The New Middle School Model

NEWTripp Aldredge

Harris Road Middle School Cabarrus County Schools

The Middle

School Model^

NEWTripp Aldredge


The Middle

School Model^ Are you meeting the needs of your students?

Is your school’s master schedule working for your students and staff?Do your students have a wide variety of curricular choice (world languages, arts, career/technical education)?Do your teachers of tested subjects (almost all teachers now) have equitable teaching and planning time?Are you preparing students for life and work in the 21st century?Does your curriculum infuse global education for our shrinking world?Do you maximize students’ exposure to your best teachers?How does your school transform adolescents from elementary school to high school?

How much curricular choice do your students have?

Language Arts

Mathematics

Natural and Physical Sciences

Social Science

Health and Physical Education

World Languages

Music

Art

Careers

The Association of Middle Level Education asserts that in order to become a fully functioning, self-actualized person, students should understand and use the major concepts, skills, and tools of inquiry in the areas of:

Do your teachers of tested subjects have equitable teaching and planning time?

All teachers have a degree and a license from NC DPI

Almost all teachers are tested now:(EOG, EOC, NCFE, ASW, MSL)

All teachers need time for planning and collaboration

Shouldn’t all teachers have an equal/reasonable number of class preps?

Should certain groups of teachers be burdened with all of the non-teaching duties?

Honor ALL Teachers Level the Playing Field

Do your teachers have the opportunity to collaborate? Are they working on the right work?

Make sure that your teachers have a coherent, viable, and guaranteed curriculum.

Make sure all your ammunition is hitting the target.

Make sure PLCs are working on the work.

Focus on the Curriculum

Become actively aware of the larger world, asking significant and relevant questions.

Be a good steward of the Earth and its resources and a wise and intelligent consumer of a wide array of goods and services available.

Respect and value the diverse ways people look, speak, think, and act within the immediate community and around the world.

The Association of Middle Level Education asserts that in order to become a fully functioning, self-actualized person, each young adolescent should:

Global Education

Use digital tools to explore, communicate, and collaborate with the world and learn from the rich and varied resources.

Be able to think rationally and critically and express thoughts clearly.

Develop the interpersonal and social skills needed to learn, work, and play with others harmoniously and confidently.

The Association of Middle Level Education asserts that in order to become a fully functioning, self-actualized person, each young adolescent should:

21st Century Skills

21st Century Skills

21st Century Skills

Young adolescents undergo more rapid and profound personal changes between the ages of 10 and 15 than at any other time in their lives.

The several developmental processes associated with adolescence, while natural and necessary, present challenges to those entrusted with the responsibility for their healthy development and education.

YOUNG ADOLESCENTS

Other Issues in Need of Solutions:

Pushing over capacity – growth was out of control – average class size was 32 (some classes as high as 36).If we start moving to trailers, how do we keep teams?Shrinking EC staffing – how do you serve students throughout the building with just 4 EC teachers?How do we not track students in eighth grade with Math 1, Earth & Environmental Science, Advanced ELA?Students do not have yearlong health/PE.Arts teachers want to have ability-based grouping.

–Henry Ford

“If you always do what you always did, you always get

what you always got.”

–Albert Einstein–Tony Robbins

–My Grandaddy

Master Scheduling

The Ultimate Balancing Act

Traditional 6 Period Middle School Schedule

4 core classes (teams) – 60 minutes each2 elective classes – 45 minutes eachStudents move about the building in isolated grade levelsGrade level bell schedules do not match-upCore teachers teach 4 classes each dayElective teachers teach 6 classes each day

New 7 Period Middle School Schedule

4 core classes + Health/PE – 52 minutes each2 elective classes – 52 minutes each6th grade is still isolated (back-to-back) electives; 7th and 8th grades may mix in electives (ability groups)Bells align – helps EC teachers, allows mixed electivesALL teachers teach 5 classes (w/2 planning periods)Average class size went from 32 down to 27

Logistics


7 classes per day for studentsEvery student has health/PE everydayIncreased student choice/opportunities for explorationAll electives are semester-long (except band, chorus, Mandarin 1, Spanish 1) – up to 4 choices possibleStudents can explore world languages, arts, and CTEArts students are grouped by ability in 7th-8th grades

Exploration


Teaming of students follows a developmental transformation over time:

6th grade has traditional 4-man teams7th grade has modified 3-man teams – math is departmentalized8th grade is departmentalized

Health/PE teachers are paired with each grade level (health classrooms are on the hall)

Developmental


At least 104 minutes of planning time daily6th grade has back-to-back planning periods7th grade has 1 planning period by grade level and the other period by team8th grade has 1 planning period by grade level and the other period by department

Weekly PLC and grade level meeting times are set for the entire school (UbD, global ed, and P21 training)

Teachers

1:1

What Is An Opportunity

Culture?

Where Is This Happening?

Opportunity Culture Impact

85 schools designing or implementing in 2015–16

800+ teachers with advanced rolesor on-the-jobdevelopmentin 2015–16

22K+ students reached byexcellent teachersin 2015–16

$2M extra pay for OC teachersin 2015–16



Our school’s master schedule working for our students and staff!Our students have a wide variety of curricular choice (world languages, arts, career/technical education)!Our teachers have equitable teaching and planning time!We are preparing students for life and work in the 21st century!Our curriculum infuses global education for our shrinking world!We maximize students’ exposure to your best teachers!Our school transitions adolescents with increasing amounts of freedom in each grade level!

Thank-You for Attending!

Contact Info: Tripp Aldredge [email protected] (704) 796-3293


mailto:[email protected]