Teachers Discuss Course Ideas for Upcoming Years

Noa Gurvis, Staff Reporter

Before Millennium Brooklyn High School came into existence, it had to be planned. Floor space, teachers, students, and courses all had to be accounted for. MBHS isn’t a newbie anymore, but preparation for next year’s courses. MBHS teachers and administrators shared their thoughts on the process behind making decisions for courses.

Kevin Conway, Assistant Principal of Instruction, recognizes the necessity of balance between student interest and credits. In order to “light [students] up intellectually,” Conway looks at that balance as a big puzzle, taking constraints under consideration while trying to provide students with “rich learning opportunities.” Conway struggles with the limited resource we have as a school. He knows that “we are not able to teach every single course we want to offer,” which makes it difficult to incorporate both what students want to know and “what’s useful to know.” Conway’s solution is to “start with the ideal [schedule plan], and whittle it down” until each student gets what they need.

Head of Research Department Brian Faughnan shares Principal Dr. Lisa Gioe’s vision for Millennium Brooklyn High School. They envision “a college preparatory school” that provides students with “rigorous instruction” to help them become “highly successful college students.” Essentially, courses should be created in order to benefit the greatest number of students, long-term. For now, he is excited about the engineering and computer science courses that will be offered to MBHS students for the year of 2015-2016.

As head of the Science department, Anna Sasson’s focus is on the upper house, as “most [science] requirements are met freshman and sophomore years.” She wants every student to have the ability to take a science class they are interested in and can manage.

Addie Male, Head of Upper House Humanities, vets proposals from her colleagues before sending them to administration. Her desire is to have “courses that…connect with students” and can “offer what required courses cannot.” Specifically, Male’s goal is to eventually have electives in all subject areas, including a social studies elective for students in between the Regents and AP levels.