Meeting June 25

Waiting on information about integrated science program from John Wetzel.

Discussed and proposed a daily check-in of advisees with advisor. This might entail:
1) maintaining a list of students' schedules by advisor
2) Angie will form
3) Bruce exhorted us to make advisees come from the same grade group

Should we do monthly community service?

A debate team is a possibility Priscilla is pursuing information

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Want to encourage an art-friendly environment at Horizons. (In conjunction with "creative time" idea).
1) Increase creative projects in academic classes
2) Invite arts community members to give presentations, seminars, workshops, etc.
3) Have a student "art festival " at the end of each semester in the gym to showcase work.
Question: should participation be mandatory?

Suggestion: Should students complete 10 arts "experiences" including creative projects, visits to museums, lectures by visiting artists, etc. Class projects & group projects are a way to decrease pressure for solo performances.

Sally brought up the idea of school-wide term papers/research papers. Bruce and John Mark liked the idea. I brought up the idea that it's not as simple as throwing the assignment out there, that skills like research, creating a thesis, writing a paragraph, etc. MUST be taught first.

We need to make sure there is a writing assessment during orientation to help us figure out where on that list of skills individuals are and to help teachers identify students for whom a research paper might not be an appropriate assignment (some l.d. students, international students, etc.). Of course we all agreed that students SHOULD be able to write one, but....