This is a guest letter written by Sherry Daniel, the Interdisciplinary Studies Teacher at Columbus Gifted Academy. If you're interested, please reach out to Sherry at sdaniel3375@columbus.k12.oh.us.

Hello,

I am the Interdisciplinary Studies Teacher at Columbus Gifted Academy (CGA), a school located in the Short North and under the district umbrella of Columbus City Schools. We are dedicated to teaching students in grades 3-8 who have been identified as having superior cognition or are gifted in reading and math. The Columbus Gifted Academy prides itself on progressive pedagogy and a supportive learning community while offering rigorous, culturally responsive educational opportunities. To add depth and complexity to the standards we teach, we include expeditionary learning in grades 6-8. It is my job as our Interdisciplinary Studies Teacher to create community partnerships, connect outside content to our curriculum, work with partners to create middle school-appropriate content, and arrange for us to visit during the school year in whatever real-life or digital format is most appropriate. On a practical level, this means we travel frequently to our community partner sites to engage in learning outside our walls. 

Each community partnership we develop is unique. You may have already developed outreach programming that would be beneficial to us. Perhaps you have graduate students who would benefit from creating expeditionary learning opportunities. I am available to help create and tailor programming to the needs of middle school students so you won’t have to guess what will work best for that audience.

CGA can use content from almost every discipline. Across 3 grade levels and within the core subject areas and the arts curriculum we offer, we can find a curricular connection almost anywhere. Our current partners are pleased to develop programming with us so that they can market it as part of their outreach to other schools and community organizations. We are also included in several grant applications as the product of outreach programming. Examples of our current partners include Dr. Babcock from the Ohio State’s School of Earth Sciences, Dr. Yarmel from OSU’s Center for Ethics and Human Values, OSU’s Byrd Polar Research Center, Roto Design Firm, the Columbus Museum of Art, the Audubon Center, Ohio History Center, Actors’ Theatre, and Thurber House.

We offer a dynamic expeditionary learning program and would love to speak with you about expanding our offerings to include your discipline. Since we are fortunate to have a world-class university in our backyard, we are seeking opportunities to connect with Ohio State professors, researchers, and experts in engaging, collaborative work. I've included pictures from our partnership with Ohio History Center where we, among other things, dress our students in period costume as they become historical interpreters at Ohio Village, and our partnership with Actors' Theatre of Columbus who directs our students in Shakespeare plays performed on the Schiller Park stage. If you are interested in chatting with us about this opportunity, please contact me at sdaniel3375@columbus.k12.oh.us.

Thank you and I look forward to exploring outreach opportunities with you.

Sincerely,

Sherry Daniel