The BMS STEAM course curriculum broadens our students’ exposure to diverse content, supporting engineering and design, and utilizing a problem-based approach to teach to and reinforce the BPS Global Competencies, Computer Science Teaching Association (CSTA) standards, Engineering & Design, ISTE, and Common Core Standards.
This STEAM course is an interdisciplinary course that blends research, inquiry, and design to present students with novel situations to apply science and math standards. Utilizing the previous year’s science and math standards, students are presented with new contexts for applying their understandings.
This STEAM course expands the vertical alignment with the BHS pathways, incorporating elements of the arts, business, and career technical readiness. Through career-based projects and embedded problems, students gain exposure to components of professions/future courses, such as architecture, and gain insight into practical applications of the subject matter they are studying in core subjects, specifically math, and science.
Long-term course outcomes include:
Exhibit curiosity, imagination, flexibility, and perseverance in order to innovate and make valuable contributions to the community.
Actively seek and analyze new information and perspectives to define problems and develop solutions.
This STEAM course is offered in 45 day (next year) UA Rotations offered in Grades 6-8
The BHS French Curriculum (levels 2, 3, and 4) addresses the ACTFL (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages) standards which supports communication, cultures, connections, comparisons, and communities.
In terms of communication, the focus is on :
interpersonal communication skills: the process that we use to communicate our ideas, thoughts, and feelings to another person
presentational skills: the presentation of information through rehearsed written, spoken, or visual means
interpretive skills: listening, reading, and viewing
Students increase their proficiency with the language throughout the levels. Our district offers students the ability to graduate with the Seal of Biliteracy.
In June 2021, The Right to Read Act-Legislation, HB 6620, was passed. Some of the expectations outlined in the legislation include:
Utilize a universal screening from the state-approved list
Require districts to implement an evidence-based reading curriculum. (July 2023)
To build the capacity of educators in the area of teaching reading
We will be giving a complete update to the full Board of Education at the March meeting of our work focused on meeting the expectations of the Right to Read legislation,
Programs: The District Literacy Team has been reviewing programs from the state-approved list using specific criteria.
We were impressed with ARC Core, but it was too expensive. We selected My View (Savvas) and Into Reading to pilot this spring.
We have put in for an extension to implement a program due to the cost of programs and have reached out to the SDE to see if money is available to support us in purchasing a program
We anticipate selecting a program by June, if we know we can pay for it, to bring forward to the Curriculum Committee and the full Board for approval.
4. New Business
5. Public Comment (Please note: The Board welcomes Public Comment and asks that speakers please limit their comments to 2 minutes. Speakers may offer objective comments of school operations and programs that concern them. The Board will not permit any expression of personal complaints or defamatory comments about Board of Education personnel and students, nor against any person connected with the Bethel Public School System.)
