Middle School

Instructional Programs

The 2021-2022 school year saw us beginning to creep out of the Covid pandemic and while we still were required to begin the year with pod classes they were much more flexible than they had been the previous year. By mid-year, we were able to start to bring back many of the offerings that had been impossible during the previous two years including some curricular field trips and in person math competitions.

We continued to have a strong showing in these math competitions with a record number of students participating in a record number of competitions and one of our own MS teams again earning the first place spot in our regional MathCounts competition hosted at ASB. Additionally, we began planning for a new pathway in our secondary math department for our students transitioning from 8th to 9th grade. After many deliberate hours of planning with the 8th grade math teachers and the HS math department, we were able to move forward with an additional accelerated math program and pathway for 16 of our students moving into the HS next year.

We were also delighted to welcome our new MS Instructional Coach this year who has experience as a math and science teacher in addition to many years consulting for PBLWorks. He led the implementation of science differentiona and extension work that we have plans to continue and expand next year. Additionally, he collaborated with our Spanish and Humanities teachers as they worked on exploring our new social studies curriculum adoption, C3 -- College, Career, and Civic Life Framework -- as they began to plan and teach inquiry units in their classes.

This year also saw the return to in-person professional development opportunities for teachers ranging from work in a variety of initiatives and learning from science and social studies to learning support and general best practices. This included a visit in May with Dr. Mary Erhenworth joining us from Teachers’ College Columbia to support our teams in further exploration and practice with best practices in the secondary classroom.

School Community

This year, we were able to transfer the running of our quarterly assemblies to the Student Leadership in collaboration with each of the 8th grade homeroom classes. These events brought us together to celebrate and recognize the accomplishments of the members of our community and also just have some fun together!

Our Student Leadership Council was also able to conduct a record number of service events and activities including seeing a return of our annual Spring Fling and the additions of working with our MS Art teacher to realize a community art fundraiser, Art of Ukraine, a visit to our partner organization E’splai L’Esquitx, and an additional end-of-year football tournament fundraiser with all proceeds, again, benefiting the UNHCR Refugee Relief Fund.

We were able to expand our Advisory program to include more units and address more ISCA (International School Counseling Association) standards than ever before including: physical and mental health, financial literacy, and careers units.

We were also delighted to be able to host all of our team building events for every grade level off campus this year and be able to culminate this year with our 6th and 7th graders enjoying some time together at Isla Fantasia and our 8th graders being able to have their end of the year overnight to Port Aventura.