First year at SKHS

Last night, we invited our freshmen and new students to an orientation to give them a jump start on some of the basics of life in a new school like finding their classrooms and opening their lockers (As I was leaving the building last night, a sole freshman mentor was working with a freshman who was practicing opening her locker, perhaps the most immediately stressful issue a new student has to encounter.). Teachers and some sophomores spent time with me in the auditorium with parents answering questions and providing what we hope were helpful tidbits about life at SKHS. These orientations are important but I think in reality are only worthwhile if they are one piece of our efforts to integrate new students, whether from middle school or another high school, to SKHS.

We have taken some steps to specifically address the freshman year as one which can build a foundation of support and success for a student’s remaining career here. Earlier yesterday afternoon, about 50 juniors and seniors participated in an initial training to serve as freshman mentors. They greeted the freshmen last night and showed them around the school. We are hoping to partner with the URI student leadership arm to provide more training for these students. This summer was our first foray into providing a summer school experience which was not solely focused on credit recovery but more directed towards getting a head start on the school year. Approximately 40 freshmen received support in classes that they’ll be enrolled in this fall as part of our Summer Success Program. My vision for such a program is to offer an array of classes to freshman and upperclassmen who are interested in getting a head start on classes they know will be particularly challenging for them. I’m pursuing funding for this as we speak.

This coming year, about 60 ninth grade students will be taking classes with the same four content area teachers; those teachers will also have common planning time to discuss common students and create links between their curricula for students. Contrary to what was written in the Independent yesterday, this is not a program for kids who require additional support. It is a program where students were randomly selected based on student course selection. Teaming, a common practice in middle schools, it designed to support all kids and we think it is especially important as students enter high school. We will also be continuing our efforts, starting later in the fall, of identifying freshmen who are struggling and offering them academic support in those specific classes on Wednesday mornings from 7:37 – 8:20.

The guidance department deserves a lot of credit for their work in all facets of our freshmen transition. They have been catalysts in creating the Wednesday morning academic support program and the freshman mentoring program while supporting all of our other endeavors to support freshmen and new students. They also have created a new student transition program which takes place throughout the year. Later in the year, we will survey students and parents who have participated in these programs, along with reviewing academic, attendance and disciplinary data to examine if these programs have had a positive impact on entering new students. Our hope is that the results will be seen not just with a specific sub-group but with all of the students who enter SKHS during their first year.

A time to reflect and grow

As we do each summer, we try to utilize this time to engage in some professional development for either ongoing initiatives or programs that we are embedding to further fulfill our vision of how we can best support all students at SKHS. This coming year, we will have one team of ninth grade teachers from the four core content areas who will be sharing their students and common planning time. That group of teachers met with a consultant in July to map out a structure for their planning time as well as to begin to identify common expectations for all of the students. I’m very excited at the prospect of being able to replicate the middle school model of teaming to provide a third of our freshmen with additional support in the form of a common team of teachers. In the next few weeks, a group of teachers will be meeting to continue to assess the portfolio system, reviewing student data from last year and making recommendations to improve the structure and communication of the portfolio. Our Teacher Learning Center (TLC) facilitators will also be meeting to further define the structure and process teachers will utilize to grow as teachers so they can better support students in their classroom (more on TLC and how it works later).

Students are also in the building. We are in the middle of our Summer Success Program, an opportunity we provided for all incoming ninth graders to get a head start on their high school experience. 38 students are receiving support in reading or writing, math, study skills as well as an orientation of the building. These same students will be leading the student tours at our Freshman & New Student Orientation later this month. Unlike many summer school programs that solely focus on remediation, we are hoping to establish a summer school program which will empower and support students who want to take more challenging classes, for instance, a student who wants to get a head start on an AP class they will be taking in the fall. Finally, we also will be providing training for a group of upperclassmen who will be serving as freshman mentors so they can also help in transitioning this year’s freshmen class to SKHS. So while there is plenty of time to play, we’ll continue to offer opportunities for students and teachers to grow during their summer vacation as well.