ABOUT OUR SCHOOL

The Creative City Public Charter School is a new, progressive, charter elementary school that will include small classes, hands-on learning, and arts education. Our school is currently being founded by a group of parents, and is proposed to open in the fall of 2013 with grades K–2.

QUICK FACTS

  • Full enrollment K-5, with plans to expand to K-8
  • 22 kids per class
  • 3 classes per grade
  • Full enrollment (K-5): 396

CORE ELEMENTS OF LEARNING

PLACE BASED EDUCATION

Place Based Education uses the local community and environment as a vehicle for learning core skills and exploring questions that are relevant to Baltimore and to students' lives. Place Based Education increases student motivation and performance, helps students develop stronger ties to their local environment, and allows the school to make positive change in the community. Place based education is experience-based, and in Kindergarten, Play-Based.

ARTS INTEGRATION

Creative City will weave the arts throughout its curriculum. Students will observe art to stimulate discussion on pertinent themes and make art to explore problems and reflect on lessons learned. Students will use artistic and traditional written responses interchangeably as tools for reflection and communication. Arts Integration ensures a collaborative and dynamic community, helps students develop a deep understanding of complex concepts and embraces a variety of different learning styles. Art also provides a positive way to engage with the surrounding community.

DIVERSE AND COOPERATIVE COMMUNITY

Creative City will give young people the opportunity to be active thinkers and leaders through decision-making about their school culture and classroom. We will encourage structures for parents, teachers, and community members to have a role in creating and supporting the school's climate and curriculum. We will embrace and celebrate diversity in the backgrounds of families and staff and build school unity through innovative orientation, training and ongoing discussion forums. Our Board of Directors will include teachers, parents, and community member representatives. A student advisory team will regularly provide the board with feedback and input. This will foster a cooperative rather than competitive community, where education is not only a process of gaining knowledge, but a place to practice democracy.

ADVISORY BOARD

Kristina Berdan has been a teacher in Baltimore City Schools for 14 years. In addition to being an Arts Integration specialist, she is also the Teacher-Director of The Stadium School Youth Dreamers, Inc., a youth-run youth center. www.youthdreamers.org/

Maria Broom is an actress, dancer, teacher and storyteller. She is on the faculty at Baltimore School for the Arts, and was the recipient of an Open Society Institute Community Fellowship Grant to establish a mentoring program in inner city schools in Baltimore. www.mariabroom.com

Daniel D'Oca is Principal and Co-Founder of Interboro Partners, a New York-based Architecture, Planning, and Research firm, and a Faculty member in the Art History, Theory, and Criticism Department at MICA.

Janet Felston is a designer, urban planner, teacher, and Founding Director, Baltimore Green Map. www.baltogreenmap.org

Jen Lyon is an architect at Marks Thomas, Baltimore, Md. Advising on facilities. Jen_lyon@hotmail.com

Dr. Mary Rivkin is Associate Professor of Education at UMBC, where she is co-ordinator of the Early Childhood Education Program, and teaches courses in curriculum, math and science processes. Her books include Science Experiences for the Early Childhood Years: An Affective Integrated Approach (with Jean Harlan), and The Great Outdoors: Restoring Children's Right to Play Outside.

Dr. Emily Stanley is the Science Chair at The Jemicy School in Baltimore County. She earned her PhD in Environmental Studies and Environmental Education from Antioch University, NE.