By Michael Oliveira
The educational plan for North Attleborough High School was discussed at last Wednesday’s School Committee meeting.
Assistant Superintendent Michelle McKeon invited NAHS Principal Peter Haviland, and Curriculum Instructional Leader Patty Bratborg to present this new plan as part of the district’s application to the MSBA for the high school building project.
“North Attleborough is a community that is filled with a great sense of pride in our town, and they really celebrate its tradition,” said McKeon at the June 12 meeting. “At the same time, we think in terms of how we can embrace the bright future ahead.”
McKeon spoke of the time spent surveying students, teachers and staff members and listening to community feedback. She credited the community forums and user group meetings to get a better understanding of how teachers currently use the building.
“As we continue to get feedback, we are going to be able to change the plan and adapt it even more as we hear more feedback from people.” McKeon said.
“What we’ve really done is taking the concept of deeper learning and all of the things that we think about in terms of success for all students, enhancing deeper learning, affective financial operation, engaging with the partners in the community and taking all four pillars and really thought about how does that fit into the new North Attleborough High School.”
Haviland continued to discuss the ideas of the new plan. He brought up the new mission at the high school for students to feel more excited to take courses with a new way of learning, going away from the old aspects of teaching
“We have to move towards a place where we leverage and value content in each course and class, but we do so for the purposes of establishing deeper levels of learning so students are more appropriately prepared for life after high school,” said Haviland.
“The ability to learn knowledge is a skill of itself, and to be able to learn how to learn and then use that to perform, we want to be more explicit and intentional in that process for all students.”
Each grade is focused on a different identity, said Haviland, with freshman and sophomores focused on who they are, their relation to the school, and what they can do to help the school achieve its goals so that they can build their lives within it.
“Ultimately during junior and senior year we start thinking bigger and more broadly like, ‘where am I going,’ ‘what am I going to do with all this?’ ‘I know who I am, and I’m part of North Attleborough but I’m not staying here, I’m going somewhere else, where am I going and what can I ultimately do with what I have and what I know,’”Haviland said.
In retrospect, the school is trying to focus on skills such as problem solving, collaborating and lifelong learning to give students the best opportunity to know what to do once they graduate from high school. The ideal vision from Haviland is that every classroom is going to incorporate these skills to their practices.
