The Avant Gardist

February 26, 2010

Sharon Abrigo - Curriculum Director
Myron B. Thompson Academy

It has taken awhile to get our MBTA blog underway, but we are finally ready. There will be a weekly post, generated by faculty and staff. The focus will be on current activities that highlight the continuous improvement and forward movement here at Myron B. Thompson Academy. While we have some topics in mind to get us started, we’re also open to your ideas. Additionally, we invite your comments and questions about anything you read in the post. However, we do reserve the right to moderate posts.

So let’s get started. In the last two years, many changes have taken place at MBTA, including:

· Greater emphasis on higher order thinking vs. simple regurgitation of facts.

· Development of performance assessments to balance traditional multiple choice and short answer

· Intense math instruction and interventions

· Professional development of staff, at home at and out of state workshops/courses.

· Redesign of 7^th grade curriculum, with a focus on interdisciplinary learning and use of the latest tech tools

· Emphasis on active teaching

In various planning stages are:

· Redesign of 8^th grade curriculum

· Design of two 6^th grade online courses

· Attention on scholarly behaviors

· Focus on middle school

· Strengthening of secondary departments

We believe that blended learning is the future of education. This means a combination of face to face or webcam instruction with online instruction. Myron B. Thompson Academy is committed to strong, quality teaching and learning. Our principal likes to say that we are an incubator of ideas where students and student learning come first. We strive to be avant garde, utilizing creative ideas, styles and methods to advance education.

We want to share what we are doing and where we are headed with you. Future blog posts will be on some of the topics listed above.