Summary of the Briefing:

• We are piloting a Digital Spanish A course at BHS this year and working on curriculum to support this program. We will then pilot a Digital Spanish B course in the 2017-2018 school year.

• This is a self-paced program using Rosetta Stone and direct instruction by the teacher.

• Frequent assessments are administered to determine mastery and/or if intervention is needed. Teachers provide small group instruction to meet student needs.

• The structure of this program supports our work with personalization and mastery-based learning.

• The intent of the course is to support students who may not be as engaged in world language and need a different pathway to earn world language credit.

• The Rosetta Stone program offers multiple other languages (i.e. Arabic, Mandarin, Hindi, Urdu, etc) where our students can elect to do an independent study to meet personal interests.

• The Rosetta Stone resource is currently budgeted in the Assistant Superintendent’s budget.

Presenters:

Mrs. Alisa Trachtenberg, French Teacher

Dr. Christine Carver, Superintendent

Key Points of the Briefing:

1. Bethel High School would like to organize a trip to Québec for those students interested in the study of world history, culture, language, art, cuisine, and architecture.
2. We will use the tour company, Prometour, which is based out of Montréal, Canada has been organizing student tours for the last 25 years. We have used this company in the past for the French exchange in 2012-2013 and several districts across the State of CT use this company, many of which are in Fairfield County .
3. The dates of the 5 day trip would be October 5 through October 9, 2017 (Professional Learning Day and Columbus Day weekend). The students will not miss any school during this time.
4. The cost of the trip for our students will be approximately $700- $900 per student (dependent on how many students are interested), which covers motor coach transportation and associated ground transportation costs, hotels, meals, tours and admissions, service of a bilingual Tour Director, and basic insurance).
5. Students will travel by coach bus.
6. The goal is to have at least 20 students and 2 chaperones for the trip. Students taking French classes will take precedence if numbers interested are too large.
7. As of 12.22.16, there is no travel alert or travel warning to Canada.