Head of School Weekly Update

Dear Odyssey Community,

Since the end of last year, a schoolwide project has been improving in two curricular areas: math and health. Individual teachers and teacher teams are continuously improving what they do; this project directs the work of our curriculum committees.

In math, in-class and standardized assessments identified that we had room to improve. In analyzing our current approach, we saw that we had an adopted standards based curriculum, but that we needed better instructional strategies and assessment methods. Robin Skeen and Carly Penny identified a program that we then adopted in grades 3-7. As with any implementation of a new classroom approach, it has taken teachers some time to make it their own. All early indications are that the work is going well. Robin and Carly will share and update our Board curriculum committee in March.

We chose to focus on improving health education because it is so important to our students and community; it is central to our philosophy as a school. Because Odyssey does not have K-12 standards, this Fall we started an adoption process. At our first meeting, staff  identified the dimensions of health education, much of which was directly informed by the 6 Strands. We then compared our work with state and national standards. Our Odyssey standards are a super-set in a way: they include external standards and are also informed by the philosophy of Odyssey. For example, we include Spiritual Health and Life Skills. We are still reviewing the scope and sequence of our health curriculum: what is taught at each grade level. Some topics are taught already at Odyssey, some are mentioned, and some are not addressed at all. After we have identified these gaps, we will then be able to develop new lessons. Given the time required to design and implement this new curriculum, we will add new content in stages and it will take two years to complete this project. We will keep folks informed of this work and, as always, there will be a way for parents to review curriculum and opt out of certain lessons.

With Gratitude,

Anne and Peter