Ashe County Middle School National Schools to Watch 2003 and 2006

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Ashe County Middle SchoolNational Schools to
Watch 2003 and 2006

• PO Box 255
• Warrensville, NC 28693
• Phone [phone]
• Fax [phone]

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ACMS

• Opened 1999
• Serves entire county
• Building is a former high school

• 494 students in grades
• 7-8
• 48 full-time certified
• staff

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Student Demographics

• 48 Free or reduced lunch
• 93 Caucasian
• 20 students speak English as a second language
• 95 attendance rate
• 12 EC
• 16 AIG

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COMMUNITY DEMOGRAPHICS

• Economically diverse
• 7.4 unemployment rate
• 28,824 per household income
• Major industries Christmas trees, electronics

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Recognition

• 2005-2006 School of Distinction/Expected Growth
• National School to Watch
• 2004-2005 Honor School of Excellence/Expected
  Growth
• Met AYP Goals
• 2003-2004 Honor School of Excellence/High Growth
• Met AYP Goals
• 2002-2003 School of Excellence/High Growth
• National School to Watch
• Met AYP Goals
• 2001-2002 School of Excellence/High Growth
• 2000-2001 School of Distinction
• One of four model Coordinated School Health
  Programs
• 1999-2000 School of Distinction/Exemplary

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Organization

• Teaming
• 3 or 4 person teams
• Compatibility/Varied Talents
• 40 minute team planning daily
• 40 minute individual planning daily
• Teams can re-organize academic time as needed
• Teams can move students around

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Organization

• Block Scheduling
• Four 80-minute blocks
• One block is Encore
• Elective Art, Spanish, Life Skills, Career
  Skills, Band, Chorus, Reading
• Required Computers, Health/P.E.
• Three blocks of Core Time
• Language Arts
• Math
• Science/Social Studies-Semester or A/B day

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Components of a Successful Student Advisory
Program
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Student advisory programs provide an opportunity
for middle level schools to introduce an adult
advocate into the life of every student in the
school. Many young adolescents suffer from
feelings of isolation and loneliness, and
advisory activities allow them to connect with
caring adults and other students to help them
through the rough spots during the middle level
years.
The Education Alliance at Brown University has
published a comprehensive guide to creating an
advisory program in secondary schools. Changing
Systems to Personalize Learning Discover the
Power if Advisories offers five key dimensions of
an effective advisory program.
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Dimension 1 Purpose
A clearly defined purpose supported by the
community
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• Which PURPOSE is right for your school?
• To advise students about academic decisions and
  monitor academic achievement
• To provide developmental guidance (both formal
  and informal)
• To foster communication between the home and the
  school and among members of the community
• To encourage supportive peer relationships and
  practice conflict resolution
• To promote an awareness of diversity and
  tolerance
• To undertake community service both within and
  outside the school
• To facilitate community governance and
  conversations
• To prepare students for life transitions,
  including career exploration and considering
  postsecondary opportunities
• To promote character development and explore
  moral dilemmas
• To explore the process of group development and
  have fun

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Dimension 2 Organization Organized to
fulfill the purpose and to ensure personalization
-People and Size -Time and Space -Professional
Development -Student Ownership
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People and Size

• How many advisees will each advisor have?
• Which adults in your building will serve as
  advisors? What characteristics should they
  possess?
• If some teachers do not serve as advisors, what
  supportive role can they take on?
• Will any advisories be co-facilitated(e.g. first
  year teacher with a veteran teacher)?
• By what criteria will students be sorted into
  advisories?
• By what criteria will advisees be assigned to
  advisors?
• Will advisees and advisors be paired for more
  than one year?
• What will be the specific roles of advisees and
  advisors?
• How will parents be involved in the program?
• How will community members outside the school be
  involved in the advisory program?

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Time and Space

• How often will advisories meet?
• How long will advisory meetings last?
• Will there be time for individual meetings as
  well as group meetings?
• How will this time fit into the master schedule?
• Where will advisories meet?
• How will advisories be able to personalize their
  space?
• Will each advisory have its own space?

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Professional Development and Support

• How do we create regularly scheduled time for
  advisors to meet?
• In what types of configurations can advisors meet
  for training and support (e.g., clusters, teams,
  pairs, full faculty)?
• How will we identify the types of training and
  support that advisors need?
• How will initial and ongoing training be
  conducted and by whom?
• What resources will advisors need
  (e.g.,coordinator, curriculum, volunteers, petty
  cash)?
• What initial support will be given to advisors
  that are new to advising or advisors that may be
  struggling?
• How will advisors be observed and assessed?
• What type of budget will be required for the
  program?

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Student Ownership

• Will students take part in creating and
  overseeing the program?
• How will advisories serve as a vehicle for
  empowering students (e.g.,school governance,
  student-led groups, community responsibility)?
• How will students in upper grade advisories
  mentor students in lower grade advisories?

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Dimension 3 ContentContent should be based
on the purposes to be achieved, on the nature of
the school, and on individual advisors.

• Be organized around essential questions, themes,
  or skills.
• Be consistent across advisories or vary depending
  on an advisors knowledge of his or her advisees
• Follow a common curriculum, be chosen from an
  advisory handbook, or be organized by advisors to
  personalize their own advisory experience.

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Note It is critical to the success of your
advisory program that the content you decide on
aligns with the purpose youve chosen, and that
you organize the program to support it.
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Dimension 4 AssessmentAssessment should be
conducted at several levels.

• Individual student/advisees
• Individual advisors
• Advisory groups as a whole
• Overall advisory program
• School and program leadership

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Note Assessments should be conducted
periodically to determine whether the purposes of
the program are being met and whether
participants are meeting expectations.
Assessments can help you to gauge the need to
modify your advisory program over time to
continue to meet the needs of students in an
ever-changing world.
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Dimension 5 Strong LeadershipStrong
leadership by an individual or team charged with
designing, implementing, overseeing, supporting,
and assessing the program.

• Essential leadership duties include creating
  buy-in among community members and ensuring that
  advisors have adequate training, resources, and
  support.

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Leadership Questions to Consider

• Who will assume primary leadership for your
  program?
• What specific barriers do you foresee in the
  planning, implementation, and maintenance of your
  program? How do you plan to avoid or overcome
  these barriers?
• What processes can be put in place to build
  support for your advisory program among all
  school community members? How will you ensure
  that consensus is achieved around the stated
  purposes?

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The Beginnings

• Read the research on benefits of Advisor/Advisee
• Teams of teachers visited middle schools with
  successful A/A programs

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The Structure

• Original purpose was to offer a concentrated time
  for building self-esteem, trust, and a sense of
  belonging between the students and an adult in
  the school
• Found that early morning schedules had been found
  effective in helping children start each day with
  a positive attitude and support system
• Small groups of students (20 or fewer) will meet
  daily with an adult mentor for approximately 20
  minutes
• Time is well planned and activities are directed
  to better meet the emotional and social concerns
  of this age group

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Original Strategies

• Involved staff members including classroom
  teachers, assistants, itinerate personnel, media
  specialist, etc.
• Counselors served as leaders/consultants
  developed activities and conducted specialized
  group and individual sessions during this time
• Used commercial A/A activity notebooks as well as
  in-house activities
• Later included Character Education

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Our AA Program Included

• Advisor Advisee Activities
• Team Building
• Study Skills
• Relationship Activities
• Intramurals
• School pride
• Club Meetings
• Novel Studies
• Packtime met from 755-830 and included
  homeroom duties

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Success of our AA Program

• Helped students bond through the early years
  after consolidation
• Service-learning projects were strong component
  (nursing home partnership, canned food drives)
• Team building activities helped develop sense of
  togetherness within teams

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Need for Change

• The need for change was based on what teachers
  were saying
• We want more teacher autonomy
• We need to move our high flyers
• How do we tutor our struggling students during
  the school day without interrupting the regular
  classroom teacher
• We need to develop leadership skills
• Loss of GEAR-UP

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Discovery Block was Born

• High interest
• Teachers chose subject to teach
• Students signed up for courses of high interests
  (remedial students were placed in a tutorial
  class with options of moving to another DB with
  success in tutoring)
• Options for year long, semester, or quarterly
  course offerings

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The Process of Implementation

• Visits Took 10 staff members to visits
• Lots of conversations
• Team Leaders
• Specific Teams

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      Ashe County Middle School   DISCOVERY
BLOCK          
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DISCOVERYBLOCK

• Ashe County Middle School DB consists of four
  components
• Enrichment Sessions
• The first and most important component
• Character Education
• Two Character Education lessons are taught
  monthly
• Lesson plans are provided in the Discovery Block
  Notebook which is assigned to all staff at the
  beginning of each year
• Advisory/Advisee
• Activities are facilitated twice a month.
• Sample activities are provided in the DB
  Notebook.
• Teachers use the Gift Book provided to us by
  Gear-Up
• Intramurals
• Offered weekly

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September 2006
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Components of DB

• Enrichment Sessions
• Activities related to the topic of the Discovery
  Block
• Sessions provide enrichment to the students
  daily schedule
• Content rich and go beyond the North Carolina
  Standard Course of Study
• Offer topics that are of high interest to
  students and teachers
• Teachers incorporate skills from reading,
  writing, and math at a high level

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Components of DB

• Character Education
• Character education lessons on two Mondays each
  month
• Lessons are provided, however teachers are
  encouraged to personalize lessons to their class
• Advisor/ Advisee
• Activities that help students with their needs,
  guide students, and offer students a place to
  discuss areas of concern with their peers and at
  least one other adult
• Intramurals
• Teamwork-related and individual competitions
  among DB classes

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Process for Selection of Discovery Block
Sessions

• Students are allowed to choose the blocks they
  would like to attend. They do this by ranking the
  sessions from first choice to last choice.
• School administrators and school guidance
  counselors then place the students in selected
  courses.
• To be in the Leadership blocks, a student must
  have a percentile score of 92 or better in
  reading and/or math on the last EOG taken.
• Students who score low level IIIs in math and
  reading will be placed in the Math/Reading
  Remediation.
• Students who score in level II Math will be
  placed in Corrective Math.
• Students who score in level II reading will be
  placed in Corrective Reading.
• Teachers are allowed to make recommendations to
  the administration for class changes in Discovery
  Block. It will be an ADMINISTRATIVE decision as
  to whether or not the child may be switched to
  another section.
•  

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7 th Grade DISCOVERY BLOCK CHOICES YEAR
1   Student Name_____________________________ Te
lephone _______________________  Parent
Name______________________________ SIMS_______
_____________________   PRIORITIZE your choices
1-15. Number 1 being your first choice.
Placement in Discovery Block classes can change
based on EOGs, Assessments and teacher
recommendation. Level 2 students could
automatically be placed in Corrective Reading or
Math. Low level 3 students may be placed in
Reading/ Math Enrichment.   _____ Battle of the
Books Students read books and come together to
demonstrate their abilities and test
their knowledge of the books they have
read. Students will participate in
competitions. _____ Broadcasting Students work
together as a team to learn techniques of
broadcasting and produce an in-house T.V.
production. _____ Corrective Math Students
revisit the Math Standard Course of Study for EOG
preparation. _____ Corrective Reading Students
revisit the Reading Standard Course of Study for
EOG preparation. _____ Creative Writing/
Journalism Students discover creative writing
techniques while producing a document such as the
school newsletter. _____ Drama Student
understanding, appreciation and awareness of
theatrical art is increased. Through
lecture, discussion, videos,
demonstrations and live performance, it will
introduce you to onstage and behind-the-scenes
operations of the theatre, in
addition to the major genres of literature.
_____ In the News Students will study the
news while learning the format and structure of
news resources. _____ Leadership Students
are challenged to step outside the box and expand
their leadership skills through the discovery of
an accelerated
curriculum. _____ Logic and Problem Solving
through Games Students will learn and
experience new techniques of logic and problem
solution through games and
interaction. _____ Math Power Students will
learn and practice accelerated math
techniques. _____ Percussion Students will
learn about and play percussion
instruments. _____ Reading/ Math Enrichment
Students will examine the reading and math
curriculum for better understanding and
mastery. _____ Science Olympiad Students will
bring science to life, show how science works,
and emphasize problem solving aspects of science
and the understanding of
science concepts. Students will participate in
competitions. _____ Technology Leadership
Students serve as school techies. They will
learn about the technology system from the
inside out. Extensive knowledge
of Microsoft Office is a prerequisite. _____
Wellness and Health Students will learn healthy
living through nutrition and exercise.    If you
have questions regarding the Discovery Block and
making appropriate choices for your child, please
contact Mary Crisp or Ricky Goodman at 384-3591.
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YEAR 2
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Just a Suggestion
DISCOVERYBLOCK Notebook Content
Section 1 OVERVIEW Components, Selection
Process, Calendars Section 2 SESSIONS
Offerings, Teacher Assignments, Room s Section
3 Character Education Lessons Section 4
Advisor/ Advisee Activities Section 5
Additional Resources Evaluations, Session
Proposal,
Schedule Change Form