Who We Are
Memminger School of Global Studies is helping all students develop world class academic and life skills along with characteristics of the Profile of the South Carolina Graduate by focusing on three major initiatives: the International Baccalaureate Program, Social Emotional Learning, and Personalized Learning to meet, motivate and support all students’ needs.
As a candidate school in the International Baccalaureate (IB) Program, Memminger is quickly shifting the methods by which we traditionally teach. The students and teachers are part of collaborative effort of learning that includes inquiry, discovery, and knowledge. Students are taking their learning and concepts, the foundation of the inquiry unit, to a creative place that teachers are unable to accomplish alone. Memminger students are displaying their innovation through iMovies, books, community service projects and display their artifacts/evidence and results at our bi-annual IB Showcase, where faculty, staff, students, and parents come together to discuss six-week units. As part of the IB program, students in all grades (CD3-5th) begin to understand and live the Learner Profile by demonstrating what is means to be “balanced, open-minded, principled, and caring.” Students knowing and demonstrating the IB Learner Profile is the foundation of self worth and intrinsic motivation; something we want all our young people to encompass in order to carry them through life, not just elementary school.
Memminger School of Global studies is the only school in the district in its second year of implementation of providing a school-wide, Tier 1 Social/Emotional Learning (SEL) curriculum. The research based, data driven program Second Step is taught by school counselors to support the SEL core competencies that Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) has identified: Self-awareness, Self-management, Social-awareness, Relationship skills, and Responsible decision making. All of these data-driven and research based skills are taught with fidelity to build and support a more successful learner. Second Step is used as a foundation for which students are thriving to be self-directed in their learning-empower. Children need a solid foundation of self-management to help them stay focused in their learning, help build peer relationships, and work cooperatively and independently in and out of the classroom. The SEL program assists students in knowing and understanding how to be a better learner. These skills are vital in order for our students to have the necessary foundation for learning through the IB units coupled with Personalized Learning.
As part of Personalized Learning, students and teachers at Memminger, through teamwork, have been able to increase the rigor and challenge in the classroom. Teachers lead the classroom in personalized learning and have ownership in their growth and pace of instruction. Personalized Learning is a way of mastery for the students to navigate the learning process and the ability to move through the state standards. Through whole group instruction and small groups, students thrive at a self-directed pace to challenge themselves and their peers.