The Catholic School of St. Eugene enriches the curriculum with its electives offered to the students throughout the school year. Students in grades K-8 attend each of the following electives: Art, Music, and Physical Education. Older students have the opportunity to attend Spanish..
Our Enrichment Cluster Program began in February 2020. This program is a component of the Schoolwide Enrichment Model (SEM) by Joseph Renzulli, University of Connecticut. Mrs. Goldsworthy has been fortunate to work with Renzulli in her masters work at UConn, and she has implemented this program at five schools in her career. Six of our staff attended UConn one summer studying the SEM, and are ready to dive in to clusters!
Enrichment clusters are multi-age groups of students who share common interests and come together for a designated block of time to explore those interests. Rather than teaching the students, instructors facilitate clusters. Cluster work is driven by students to produce an authentic product or service to a real-world audience. Some clusters focus on an area of study or profession and some are learning the "how-to" of a particular skill/talent.
Who is involved?
Every 2nd-8th grade student participates in these enriching interest-based experiences. All 2nd-8th grade teachers and specials area staff facilitate a cluster in an area of interest or expertise. Also, parents, and community can participate as well by facilitating a cluster! Miss Tener leads our program coordination.
How it works?
Students will view cluster advertisements choosing 4 clusters of interest and then will be placed in one of his/her four choices. They attend the same cluster for 9 weeks in 1-hour sessions engaging in real-world learning experiences. To celebrate our success, we will hold a product fair & performances for students to showcase their clusters to families and friends on the last day.
Two main goals of Enrichment Clusters:
To provide all students with opportunities, resources, and encouragement to apply their interests, knowledge, thinking skills, creative ideas, and task commitment to self-selected problems or areas of study.
How can you get involved?
Enrichment Clusters bring talents and professions of the staff, parents, and community to CSSE students through shared interests!
This is an exciting program for our students! We look forward to watching our eagles soar as they develop their interest and talents through Enrichment Clusters!
Mrs. Goldsworthy