By Lisa Birkley
FortThomasMatters, FTIS Reporter
Middle school is a time of wonder, exploration
and learning. Who are we kidding; middle
school can be the most confusing time of our lives. Physical, emotional, and social changes are
all occurring at once, and these young people have to learn how to handle
themselves in a variety of situations.
Oh the drama. But there are changes on the horizon for Highlands Middle
School (HMS) that might just make this tumultuous time a little easier for the
students. Teaming is coming back to HMS.
Middle school is a unique time in a
student’s academic career. The students are not little children, but not yet
full fledged teenages. They are at all
different levels of maturity and learning.
They need some special consideration and guidance. Teaming is a way to meet those needs.
Mr. Gene Kirchner, Superintendent, explained
it this way,
“There is a great deal of evidence to support the use of vertical
and/or horizontal teams in schools. In his book Results Now, Mike Schmoker,
argues that education is one of the only remaining professions in which
individuals often work in relative isolation from their peers. In most other
professions it is more likely that individuals work together in teams to
determine goals, develop and share strategies, and measure outcomes. When faced
with a serious health issue we would much prefer a team of physicians working
on our behalf rather than single doctor who does not consult with others.
Likewise, our students can benefit greatly from having a team of teachers
working together for their benefit. When utilized effectively, school based
teams provide a mechanism for the advancement of student achievement. I am very
pleased that Highlands Middle School will be utilizing this approach.”
Teaming is
not a new concept, in fact, when the middle school first opened its doors back
in 2000, the curriculum was based on teaming.
The architects had the teaming concept in mind while designing the
building. The classrooms are actually
constructed in “pods” where the four core subjects of English, math, history
and science are grouped together. It was
set up for two teams per grade with each grade having its own floor.
The teaming concept is simple. Each
grade is divided into two teams and the students all have the same group of
core teachers. According to The Portsmouth Herald, the purpose of teaming has
many benefits. “These include student
engagement, improved relationships between teachers and students, small
collaborative teaching teams, and an integrated curriculum. Many of the
founding principles of the middle school concept could be, and are, applied to
all grade levels. They are simply good, sound educational practices” (Portsmouth
Herald, November 19, 2006, Middle School
Concept Is Best Model). Mr. Mark
Goetz, Principal, summed up the benefits of teaming in the following list:
·
The master schedule is developed to:
·
Give students access to the total curriculum.
·
Let students explore many different areas
through one-quarter Encore courses.
·
To give students that need remediation the
ability to receive the remediation called for during the day.
·
The schedule is to be sustainable for at least
five years.
·
To use the teacher resources available to us to
the maximum capacity.
·
To introduce and develop 21st Century skills.
·
To have students be exposed to the Arts in a
variety of ways.
The research is out there, and teaming does
offer many benefits for the middle school students.
According to the teachers that were
part of the original teaming, things were working. Mr. Kevin Nieporte, science teacher, was
part of the original faculty. He said,
“I liked being able to communicate easier with the other teachers on the team
about a particular student’s needs of the day.
For example, if a student is having a rough day, I can easily let the
others know. Teams also provide more
flexibility in the schedule. If I have a
lab and need more time with the students.
This holds true for assessments as well. If a couple of students need
extended time, we can let them finish as the others more on.”
However, teaming
is expensive.
Because
teaming requires more faculty to run, and since the biggest expense in any
school system is teachers’ salaries, something had to be done to reduce
operating costs. HMS started phasing
out the teaming concept in 2007. Last year the teaming concept was completely
gone. However, HMS teachers never gave
up the hope that it could come back if the money was available again. At times teachers felt disconnected from the
students and other grade level teachers, and parents felt disconnected from
teachers.
In 2011,
Mr. Mark Goetz, Principal and Dr. Dawn Laber, Assistant Principal, took over
the administration at HMS. Both were
interested in finding a structure that would work with the needs of the
faculty, students and parents. It needed
to be something that would last, so the administration looked to the past for a
future solution. They decided to go back
to teaming. Mr. Goetz said, “In the past
the HMS schedule had not allowed the above points to all be met. Some Encore classes were four weeks or five
weeks or nine weeks or 18 weeks. The
Encore classes are now one quarter long, except for band and strings in grade
six and seven and band, strings, chorus, journalism, Spanish and German in
grade eight. All of these courses are
year-long Encore classes.”
There were
still some barriers to going back to teaming.
Money was still an issue. How could the district afford the extra
staffing it would take?
That is where
the administration had to get creative. There needed to be six teachers for
each core subject. Teachers with dual
certification were shifted to new disciplines.
In the past model, teachers were giving an “extra planning period” each
day to meet with their teams and conference about the students. Mr. Goetz went to teachers and asked if they
could forego the extra planning and give up one planning hour a week to meet
with teams. The teachers were willing.
“I
think the best part will be that teaming will ensure a smoother transition for
incoming sixth graders. They will spend
the majority of the day in their area of the building with the same teachers
and classmates,” said Mrs. Sally Brewer, sixth grade language arts
teacher. In addition, teachers were
asked to teach some classes focused on reading or remediation.
Again, they agreed. These two changes would
allow HMS to go to teaming without the need for additional teachers, and no
additional money.
Although
the price was right, there was one addition roadblock to teaming, HMS shares
several encore teachers with the Highlands High School (HHS). Classes such as drama, art, careers and
consumer science, media, keyboarding, band, strings and chorus had to be
carefully scheduled. At that point, Mr.
Brian Robinson, HHS principal, was brought into the planning. With a spirit of great cooperation, the
schedule started to take shape. The key
was scheduling encores at very specific times.
For example, the six graders will only have encores during first and
second periods, the seventh grade will have encores during fifth and sixth
periods and the eighth grade will have encores during third and fourth periods.
When
teaming was tried in the past, one complaint from parents and students was that
the teams were “segregated” from each other.
If a student were on team one, he or she would not interact with any
students from team two during the school day.
To combat this problem for next year, the two encores period will not be
based on teams; they will consist of students from both teams based on the
student’s preference. For example, Johnny
was on team one and Bobby was on
team two. They would not have their core
classes together, but they could possibly have band, health or any encore class
together. Additionally, each grade will have the same lunchtime. So for example, Johnny and Bobby will have
lunch together.
If there is
one downside to teaming, it will be the increase in class size. In any given team, there will be
approximately 120-140 students. The class size will be approximately 27-31
students. The incoming sixth grade class
is likely to be one of the largest classes to come through the middle school. Mrs. Brewer shares this concern. She said, “The sheer number of students in
each class will be a challenge. With 30
to 31 students in a class it will be difficult to manage and hard to give each
student attention.”
However, the class sizes were going to be big no matter
what the curriculum. It was estimated
that the classes would swell to 26-29 students per class. The administration and teachers decided that
having two additional students per class was worth it for teaming. In addition, the data coming from the
elementary indicates that the class sizes are going down. As always, population size will ebb and flow.
The middle school will be bulging for the next few years and then shrink back
to more manageable class sizes.
In the end, teaming will bring many
positive benefits to the students. Mr.
Goetz said, “Months and months of work, meetings, getting input and revising
were put in to make a schedule at HMS that will give a world-class education to
ALL of our students; we believe we have done that.”
