Twenty-four years of experience as a teacher and administrator can foster many qualities in a dedicated educator. A well-rounded perspective about teaching and learning, combined with expertise and an entrepreneurial spirit, can result in amazing advances for students. In New York City, former Regional Director of Gifted and Talented Programs and current Bayside Enrichment and Long Distance Learning (BELL) Academy principal, Cheryl Hatzidimitriou, is just such a game-changing educator. The latest of more than 40 programs she created and supervised, the BELL Academy, is a cutting-edge public middle school that functions like a high-performing private prep school. With the Schoolwide Enrichment Model (SEM) at its foundation, BELL determines the interests, aptitudes, strengths, and talents of students and crafts an engaging, individualized instructional pathway, which integrates computer and videoconferencing technologies, for each learner. In addition to fostering educational excellence, BELL seeks to expand its students’ understanding of global issues and instill a spirit of altruism within them.
We like to say educate children one at a time and that means differentiating learning and providing students with as many choices and opportunities to succeed as possible.
— Cheryl Hatzidimitriou, BELL Academy Principal
Using Renzulli Learning to support SEM, BELL establishes a data-rich personal profile of interests, learning strengths, and preferred methods of instruction for every student. With this information, Renzulli Learning helps teachers customize activities for students from an extensive library of pre-screened resources, including websites, software, books, and articles. Cluster programs based on students’ top interests and teacher strengths, culminate in self-chosen projects. These programs “supplement the purely academic and add another dimension to students’ daily lives,” according to Hatzidimitriou.
BELL also prepares students for 21st century success with projects that require investigative skills, such as a cooperative poetry unit in which students use the Renzulli Learning library to help them enrich their work with visually appealing graphics, links to resource information, and first-person interviews with authors. “The beauty of Renzulli Learning,” says BELL instructional technology specialist Robin Russell, “is that it includes tons of pre-screened resources geared to various reading levels so kids can pose questions and explore the Web to find the answers to those questions themselves.”
With Renzulli Learning, the school addresses educational needs such engaging students in higher-order thinking skills and intervention. Teachers also use the digital resource to enrich students’ understanding with virtual field trips to ancient Greece or different rooms in the White House.
BELL’s success is linked to more than just technological resources, however. “Every staff member knows every student by name, and students are nurtured from the time they enter the building in the morning until the time they leave at the end of the day,” says Hatzidimitriou, who cultivates a positive, encouraging, and nurturing environment. “Kids who might fall through the cracks elsewhere don’t at BELL,” she says.
From the daily morning announcements made by students to the after school All-Stars [enrichment] program, BELL Academy is a middle school completely focused on ensuring the academic and personal success of every one of its students…. Displays of photographs and honors celebrate the accomplishments of students, who are highly fortunate to be a part of the supportive, “family-like” school community. As shared by a parent, “At BELL, teachers are not just teachers, they have big hearts and care for our children.”
— 2009 District Report Card
The school’s proximity to New York City brings the real world, with all its influences and opportunities, close to the students of BELL Academy. Cultural and scientific institutions as well as charitable causes abound. And, when students want to expand the spheres in which they learn, they can use state-of-the-art videoconferencing technology to discover worldwide cultures and issues through ongoing communication with peers in countries including Australia, Brazil, Canada, and Italy.
Since opening its doors in 2007, BELL Academy has become the top performing school in the borough of Queens. It ranks in the 98th percentile on the New York City Progress Report, which measures New York City public schools’ overall performance. BELL also boasts a record number of students accepted into specialized high schools such as Brooklyn Tech, Bronx Science, and LaGuardia High School of the Arts, which traditionally accept only the top two percent of students. In 2009, the district’s report card cited BELL’s use of Renzulli Learning as an “outstanding feature” of the school that helps teachers establish individual learning goals for students. Principal Hatzidimitriou encourages those curious about BELL’s success. “Come see our school. I guarantee you’ll be hooked.”
Get hooked! Learn more about BELL Academy in the full-length success story, or contact Renzulli Learning.
