As you have likely heard at this point, the schedule is adjusting slightly next year in the middle school with addition of elective courses for our 7th and 8th grade students. Additionally, you may be aware that our Wellness curriculum will be moved into this elective time frame for the 7th and 8th graders. You might be wondering exactly what this will mean for your child, so I wanted to share with you some details that will be helpful to understand.
Each 7th and 8th grade student will be enrolled for Wellness one of the 4 quarters during the school year. The Wellness classes will be mixed grade, with both 7th and 8th grade students in the same quarter. However, we will be able to divide by grade level as we will only be all together one day each week. The other 4 days the larger group will be divided into two groups - based on gender and/or grade level (depending on topic). Each smaller group will spend 2 of those days in the commons continuing Wellness curriculum conversations and the other 2 days will be with Coach O'Toole for additional physical education instruction. Our Wellness curriculum will be able to take a more in depth look at our 3 focus areas: Physical Health (brain development, healthy eating, sexual development, etc.), Social Health (friendships, conflict resolution, peer pressure, bullying, social injustice, etc.) and Mental Health (stress, self-esteem, suicide prevention, understanding mental illness, etc.). The students will have more time to think critically about these topics and apply the concepts to their own experiences. I'm excited about the possibilities for the program!
I will still meet with the 6th grade students for Wellness out of their PE time as has been done previously. The curriculum for 6th grade is similar to the topics of the 7th and 8th grade, but with greater emphasis given to friendships, bullying and conflict.
Also to begin preparing for next year, our faculty has begun transition meetings and conversations. I have meetings scheduled with Lower School teachers and Upper School student support staff to best understand the needs of the students as they move to new buildings on campus. We discuss academic needs, social needs, advisor qualities, etc. Similarly tomorrow morning teachers will be meeting by academic department (grades 6-12) to dedicate time to their ongoing conversations regarding curriculum across the Ward Parkway campus.
On Friday during our Professional Development Day we also had many great collaboration opportunities as a Ward Parkway Campus. I participated in conversations about risk taking and perfectionism, technology in the classroom, and suicide in high stress academic settings. Each time I am able to talk with my colleagues regarding these important topics I am struck by the incredible thoughtfulness that is put into the lessons taught, the care for students and their well-being, and the desire to be a strong team of educators together. I can assure you that our teachers are developing ways to make their classroom a place where students feel comfortable and welcome. Also, they are working to ensure that the technology used in the classroom enhances the learning and engagement. And finally, that our students know how to seek help when they feel overwhelmed and they hear the message from us, "We're here for you, we care about you and we like you for who you are, the way you are."
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