When I was in the EBL Department, the other specialists and I spent months working on a middle school schedule to prepare for the reconfiguration when 6th grade would move into the middle school and 9th grade would move into the high school. Leslie Allen and I worked hard with School Performance Director Mike Sirois to create a schedule that would allow built-in time for students to have remediation and enrichment in ELA and Math courses.
As you can see under the heading of "Students Achieve Under New Middle School Schedule" in these board meeting minutes, "Middle school reading scores have skyrocketed this fall, following an emphasis on reading and interdisciplinary teaming in the new middle school model".
It is really awesome to see the model that I had a hand in creating come to fruition AND see that model produce great results for the students in our district. I certainly wasn't the only one working on it, but I remember "building the board" in bed late into the night with fake teachers; what an awesome learning experience for me.
This experience also represents a time when I was intensely focused on building and implementing a big vision that would affect hundreds of students.
Leslie, Mike, and I had all worked to create this sort of schedule when Leslie and I were teachers for Mike at Fort Herriman Middle School. I am humbled that the work we started as enthusiastic teachers is now a model that all middle schools in our district embrace and that "the model is garnering attention statewide."
I really love the idea that in education, we can make innovative strides that lead to success for our students.
Have a Good Life.