Are School Buses Always Yellow? , by John Barell, which focuses on how to implement  inquiry-based learning and why it is such an effective methodology. Each member of the ES HoD team has taken a turn facilitating a reflection of each chapter. The culminating chapter focuses on professional development and I have the good fortune of leading the reflection on Tuesday of this week. One of the most important elements that Barell identifies as an essential aspect of continuous school improvement is learning from our peers. ACS has been on a multi-year endeavor to embed peer visits and peer coaching into our professional growth plans, and we are continuing to make strides in this area. It is admittedly a challenging practice to put into routine implementation because of real and perceived challenges ranging from time to trust. This is an area on which we ...

  Monday, May 13, 2024 On Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of last week, our two NEASC Visitors, Howard Thiery and Susan McKinney, had the pleasure of getting to know our school community. The schedule was packed with meetings that included elementary and secondary students, staff, faculty, parents, leadership, and board members. The NEASC team provided us with highly valuable immediate feedback, with a much more in-depth report currently in the preparation phase.  Not surprisingly, our visitors had an abundance of wonderful things to say about our school! They were also very astute at identifying areas for growth and have already begun to offer support in developing continuous improvement plans.  A huge and deeply heartfelt THANK YOU to all of you. We look forward to sharing the key takeaways from the visit prior to the end of the school year.  Learning & Teaching Highlights Visiting Grade 1, French, and Tech Classes - seeing our students highly engaged in the lea...

Please take a look at the online workshop offerings from NWEA in June and reach out to Ann if you are interested in participating! https://web.cvent.com/event/c9e8a61c-ef8b-4dce-bc8f-cf6caf9a8ce6/websitePage:b02af350-4919-4079-8425-bb9a687a3cd8?mkt_tok=OTc2LUlZSS02OTQAAAGS7MAnBbXF80RLAwdfctjehu1CR8KQsUO9LgSWhBCj6fCRxrYwjuhj9U_JucrifU7SYiTCyDksWSIygF3yMuK7Aac1XqsN9RMRNbLGOR5W77pb1qvp

May 6, 2024 Although we had a shortened week last week, it was certainly no less busy! Congratulations to our teachers and participants in the performances at the Hard Rock Cafe on Monday and on STEAM Family Afternoon on Friday - these events are testament to our vibrant community spirit.  Learning & Teaching Progress Highlights *Debriefing with teachers regarding classroom visits and planning next steps based on observations *The Senior Academic Leadership Team (SALT) continuing to make progress in developing a school-wide approach to Social Emotional Learning (SEL) *Organizing our TeachMeet for Wednesday where all teachers will provide a brief snapshot of their professional learning journey this year for their colleagues *SALT gathering of key changes for the 2024-2025 that have already been established, as well as continuing to consider additional changes, such as in our AP offerings *Planning parent coffees this month to ensure clear communication *Celebrating and supportin...