By Amira Mitchell
At the beginning of the school year, seven students gathered in the common area of the Downtown Campus (DTC) to decide on this school year’s community charter. Scarlett Pinho and Henry Perkins started sketching bubble words and symbols. Other students provided ideas and worked on other posters talking about their favorite aspects of Downtown.
By the end of three class sessions, the group had produced a charter with words embodying the Downtown Community and posters that reminded them of the positive environment they had fostered. This kind of student involvement is frequent at the Downtown campus and will be an integral part of the new elective program.
The first elective unit at Downtown is centered around art. Currently students are making grid sketches and are focusing on turning them into paintings. “Each elective will take six to eight weeks to complete,” Michael Staffaroni, the director at Downtown, said.
The Downtown Campus values working together collaboratively and ensuring every student’s needs are met. “Student involvement is integral to the DTC’s mission and the design of our elective course allows for smooth incorporation of this element” said Mr. Staffaroni. Previously, the Downtown Campus has held town meetings to discuss the community’s atmosphere and these conversations have turned into ones of elective interests as well.
The Downtown Campus has a unique environment that is personalized for student success. “We also have the ability to extend an area of interest and learn about the topic in more depth or from a different perspective,” said Mr. Staffaroni. Their schedule also allows for field trips to help expand on student learning. “We are able to go on a variety of field trips and we’ve arranged a guided tour at the Museum of Modern Art to culminate our art unit,” Mr Staffaroni said.
The Downtown Campus focuses on building students’ inner talents through personalized learning. According to Colleen Bailey, the Special Education teacher, “Traditional classes don’t always tap into students’ multiple intelligence, and this class allows students to improve or discover their personal talents,” she said.
In past years, teachers from the Main Campus have come to Downtown to teach elective courses. Benjamin Kibbey, a music teacher, taught Music Technology, allowing students to explore GarageBand, a music creation software, and discover their musical capabilities. “Even though the staff at the DTC are teaching the courses, teachers from Main Campus are available as resources,” Mr. Staffaroni said. “We’ve discussed our ideas with them and utilized their curriculum documents as a foundation for the learning that we design and implement at the DTC.”
All courses at Downtown follow this mode of personalized learning. “We strive to engage students in their academic growth and personal development,” Mr. Staffaroni said. “Elective courses can tap into a variety of strengths and areas of interest, so having units on art, game design and journalism within the same course works to increase student engagement and participation.”
