iBerkshires.com, MA
July 15 2004

BArT principal hopes to `change lives’
By Linda Carman –

Michelle Close, the principal of the Berkshire Arts and Technology
Charter School. (Photo By Linda Carman)
NORTH ADAMS – The principal of the Berkshire Arts and Technology
Charter School had a teacher and mentor who opened a new world for
her, and now she wants to do the same for this generation of
students.

Michelle Close, who worked from Providence, R.I., until Friday, said
her 7th and 8th grade teacher in Brookline, Margo Strom, developed a
curriculum titled `Facing History and Ourselves,’ a study of the
Holocaust which Close found galvanizing.

`It changed my world. It asked critical questions, such as who’s
responsible, and are there such things as innocent bystanders,’ she
said. The curriculum began with Holocaust studies, and has expanded
to cover the Armenian genocide, the Sudan and other venues for its
exploration of peace and personal moral responsibility.

Close worked for Strom after college, motivated by enthusiasm for the
curriculum, and the non-profit organization Strom founded.

`It made me wide awake in the world, and once I was wide awake in the
world there was no going back,’ she said at the BArT offices on Main
Street in North Adams Tuesday.

Close said she is confident that the charter school, to be located at
One Commercial Place in Adams, will open in September as scheduled,
and is pleased with Gov. Mitt Romney’s recent veto of a moratorium on
new charter schools in the state. An override vote by the legislature
on the moratorium is possible.

`I’m thinking positively,’ Close said. `We’ve been having talks with
[legislators]. We’re moving ahead as if the school is going to open.
All the plans are in place. I’m believing in the school and hoping
the state is too.’

Close grew up with a teacher near at hand; her mother was an early
childhood educator. She identifies her epiphany – her realization
that she wanted to pursue education as a career – to a bus trip in
Israel, where she lived on a kibbutz after traveling widely in
Europe.

`I really, truly believe my education changed my life, and I hope to
do the same for others,’ she said.

Close joined BArt June 1. She and her husband, who will teach in
Pittsfield, and their two children, ages 2 1/2 and 5, have moved to
Williamstown, where the children will attend Williamstown Elementary
School.

During her 15 years of teaching, Close has taught at a broad spectrum
of schools – alternative, standards-based and project-based. In
Providence, she taught humanities, mentored student teachers from
Brown University, trained teachers in arts literacy, among other
topics, and developed curricula for several organizations.

Most recently, she said, `I did a unit on witch hunts throughout
history – the Salem witch trials, the Japanese internments during
World War II, and the anti-immigrant measures post 9/11.’

The students’ final project includes an exploration of `whose
responsibility is it to end witch hunts? Who instigates them?’ she
said. `Everyday activities become a scaffold for students to show
they understand. Everyday learning is connected to the final
outcome.’

The educational name for this approach is understanding by design or
backwards learning, starting with the idea of what the student should
be learning.

This approach can be taken in practically any educational setting,
but Close said the exciting part of this charter school is `teaming,’
a sort of educational huddle of teachers planning for each individual
student.

This, she said, results in `project-based learning that is rigorous,
challenging and cross-curricular.’

Here, she said, this approach will focus on community, tying together
statistical analyses, biographies, and environmental effects in an
endeavor that `still covers all the standards in Massachusetts.
Skills and content connect.’

Close said she was drawn to this BArT charter school because students
are teamed with teachers who know them more intimately.

`It’s difficult for students to fall through the cracks,’ she said.

To graduate from BArT, students will take a senior seminar, pass a
college course, complete an internship, all in addition to state
graduation requirements, she said, adding that the Commonwealth
Corporation, a quasi-public organization, is helping guide BArT.

Close was drawn to BArT by the prospect of synergy between arts and
technology.

`That was a big pull,’ she said. She most recently worked in a
technology-based school.

Close received her bachelor’s degree from the University of
Massachusetts and her master’s degree in education from Tufts
University, with additional course work at the University of
California at Berkeley and Brown University.

`I’m excited about the challenge here,’ she said. `So many people
have done so much work before me. I feel blessed.’