Message from the Head of School
Welcome to Baltimore Lab School!
Baltimore Lab School is a unique and extraordinary place to learn. Parents and students often say that while our interesting and very historic building looks so different than their previous schools, it is how we teach and involve our students that makes it the best school they have ever experienced. This reminds me of what Benjamin Franklin once said, “Tell me, and I forget. Teach me, and I remember. Involve me, and I learn.” These are such simple words, but so many schools just don’t make this happen. At Baltimore Lab, we are committed to the very core of this quote. We believe that language and culture are frameworks through which our students experience, communicate, and understand the world around them. We also believe that teaching and learning must not be only a transmission of culture but also a provider of alternative views of the world and a strengthener of the will to explore them.
Our school believes in constructivism as a way to ensure the best teaching and learning. Constructivist teachers encourage students to constantly assess how their learning is helping them gain understanding. By questioning themselves and their strategies, students in the constructivist classroom ideally become "expert learners." This gives them ever-broadening tools to keep learning. With a well-planned classroom environment, the students learn HOW TO LEARN.
In the classroom, the constructivist view of learning can point towards a number of different teaching practices. In the most general sense, it usually means encouraging students to use active techniques (experiments, real-world problem solving) to create more knowledge and then to reflect on and talk about what they are doing and how their understanding is changing. The teacher makes sure he or she understands the students' preexisting conceptions, and guides the activity to address them and then build on them.
In the words of Jean Piaget, a Swiss cognitive psychologist and international education thought leader, “The principal goal of education is to create individuals who are capable of doing new things, not simply of repeating what other generations have done.” Baltimore Lab believes in facilitating learning for students in a way that allows them to be effective lifelong learners. A graduate of Baltimore Lab School will be: A critical thinker, problem solver, and communicator prepared to face the challenges of college life or workplace. A responsible self-advocate who knows and employs individual strategies for success in college and/or career. An engaged and compassionate global citizen who appreciates and respects the differences in others. A lifelong learner who continues to seek new opportunities to grow.