Bay Farm
Middle School
Spotlight
Dear Middle School Families,

As construction crews build out the new Bay Farm Middle School facilities, Conrad, Kelley, Laura, Brianna, and Jenny are hard at work finalizing the curriculum that will provide your students with a truly first-rate learning experience.

In the coming weeks, we will be highlighting different facets of the curriculum and providing detail on what your students will be covering in Year 1 of their Middle School journey.

This week, we’re going to look at the curriculum planning process from 30,000-feet and introduce you to everyone involved.
The Curriculum Planning Team:
  • Conrad Wildsmith, Head of School
  • Kelley Collins, Director of Education
  • Laura Honeywood, Middle School Lead Humanities Teacher
  • Brianna Batchelor, Middle School Lead STEM Teacher
  • Jenny Sabados, Director of The Shop

Conrad has been the head of school at Bay Farm since 2017. With over 25 years of teaching and school leadership experience, he holds Lifetime Certification in K-8 teaching, K-12 Gifted education and both Elementary and Secondary school Principalship, and will complete Montessori administrator certification in July 2020. He holds a Master's degree in Gifted Education and an Educational Specialist degree in School Administration and Policy Analysis from the University of Missouri. 

As the founding head of The French School in St. Louis, Missouri, Conrad led his school to achieve World School status authorized by the International Baccalaureate Organization in three short years. Conrad is an expert trainer of teachers in Gifted education, differentiation, inquiry, immersion, classroom management, and multi-tiered intervention. Conrad believes that teaching and learning are based on positive relationships that respect the child as a capable and authentic individual. 

Kelley has been a teacher at Bay Farm since 2003 and was the anchor of the school’s Elementary II program prior to stepping up to become Director of Education. She has her Bachelor’s degree in Journalism, her Master’s degree in Political Science and is certified to teach at both the Children’s House and Elementary II levels. Her main educational interests are developing passion and intrinsic motivation in students and understanding the science behind how our brains learn. Kelley’s main goal for the coming year is to bring together the full-school’s curriculum into a single unified story of learning that promotes self-directed, thoughtful expressions of joy, purpose and compassion among our students.

Laura joins Bay Farm this year after serving as a Middle School teacher at The Academy of the Pacific Rim in Hyde Park, MA. She received her Bachelor degree in Theatre Arts from Brown University and her Master’s degree in International Training and Education at American University in Washington, D.C. She completes her Montessori certification this summer and is dedicated to helping students grow with compassion, support, and a wide range of approaches for students at any stage of development.

Brianna is a third-year teacher at Bay Farm who excels at providing students with the tools necessary to solve complex logical and mathematical problems at age-appropriate levels. 

Jenny joined the Bay Farm faculty team spring 2020 as the Director of the newly constructed Middle School innovation space and modern learning lab, The Shop. Jenny holds a B.A. in Music Education and Theatre performance from Samford University. She has 8+ years teaching experience in many different school settings and non-profit education programs where she focused on her deepest passion, the pursuit and cultivation of individualized creative learning. Working closely with the newly appointed Middle School team at Bay Farm Montessori Academy, Jenny’s goal for this year is to guide Bay Farm Middle Schoolers through a newly developed design thinking curriculum created to bring the knowledge in the classroom off the page and into action, thereby engaging each student with hands-on, real world experience; empowering them to reach their full potential.
Curriculum Overview:
The Middle School Curriculum will cover the topics of Language Arts, Cultural (US History and Civics), Science (Chemistry and Physics), and Math. Each topic will be taught through the lens of 5 different themes:
  • Inquiry
  • Power, Force, and Structure
  • Transformation, Innovation, and Change
  • Identity and Interdependence
  • Community Connections
Built in Enrichment - Preview

This year, our students will be participating in the "We the People" Program organized by The Center for Civic Education. The foundation of this program is the classroom curriculum. It complements the regular school curriculum by providing students with an innovative course of instruction on the history and principles of U.S. constitutional democracy. The capstone of the program is a live mock hearing at the State House in Boston with state legislators, attorneys, and judges.
Understanding the Third Plane of Development: Adolescents Age 12-18
The Four Planes of Development is the holistic framework upon which Dr. Maria Montessori built her vision of developmental psychology. This encompasses human development from birth until maturity at age 24. It is described as holistic because it considers all aspects of a child’s development—academic, spiritual, moral, and emotional. To learn more about the characteristics of an AMS Secondary Program, click here .
The Shop: An Innovation Hub Changing the Face of Middle School Education.
"The SHOP is a prime example of how Bay Farm practices the Montessori philosophy of building independence through hands-on experience, though it was a different kind of shop that inspired the name." If you haven't ha d a chance to read the Boston Magazine article on The Shop, we encourage you to check it out.