How can we as an institution continue to push ourselves to be what these kids need during these crucial years of their educational experience? How do we make our work with them relevant to the world they are in, and the future they are creating?
Beaver will focus on expanding the nature of school by developing deeper learning through evolving next practices in education, supported by a healthy community culture with a future-focused approach.
What does this mean? Let’s break it down.
Developing Deeper Learning
Deeper learning is the kind that you remember the longest. It usually involves emotional impact, a strong relationship with a mentor, and an opportunity to transfer classroom learning into the real world in some way.
You see this already at Beaver, but over the next few years, it will be a consistent characteristic of student learning in all classes at Beaver.
Evolving Next Practices in Education
Our teachers need support, professional development, and opportunities for close collaboration with other teachers.
The goal will be to expand teachers’ toolkits for providing deeper learning experiences for your kids.
Creating Healthy Community Culture
We need to bring our most inclusive mindset into school spaces to cultivate a greater sense of belonging and community.
We are committed to becoming a space where ideas can be shared, and disagreements are expected rather than avoided. We are all smart individuals wrestling with lots of challenges emerging domestically and internationally. We won’t always agree but we should always be able to learn from one another. Different perspectives in a respectful community are the foundation for problem-solving.
Fostering Adaptability Through a Future-Focused Approach
We want Beaver students to be so comfortable with technology that they will seek, or better yet maybe even build, the right tool in any circumstance. They won’t be afraid to learn something new, rather than work with tech that is awkward or has built-in obvious biases. We want your children to develop computational thinking skills that allow them to break a problem down into smaller pieces, building algorithms that might lead to solutions. They need to be able to recognize what tasks A.I. will be good for and what tasks require human capabilities instead.