Upper Division SAP Initiatives
Academic Initiatives in Upper Division
Dear Parents of Upper Division Students,
We are excited about the strategic initiatives recently discussed in the parent webinar. Those of you who have watched the webinar know that we are strengthening our Computer Science program and giving our faculty the time they need to focus on vertical and horizontal alignment of our curriculum, PK-12.
I want to take a moment to share how these changes will affect Upper Division students.
Upper Division students will be able to determine how much the strengthening of the Computer Science program will affect their respective course selections. We added one semester of Computer Science to our graduation requirements, so many Upper Division students will opt to take a single, semester-long Computer Science course and that’s it. Some students, however, will choose to delve more deeply into the Computer Science program and will opt to take as many Computer Science courses as will fit in their schedule. We are happy that students have this broad range of options for Computer Science.
Next year, we will go back to the original late start time (8:25 a.m.) from before Covid. One of the reasons we put the Performing Arts (PA+) classes first this year and last was to give us a staggered start time. We were concerned that students would be standing in line waiting to be temperature-checked. It turns out that this wasn’t an issue. It also turns out that this later start for most students had some unintended consequences. Teachers are on campus by 7:45 a.m. for office hours, but most students’ first class doesn’t start until 9:15 a.m. Therefore, there’s a large chunk of time during which students and teachers are not interacting in the countless ways that students and teachers need to interact. Even office hours have been underutilized, largely because they immediately precede the PA+ period, so most students opt for finding a time to see their teachers later in the day. We believe that having office hours right before Period 1 will lead to more students utilizing office hours.
We heard from both students and teachers this year that there seems to be a long pause at the beginning of the day, and then, once the day starts, it seems a bit rushed. Moving the PA+ classes to later in the day will provide a mid-morning break for many students and teachers.
In the latest student survey, too many students reported that they were not engaged in the Life of the School. We believe that this is in part due to the lack of dedicated time for clubs and publications, or because students in the morning were home alone rather than interacting with peers and teachers at school. In next year’s schedule, we have separated Chapel and Community time, or Activities period, which will provide a dedicated time for clubs and some publications, not to mention time during the day for students just to hang out with friends, or even to do some schoolwork!
Since I came back to Casady to teach more than 25 years ago, teachers and administrators have wished for more time to meet with each other, by division or cross-divisionally. Our Wednesday Schedule for next year will finally provide the time for these meetings. Fortunately, next year’s regular schedule was easily adapted to the Wednesday Schedule, without too many changes.
On Wednesdays next year, teachers and administrators will have meetings from 7:45 to 8:45 a.m. Period 1 will begin at 8:55 a.m., and all classes will be 45 minutes long rather than 50. On Wednesdays, the time between 11:20 a.m. and 12:00 p.m. will be for Chapel and Advisory meetings. We will continue the practice of introducing concepts to the students during Chapel and then giving the students a chance to debrief about those Chapel topics in Advisory meetings. If there’s time, some clubs and publications can meet during this 11:20 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. period on Wednesdays.
Let me take one final moment to thank Dr. Merry Sorrells, Dr. Jason Scheer, Sandy Nelson, and Josh Bottomly for their good work on these initiatives. The list of all those who were instrumental in the creation of these schedules is too long to include here.
I am confident that, given the restrictions of time, space, and personnel, not to mention the physical laws of the universe, next year’s schedule is the best schedule we have ever had in the Upper Division. I am thrilled that teachers and administrators will have time on Wednesdays to meet with colleagues so that we can do the great things we do even better.
Sincerely,
We are excited about the strategic initiatives recently discussed in the parent webinar. Those of you who have watched the webinar know that we are strengthening our Computer Science program and giving our faculty the time they need to focus on vertical and horizontal alignment of our curriculum, PK-12.
I want to take a moment to share how these changes will affect Upper Division students.
Upper Division students will be able to determine how much the strengthening of the Computer Science program will affect their respective course selections. We added one semester of Computer Science to our graduation requirements, so many Upper Division students will opt to take a single, semester-long Computer Science course and that’s it. Some students, however, will choose to delve more deeply into the Computer Science program and will opt to take as many Computer Science courses as will fit in their schedule. We are happy that students have this broad range of options for Computer Science.
Next year, we will go back to the original late start time (8:25 a.m.) from before Covid. One of the reasons we put the Performing Arts (PA+) classes first this year and last was to give us a staggered start time. We were concerned that students would be standing in line waiting to be temperature-checked. It turns out that this wasn’t an issue. It also turns out that this later start for most students had some unintended consequences. Teachers are on campus by 7:45 a.m. for office hours, but most students’ first class doesn’t start until 9:15 a.m. Therefore, there’s a large chunk of time during which students and teachers are not interacting in the countless ways that students and teachers need to interact. Even office hours have been underutilized, largely because they immediately precede the PA+ period, so most students opt for finding a time to see their teachers later in the day. We believe that having office hours right before Period 1 will lead to more students utilizing office hours.
We heard from both students and teachers this year that there seems to be a long pause at the beginning of the day, and then, once the day starts, it seems a bit rushed. Moving the PA+ classes to later in the day will provide a mid-morning break for many students and teachers.
In the latest student survey, too many students reported that they were not engaged in the Life of the School. We believe that this is in part due to the lack of dedicated time for clubs and publications, or because students in the morning were home alone rather than interacting with peers and teachers at school. In next year’s schedule, we have separated Chapel and Community time, or Activities period, which will provide a dedicated time for clubs and some publications, not to mention time during the day for students just to hang out with friends, or even to do some schoolwork!
Since I came back to Casady to teach more than 25 years ago, teachers and administrators have wished for more time to meet with each other, by division or cross-divisionally. Our Wednesday Schedule for next year will finally provide the time for these meetings. Fortunately, next year’s regular schedule was easily adapted to the Wednesday Schedule, without too many changes.
On Wednesdays next year, teachers and administrators will have meetings from 7:45 to 8:45 a.m. Period 1 will begin at 8:55 a.m., and all classes will be 45 minutes long rather than 50. On Wednesdays, the time between 11:20 a.m. and 12:00 p.m. will be for Chapel and Advisory meetings. We will continue the practice of introducing concepts to the students during Chapel and then giving the students a chance to debrief about those Chapel topics in Advisory meetings. If there’s time, some clubs and publications can meet during this 11:20 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. period on Wednesdays.
Let me take one final moment to thank Dr. Merry Sorrells, Dr. Jason Scheer, Sandy Nelson, and Josh Bottomly for their good work on these initiatives. The list of all those who were instrumental in the creation of these schedules is too long to include here.
I am confident that, given the restrictions of time, space, and personnel, not to mention the physical laws of the universe, next year’s schedule is the best schedule we have ever had in the Upper Division. I am thrilled that teachers and administrators will have time on Wednesdays to meet with colleagues so that we can do the great things we do even better.
Sincerely,
Initiatives by Division
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2022-23 UD Schedule
Casady School is an independent, co-educational, college preparatory, Episcopal day school serving students in pre-k-12. Educating Mind, Body, and Spirit.
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Casady School is a PreK-12, independent, college preparatory Episcopal day school committed to deeper-level learning. Casady School welcomes a student body that reflects the diversity of the world around us and therefore does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, nationality, or ethnic origin in administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship and loan programs, athletics, and other school-administered programs generally accorded or made available to students at the School.