The Core 10 team worked with Core 9 consultants in building the second year of the US science foundational program. The team produced a new curriculum, integrating biology and chemistry into a rigorous foundation of both content and skills for 10th grade students.
This project explored using Google Earth and virtual reality as a way to map, discover and experience Francophone regions around the world.
Inspired by faculty interest, conversations, and a sense that we should be evaluating our teaching practices regularly, six teachers embarked on an exploratory FACA to research Interdisciplinary programs last summer (2018). Bolstered by science that supports interconnected thinking and learning and faculty receptivity to broaden our current offerings, the group considered multiple ways to redraw the lines of single disciplines into broader studies and to create partnerships and new configurations for classes. This project continued the work.
The purpose of this project was to develop scaffolding, scope and sequence, learning objectives, and sample lessons for a potential K-5 Human Sexuality curriculum.
This FACA offered participants an opportunity to reflect on their own cultural competence in approaching males of color in early the grades, to survey the most current research about best practices in the field of education to ensure student success for males of color, and to evaluate curricular materials with an eye towards tapping into the unique perspectives and experiences of males of color and their families.
During this FACA, participants shared what they have been using in the classroom, developed a common competency in select software platforms and skills, and collaborated in creating a developmentally appropriate music technology curriculum for grades 3-12.
In this two week FACA project, members of the Health Team used the data and analysis provided by the Independent School Health Check (ISHC) to identify and develop responses to areas of particular strength and concern within our community. They clarified key department priorities, developed and enhanced targeted counseling and wellness programming and initiatives for students, parents and faculty.
During this project, faculty researched and created healthy and caring responses to address the range of social/emotional needs they are currently seeing in their students, as well as developed ways to empower their students with mindful strategies they can use on a daily basis and in the moment.
This project allowed faculty to research and craft a developmentally appropriate progression for the art processes of drawing and the painting for their students in grades K-5.
The idea for this FACA stemmed from one central question that participants wished to explore among themselves and to share with the Park Community: What is it like to be an employee of color in a predominantly white, progressive, independent school?
Nine Lower School teachers pursued curricular work that allowed them to confidently bring their students to the garden for meaningful teaching and learning the in 2019- 2020 school year. This broad coalition of teachers also worked together to revitalize the garden space, which had grown neglected and underutilized.
For five consecutive summers, the Stories from Home FACA has provided Park faculty the opportunity to explore issues of diversity and identity through the examination of “home.” This one-week follow-up project continued this work, but with a new group of participants representing all three divisions of the school.
This project allowed the Core 9 team time to take lessons learned from a year-long pilot of the curriculum and incorporate improvements for the upcoming year. Time was spent reviewing student evaluation data, revising major assignments (long-term projects), increasing the degree of differentiation offered, and training teachers new to teaching Core 9.