From the BAIS Secondary Principal’s Desk

Dear BAIS Community,

This year;s theme in chapel has been “Growing Together” and Mr. Whitehurst has recently been teaching our students our five key spiritual disciplines in order to grow and stretch our faith. At our last chapel he taught us about fasting, prayer, and journaling. Last year, BAIS secondary teachers sat down a few times to narrow what our key values are in the secondary school. Interestingly, we landed on being firmly rooted in scripture, growing together in an abiding faith, and being joyful. During a recent faculty meeting, secondary teachers collaborated together to grow and improve. It was an authentic, growing together moment!

The building blocks of what teachers do stem from their unit plans and their lesson plans. Next to a teacher’s ability, educational researcher, Dr. Robert Marzano, has demonstrated that the curriculum is the second key factor in student achievement. Unit plans and lesson plans are a part of the written curriculum – they are very important! During collaboration time on Wednesday, we identified a few key factors of a good lesson plan. Some of these characteristics included:

• The lesson is engaging
• The teacher communicates clear instructions and expectations
• The content and skills are connected to standards
• There are hands-on opportunities or opportunities for critical thinking and analysis
• An accurate assessment tool is used to measure student learning and to direct the next steps for the teacher

Once we had identified these key factors, teachers formed small groups. One teacher shared their lesson plan and explained what was going to happen during a 50 minutes lesson. Their partner was then able to think and reflect on the lesson and offer some suggestions to improve the lesson based on the five key factors. Our teachers were positive, caring, empathetic, constructively critical, and excited to take those suggestions and make their plan better.

This was a great example of how our secondary teachers are growing together. I am proud to lead this group of professionals who care deeply for their students and strive to continually grow and excel in their craft. When you think about your role as a parent,you really are a teacher. Teaching is an art and a science, and whether you are in your first year of teaching or in your thirtieth, we can all continue to learn and improve. We can all grow together!

Blessings,
Mr. Jeremy Thomas
Secondary Principal