In the 2024-25 school year, we are going to be focusing on the Middle School years. To start with, we asked families and teachers to respond to a survey.
We asked these questions:
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Let me start by asking you to characterize what the middle school years were like for you, or for your children. What do you remember about those years? what made them challenging? what was good about them?
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Can you let me know what kind of supports were helpful to you as a student during those years?
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If you are a parent of middle schoolers, tell me more about: which supports were or are helpful – or if they don’t exist, and what type of supports do you wish were available for students.
To remind us, you said we needed:
- more caring and expert staff to keep students safe
- intense focus on social and emotional skills
- more electives, clubs, field trips, and
- greater effort to build a sense of community.
This music teacher reminds us why these years are so important!
My staff had the opportunity to visit Walter Reed Middle School on the day when students could learn about all the different clubs on campus. As you’ll see, saying that this is one of the primary reasons students want to go to Reed is not an exaggeration!
I had a chance to sit in on the General Music class at Louis Armstrong Middle School and it was a wonderful experience. Watching how engaging the teacher was and how the students responded was truly special!
Here is another elective class where middle schoolers can develop confidence, explore their interests and ‘find their voice’!
The Mindful Gardeners set up a booth at the Indigenous Month celebration in October of 2024. Though they are not in a BD3 school, their program seems like a good model to address social emotional skill building.
MORE TO COME…