Poland Middle / High School will provide all of its students with equal access to a high quality educational program that will prepare them to meet the demands of a changing world. Our school will be a place of learning for all members of the community. We are all responsible for the quality of that learning. The school's main goals are to meet the varied needs of students, and to foster outstanding achievement and overall excellence. To accomplish this goal, we believe that:

Learning:

• Learning should be lifelong.
•  The curriculum must be responsive, purposeful and appropriate to the learner.
•  The curriculum must be interdisciplinary, integrating relevant information from different subjects.
•  Appropriate testing and assessment must measure learning.
• Learning must be active and include solving problems or performing tasks under real life conditions (authentic).

Students:

• Students learn through encouragement.
• Students learn in different ways.
• Students must take responsibility for learning.
• Students must achieve learning at high levels.
• Students must have access to a variety of learning opportunities that will serve their needs and interests.
• Students must learn to think critically and achieve their best.

Parents and Community:

• Parents are the primary educators of our children. Their involvement is essential to effective education.
• Community involvement enriches learning by increasing resources and services offered to learners.
• The community must give the school its financial, social and moral support.
• Our community is a part of, and is influenced by, a larger national and global community.

Teachers:

• Teachers must believe that all students want to and can learn.
• Teachers must be well qualified in their subject area and effective with various teaching methods.
• Teachers must be lifelong learners.
• Teachers must have personalities that enable them to be effective with students, parents, colleagues, and the community.
• Teachers must be committed to their students.
• Teachers must challenge and inspire each student to achieve his or her highest potential.
• Teachers must provide opportunities for students to be planners, designers, creators and critical thinkers.
• Teachers must be viewed as professionals who deserve our support in their growth and development.
• Teachers must be positive role models for students.
• Teachers must be able to work in a team.

The School:

• The school must be safe.
• The school must support active learning.
• The school must recognize individual and team accomplishments.
• The school must enforce clear rules and expectations for its students and staff.
• The school building must be attractive and include all indoor and outdoor facilities that we require to meet our goals for education.
• The school building and grounds must be flexible, open, light and in harmony with the surroundings.
• The school must foster good citizenship.
• The school must use up-to-date technology as a tool to broaden and enrich learning.

Italicized words are defined below.

Curriculum:

The content or subject matter individual teachers, faculty and School Board agree is important for students to learn, including the order in which the material is taught. Sometimes called all the experiences students have as part their educational program, both formal and informal.

 

Instruction:

How the curriculum is presented to students or the methods and strategies teachers use to help students learn what they and school have said is important for them to know

e.g. lectures, projects, small group activities, independent study, apprenticeships, etc.

 

Assessment:

How teachers and schools judge what students have learned and are able to do. Traditional assessment methods include paper and pencil tests on which students recall information. Newer kinds of assessment require students to actually do something to demonstrate their mastery, such as calculating the weight of a car from the air pressure in one wheel, writing a letter explaining their position on a referendum issue or building a model machine to do a task. The latter go beyond the recall of facts to include the application of that information to real world problems or issues. They are often referred to as authentic assessments.

 

Authentic Learning:

Learning activities that require students to solve problems or perform tasks under real life conditions. Authentic learning requires students to do more than reproduce knowledge, they actually produce new knowledge (new for them) based on their understanding of existing knowledge. The goal is indepth understanding of ideas and concepts. Authentic learning also has value beyond school. For example, instead of underlining verbs on a worksheet, followed by a quiz, students may write an editorial for the school newspaper, identify the verbs they used, what tense they are in and why they used that tense.

 

Interdisciplinary:

An approach to teaching or curriculum that requires students to connect one subject area to another in a life-like way. For example, teachers might plan a unit on World War II. In learning about that era, they will study history (what happened, why and what impact it had), geography (where it happened and how geography influenced the course of the war), science (the development of new technologies and medical advances), art (the use of images to generate public support), music (listen to and analyze Big Band orchestral music of the era) and language arts (read books about the war, interview relatives or local veterans who served in it and communicate what they learned to others orally, visually and in writing).

 

Critical Thinking::

Having students do things which require them to organize, synthesize, interpret, explain or evaluate complex information in addressing a concept, problem or issue.