Your Name and Title:
Katherine Hedman, Teacher
School, Library, or Organization Name:
New Community School at Rutgers Preparatory School
Co-Presenter Name(s):
N/A
Country from Which You Will Present:
USA
Language in Which You Will Present:
English
Target Audience (such as primary school teachers, high school administrators, students, etc.):
High school teachers and administrators
Short Session Description (one line):
One teacher, one classroom, three disciplines, big world, many resources. Passionate students.
Full Session Description (one paragraph minimum):
What makes NCS different is its use of a “one teacher, one classroom, big world, many resources, passionate students” approach to multidisciplinary study in the upper grades. In addition, all of the students are from the same school in China, spending a year studying here in this program in the US. NCS uses a school-within-a-school model to provide a program for these students that is in some ways integrated with the upper school, yet is primarily self-contained.
This presentation will be a description of how this approach has offered, and promises to continue to offer, unique opportunities for teaching and learning. It will describe how the teacher functions as, among other things, a resource for cultural knowledge and a guide and facilitator to students’ research projects. It will describe how the school has brought together local and internet resources to build content knowledge and English language competence, connect the students to the larger world, and inspire passion for problem solving.
This presentation will include descriptions of the ideas and motivation behind, as well as the results of, the initial projects that the students have completed or are in the process of completing. There will be links to examples of student work for some of the completed projects. Projects include: Back-to-School-Night Video Project, Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Project, Presidential Gala Project, and Natural History Science Project.
The presentation will also describe the flexible structure of the classroom schedule, which includes times when students in the same room are not all scheduled for the same class, as well as times when certain classes are dropped or added when the curriculum demands it. This presentation will also include brief descriptions of resources used to aid students’ learning and facilitate the sharing of their learning with others through the internet.
Websites / URLs Associated with Your Session:
iTunes U: http://www.apple.com/apps/itunes-u/index.html,
Prezi: http://prezi.com/
Coursera: https://www.coursera.org/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/
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