School District Transitions From A Traditional 7-8 Junior High

Medomak Valley High School, located in Waldoboro, ME, is the only high school in Maine School Administrative District #40 and serves students from Friendship, Waldoboro, Warren, Washington, and Union in midcoast Maine. For decades, the school district had two middle schools - A.D. Gray Middle School, which served students from Friendship and Waldoboro, and D.R. Gaul Middle School, which served students from Warren, Washington, and Union. In the fall of 2008, the year I started at Medomak Valley High School, the district opened Medomak Middle School to serve all seventh and eighth grade students in the district and closed A.D. Gray Middle School and D.R. Gaul Middle School. The new middle school was built at the Medomak Valley High

What is your least favorite class, the one you dread most? Picture yourself walking into that class, taking a seat, and watching the clock move slowly as you suffer through the next 90 minutes. Yes, you read that correctly. Imagine being stuck in your least favorite class for an hour and a half! This is a reality that many high school students experience every day. It is block scheduling. “Unlike traditional bell schedules - which typically comprise six to eight class periods per day, lasting anywhere from 45 to 60 minutes - block schedules contain just four daily class periods, with each one lasting an average of 90 minutes” (Block Scheduling in Schools 1). Although designed to increase student achievement, block schedules carry a number of disadvantages that make them an inadequate method for offering high school students a successful learning environment. Despite its few benefits, block scheduling works in direct conflict with most human attention spans, creates more scheduling problems than it solves, and lacks any solid evidence of improving student learning. In a world where educational practices come and go, block scheduling is a fad that should never have arrived in the first place.

Sommerfeld, Meg. "More and More Schools Putting Block Scheduling to Test of Time." Education Week. N.p., 02 May 2016. Web. 24 Mar.

Eyes watching the clock, praying it could move faster. The students are full of joy when the bell finally rings. Only to wake up tomorrow to repeat it over again. Some teachers and students want to go to block scheduling for the upcoming school year. Having Advanced Composition in either of the block schedules has its advantages and disadvantages.

Headland Middle School completed our School Improvement Plan in May 2014. The school leadership team (including parents) reviewed the 2013-14 School Improvement Plan to assess if implemented strategies have been met. This information has been shared with faculty members and interested parents. In September 2013, the school leadership team and school faculty met to examine state assessment data and other data.

As mentioned in previous writings, East Bridgewater has gone through a reorganizational period throughout the last 4 years. Although positive aspects have emerged including an increase in technology to meet the needs of the 21st century student, a new state of the art building, and an increase in funding for the school district to sustain the new building, there has also been negative facets as well. After the reorganization of the district in the 2012 - 2013 academic year, East Bridgewater Jr/Sr High school went from a Level 1 9-12 school to a Level 2 7 - 12 school. Student enrollment, which has increased due to the new building and school choice, currently serves approximately 1016 students

In September of 2013, the new East Bridgewater Junior Senior High School opened it’s doors for the very first time welcoming students from grades 7 - 12. After reorganization of the three schools in the district, it was decided that the seventh and eighth grade would move from the middle school into the new building. Although the building was beautiful and filled with the latest technology, a wave of negative thoughts and expectations about how the school and the school district functions engulfed the staff. A divide slowly but surely formed between the middle school teachers and the the high school teachers, new policies, programs, and technical changes were implemented with few explanations or input, and administration became as distant

Collaborative efforts have created more cross-curricular focus throughout the school. When teachers know what each other are teaching, they can support each other in their own curriculum.

In the article “Schools scrutinize block scheduling” Groves (2015) addresses the effects of block scheduling in Alamance-Burlington School System. He claims that implementing block schedules did not help this school system, and in fact has been detrimental to the students. Groves (2015) argues that before changing student schedules, enough research should be completed to determine whether this change will be helpful. With a traditional schedule, he says, students can slowly learn the information, instead of cram it in all at once. He believes that teachers and students should have a say in which schedule the school adopts. Groves (2015) concludes that block scheduling is an unnatural, ineffective way for students to learn.

Thurber says she's extremely hopeful that voters will allow the building to become Finn's permanent home. Next year the school will add on a fourth grade and a new group of kindergarteners. Thurber says the board is also considering adding a

In her informative article, New Building at SJHHS Announced (Oct 25th 2015), author Chetana Piravi asserts the new up-in-coming building soon to be built at SJHHS, and what can come with this new addition, both good and bad. Piravi develops this assertion by using credible sources from around the school such as Principal, Jennifer Smalley and Assistant Principal, Darrin Jindra, giving their take on this new building and how it can positively impact the school. Piravi’s purpose is to explain to both students and parents of SJHHS how this new building although will harm the current Freshman, Sophomores, and Juniors, will certainly pay off in the years to come. Piravi uses a elucidative tone with her young, and troublesome adult audience to give

Collaboration between teachers is a key component to professional development that will lead to higher student achievement. There is a need for schools to set up time for teachers to be able to collaborate together. This allows for teachers to help each other, matchup content, teach each other new and best practices, troubleshoot student issues just to name a few of the areas that collaboration time can help foster within a school. The key is to build time for teachers to be able to collaborate during the school day or week. This collaboration time needs to be between grade levels, departments, and cross curricular when needed. For many schools this is an afterthought to the school schedule or a fleeting thought after the master schedule is completed. A principal needs to keep an open mind to any strategy that will enable the teachers to be able to collaborate for the good of the students and the school.

In this short essay, the author will discuss the internal and external communications at the West Miami Middle School in the building and also at the district level. We will also discuss how the building and district staff communicate with members of the external community who make up the majority of the district's stakeholders. Finally, based upon the author's research, they will comment upon the types of communications that they would maintain, add or delete in the process of this analysis. This will be based upon a comparison of the West Miami Middle School with other similar schools of their type. Surprisingly, there are many more potential additions than deletions to this list, given the huge size of the West Miami Middle School and the school district and the great need for communication, internally and externally. Analysis

Vance Middle School was built in 1959, and we think that we need to design a new Vance Middle School. Our school would be totally different, the school itself would be bigger and better, more nice and clean, and even have higher technology. We all would treat our school with respect and keep the school clean.

“Teamwork fuels group spirit, develops process skills that help teachers interact in more productive ways, and fosters a more intellectual atmosphere.” (Maeroff, 1993).