The new schedule for the Middle School was developed using five guiding principles: quality learning time, healthy pace for students, collaboration time, community time, and access to program. It was designed with the interest of our students at the center, and includes exciting features such as longer class periods and fewer classes in a day, longer time for lunch and recess, and more time for collaboration with classmates and teachers. Imagine how this will transform a school day for a middle schooler: deeper, more meaningful learning combined with more time (and less rushing from place to place!) to discover those untapped talents and interests that have simply had to wait.
Quality Learning Time
If you ask a Middle Schooler about being a Middle Schooler, you will likely hear first about their homework and second about how busy they are. For Middle Schoolers, there never seems to be enough time. They are always rushing, in some order, from class to class to lunch to recess to class to class. The new schedule will follow a six-day cycle during which classes will rotate, meeting four out of six days, and will be 60 minutes. Longer classes means more time learning and collaborating with classmates and their teachers through labs, discussions, or in-class projects; this added time will allow students to process and consider the material in the moment, instead of needing to rush off to another class.
Healthy Pace for Students
With fewer classes meeting each day, the number of times a student must move from one class or activity to the next decreases, and there is designated time in the new schedule for students to move from one place to another, allowing them to slow their pace and not rush throughout the day. And because classes do not meet every day, homework will not be assigned by every class each day.
Access to Program
Our Middle Schoolers have an abundance of activities and programs available, but it has been difficult for them to carve out the time to participate. The new schedule allows for increased time and opportunities for things such as club meetings, student government, and the literary magazine. The design of the new schedule also means there will be increased class time for 6th and 7th grades in Modern and Classical Languages, and for 8th grade in history. We are excited about the increased potential for the Academic Center to integrate more into the classroom where our resource teachers will have the opportunity to witness how students learn and study and work with their peers.
Collaboration Time/Community Time
The new schedule has designated time each week for the Saints Advisory Program, an important and valued part of our Middle School experience that helps our students truly live our mission to pursue goodness as well as knowledge. Students will have the opportunity to work with one another and their advisor on important topics, learning from each other and sharing diverse perspectives. The new schedule will enhance collaboration time among teachers as well, benefitting both them and their students. Each morning before the start of the school day, teachers and administrators will participate in Professional Learning Community (PLC). The PLCs will enable teams of teachers and administrators to connect in a regular and dedicated way to plan together, reflect on and revise curriculum, evaluate assessment data, and collaborate to support students. The PLC period will also enable teachers to participate in committee work focusing on whole school initiatives, planning, and curriculum development. This time together for the teachers will increase the impact they will be able to have on individual students and their needs.