St. Margaret of Scotland Families:

This past Friday our faculty spent their afternoon participating in professional learning.  Anthony Van Gessel and Maureen Lovett joined us from the Archdiocese of St. Louis. They work to direct academic programming and planning for the schools in the Archdiocese.  We continued our work in creating Units based on standards using Understanding by Design.  

Understanding by Design (UBD) is a framework for curriculum design based on several key tenets. Learning is amplified when curricular planning is an intentional process.  UBD focuses on developing student understanding and the transference of knowledge and skills using authentic, performance-based, learning activities.  Using UBD, curricular experiences are created backward starting with desired results. Teachers act as facilitators of content and skills, not vessels of information.  Finally, UBD calls for the regular review of unit plans to ensure standards are met effectively with a focus on continual improvement.  

Many of our teachers have already participated in and have done great work implementing this philosophy of curriculum development at St. Margaret of Scotland.  We will continue this work this year and next to ensure that we are using best practices in our curriculum development and implementation.  

God Bless, 

Patrick Holley