Currents of Learning
September 26, 2025
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On Thursday, we had the great pleasure of welcoming families into our classrooms for our Curriculum Night. This annual event is our first true “Show of Work”, and our teachers pour their heart and soul into preparing their classrooms and student work with the goal of sharing the joy that we experience every day with our families. The energy, creativity, and care of our faculty was evident in every presentation and conversation as they made their curriculum come to life in clear and engaging ways. It is our hope that parents came away with a deep sense of appreciation for the thoughtfulness of the curriculum and our commitment to our students’ learning and growth. Curriculum Night was also an opportunity for our teachers to showcase the culmination of their efforts and learning over the past two years in professional development. Beginning in 2023, Parker contracted Michelle Hughes, a lifelong independent educator and founder of LARC (an educational consulting agency) to guide our faculty through a process of curriculum review, revision, and enhancement. The initial phase of this comprehensive review involved reflecting on our school’s mission, values, and the outcomes we aim for in our students’ journey through their social studies career. We questioned what our continuum of learning is and should be to enable our students’ learning to flow like a river, ensuring that our educational path has a continuity and progression from year-to-year.  Our first and second steps during professional development days involved documenting learning at each grade level to identify areas of strength as well as opportunities for improvement within the existing curriculum. This documentation across disciplines and grade levels provided invaluable insights into how our curriculum was being crafted and utilized, setting the stage for informed decision-making.  Following this collection, the faculty dove into an in-depth analysis using the following criteria, which our educators prioritized after considering best practices for instruction: -Grounding student work in an emphasis on diverse stories and inclusivity to reflect the diverse backgrounds and experiences of our student population and the communities we live in; -Devising studies that involve project-based learning; -Emphasizing social problem-solving experiences; -Focusing on the natural world to maximize the offerings of our 77 acre campus and the urgency of environmental concerns; -Gathering and utilizing quality literature to teach. Every conversation and decision involved thinking about how we best sharpen, refine, and support students’ critical thinking and global awareness.  We concluded our two-year professional development journey in June, 2025, during faculty closing days by meeting again with Michelle Hughes for final reflections and refinement of our review. Ultimately, all Parker teachers and specialists successfully documented and refined their curricular approaches, topics, and experiences at each grade level. They also composed storyboards portraying a year’s work in their classrooms in order to provide teachers, parents, and students with a visual of the goals and themes in their disciplines. Our faculty’s dedication to this extensive review process brought us together in pursuit of providing the highest possible quality education at Parker. The work has built connections across the grades and disciplines, fostering an open and creative-minded review process and a renewed culture of collaboration. |
 As Jennifer Gresens, Parker’s Head of School, concludes, “Parker is a school that honors and treasures childhood. We believe in the magic of play and exploration and encourage kids to find and follow their passions. Curriculum night gives families the opportunity to see exactly how our program and environment encourages wonder, inquiry, independence, and discovery. Through everything our teachers do, we seek to create confident, life-long learners who will move out into the wider world with strong academic and social skills. We believe in the power of giving kids agency over their learning and alongside a planned curriculum, allowing them to take the lead in how and what they are learning.” |
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