Our curricular theme for the school year 2007-2008 is ACTION/REACTION!

School Schedule

As an English department, it is our goal to introduce students to great literature and help them find their “writer’s voice.” Our curriculum is topically designed and is centered around great pieces of literature. Throughout the year students will learn to critically analyze what they read, hear and see through an integrated curriculum of great literature, film and other media. Students will learn to identify and use various literary elements in order to help inform their reading and improve their writing. Over the course of the year students will participate in the writing process to develop both their expository and creative writing skills. We also provide the opportunity for students to expand and improve their vocabulary and grammar skills through contextualized practice and application.

As a math department, it is our goal to help our students fully develop their mathematical skills by teaching both "the basics" of math and an accelerated level of instruction at a pace that is designed to meet the needs of individual students. The Computer School's math curriculum seeks to provide students with a well-founded sense of confidence and understanding in their mathematical ability. We have established a course of study that provides an appropriate challenge for students regardless of their math ability, enables math to be more fully integrated into the interdisciplinary curriculum, and provides ample opportunity for both enrichment and review. While we maintain the Regents Exam for its accountability aspects, we are also able to provide students with a mathematical education that goes well beyond the confines of the Regents curriculum.

The Global Studies curriculum centers on a thematic, reflective examination of the past and our place in the world today. Central themes will include globalization, world religions, and expansion and colonialism—all viewed through various historical and sociological lenses. Within this issues based curriculum, students will contend with world problems such as economic inequality, civil and human rights, women's rights, war, genocide, tolerance, freedom and social change. These themes will be revisited throughout the year as students examine their roles as members of the world community and complete comprehensive exit projects. The curriculum will also include rigorous high school preparation such as independent historical research, advanced writing, mapping and other geography skills, creating timelines, examining primary and secondary documents, and conducting oral histories.

As a social studies department, it is our goal for students to gain historical knowledge, excellent research skills, a keen sense of geography, strong reading and writing skills, and most of all, a love of history through the study of history, current events, civics, politics, and geography. Students learning is from a wide variety of sources such as maps, newspapers, memoirs, paintings, posters, historical documents, and textbooks. Often times our learning will take us outside the classroom at places such as museums and theaters. We will be also using our city as a classroom as we take walking tours and visit historical monuments.

Part of The Computer School’s philosophy is Making Connections. That is connections to students’ prior school and family experiences as they relate to the their new activities with the community that is The Computer School. Our school frames these connections through our interdisciplinary approach to learning. The art curriculum strives to comply while at the same time enabling students the opportunity to explore through Deep Noticing: continuous interaction with art, Questioning: to further learning through inquiry, and Embodying: to experience a work of art through their senses, as well as emotionally, and also to physically represent that experience in an art work while learning the necessary skills of art techniques.
Students will have opportunities to ask questions about themselves and the world they live in, in an environment of support and enrichment. Through interacting with art materials and each other, students make discoveries about themselves through creative expression and voice, while Creating Meaning based upon their class experiences.
Continually, students will be asked to Reflect/Assess their individual projects, as well as their peers. These critiques are directed to provide positive and sensitive comments and suggestions by Exhibiting Empathy. Our theme of Inside/Outside will be reflected in the curriculum, and carried throughout the academic year. There will be four units of study this year, with a culminating activity of The Computer School’s Logo Competition.

It is our belief that the more students are immersed in the Spanish language, the more productive their study of the language and culture is. With this philosophy in mind, students will speak, sing, listen, read, and write in Spanish. Our goal is to improve the Spanish skills of our students whether it is the first time they are hearing the language or it is the only language they speak when they are at home. This improvement occurs through practice. We strive to strengthen students Spanish language skills through the use of listening activities, artwork, games, writing activities, and conversation.

We strive to give students an opportunity to find their voice by providing a place for them to evaluate and organize their feelings about social issues through the lense of film. By providing a place for students to view, analyze, and create film they are able to think critically about issues affecting the world around them, evaluate and organize their own feelings and opinions, and communicate those feelings and opinions to others. This communication takes place through the creation of short videos in which students record visual images, music, and sound and combine them with writing to deliver their message. This curriculum exposes students to the PSA as a form of such expression. Students will study scripting, story boarding, image framing, and storytelling through the juxtaposing of images and music. The integration of technology is essential for this success of this curriculum. We will be using tools of the trade for capturing images as well as computer production and postproduction software.

We believe that it is important in today’s society for students to live active and healthy lifestyles. With that in mind, our physical education classes are designed to give students a safe and structured environment in which they can be physically active. Our health curriculum is designed to cover a broad range of topics that are of importance to middle school students who are changing physically, mentally, and emotionally faster than we can imagine. Because of the nature of these classes, students are given a pass/fail grade for each semester.