LEARN MORE about the Gilder Center and Richard Gilder’s fundraising challenge at nmhschool.org/gilder.
A large central foyer will be surrounded by glass-walled classrooms on two levels, putting academic activity on display and creating a vibrant community hub.
In the Gilder Center, mastery-based classes will occupy “mastery suites” designed to accommodate three teachers and 35 to 40 students. The suites can be configured in multiple ways, using movable whiteboards and partitions to accommodate individual instruction, small-group collaboration, or large classroom activities. “This will look very different than our traditional classrooms. We’re really excited by what students will be able to do,” Reeder says. NMH’s math and science teachers already have begun to introduce the new curriculum to students, with individual mastery-learning units incorporated into several traditional classes. This year, 33 ninth graders are enrolled in a full-on mastery Algebra I class. A mastery curriculum for all foundational courses — physics, biology, and chemistry in the science department and algebra, geometry, and precalculus in the math department — will be phased in over the next three years. “The Gilder Center is going to be a stunning, innovative addition to our campus,” says Head of School Peter Fayroian. “The thought and care that has gone into all the planning is a testament to the quality of our faculty and to our ambition as a school to be a leader in 21st-century education. Our students are entering a world that is more complicated, diverse, and fast-paced than the world their parents graduated into. It’s our job to get them ready, so they can do what we expect them to do as adults: make a difference.” [NMH]
The new building will house several “mastery suites” — flexible, classrooms and labs for three teachers and up to 40 students. The suites can be configured in multiple ways to accommodate a range of instruction.
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