DLT Update Posted to Weekly Newsletter May 20, 204

 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 will gather feedback as a part of the chapter debrief and will take into consideration as we plan the next iteration of our professional growth model for the upcoming school year.

Classroom Visits

As noted above, we believe in and model classroom visits in which observations and reflective questions are provided for teachers. I continue to be grateful to have the opportunity to witness the learning process that is happening daily on our campus. Last week’s visits included:

• Elementary Art where students were incorporating geometric shapes into their designs, discussing the impact of line and perspective on their final product

• Secondary Physics where students were learning about circuits and were asking questions that clearly indicated their level of critical thinking

• Elementary Literacy Support where tailored instruction was carefully planned and delivered - what a joy to see a young reader experience success!

• Secondary Economics where students created the Cougar Market, having carefully budgeted and planned for design, marketing, and sales with limited resources - as a guest consumer, I had tough choices to make!

• KG4 classes where students joyfully learned letter identification and sounds in playful manners - our early childhood teachers and classrooms are full of energy!

• Secondary Spanish where students engaged in reading, group discussion, and documentation intentionally by hand - students were able to explain why hand-writing responses is an important practice and the impact it has on memory and comprehension

• Secondary Social Studies where students were excitedly planning group projects on the Roman Empire; students’ understanding that planning for audience participation as an important aspect of a solid presentation was impressive

• Elementary Spanish where students were analyzing various versions of the classic fairy tale, Cinderella

• Elementary PE where students helped lead the warm-up exercises before engaging in highly creative challenges - every student participating with great enthusiasm!

• Elementary Literacy where students were directing their own learning via a thoughtfully-produced choice boards that provided just-right challenges and elements of creativity

• Elementary Music where students clearly thoroughly enjoyed the warm-up songs before moving to working with bells and producing beautiful music as a team - the class ended too quickly, it was so enjoyable!

Looking Ahead to 2024-2025

• Partnering with Kathryn Murray, an early childhood education consultant, who will work with our teams in the design of the environment and the implementation of play-based learning.

• Elevating AI Literacy, with our K-12 AI Literacy Committee made up of students and teachers, leading the way in our understanding of the need to support teachers and learners in becoming AI literate. We are really excited about this work and look forward to sharing our progress throughout the upcoming school year. 

• Continuing the work of Strategic Planning and sharing the progress of the Steering Committee in developing the next iteration of our school’s mission, vision, and core values.

Our ACS Community

What a joy this week to experience the best of our ACS community - events that demonstrate our desire to root for one another’s success! These included the Grade 2 Paris Night where our auditorium was transformed into Poetry Night at a Paris cafe, our ES and SS Drama Performance where students demonstrated their talents not only as performers, but as writers and producers; and our SS Music Performance full of delightful displays of musical growth and talent with surprise performances by our ACS teachers! All of these events demonstrate our understanding of the importance of providing myriad opportunities for our students to develop their interests, and for us to connect with one another as a community in meaningful ways.  

In closing, on Friday morning, we met with parents of rising 8th graders to talk about the mathematics program and the changes that will continue to be implemented and developed over the next couple of years. We are very grateful for our parent partnership and will provide an update on opportunities for summer support soon. Please be sure to check the Cougar Hub for the recording of the meeting (to be posted by Wednesday of this week) if you were not able to attend. We will also soon be publishing a FAQ for parents and will send that out prior to the end of the school year. 

Thank you for reading, and have an enjoyable week ahead!

~Ann