2009-10 Themes
Character
Development in the Curriculum
This
track will work to find ways to address explicitly CCDS's core values in
our curricula. We'll start by identifying what curbs character here,
working to eliminate by awareness the obstacles we unwittingly place in
a student's path toward becoming a soul we value. We'll tackle how to
assess character development and how to relay a student's progress to
his parents. We'll also address the difficult issue of how to make
character education a natural and essential part of our regular lessons
rather than an add-on or enrichment piece. Sidebar thinking includes
modeling, media, motivations for moral behavior, and community buy-in of
our values.
We'll begin by identifying the factors that chip away at our students' natural curiosity and creativity, trying to detect those forces invisibly at work at CCDS and in society. We'll then strive both to make adjustments to our current models as well as form new models to encourage students to continue to love the challenges and rewards of intellectual discovery and inspiration. We'll consider curricular choice, collaborative learning, new media and social networks, parallel reading/activities, learning journals, and the effect of reward. Sidebar thinking includes promoting the concept with parents, encouraging learning cohorts, aiding students with varied learning styles, and student learning leadership.
Reaching Students with Varied Learning Styles
Teachers choosing this theme will explore the degree to which their objectives are accessible to students of different learning styles. We'll consider how varied approaches aid students of all styles and the impact other-styled learners can have when their voices are heard. We'll spend time investigating how to help students of one style learn to perform well in areas bent toward another. Sidebar thinking will focus on how to help students process when their learning style is not directly addressed, how to promote success through gradual learning-style-specific assessment, offering student reflection pieces for anecdotal support, and how to engage parents in the process.
Reaching Students with Varied Learning Styles Special Focus: Game-Based Learning
Albert Einstein argues that "Games are the most elevated form of Investigation." Noted author Daniel Pink, in a chapter titled, "Play" quotes the physicist as part of a greater call to develop gaming (not just video-gaming) as part of the process of developing a 21st century mind, one that unites both the logical left hemisphere, and the creative right hemisphere. We are lucky at CCDS to have in our midst an internationally known specialist on games-based education, Dr. Jeremiah McCall. He will be working with a small group of faculty members on how to incorporate more play in the classroom and use it for positive, pedagogically sound purposes.
Twenty-First Century Math: Implementing the envision Math Curriculum (Grades K-4 Lead Teachers)
The collaborative efforts of the All-School Curriculum Committee and the Lower School administration and faculty led to the decision to implement a vertically aligned, purposeful math curriculum. Cincinnati Country Day School now uses the Pearson enVision Math program, a systematic, yet creative approach to teaching math. The curriculum requires careful planning, implementation, interaction (both kinesthetic and technological), assessment, and differentiation. As a group we will explore both the practical and philosophical features of each of these major components of the curriculum in order to provide our children with a world-class math curriculum.
2008-9 Themes
Assessment
In
this track, we'll work collaboratively to dissect the degree to which
our assessments measure our learning objectives. We'll explore a variety
of assessment methods both to expand what we assess and to allow
students a greater opportunity to show what they know. We'll refresh our
understanding of Grant Wiggins' transfer tasks that are meant to assess
understanding of core concepts and skills. Further, we'll consider the
degree to which our assessments are transparent--making our standards
clear to students at the onset of learning. Sidebar thinking will focus
on frequency of assessment, building in opportunities for improvement,
prediction/preparation for assessments, and parent communication.
Assessment
Focus: Energy and Global Warming
In
this customized track, science faculty grades 3 - 12 will investigate
the content, skills, and assessments we might put in place to help
students understand the currently (no pun intended) debated issues of
energy and global warming. Consideration will be given to
performance-based assessment, perhaps a scientific forum, to help
students understand and demonstrate understanding of the topics in a
medium appropriate for professional scientists.
Character
Development in the Curriculum
This
track will work to find ways to address explicitly CCDS's core values in
our curricula. We'll start by identifying what curbs character here,
working to eliminate by awareness the obstacles we unwittingly place in
a student's path toward becoming a soul we value. We'll tackle how to
assess character development and how to relay a student's progress to
his parents. We'll also address the difficult issue of how to make
character education a natural and essential part of our regular lessons
rather than an add-on or enrichment piece. Sidebar thinking includes
modeling, media, motivations for moral behavior, and community buy-in of
our values.
We'll begin by identifying the factors that chip away at our students' natural curiosity and creativity, trying to detect those forces invisibly at work at CCDS and in society. We'll then strive both to make adjustments to our current models as well as form new models to encourage students to continue to love the challenges and rewards of intellectual discovery and inspiration. We'll consider curricular choice, collaborative learning, new media and social networks, parallel reading/activities, learning journals, and the effect of reward. Sidebar thinking includes promoting the concept with parents, encouraging learning cohorts, aiding students with varied learning styles, and student learning leadership.
Developmentally-Aware Skill Building
This
track asks teachers to focus on the purposeful progression of skill
building within a given unit, throughout the year, and across multiple
years. Teachers will work within and across divisions to consider what
skills are developmentally appropriate within their content areas, how
those skills can grow increasingly more complex, and how students can
become aware of the progress they are making. Sidebar thinking will
include considering rubrics for clear expectation of skill progression,
the employment of transfer tasks to prove skill mastery, skill
extension, and the touchy area of pattern recognition expertise versus
deep understanding.
Reaching Students
with Varied Learning Styles
Teachers choosing this theme will explore the degree to which their
objectives are accessible to students of different learning styles.
We'll consider how varied approaches aid students of all styles and the
impact other-styled learners can have when their voices are heard. We'll
spend time investigating how to help students of one style learn to
perform well in areas bent toward another. Sidebar thinking will focus
on how to help students process when their learning style is not
directly addressed, how to promote success through gradual
learning-style-specific assessment, offering student reflection pieces
for anecdotal support, and how to engage parents in the process.
