New Courses Greet Students Returning to Ramapo/Indian Hills high schools

New Courses Greet Students Returning to Ramapo/Indian Hills High Schools

Rodrigo Torrejon, Franklin Lakes - Oakland Suburban News - September 8, 2016

At the Aug. 29 Ramapo Indian Hills Board of Education meeting, district director of curriculum Daniel Sutherland announced 10 new courses for the 2016-2017 year, including three that will county toward college credit and a new physical education  unit that introduces bicycling to the district.

"Starting in the spring and going through the summer, we had 86 teachers participate in curriculum writing, 11 supervisors," said Sutherland.  "The list that's in the board agenda represents 76 courses."

The new courses are:  AP computer science principles, Chinese 4 honors, choreography, digital design, digital design I, digital design II and marine systems/oceanography.

The new physical educational course is the bicycling unit, which will employ the new bike paths that have been created at both schools.  Sutherland said that the bike paths were completed two weeks ago and that physical education teachers received the requisite training.

"Six of our physical education teachers were trained and certified by the International Mountain Bicycling Association Level 1 Training," said Sutherland.  The bike paths and their associated courses were the brainchild of Sutherland, a mountain bike enthusiast.

The three other new courses are part of Syracuse University Project Advance (SUPA), which allows high school students to take Syracuse University courses at their own schools and classrooms.  Teachers have also been trained for implementing these courses.

"Students can participate in those classes, sign up for dual enrollment and receive Syracuse credit when they graduate high school," said Sutherland.

The SUPA courses include introduction to creative writing, gender and literary texts and science research projects.

E-mail: torrejon@northjersey.com

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