Requirement Descriptions

English:
English should have a global focus (except for perhaps one year of American Literature). There should also be a considerable focus on students' reading classics, particularly enjoyable ones like The Great Gatsby. Some of my goals: expose students to works of literature (fiction, nonfiction, poetry, short stories, etc.) that they would not see in a regular school, particularly international works; bring students to an advanced level of reading and writing (including grammar and spelling); offer many opportunities for students to write in response to prompts, subjects, and nothing; and connect literature to film and other adaptations. Besides The Great Gatsby, another book I would like teachers to consider teaching would be Perfume: The Story of a Murderer. There are four years of English, so students would only be with other students in their year.

Foreign Language:
Some of my goals: students should be able to hold conversations in the language; students should be taught the history and issues of the countries that speak the language, preferably in the focus lanugage of instruction; students should have pen pals from a country of the language, possibly set up so the pen pals speak in both the MA student's foreign language and English. There are four years of foreign language, and students should take the next class in the sequence.

History:
11 - Choice of last history
10 - American History
9 - World History
Some of my goals: students should be able to have an overview of history, be able to analyze certain situations, and go in depth on specific topics; students should learn how big and different the world is but that it is accessable to them at all times for jobs and travel; and students should have an international mindset. Only two years of history are required, but freshmen should take World History, and sophomores should take American History. Students who transfer into MA should take these three classes also at whichever year works best.

Science:
What I would really like would be for students to have an easier time at taking higher science, but that would require starting my curriculum in middle school (which is the goal, but I think I'm going to start with just high school for now). I could have freshman year be an introduction to physics, chemistry, and biology and leave the other years for higher studies in two to three of those, but I want students to have a good understanding of each subject. Since I am planning to have four quarters in the year (two quarters make up one semester), maybe I can put one more scientific subject into my freshman year intro course and make each one a semester. I want my students to come out of high school with a strong base in science. Students should be able to explain why there are certain results and make strategic decisions and manipulate variables. Four years of science are required. Freshmen should not be allowed into the 2nd level of any experimental science.

Math:
What  I really want is for each and every one of my students to graduate having taken algebra I, algebra II, geometry, pre calculus, calculus, and probability and statistics. Like science, I want my students to graduate with a strong base in math. I think I may require students who did not take algebra I in middle school to take it online. Four years of math are required, and students are separated by the type of math taken previously in the sequence.

Arts/PE:
I think the arts and physical education are extremely important for students. In addition to Friday arts and PE classes, I want each student to take at least one year of an art, PE, and health. This gives students the chance to experiment with arts and PE. At this point, I do not know exactly which sports/arts to offer, but I would like to have choir, gymnastics, and sculpture classes if possible. One year of each is required, and students should be mixed by age and skill (unless certain classes are popular enough to need mulitple levels).

Health/TOK:
In health class, I will be teaching protection-based sexual education in addition to abstinence. Theory of Knowlede is similar to what students would get in the IB class. Freshmen should take Health their first semester and TOK thier second semester.

Culture:
Culture class is one of the aspects that make my school so unique. It is a combination of what students would get in cotillion, which I did not, in fact, attend; professional etiquette; and learning about other cultures extensively. The last part would include detailed tourist information, conversations with real people from these countries and regions, and student-driven research and learning. Ideally, the whole class would be democratic in that students would vote off of lists about what to learn. The country/region culture list would probably be guided (perhaps by a region the class hasn't studied in a while), but not every country would have to be covered. I think freshmen should focus primarily on regions (Middle East, North America, etc.) to get the history and relationships between regions that they miss in history class). This could also happen junior year. The etiquetter list would be a list of topics that have to be covered in the year, and the students decide in what order they would like to study them. I would like students to cover each country's or region's history and important people in-depth when working with it. Four years of Culture class are required, so students are divided by year.

Further Studies:
Further studies courses would be ones like computer science, psychology, and economics. Each class would be one semester in length, and students would have to take at least four semesters of these. Because each student has to have a full schedule all four years, this would mean that students would have to take at least two years of further studies classes. These classes are designed to introduce students to as many topics as possible before reaching college and having to decide what they want to do for the rest of their lives. Four semesters of further studies are required, and classes should be mixed by age and skill level (unless certain classes are popular enough to need mulitple levels).

Friday Classes:
Friday classes are completely separate from M-Th classes, even if a student is taking, for instance, PE during the week as well. For example, a student could be in gymnastics on Friday and gymnastics during the week, but the two would not overlap in anything but, possibly, the coach and some of the students. Because we are left with the same number of students and the same number of teachers with the same abilities during the week as on Fridays, there has to be a delicate balance of who teaches what on Fridays (basically, I'm not hiring subject teachers for just M-Th and more specialty teachers for only Fridays). I am thinking that teachers who have experience with a sport can teach those classes with tips from actual coaches. Also, teachers could invite students (either from local colleges or from within the class) to lead some lessons. Pretty much any teacher could teach the MICE and CLS classes with a little training. I'd like students to be able to transverse teachers, though, who go on different volunteer trips and possibly who work on different issues in their classrooms.
PE:
Students should always be physically active. Classes should be mixed by age and skill level.
Modern Issues/Current Events (MICE):
MICE class is one that focuses on current events, international studies, and issues that our world is facing in these times. We can do this class democratically, too. Each class can be arranged by subject, region, theme, etc. A modern issure that would be discussed in this class could be sex trafficking. Classes should be mixed by age and skill level.
Change/Life Skills (CLS) Class:
Change/Life Skills class is one that focuses on four areas: Making a difference outside the classroom (hands-on volunteering - 100 minute classes allow for a fifteen minute bus ride to and from a volunteer site and plenty of time to volunteer); Making a difference in the classroom (writing letters/making things for officials/military/sick children/community leaders/etc. asking for change, thanking them, and/or supporting them; meetings about issues within the school and helping MA); Practical Skills (how to balance a checkbook, buy a house, get a job, do taxes, etc.); and Personal Skills (transitioning to college/stages in life; life lessons like one of my professors who gave us a life lesson lecture). I found a phrase that well represents what I want out of the last two: A crash course in DIY drudgery, from tax prep to turkey trudging. Classes should be split by year because of the practical skill and personal skills section of this class.

Other requirements:
One sitting on a panel during senior year:
One moderator and four panelists for each panel. Each panelist has10-15 minutes to discuss the issue (in one case, two of the panelists had written a paper on the topic at hand, and everyone had to comment on them) with a PowerPoint. Then the moderator asks one or two questions of all or one of the panelists then opens the floor for questions of the panelists.
Each panelist could have a different aspect of the topic on which to focus: economic factors, social networking, health, future implications, etc. Teachers should get to know their students' interests so they can suggest panel topics and even students who might be interested in sitting on the panel. I'm thinking the panel topics should be announced about 5 weeks before it happens. Students can email whoever is in charge if they are interested then the panel should be finalized one month beforehand, so they have a while to work on the topic. This would be good, also, because we have three week breaks, so students would have plenty of time during the quarter sessions to plan for their panels.
I want students to turn in reflections to their English teachers (or ones that have to do with the panel's topic) on Monday or Tuesday the next week. I also want journalism students (and sometimes regular students) to write real papers on the panel topics and on what they're learning about in their classes.
I still don't know how many students I want at MA, but if I have 400 students total, then I'll have about 100 seniors that have to participate each year. There are about 40 Fridays in the academic year. I could fill 2 or 3 of the four spots on the panel with seniors. The other spaces can be taken by freshmen, sophomores, and juniors. I don't care which level of student moderates.