Mount Pleasant Magazine Nov/Dec 2020

37 www.BestOfMP.com | www.ILoveMountPleasant.com | www.MountPleasantMagazine.com I f raising a child takes a village, it should come as no surprise that it took many visits tomany different schools to give Lucy Beckham High School its definition and scope. Principal Anna Dassing pointed out that her mentor Lucy Beckham started to visit other high schools before her untimely passing. With the baton passed, Dassing threw the net far and wide. Riverbluff High School in Lexington, South Carolina is probably one of the biggest influencers for Lucy BeckhamHigh School, in terms of their flexible schedule modeling and CREW and independent learning components. Riverbluff follows an EL Education Language Arts curriculum that engages teachers and students through compelling, real-world content. At Beckham, teachers fromdifferent subject matters collaborate on units. Dassing also went to Summerville High School and Carolina Forest in Myrtle Beach to see the One Lunch concept in action. Dassing even visited schools in the New England area to observe competency- based education, a system in which education is handed back to the students for true ownership in their learning. This empowers them to make important daily decisions. She also had the opportunity to travel to San Diego and check out what West coast schools are doing in their classrooms. Dassing was recently trained in New Tech, a system that uses problem-based learning as a form of inquiry- based instruction. This gave her the chance to visit schools in the Midwest — Iowa and St. Louis — and see some real life applications first-hand. And, of course, there is Wando, their big sister school. “We took the best of the best fromWando to replicate here,” she noted. “This entire process was about amassing ideas, seeing what was possible and then adding to it to make it even better.” A PEEK BEHIND THE CURTAIN $175 In-Office Whitening with Custom Trays Water’s Edge Dentistry Cosm etic, Restorative & Family Dentistr y Excellence in... Changing Lives Through Beautiful Sm iles | WatersEdgeSC.com | 84 3.884.6166 MAY YOUR HOLIDAY BE CHEERFUL AND YOUR SMILE BE BRIGHT