BULLDOG NEW TECH @ BROWN MIDDLE SCHOOL
IDEAL GRADUATE
Our ideal graduate is an ideal problem solver, who demonstrates innovative ideas and is an empathic citizen of the global community.
SHARED PURPOSE AND EQUITY
Our collaborative leadership environment empowers our facilitators to portray professional courtesy and respect through effective use of norms and protocols These meetings are exercised with the same expectations of the faculty, as they are with our learners. This adult collaboration has created an approachable adult learning environment that welcomes new ideas and innovative ways of producing effective instruction in the classroom that both students and educators can be excited about. During daily advisory period, our facilitators ensure that they initiate discussions on tough topics like racism, discrimination, and insensitivity. Before we scaffold the discourse to our students, we as a team model with each other the SEL circle.
STUDENT VOICE
If you visit our campus, you will meet student leaders showcasing the amazing projects they have done in the past proudly displayed in the classroom, or even projects in progress. Connecting content to real-world issues magnifies student voice at a local and national level. New Tech Director selected a team of student fellows who provide valuable feedback about the courses offered & talk about various student body needs. Student fellows also train directly with our New Tech Director, to become better student leaders by getting training on data analysis, recruitment, walkthrough with facilitators, serve on student panels, act as an ambassador.
STRUCTURES FOR PROJECT BASED LEARNING
Our Summer Institute provided professional development in project design, the use of rubrics, protocols, project benchmarks, and how to create and scaffold Written Performance Tasks. Our summer learning module process was largely used as an instructional tool to support our newer teachers as they internalize the concept of PBL. Using the same protocols that we use with our students,
ASSESSMENT AND ECHO PRACTICES
Our learning outcomes and the manner in which we assessed a project had to be deconstructed in the following three categories: content mastery, content understanding, content engagement. As a team, we worked on breaking up all of the components of our learning outcomes and our project tool-kits to be able to categorize how these categories fit within our New Tech instructional framework.
ONBOARDING
On-boarding, like our instruction, is student-driven and allows for stakeholders at any age to become familiar with our protocols and begin experiencing the magic that is New Tech. On-boarding for facilitators is a small fraction of our success. The heart comes from how we introduce our learners to our program. For our incoming 6th Graders we host a day-long event called Pup Camp where our newest learners get to interact with their new peers and all of our New Tech facilitators, so they start day one with dozens of friendly faces to rely on. For all learners, we invest on onboarding our students every school by collaborating as a grade-level to develop a grade-level culture project. This ensures students emerge and contribute to a culture of trust, respect, and responsibility.
