Curricular+Direction

toc =New Hampton School's Curricular Direction=

Curriculum is more to New Hampton School than a series of courses and text. The curriculum is a gravitational center of our school. New Hampton School is where intentional teaching follows a progressive continuum of fundamental skills and ultimately links content to a globally relevant context of issues our world is facing today.

Guided by the 2008 Strategic Plan and the foundational writings of such authors as Body Robert's Educating for the //Global Citizen//, Daniel Pink's //A Whole New Mind//, and Tony Wagner's //The Global Achievement Gap//, New Hampton School has developed a paramount curricular direction to educate students to be global citizens in the 21st Century. Divided into three integrated areas of understanding, New Hampton School's curriculum is: our intentional teaching strategies (NHS Teacher Profile); our continuum of 21st Century Skills (NHS Foundations of Learning); and our globally relevant content.

NHS's Professional Promise
We at New Hampton School appreciate our teachers' abilities to use a wide range of teaching strategies to individually tailor their teaching to each individual learner. Our promise is in our pedagogy. We devote profesional training, resources, and time to teaching our teachers, so they can better teach our students. Below are list of pedagogical (teaching strategies) we promise New Hampton teachers deliver:

Multi-Modal Instruction
Utilizes auditory, visual, and kinesthetic means to acquire knowledge.

Student Centered Instruction
is a broad approach that includes such techniques as: substituting active learning experiences for learners; holding students responsible for material that has not been explicitly discusses in class; assigning open-ended problems and problems requiring critical or creative thinking that cannot be solved by following text examples; involving students in simulations and role-plays; assigning a variety of unconventional writing exercises; and using self-paced and/or team-based learning.

Cooperative Learning
allows students to work with their peers to accomplish a shared or common goal. The goal is reached through interdependence among all group members rather than working alone. Each member is responsible for the outcome of the shared goal.

Inquiry Based Instruction
is a teaching technique in which teachers create situations students are to solve problems. Lessons are designed so that students make connections to previous knowledge, bringing their own questions to learning, investigate to satisfy their own questions and design ways to try out their ideas.

Experiential Learning
is learning through reflection on doing, which is often contrasted with rote or didactic learning. Experiential learning is related to, but now synonymous with, experiential education, action learning, free choice learning, cooperative learning, and service learning.

Self-Directed Learning
is a process in which students take the initiative to diagnose their learning needs, formulate learning goals, identify resources for learning, select and implement learning strategies, and evaluate learning outcomes. The role of the instructor shifts from being the 'sage on the stage' to the 'guide on the side' in a self-directed learning environment.

Differentiated Instruction
creates a classroom where all students are regularly offered choices and students are matched with tasks compatible with their individual learner profiles.

Innovative Use of Technology
utilizes the most appropriate media to communicate and organize educational strategies.

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New Hampton School believes what is important to learn in school is what has always been important, skills that will help you to be successful in life. We believe these skills, and we believe there are ten, need to be taught intentionally over the four year opportunity we have with our students. The skills we value and our student learn are:

Address Relevant World Issues:
NHS Teachers presents issues and views of the world that invite and reward curiosity concerning the richness and diversity of all human societies and encourages respect for all people.

Present Diversity:
NHS Teachers help students recognize how differing cultures, traditions, histories, and religions may underlie views and values that can sharply contrast with their own.

Bridge Differences:
Use resources and activities in support of instruction that can help carry learning in the direction of world understanding and address constructively instances of bias or disdain for nationalities, cultures, or religions outside of their own.

Seek Global partnerships:
Seek partnerships and networking beyond NHS that allow students to have experiences that help promote global awareness and problem-solving for our students.

Sources:
//A Whole New Mind// Daniel Pink //Educating for Global Citizenship// Boyd Roberts //Emotional Intelligence// Daniel Goleman //High Noon// J.F. Rischard http://newhamptoncurriculum.wikispaces.com/ //Radical Simplicity// Jim Merkel //Stirring the Head, Heart, and Soul: Redefining Curriculum, Instruction, and Concept-Based Learning// H. Lynn Erickson //The Global Achievement Gap// Tony Wagner //What The Best College Teachers Do// Ken Bain