Month of curriculum workshops include July 12 open house at Towson High School

Teachers will work in more than 90 workshops across Baltimore County to make sure the curriculum used in classrooms will provide the best possible instruction for each student.

On July 5, educators from across Baltimore County began the labor-intensive but vital task of refining what will be taught in the county’s classrooms next school year and how it will be taught.

They are examining lesson plans and materials and fine-tuning instructional strategies. They are discussing how best to communicate the state’s curriculum to students, and how the county’s classroom work will meet Maryland’s Core Learning Goals. They will, in short, map out the way students will learn in county schools.

The venue for this important work is more than 90 curriculum development workshops that will continue until July 28.

"Baltimore County Public Schools' goal is to advance achievement for all children," said Arlene Fleischman, director of the school system’s Department of Professional Development. "This fine-tuning of the curriculum enables us to better understand how to address the learning needs of all students as we prepare them for the increased demands of living and working in a global, technological society."

The curriculum workshops are an annual rite of summer for Baltimore County Public Schools. And each summer, the school system invites the public to talk with curriculum-writers and observe the workshops during an open house. This year, the open house will be on Wednesday, July 12, at Towson High School, 69 Cedar Avenue, in Towson, from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

The intensive curriculum preparation concentrates on updating and refining curriculum to include a variety of teaching strategies. Those strategies will be used by educators to meet the diverse learning needs of students. As part of that effort, the workshops will focus on instructional material that will appeal to all students, regardless of skill level, and that relate to students' various cultures, races, genders, and family structures.

"It is extremely important that each year we examine what we teach and the ways that we teach," added Fleischmann. "Our students are different each year, and the expectations of what a graduating student will know are constantly accelerating."

Story by Charles Herndon, communications specialist for BCPS.