The
University of Hartford Magnet School
An Interdistrict School on the University of Hartford Campus
Serving Urban and Suburban Children - From the city of Hartford and the towns of Avon, Farmington, Simsbury, West Hartford, Bloomfield and Wethersfield. The school will serve students in Kindergarten through fifth grades and 36 children in an Early Childhood Education Center serving 3 and 4 year olds. The rich mix of diverse races and cultures in the school helps address the racial isolation of the city and suburbs and provides a model of excellence through diversity. Unique features of the school include:
University of Hartford Location - This partnership allows integration of new ideas in education with new ideas in the preparation of teachers, counselors, nurses, health professionals, and administrators. University faculty contribute their time and expertise to collaborations with Magnet School faculty and staff through which ideas about education and professional preparation are elaborated, implemented and assessed. Magnet school faculty participate in teaching courses at the university and university students in a wide range of programs participate in academic service learning activities at the school.
Innovative Curriculum Model - Based on Harvard University psychologist Howard Gardner's theory of Multiple Intelligences, which asserts that there are as many as eight different sorts of intelligence, rather than the two or three traditionally focused on in schools. The eight intelligences - linguistic, bodily-kinisthetic, mathematical, spatial, interpersonal, intrapersonal, musical, and naturalistic - are woven into the curriculum in three ways. Each child receives focused attention on developing each intelligence, and the staff includes specialists in each area. Each child also receives special attention in their strongest areas so that they can develop their full potential. Finally, the classroom curriculum is integrated, so that each intelligence can be used to nurture others. For example, musical intelligence can be used as a way to foster mathematical intelligence, or vice versa.
Family and Wellness Center - The FWC's primary purpose is the promotion of physical, social and emotional health and well being, with sensitivity to the needs, beliefs and values of diverse populations. Attention to these issues is woven into the curriculum. In addition, special opportunities exist to meet the needs of individual students and parents. Individual and group counseling, evening workshops, and adult education opportunities are some of the services available. The Twenty-First Century Learning Center provides before school, after school, and weekend programs for students from the school and from the surrounding Northwest Hartford community.
Early Childhood Center - The Early Childhood Center focuses on the development of the whole child within the context of the multiple intelligence environment. Children engage in exploration across many areas, and participate in small group and whole group activities. All areas of development are nurtured and observed very carefully to ensure that children are growing as well as being challenged according to their interests and abilities. The children are exposed to thematic integrated curriculum so that all their intelligences are nurtured and so that each intelligence can support the development of the others. The early childhood center has a separate entrance and play yard that is age appropriate for the children who attend the program. Special programs and field trips add to the richness of the program offered to the 3 and 4 year olds who attend.
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