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On behalf of the faculty and staff, I want to welcome you to East Troy Middle School for the 2018-2019 school year. I am honored to serve as principal of East Troy Middle School and the opportunity to work with the students, families, community members and staff of our school district. We continue our commitment to provide an excellent educational foundation in a safe and personalized environment. Keeping our students at the forefront, we will work closely learning about our students to provide the experience so each student may flourish. This includes providing more student voice in their education and expressing their understanding. To quote the book Empower: What Happens When Students Own Their Learning by John Spencer and A.J. Juliani, “It’s a shift from require to desire.”
Interest plays a huge role in desire and learning. Our district data shows our students are bored with school. Students having a voice that’s listened to and acted upon, cultivates ownership and purpose. Students having “voice” showing their knowledge is a shift how teachers assess understanding. If you currently have a middle school student attending East Troy Middle School, they may have shared with you they have choice with how they show understanding. This doesn’t necessarily mean traditional methods of assessments are no longer used, such as paper and pencil multiple choice, it means our teachers will continue to partner with our students in flexible assessments. Teachers will infuse conferencing and provide feedback more often to gauge each student’s understanding of what’s essential in the course (see Course Overviews on the East Troy Community School District webpage). Student voice, flexible assessments and timely, meaningful feedback are pillars of personalized learning.
We continually monitor the growth of each child’s learning through classroom assessments along with district initiative MAP testing as well the state required Forward Exam. Using this data, our teachers will collaborate as a grade level team and building level department to unlock the potential of each student. The previous quantitative assessments are important and we use them to provide snapshots of achievement for each student and cohort class.
Importantly, we utilize the school perceptions survey and grade level climate surveys to monitor qualitative data. This helps us monitor student feelings towards belonging, safety, and what they like about school and not. A safe school is built on the premise of positive relationships. Solid, positive relationships student to student, student to staff, staff to staff are strong indicators of well-being of all involved in the school and directly relates with continuous improvement and achievement. Relationships are another strong component of personalized learning.
With our commitment towards continuous growth in literacy, new this year, the middle school will combine Reading and English into a block of English Language Arts (ELA). The block will be twice as long as a regular class period (approximately 82 minutes). Each grade level will have two ELA teachers to work with our students. Positive impacts on the middle school by increasing a teacher at the middle school include:
- Students have better access to their teachers if assigned to only one grade level
- Relationship building will be more authentic with teaching a lesser number of students
- The additional ELA teacher will increase the timeliness and frequency of feedback on student assessments
- Teachers in a specific focus area, will have a greater capacity to be experts in their area, in order to provide students stellar learning opportunities
Our entire staff – encore and content areas included – is dedicated to building a rich literacy environment in which reading, writing, speaking and listening are authentically embedded into all classes. It should be noted that all other classes will remain 41 minutes in length meeting every day or on a day 1 or day 2 basis.
Our school day will ensure programming opportunities through systems and practices that recognize the talents of each child by providing exploratory and elective opportunities, and provide remediation and enrichment for each student’s experience in the middle school in and out of the classroom. This continues our commitment to a year plus of growth for all students. This focus is designed to develop skill levels and allow our students to grow and succeed at any endeavor.
Sixth grade students will receive state required exploratory courses with the traditional core with limited electives. All sixth grade students will explore Robotics as a problem based learning experience. World Cultures which was part of the sixth grade exploratory rotation will be removed and its core standards will shift to the Social Studies curriculum. The exploratory rotation course includes Art, Computer Applications, General Music, S.T.E.A.M., and Health. Sixth grade students may choose from band, choir and study hall as electives.
Seventh grade students, the lone required class outside of the core classes and physical education, is Interactive Technology I. Students will choose from the following for electives; A World of Art, Adventures in Music, Band, Choir, Robotics II, S.T.E.A.M., World Languages I and Study Hall.
Eighth grade students are required to take the core class load and physical education. From that point, they will choose from the following elective choices; Art through Time, Band, Choir, Exploring Agriculture, Interactive Technology II, Introduction to Computer Programming, Music in Our World, Robotics II or III, S.T.E.A.M., Technology Education, French I, Spanish I, World Languages I or II and Study Hall. Some of the courses are held at the high school and the eighth graders do travel across the street to experience the high school experience early and the upgraded facility.
To meet the needs of our students, we will return to a resource period that is scheduled before the lunch/flex period. The structure of the school day schedule includes a resource/intervention period partnered with the lunch/flex period. This schedule creates intervention possibilities with the focus to improve student skills pertaining to the essential understandings all students need for success in their coursework. Resource will continue character education and the modeling of positive behaviors focusing on being respectful, responsible and safe along with opportunities to work with teachers, and club and other student meetings.
Extra-curricular activities offerings at the East Troy Middle School give students an excellent opportunity for our students to become well-rounded, young adults. Service, support/educational and leadership clubs, along with art club provide students an avenue to expand their education outside the classroom. Athletics provide a meaningful experience of teamwork as well a great opportunity to maintain fitness at a competitive level.
The combination of our educational foundation and extra-curricular activities at East Troy Middle School will continue to unlock the potential of students and realize the essential growth that will make them successful in the 21st Century.
Striving for Excellence in Education,
Peter Syens, Middle School Principal
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