Normal Park Museum Magnet School
In this era of high stakes testing, many schools have fallen into the trap of going back to basics, eliminating creativity and essentially taking the joy out of learning. At Normal Park, we believe that there is a different way to promote student achievement. At Normal Park, instruction is not bound by the front and back cover of a textbook, nor is it confined to the four walls of our building! We believe that students learn best when they are getting their hands dirty, exploring and creating. Weekly, Normal Park students extend their classrooms to engage in authentic learning opportunities at our partner museums and sites throughout Chattanooga.
Whether they are
- studying biodiversity while on a class snorkeling trip
- touring LEED construction in the new Volkswagen plant
- experimenting with chemicals in the Chattem labs
- comparing portraits of presidents at the art museum
- OR racing student-built boats in a regatta after they applied concepts related to measurement, volume and density
Students are collaborating in real-life learning situations solidly grounded in our state standards.
At the end of each quarter our campuses turn into museums. Students cooperatively design and build museum-quality exhibits where they serve as docents to answer questions, conduct science demonstrations and explain their work to visitors.
Couple this exciting and challenging curriculum with a team of all-star teachers who are committed to The Normal Park Way and the result is strong value added scores. The Normal Park Way includes strategies such as guided reading, readers and writers workshop, bar model drawing in math, use of interactive notebooks, exhibit building, and use of Love and Logic for discipline. Our teachers are 100% committed to The Normal Park Way, and the result is a consistent Pre-K through 8th grade curriculum.